So i was surprised today when my fiancee told me she was thinking about switching over to linux. Surprised because she is absolutely not technically minded, but also because she was weary about having Microsoft AI slop forced on her PC every update. ( i’m so proud!)
Now i’ve used a little linux but i’ve always been a holdout. Won’t stop me from moving someone else over but i have too much going on in my setup to deal with that right now. So i’m not super versed but i was able to give her the basic rundown of what distros are, concerns when switching, what may and may not be available, shes still on board so we’re doing this! Knowing her she would like to not have to transition too much, whats something fairly hands off and easy to learn. I’ve heard some good things about mint from hanging around you nerds the past few years but also some not so good things, any suggestions?
next concern is what kind of transfer process is this going to be? i have some spare HDD’s so we can try and get everything ported over but i’m so busy with school right now i can’t quite allocate the time to really deep dive this.
Any help is appreciated, cheers!
If she’s a Windows refugee, Linux Mint.
If she’s a Mac refugee, fuck if I know.
If she’s a IBM OS/2 refugee, please let me know how to get the drugs she’s gotten. I want in.
Windows refugee: Linux Mint or Fedora KDE
Mac refugee: Linux Mint or Fedora KDE
PC gamer: Bazzite (or Linux Mint or Fedora KDE)
edit: fuck markdown, why do line breaks only work in pairs on lemmy, this is not a thing with markdown on discord so why here? it’s annoying
Discord does markdown differently than intended: it’s better for non-techies because hitting enter once is more intuitive than the alternative, but the standard way to insert line breaks in markdown is to type two spaces at the end of the line you want to break.
GNOME is great for Mac refugees. Fedora might do.
Mint is the best for most users. But if you want a Mac style, Elementary OS is the correct answer for MacOS users. Here’s my latest screenshot of it:
Tbf, my current laptop looks pretty similar, and I’m running Bazzite with KDE.
Lol Linux is awesome
popos for mac refugee? it’s very macky
You know, I can see that.
Still, mac users use macs because they just want the computer to work.
And the Cosmic DE is rather new so can be a bit buggy from time to time. It might look mac-friendly, but its stability is still largely untested so caution may be advised before recommending it in my opinion.
Ubuntu for a Mac refugee. Definitely Mint for a Windows refugee.
I hate GNOME through and through, but it’s a very polished interface and resembles Mac in a lot of ways.
Ubuntu is heresy. Canonical hath turned against the users.
Also, I’m genuinely curious: why do you hate GNOME?
Nah, Ubuntu is perfect for a Mac user - they love the abusive, arbitrary decisions made by their OS designers lol
Yeah…
See, I used to like Ubuntu, but then Canonical had to ruin it for me by betraying the principles that Linux stands for.
Ubuntu is a shadow of its former self, and it saddens me. :(
I hate GNOME because it feels like an iPhone.
I don’t know much about what Ubuntu is doing but it surely can’t be that bad.
That’s fair.
You would be surprised.
Oh, and I also hate that they’re actively undermining of theming.
That’s legit.
That sounds like a very specific user case, I’m using a laptop for teaching with a smallish screen so gnome actually improves my workflow and the visibility of the OS. I don’t need theming either. Gnome is really aimed at productivity imo.
real
Ubuntu is gross, don’t recommend. It works until it doesn’t. Expect questions like “why doesn’t USB access work in chromium” and having to try to explain what snap is
She could consider Linux Mint with KDE Plasma. KDE Plasma feels very like modern Mac, only nicer, to me.
if you’re doing kde then i think debian would make more sense (their netinstaller is very good)
KDE is not a Mint supported DE and the KDE files are not in the Mint repos.
This can be made to work if you’re experienced but is definitely not a good idea for beginners. It will eventually break, and dependency hell is a thing.
For a KDE option suitable fir beginners, Fedora offers KDE as does Ubuntu, or there’s KDE Neon
Oh, that’s good to know! I’ve always installed KDE on Debian before, but I thought it was only because I just really liked Debian. Thanks!
Ooh that’s a good point. I mean, not Linux Mint because as thanksforallthefish said below it’s not a Mint-supported DE but I actually installed Arch (btw) with the KDE Plasma DE onto an old laptop I have and yeah it definitely gives early-2010s OS X vibes. :)
Unfortunately, Linux Mint devs are transphobic.
Is there a specific reason you are spamming the same single-line accusatory comment 7 times in this thread?
Combined with your account only being 10 days old if there’s not more substance to a spammed accusation like that I’ll just have to assume bad faith and block.