this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2025
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So i was surprised today when my fiancee told me she was thinking about switching over to linux. Surprised because she is absolutely not technically minded, but also because she was weary about having Microsoft AI slop forced on her PC every update. ( i'm so proud!)

Now i've used a little linux but i've always been a holdout. Won't stop me from moving someone else over but i have too much going on in my setup to deal with that right now. So i'm not super versed but i was able to give her the basic rundown of what distros are, concerns when switching, what may and may not be available, shes still on board so we're doing this! Knowing her she would like to not have to transition too much, whats something fairly hands off and easy to learn. I've heard some good things about mint from hanging around you nerds the past few years but also some not so good things, any suggestions?

next concern is what kind of transfer process is this going to be? i have some spare HDD's so we can try and get everything ported over but i'm so busy with school right now i can't quite allocate the time to really deep dive this.

Any help is appreciated, cheers!

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[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 63 points 11 hours ago (8 children)

Three correct answers:

  • Mint
  • Fedora
  • Pop

And a few incorrect answers:

  • Ubuntu
  • Arch
  • Ubuntu again
  • Really, don’t go with Ubuntu
[–] Jack_Burton@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 hours ago

Damn, I'm 2 months into my first Linux experience and went with Ubuntu Studio since I use my PC for freelance audio/music/art and it's promoted as great for creatives. It took a lot of work to get my audio working without ALSA and more work to get smaller things working right. I'm concerned if I switch distros I'll have to do it all again and I barely remember what I did to fix things haha. Think I'm stuck with Ubuntu. Didn't realize it was so looked down on.

[–] SanctimoniousApe@lemmy.myserv.one 32 points 10 hours ago

Gentoo it is, then!

[–] Cris_Color@lemmy.world 5 points 7 hours ago

Pop is such a cool project but it's been kinda broken for me both times I've tried it, and then add to that what happened with Linus tech tips where him being dumb combined with pop having not fixed a major and obvious packaging issue that completely broke his system has kinda just left me with the impression they're not super on top of the ball

I hope that's changed, I want them to be successful, especially with cosmic

[–] ethaver@kbin.earth 11 points 10 hours ago (3 children)

Ubuntu was really good when I was a kid. when I went to school like 10 years ago I had to have a windows computer for a while to run my school's proprietary virtual clinical lab software and I was too busy studying and going to irl clinicals to worry about getting a dual boot running. I tried to go back once a few semesters in but it seemed really bloated compared to the Ubuntu I grew up with and I did mint for a bit but that computer kicked the bucket iirc and I didn't have the time to set up another dual boot. Hubs is thinking we're gonna have to switch soon and I've honestly been ready for a bit and think I'll probably try mint again, but distrowatch says a lot of people are super into cachy so I was considering that. Will Probably still try mint first.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

My advice would be to just give up on the dual boot (unless you still need it, and even then, maybe keep Windows on a machine maybe?).

I think the best way to go is full Linux immersion.

[–] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 4 points 9 hours ago

When I was a kid (15-ish years ago) my laptop's hard drive crashed. The repair place told my dad that something broke and it's not compatible with Windows so they installed Ubuntu. Barely noticed the difference.

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 6 points 10 hours ago

Yeah, I switched to Ubuntu in 2008, and it was great for years, but lately it’s just been so awful.

[–] waldo_was_here@piefed.social 6 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

They didn't say beeteedubs so clearly not.

[–] Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

What about Ubuntu flavors? Or Debian?

[–] deadcade@lemmy.deadca.de 4 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

While Mint is an Ubuntu-based distro, it tries to un-fuck the worst of Canonical. Other Ubuntu spins with a different desktop environment don't do this, like Xubuntu, Kubuntu, etc. They end up as just Ubuntu on a different DE, with all the decisions made by canonical.

Base Debian might work, but afaik, is "not as beginner friendly" compared to Mint.

[–] caseyweederman@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 hours ago

Two points: Mint has a Debian version (LMDE), but also base Debian, especially the KDE flavor, has made enormous gains in beginner friendliness.

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 3 points 7 hours ago

Not for beginners.

[–] Holytimes@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Who even uses normal arch anymore.

All the cool kids use endeavour or cachy. Which is like calling Ubuntu, Debian.

[–] Walk_blesseD@piefed.blahaj.zone 4 points 3 hours ago

Who even uses normal arch anymore.

Me, btw.

[–] that_one_guy@lemmy.ml -3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Nah all the cool kids are on Omarchy now.

[–] crimsonredcommie@lemmygrad.ml -1 points 6 hours ago

Unfortunately, Linux Mint devs are transphobic.