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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Linux admin with 20 years experience, looking for "beginner" distro [Solved, the real beginner distro was the Debian I've used along the way] (self.linux)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by KISSmyOSFeddit to c/[email protected]

53 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm over tinkering with my OS. So I'm looking for a distro that "just works" out of the box for my laptop. Also I want to test an "easy" distro I can install for my grandpa.
I don't care for immutability, declarative config, being fully FOSS or having the newest stuff. I don't want snaps, or a software center that relies on them. So no Ubuntu.

What I do want (ideally out of the box):
Important:

as few annoying visible bugs and crashes as possible (looking at you, Ubuntu)
Wayland support
good package selection, so no independent fringe distro
fluid YouTube videos, streaming, pre-installed codecs

Less important:

ideally with Gnome
encrypting the hard drive from within the GUI installer
nice font rendering (used to be a problem, but I guess not anymore)
installing Steam with a button press
pre-installed sane-airprint and sane-airscan (automatic setup of my networked printer-scanner-combo)

You get the idea. The usual stuff (low-end gaming, browsing, streaming, printing, scanning) should just work. I don't have any hardware that poses a problem.
From what I've read, Mint doesn't yet support Wayland and doesn't ship with video codecs anymore. (Or am I wrong?)
What are the other options? Is Zorin king of the block now? Is Manjaro good now?

Thanks for any and all input.

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[–] KISSmyOSFeddit 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I don't have personal experience with them, but I keep hearing they're very slow to start.
And I dislike them on principle, because Canonical tries to push snaps as the main distro-agnostic way of installing software, but they are hard-coded to only work with Canonical's servers. It reminds me of the embrace-extend-extinguish strategy of Microsoft.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Snaps aren't that slow anymore. They closed the gap a couple of months ago. (I still dislike snaps and ubuntu for pushing them)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

I'm far from an enjoyer of snaps BUT snaps do support other custom stores and aren't tied to the snap store, contrary to popular belief.

Also, the fix for making snap startup times has been developed and released but most existing snaps haven't patched their snaps to support it (last I heard, the only notable exception (aka the only known snap to have good startup times) is the Firefox snap).

[–] KISSmyOSFeddit 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

snaps do support other custom stores

From what I read they only support one single snap store though, so if you don't use the Canonical store, you lose access to all the third party software that's actually the point of snaps.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Snap does theoretically support other stores, but the code for the canonical store is proprietary so you’d have to reverse engineer a snap store and hope that canonical doesn’t break it with an update. Also apart from Ubuntu nobody uses snaps so why would anyone make a snap store? Btw they have improved snaps with faster start times and such, so they aren’t that much slower than packages or flatpak.