this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2025
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with the recent windows news, I wanna switch to Linux. I tried mint a few years ago and was annoyed and frustrated with multiple things, like having to input the password all the time and the general ammunt of constant trouble shooting and needing a tutorial for the most basic things.

I want a distro that:

  1. Is very user friendly, ideally not requiring a terminal
  2. Is hard to accidentally fuck up
  3. ideally doesn't require a password for every input

I basically just use my laptop to browse the web, draw in krita and use ms office apps (have been getting used to open office lately)

What do y'all suggest?

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[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Like some already said, how long ago is "a few years ago"? Because last year my installation had an annoying issue which is now fixed. And maybe five years back, some (newer or rarer) hardware/devices needed a fix through the terminal, but now work perfectly by default.

I haven't tried Bazzite, but I've heard good things about it and what I know about it so far sounds good. Although @jlow mentioned some alternatives which I wonder if they're even more suitable since you didn't mention gaming. Out of habit, I still recommend Mint to former Windows users. But I haven't needed to input a password for web, graphics tools or office apps, only have to type a password when updating, installing new apps or doing special terminal stuff (which I do by choice!)


On one hand, Mint's default experience (Cinnamon desktop environment) generally resembles Windows which can make the switch smoother. On the other hand, some other ones fix a lot of defaults Windows chose wrong. Even little things, like moving the taskbar to the top (closer to other options) or to the side (takes up less space), so even if you pick a smaller leap to start with, it's good to casually look around once you're comfortable.

[–] happyfullfridge@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 days ago

I do have it on the side with some windows plug in right now.