I will be completely honest with you, I have read and watched hundreds of distro recommendations, and the only one that doesn’t suck is this one: https://reggie.re/blog/20230625-actually-good-distro-recomendations-for-beginners.html

The article also contains some useful tips here and there like: “Software Stores are actually useful on Linux so use them”

Here are some tips from somebody who made the switch about a year ago. My advice is to take it slow.

I first tried Linux on an old laptop that nobody was using anymore. I messed around with it, did a coding project, tried to see what it was like to get this and that running. It’s good that you tried Linux with a home server first. That means you’re already decently comfortable with it.

I recommend starting with a dual boot setup. Some time later I got a new PC, and I was planning to run Linux on it. It came with Windows 11. I wasn’t comfortable with going full Linux, so I split the 512GB SSD down the middle and gave most of the 2TB hard drive to Linux. This has served me very well. It gave me peace of mind to know that if there was something I really needed that I couldn’t get working on Linux, I could boot into Windows.

After a bit, I defected back to Windows. It ended up being somewhat bad timing. I wanted to play Sonic Frontiers, but it barely worked on Linux. At the time I was also using the game engine Unity, which was what my game design courses were teaching me, and I couldn’t get it working properly on Linux for the life of me. I kept my Linux partition in case I ever wanted to use it for something or even switch back. This is partially why I recommend a dual boot setup. You might be dissatisfied with Linux the first time you try it, and if you end up really wanting to go back to Windows, you’ll be glad that you left yourself an easy way back.

Well, I’m glad I left my Linux partition on there, because I eventually came back and stayed here. I was over Frontiers, and I finally managed to get Unity working, so there I stayed. As I spend more time with Linux, I get more and more comfortable with it. I only ever boot into Windows to play multiplayer games with my friend since I don’t want to waste time troubleshooting a game for an hour during a call if something doesn’t work. Though I suspect that most of what we play would work fine on Linux! I’m starting to feel like I’m getting comfortable enough with Linux that if I wanted to get rid of my dual boot, I could. It helps that Unity destroyed itself so I don’t want to use it anymore anyway. Moral of the story: Don’t feel like you have to fully commit to Linux at first. You can make the transition slowly and do what makes you comfortable, and you’ll get there eventually.

I know this comment is very long, but I want a paragraph to recommend distros. I highly recommend something Debian based for a new user. It’s relatively easy to learn compared to other kinds of distros and more stable. I recommend either Linux Mint or Pop!_OS, both of which are excellent for beginners. They’re both based on Ubuntu, which itself is based on Debian. They’re pretty similar under the hood, so it mostly comes down to which UI you prefer. I believe that Pop!_OS is a little more up-to-date with some packages, but not everyone likes its UI, and its app store is somewhat miserable. I use Pop and I adore it, but it’s not everybody’s cup of tea. If you want to try a few distros before you commit, I recommend trying them on some old device you don’t use anymore, or a virtual machine.

Any welcoming tips?

I recommend Linux Mint. It’s super user friendly, and there is a lot of support out there if you run into any issues.

Now that gaming is less important for me, I feel like now is a good time to switch mainly to Linux.

Eh, gaming works just fine on Linux. The main issues are with multiplayer games, so you can still probably play most of your single player games on Linux. Steam makes it really easy, and you can play Epic and GOG with Heroic Launcher.

But as for tips:

• keep a windows install as a dual boot, at least for the first few weeks, but set Linux as the default; if you can, use a separate drive for Linux; partitions work, but it’s easy to accidentally remove Linux’s boot loader when troubleshooting Windows problems
• don’t get fancy with your distro, just pick a popular one
• try to avoid the CLI; a lot of people will post commands to run, but if you don’t know what they’re doing, you can hose your system; instructions for GUI tools tend to be less problematic for newer users, at least from my experience

But the most important is to have fun! Solve one problem at a time, and enjoy your new system!

To pick a distro: https://distrochooser.de/en

Welcome to the better side! Lots of good stuff in here. Pick what you want and go from there. I transitioned to mint and put windows in a VM (virtualbox) as my “crutch”. The on thing I haven’t see is use an app called timeshift. It’s a auto backup tool. It’s saved me a few times when I tried something that in hind sight wasn’t a good idea. It let me roll the machine back to a pre-screw up state.

The other good part of this is that it let me try more things because I had a safety net.

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In the last few months I switched from years of arch to opensuse to bazzite. I got sick of updating everything all the time. Bazzite (also kinoite, ublue, silver blue, etc.) does everything with just a brief notification and is active next boot. Primary app install via flatpak, appimage, also fedora repos and rpm packages via rpm-ostree. And nix which I haven’t delved into yet.

The only things I’m not sure about are the driver’s for my brother laser printer, and undervolting requires turning off secureboot or a patch which may be too involved for me with this distro.

First off, welcome to the club! You’ve taken your first step into a larger world :) I was a Windows user most of my life. Switched 100% about 4 years ago and I’ve never looked back.

Lots of good advice here, make sure Timeshift is set up. It can save you from accidentally borking your system lol.

As for Distros, my favorites for new users are Linux Mint, Fedora, and Pop_OS. I currently use Linux Mint with their Cinnamon desktop on my laptop and it works great. Cinnamon is similar to a cross between Windows XP and Windows 7 and feels very familiar to navigate for a long time Windows user.

My favorite desktop environment is KDE Plasma, because you can customize it like crazy.

Use the live image editions to test on USB like other people suggested, it will save you lots of time deciding which distro and desktop environment to choose.

Best of luck!

You can trial several distros, desktop environments, etc. on Live boot USB first, no need to rush that decision. But for no hassle configuration and day one 100% productivity, Mint or EndeavorOS. You won’t look back.

Keep your home in a separate disk altogether, or at least a different partition.

Configure Timeshift or another system backup tool as soon as possible, because as a noob you will want to do things that might inadvertently break your system.

Ignore fanboys, distro warriors and zealots in general. The magic of Linux is that it is whatever you want to make of it.

I made a video going over my own experience. But I feel the biggest tip is to understand the difference between the OS and the Desktop Environment, since in Linux these are separate.

In Windows I found myself identifying the OS based on how the start menu looks and how the file explorer is.

But in Linux these are separate and are called Desktop Environmenta (DE). Your desktop can look like Windows with DE’s like KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, or Mate. It can be Mac like with KDE Plasma, or Gnome. Or it can be unique like Gnome.

If you noticed I repeated a few names, that’s because they can be customized, and some distributions make them look and feel the way they want them too.

Meanwhile the distro is more focused on what applications are pre-installed and what software will run and are available. I.e. Debain is more stable while arch is more up-to-date.

There are many guides going over this, but distro hopping is the best for narrowing this down. I found finding applications that need to work and seeing if the distro can do it, can weed out any distro that won’t work for you. If you don’t like the feel of a distro but like the functionally, then look for a similar distro but with a new GUI.

For example Ubuntu ships with a mostly unmodified Gnome. I personally am not a fan of Gnome and prefer a more Windows-like feel. So I look around and find Zorin, Kubuntu, and Mint.

Word of the wise though, while you can install more than one de on install, you are better off either making a new profile or not swapping your de. Something something shared resources, something something breaking your install.

The major tip I always give is: Linux is different from Windows, this means things are done differently and if you try to do things the windows way you’re going to have a bad time.

As for distro hoping forget about this, you’ll experience it but it shouldn’t start for a while, pick something you’re comfortable with (maybe the same you use on your server) and a DE that looks good to you (personally I like KDE Plasma, but this is a very personal choice, and I don’t even use KDE but I’m not going to recommend i3 for someone who’s just starting now). Distro hoping will start whenever you see something that picks your interest on a different distro, and you decide to give it a try, but that should only come into place after you’re comfortable with the one you’re using. But I always also recommend keeping /home in a different partition just so it’s easier to switch or reinstall the system if needed.

Start with something generic. Maybe not Ubuntu because of their recent hijinks. But something like Debian or Linux Mint. Just because it makes troubleshooting so much easier when because you can Google problems more easily.