Jesus. Another one of these? Every freaking day. (Promise it’s different)
I personally like mint and pop!os for new users, but for this user I want to try something windows like with more sex appeal. I don’t want to have to touch this computer again. Proprietary software is not an issue/consideration. User is techier than most. What has your experience been with kbuntu? Pros/cons? Other suggestions?
Mint is da only way
I started with Bazzite recently after getting a recommendation to go with a SilverBlue derived distro, and other than trying to figure out my own issues, it’s been pretty smooth.
I do have a weird issue that crops up after reboot where the display environment variable isn’t exported or something. But considering I also had an issue with my steam library not loading that was user error, I’m not entirely sure that isn’t of my own making as well…
Maybe Aurora by Universal Blue?
It’s based off of Fedora Silverblue, so it’s atomic, rock solid and basically guaranteed to work (more secure by design as well). But uses KDE Plasma instead of Gnome and has a bunch of improvements here and there, including proprietary codecs and Nvidia drivers preinstalled (latter depending on the image you choose)
This is an excellent answer. Kinoite (basically the same thing as Aurora) is what enabled me to finally make the switch to full time linux a few months ago.
Best I can offer is Hannah Montana linux
I used to recommend Ubuntu. Now that immutable distributions exist, I prefer to recommend openSUSE Aeon or Fedora Silverblue to new users. However, check this website before installing Linux.
This site refers to “local repair cafés” more than once. Is that a regional thing? I’ve never seen those three words in that order ever before.
I know I’ll get down voted for this, but from that site:
"Microsoft wants you to buy a new computer.
But what if you could make your current one fast and secure again?"
Kind of a sensationalized statement. I’ve upgraded tons of machines from 2015 and newer to windows 11 without issues. Sure, not all of them, but I’d say a majority of them, and the “upgrade” is free.
I guess I wanted to point out this piece isn’t as doom and gloom as it seems.
Get an immutable distro. You’ll never need to touch it again.
This may actually hinders new users because you can’t just change stuff on the system.
And no, not everything always work out of the box. Fedora & OpenSUSE codecs, I’m looking at you.
I think you overestimate the average persons need to configure their computers. Most people just use a web browser, email, and maybe some light gaming. No one new to Linux is going to be really upset that they can’t do complex system operations on the command line.
I commented elsewhere, but I do a lot of customizing and immutability has not proven to be even the slightest barrier for me in over six months now.
No, but they’d be upset if they cannot play their usual media files. H265 is known to be absent by default on a lot of these distros.
I’ve never had a problem with any media playback. I don’t think this is an issue on Bazzite, the immutable distro I’ve been using for over a year.
Atomic distros by Universal Blue build proprietary codecs into their images
fwiw I am a power user by Windows standards (n00b by Linux standards) which is to say I tweak a lot of settings and do a lot of customization, and in six months of using Kinoite I have not encountered a single thing I wanted to do but couldn’t because of it’s immutability.
Every time I’ve tried Kubuntu it’s been a mess. Though it’s been a couple years since I subjected myself to it. It’s still going to use Snaps, so there’s that.
If they want bulletproof and up to date, Fedora KDE.
That’s what I did
I think you should cruise this guy’s channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg6gPGh8HU2U01vaFCAsvmQ
He’s very fair and uses all operating systems. I’m almost certain he’s had a video on this exact question.
If you want a set it and forget it distro to never touch his computer again, then consider going a Ublue distro. Aurora (only KDE), or Bazzite (choose the KDE image) if he does gaming.
Focus on the DE instead of the distro. There used to be one that has “windows look” as a goal.
I’m pretty sure that’s Zorin. I’ve never used it myself, but from what I’ve heard it might be a good choice for OP’s person.
Zorin is too walled off IMO. Too many features locked in Pro version.
The true Windows experience.
There is nothing locked outside Pro version that you can’t get by installing it manually :)
I wasn’t aware that there’s a paid version. Based on their website it does look like they have a lot of standard stuff locked behind Pro. Is it just like an additional repo or something? I’m also not too keen on the fact that the upgrade doesn’t carry over to the next major version.
Yeah the entire existence of any “pro” version of anything is cancer.
I disagree with you however I find it attrocious than when you upgrade (exemple from ZorinOS 16 to 17) if you own a Pro licence you have to buy a new licence (with a discount) and can’t “downgrade” to non-Pro (except from reinstalling it from scratch). I think the way the Pro is sold shouldn’t put upgrade behind a paywall.
Selling a (bloated) Pro version to bring cash isn’t necesseraly cancer it really depend on what you get and how you’re treated. And with ZorinOS I was somewhat disapointed…
It is can’t because this is how the door gets pushed open to making more and more paid versions of the operating system.
This invites more capitalistic practices into the “market”, and is what starts the downward trend.
I’m ok with selling software. But selling the OS at all just seems like a big step that should never be taken.
Selling a paid upgrade is kind of a gray area, but it should be an extra piece that gets installed separately, cross-compatible where possible, and shouldn’t affect your ability to upgrade versions for damn sure. I’ve never dealt with it directly, but if it’s like you said and you need to do a complete reinstall to upgrade versions but downgrade from pro to regular, then you’ve already detected the first tumor.
Fedora KDE is a good one.
Agreed. For a new user that wants to minimise system maintenance I’d recommend the atomic version, Fedora Kinoite. Flatpak plus rpm-ostree makes it like a phone where you can just do system updates and install/remove apps.
Well there are no operating systems that you can install and forget, unless they never plan to go online with the machine. They all need updating which can be set automatically. The only problem is if it requires manual intervention, sometimes updates don’t go as planned, then a roll-back might be necessary. They could try an immutable linux distribution if they are worried about screwing up their installs or something. Fedora kinoite may be their thing, or Bazzite which is based on that.
Bluefin and Bazzite have been good to me so far.
The embedded IoT crowd would like to refute your claim that there are no operating systems that you can install and forget.
The collective would like to stress that any operating system can be installed and forgotten. Please note, that usefulness and security may be impacted.
/s
Also, to be technical there is CollapseOS which is an install once and forget sort of thing.
I’m personally a fan of Debian. Default KDE isn’t bad looking from what I can remember (I personally don’t use it - I neither hate or love it just because I love XFCE). I’m personally a big XFCE fan, but you do have to do some work to get it working good, and there are still jank parts here and there.
While no distro is completely set and forget, I think Debian Stable is as close as you can get. Once you install it and get it working the way you want (depending on your setup, you might encounter minor issues as with any distro), it will pretty much stay that way until you upgrade to the next version, and you can go up to 5 years before upgrading.
I would recommend you use the KDE (or whatever DE you want) live installer, though, as the default installer is quite unintuitive. You can find it in the list of installers at https://www.debian.org/distrib/.
I’ve never used Kubuntu specifically, but I would personally avoid Ubuntu these days if just because of Snaps. Also, Ubuntu is heavily bloated - base Ubuntu is almost unusable in a VM now, while vanilla GNOME and PopOS run well in VMs on the same machine. Personally, when I need to test Ubuntu builds, I always prefer working with PopOS.
Overall, I’d say if you don’t end up using Debian (I don’t blame you - while I like it, you might not), just please don’t use anything Ubuntu-based that isn’t Mint or PopOS.
Linux. Mint.
Everytime.
OP explicitly said Mint isn’t what they’re looking for.
Debian is always the forgotten choice. You can install kde at time of install. It’s stable and can be upgraded in the background automatically even between major versions. Doesn’t have snaps making hell for the user. For any apps they need the newest version of Flatpak is right there in Discover software center.
Sometimes I think “if debian had a flashy website and a few tweaks for user friendliness, then it would be just as attractive as linux mint or ubuntu for new users”, and other times I think “isn’t this exactly what most debian based distros are already?” Would there be a benefit if those projects worked under the debian name, something like debian workstation pure blend, or debian corporate pure blend? I don’t know.
The thing you have to remember is debian packaging is ment to be the most vanilla from upstream with only minor modifications to follow debian packaging guidelines. So tweaking for user friendliness would give you the same problems that debian’s children have. Plus 90% of that user friendliness came from bundling Nvidia firmware in the installer. Which debian does now by default. The only thing you have to do now is maybe install the nvidia-driver package and that’s it.
