So like it says in the title. I’m looking to make a change. The only coding I ever did was like, some very light HTML on stuff like LiveJournal 20 years ago (because I’m ancient in internet years, haha) and even that I barely remember.
I’ve seen people talk about LinuxMint in other comment sections and how that one might be closest to something like Windows (in that a layman like myself can use it out of the box like buying a new laptop from Best Buy or whatever store). Is that actually a good one or is there something better for somebody like me?
I’ve seen enough people go ‘NO UBUNTU!!!’ to steer me away from that one, but otherwise I have no clue what would actually be good for somebody in my shoes.
I have a laptop that still technically runs Windows 8 that I just use for downloads so I’d be trying it on there so that if something goes wonky I’m not fucked. After looking at the LinuxMint website, the specs on that laptop meet the requirements for it.
Thanks so much!
What do you use the laptop for?
That’s a huge factor.
Right now that laptop is just being used to download stuff and on occasion I connect it to my TV to play a video, but it’s really not often I do that. I’d still download stuff and then play around with basic everyday stuff on it to make sure I’m happy with it since that’s mostly what I do on my main.
End game would be to switch my main to Linux if I like it. Beyond basic, everyday stuff that most people do, I edit videos on my main. That’s about it.
What do you mean by download “stuff”? Like games? Books? Torrents? This is Lemmy, there is no need to hide :P
For external video, specifically, I’d avoid any distro that’s too ‘old’ and use a popular DE (KDE, LXQt, maybe Cosmic?) so that it works seamlessly, especially if the laptop’s output is hardwired to the internal graphics. Weird distros, or ones that use old stuff, may not ‘just work’
Mint, for instance, is suggested a lot, and it would probably be fine, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some graphics related thing doesn’t work because something’s too old.
And if you’re gaming (for example), that’s a whole different set of recommendations.
Oh, I didn’t mean to be mysterious with shit, lol. Just basic torrents of TV shows and movies, haha. (Never went the streaming route, kept sailing the high seas.) I might download a book once in a while, but that’s actually on my main.
I use VLC and Media Player Classic as my main video players on Windows, so VLC should be ok and if it isn’t I’m sure I can find something else (I know MPC is Windows only).
I only do mobile games, not PC games, so not a concern for me there.
MPV is the golden standard on Linux (and windows) TBH. There’s also some stuff to do to try and get picture quality and HDR looking better, if you’re interested.
But yeah, if you aren’t gaming you don’t have to worry too much about distro choice.