What is a good distro to recommend for beginners?

Talk about other linux distributions, or even other OSes.
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Artim
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Re: What is a good distro to recommend for beginners?

Post by Artim »

I don't think I can put Salix in the "ideal for beginners" category yet, but it's getting there. I would warn against the Ubuntu-based distros, though, because Ubuntu sends a lot of experimental and beta stuff along in their updates that cause breakage. A lot.

I think my best recommendation for a total Linux novice might be MX-Linux. Very newbie-friendly, Debian Stable base, awesome cool tools, easy installation, great community.
coyotl
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Re: What is a good distro to recommend for beginners?

Post by coyotl »

Ubuntu is quite stable, but Mint even more, they have corrected some ubuntu problems, this is very solid for beginners.
My brother is as IT guy and installs stock Mint on all machines in his household (he is forced to use win 10 on work laptop). His wife's, the used laptops he gives to his son (last of the batch to live with them) his own various machines.
Mint avoids things like Snap (has flatpak). Another selling point for computer illiterates is package managers that are like app stores -a better chance they can find and add software themselves. MX-antiX works great for beginners also. You can safely leave them for months without maintenance.
Salix is good for computer illiterates also - if the limitations are not a problem. Even said illiterate can learn to use Gslapt and update once in a while. Otherwise the Zen like calm of Salix is a godsend to both illiterates and seasoned users.
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mimosa
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Re: What is a good distro to recommend for beginners?

Post by mimosa »

My Finnish friend whose Salix installation I support is going to try MX-Linux on his new laptop. When Salix 15 comes out, I'll suggest he dual-boots. Of the more mainstream distros, MX does look pretty good, reasonably stable, not too heavy, with excellent doc. If he gets through the partitioning and installation he deserves a gold star! He also wants to keep Windows (so in fact adding Salix would make it a triple boot) which makes that a little hairier for the inexperienced.
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Artim
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Re: What is a good distro to recommend for beginners?

Post by Artim »

I used to put Linux Lite on computers for beginners, on older computers I restored from old Windows® machines. It was very fast and especially designed for newbies. One of the things I liked best about LL was that they named applications for their functions in the Whisker menu. A newbie wouldn't know that Thunar is the file manager, for example, nor think of "Places" as a label for it. So Linux Lite calls it "File Manager." Plus they have a bunch of very cool tools and a Welcome screen that takes newbies step-by-step through point-and-click updating, adding drivers, etc. I place it right up there on a par with Mint, Elementary, and MX.
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Re: What is a good distro to recommend for beginners?

Post by PelleB »

mimosa wrote: 11. Apr 2021, 06:11 My Finnish friend whose Salix installation I support is going to try MX-Linux on his new laptop. When Salix 15 comes out, I'll suggest he dual-boots. Of the more mainstream distros, MX does look pretty good, reasonably stable, not too heavy, with excellent doc. If he gets through the partitioning and installation he deserves a gold star! He also wants to keep Windows (so in fact adding Salix would make it a triple boot) which makes that a little hairier for the inexperienced.
Windows 10 has a tool for resizing its partition, I used it and found everything to work smoothly. For multiple booting, why not just use Refind? It autodetects installed systems and the default setup works fine. Unfortunatedly most "graphic" installers forcibly installs grub even if you choose not to (if you get the choice) and grub then takes over as bootloader. This can be fixed in the computer setup or by just reinstalling Refind from the new system. The second solution is probably the best, the old configuration is left, but a boot setting is created for the new system. Good if you have a Nvidia-card and need the nomksboot parameter.
PelleB
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Re: What is a good distro to recommend for beginners?

Post by PelleB »

Artim wrote: 11. Apr 2021, 10:40 I used to put Linux Lite on computers for beginners, on older computers I restored from old Windows® machines. It was very fast and especially designed for newbies. One of the things I liked best about LL was that they named applications for their functions in the Whisker menu. A newbie wouldn't know that Thunar is the file manager, for example, nor think of "Places" as a label for it. So Linux Lite calls it "File Manager." Plus they have a bunch of very cool tools and a Welcome screen that takes newbies step-by-step through point-and-click updating, adding drivers, etc. I place it right up there on a par with Mint, Elementary, and MX.
But then, when the newbie asks about something in a forum, or looks for help somewhere else on the net, he will only get instuctions telling him to type something cryptic in a terminal. He will never be told to start the graphic packagemanager (or some other graphic settings manager), choose this and that and the click OK. This makes them all equally bad for beginners.
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Re: What is a good distro to recommend for beginners?

Post by coyotl »

Beginner distro above all others: Linux Mint.
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Artim
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Re: What is a good distro to recommend for beginners?

Post by Artim »

For those who hate systemd but may have resigned themselves to it for a "beginner's distro," Linux Lite has added a new tool to "Lite Tweaks" that purges systemd logs. A step in the right direction for an Ubuntu-based distro.
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