this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2025
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I just found out my fiancee wants to switch to linux, lets start a distro war, what should be her first? + other questions (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 12 hours ago by StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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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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[–] Ftumch@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 10 hours ago (4 children)

Any of the large, easy to use distributions should work just fine. I'd recommend a popular distribution because it'll be easier to get help online. So consider Mint, Fedora, OpenSuse, Ubuntu and maybe Pop!_OS.

I think the main consideration should be which DE (desktop environment) she'd like to use. IMO the main contenders would be:

  • KDE - Very configurable, nice looking, a bit heavy.
  • Gnome - Simple and very opinionated, so not very configurable, a bit heavy.
  • Cinnamon - Should feel familiar to Windows users, a bit faster than KDE and Gnome.
  • Cosmic - A middle ground between Gnome's simplicity and KDE's configurability, pretty fast.
  • XFCE - Very fast and light-weight, fairly configurable, but not very flashy.

Based on which DE she prefers, I'd suggest getting a distribution that comes with said DE by default, for the best possible integration. How do you figure out which DE she likes best? Put Ventoy on a USB stick along with a few different Linux ISOs. Ventoy wil let you choose which one to boot from a menu. You could get the following ISOs:

  • Fedora or Ubuntu with Gnome
  • OpenSUSE with KDE
  • Linux Mint with Cinnamon
  • Pop!_OS with Cosmic
  • Mint or Ubuntu with XFCE

Download an ISO for each, install Ventoy on a USB stick and copy the ISOs to the stick. Boot into each ISO and play around with the desktop for a bit. When she's figured out which DE she prefers, install a distribution that comes with that desktop.

[–] StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works 9 points 8 hours ago (3 children)

I mean from what you're telling me I'd imagine cinnamon, but now that you mention It, wasn't there a website dedicated to showing off the different desktop environments?

[–] Creat@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 6 hours ago

Not really possible, because how a desktop feels or what can be configured it's hard to show on a website. Especially how you can visually adapt it. And what you can configure in general. Running it from a live USB takes like 5 minutes.

For example KDE is also very close to Windows, but can also be configured to behave more like a Mac. Visually most desktop environment can be themed. Cinnamon just got additions to be able to theme gnome apps globally I think? If you want to use a central dock like a Mac and have running apps at the top, that's just a master of setting that up on KDE.

[–] muhyb@programming.dev 2 points 5 hours ago

For distros, not desktop environments. You can choose DEs for distros though. But there it is: https://distrosea.com/

[–] pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip 4 points 7 hours ago

Cinnamon is a great choice. It's the default on Linux Mint for good reason.

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 10 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

I've not noticed Cinnamon being any faster than KDE. I'd recommend KDE for someone coming from Windows.

[–] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 7 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

I'm on KDE as a former Windows and Mint user and it's really annoying. Especially the text editor Kate. All the hotkeys are different than Windows/Mint, there's no notepad equivalent and only a notepad++ equivalent, the GNOME text editor doesn't match the theming, and I had to settle on Mousepad for my replacement.

I had to do a lot of customization to get the system to behave like Windows, particularly the panel. Maybe with ZorinOS it's better.

[–] missphant@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

there's no notepad equivalent and only a notepad++ equivalent

I believe you're looking for KWrite.

[–] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 6 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

Thank you, that's exactly what I've been looking for. Wasn't bundled with Kubuntu (or maybe it was but I uninstalled it because I thought it was Wordpad) and didn't come up when searching for it in the Discover app, but after going to the official site and opening a link in the Discover app I got it installed. I then accidentally uninstalled it because uninstalling Kate does that.

Now to look up how to clean up the start menu so searching for a text editor doesn't give me the uninstalled Mousepad or it's separate settings app (I did it with a 5 second duckduckgo search).

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 hours ago

Dunno if kubuntu comes with it, but do you have an app called "main menu"?

[–] Holytimes@sh.itjust.works 3 points 9 hours ago

Suggesting anything with gnome should come with a penalty of having to fist fight a Canadian goose and it's henchswans.

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

Unfortunately, Linux Mint devs are transphobic.