Linux

I've been using EndeavourOS for the past year or so, and Arch before that for many years. I haven't had anything break in EndeavourOS even though I customize it a lot, (i3wm, polybar and other stuff) and I also play Steam games on this system (Nvidia GTX 1650 with no issues). You can install plasma-wayland-session if you want wayland with KDE. I'd recommend EndeavourOS for a beginner because a lot of packages you want are in the AUR. Plus if you're stuck on something, the Arch wiki will have the solution, because it's specifically tailored to Arch. EndeavourOS is basically just an Arch installer.

EndeavourOS is not for new users.

Mint/Fedora are great choice.

Endeavour definitely has more up to date packages since it's using the Arch repos, but Fedora packages tend to be pretty up to date due to their quick release cycle.

I think it depends on the technical skill of the user. You already know things like Wayland and the concept of packages so Endeavour might not be a bad choice, but for really new users, I would still recommend Fedora. I am a diehard Arch user, but I am definitely cognizant of the fact that I am expected to know how to fix things when they break slightly due to package updates. I wouldn't say that these tasks are something I'd put onto a new user.

Endeavour

Endeavour will tend to be more up to date than Fedora. On the other hand Fedora has more testing before each major release, so some bugs will be caught before those updates are pushed out to you. Endeavour is essentially Arch with a predefined set of packages and its own GUI installer so you're signing on to ride the rolling release ride and accepting the level of instability that comes with.

Whichever you choose I'd think about setting up the system on top of btrfs or another CoW filesystem so you can take proper snapshots before updates, that'll let you roll back to a previous state if something really goes wrong. (And it will while you're learning how to work with Linux.)

When I switched from Debian Sid to Arch I put a bit of time into configuring btrbk and wrote a set of pacman hook scripts that would take system snapshots automatically before pacman updated packages. I found that setup pretty helpful while I was learning Arch, even if it was just to dip into previous versions of files in /etc from before an update to compare with whatever I had at the time.

Endeavour has a pretty healthy community that's happy to help onboard new users while Fedora is generally considered a bit more stable (Linus Torvalds uses it on his work machines) so both choices are pretty solid. I found Arch easier to hack on personally, the packaging and build system are really straightforward and the Arch wiki is fantastically comprehensive.

I'm a solid vote for endeavouros too. I just installed it a couple months back, having coming from an arch install that lasted 5 years without issue. I'm just too old and lazy these days to install arch from scratch anymore, and endeavour was a breeze in that regard.

Edit: And duh, yeah AUR is a huge reason I was even on arch to begin with. I had been distro jumping from even pre-ubuntu days, and having a repo with so many people contributing/maintaining packages means having waaay more up to date options without having to hack it together yourself.

Infuse endeavour and have recommended it in the past and it seems pretty easy as well as stable.

Fedora is a great experience, it's rock stable which helps not discourage a new user

Bazzite is Fedora but for gaming. Even works great on non 64GB Steam Decks.

• https://universal-blue.org/blog/2023/10/05/bazzite-buzz-no-5/
• https://bazzite.gg/

I would probably recommend Endeavour. While it has some CLI work every now and then, it's not something that I consider insurmountable. I am just your average nerd and I started out with SuSE 5 before 2000. Everything was CLI back then. You got to a GUI (startx) to run an office suite and a music/video player. In comparison Endeavour is a walk in the park. Also a good graphical package manager is a "yay -S bauh" away.

I've been running Endeavour for over two years now and I must say that it has been a pretty painless ride. No major bugs. The EndeavourOS Welcome app is a convenient and easy starting point for managing your system. It really takes the first sting out of CLI operations, while presenting it as something doable. A very soft introduction to Linux's most powerful tool.

Is it for every newbie? No. Absolutely not. It's definitely for people who want to work their computer. If you rather push the button and then have the OS babysit you, maybe forego Linux altogether. Linux is a power tool and it's philosophy for the most part is "You know best". A modicum of knowledge makes using it a far better experience.

Debiain.