Linux

My personal recommendation is Fedora, but the community recommendation will likely be Linux Mint, which is also a perfectly good recommendation. Either of them are "just works" distros. I prefer the update cycle of Fedora, and would certainly want to distance myself from Ubuntu and Ubuntu derivatives (even Mint), and Debian's update cycle is painfully slow. Fedora manages what is seemingly a perfect balance of quick and stable updates.

Fedora comes with Gnome by default, but it has spins for other DEs like KDE Plasma if that's more of your thing (I'll be switching to Plasma when Fedora 40 releases with Plasma 6).

openSUSE Tumbleweed. Or EndeavorOS if you want to join the Arch side.

@Canadian_Cabinet www.tromjaro.com/ - you can try our distro. Based on Manjaro it has all you need to just use it. Enabled the Chaotic AUR repos, flatpaks, and our repo, thus you can find any linux app via one single place. Click and install. Plus we have a list of some 700 curated apps on our website www.tromjaro.com/apps/ - apps that are trade-free. Meaning no BS, no freemiums, no limitations, purely free apps.

We made TROMjaro back in 2018 and kept it up to date since, plus developed our own tools like a Layout and Theme Switcher. See the homepage to get a more detailed idea about it.

That's all! :)

Im pretty happy with KDE Fedora (though constant updates make me anxious something breaks every reboot, lol) but if I had to change I would probably check out LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Ed). I'm not really a fan of Cinnamon/Mate but I'd give it another go ...

If it's KDE that's causing issues you should just be able to install a second desktop environment and try that out.

Otherwise, Debian stable is good. Can also testing or unstable if you want newer packages. Debian "just works" if you're not on day 1 hardware, don't have Nvidia graphics, and can troubleshoot the occasional issue that any Linux distro will bring.

Anything except Ubuntu and it's direct downstreams

Fedora for my pick.

You could try fedora sway or gnome spins

Options:

• Linux Mint (Awesome first distro, but more out of date)
• Pop!_OS (Great for gaming, based on Ubuntu)
• Fedora Silverblue/Kinoite (Maybe later if your interested in immutability)
• EndeavorOS (Maybe later once you understand the value of the AUR, more bleeding edge)

Don't use:

• Ubuntu (bloat, snaps)
• Manjaro (Don't get me started...)

I like Garuda. I use the dragonized theme and it makes it look similar to mac OS. IMO it’s as easy to use as any other justworks distro but is far prettier

what about regular fedora on gnome?

Universal Blue might be what you're looking for. It's a Fedora-based distribution based on ostree (same stuff for Silverblue/Kinoite). It has the leading edge system components of Fedora with the reliability of flatpak and ostree updates. I truly consider ostree to be the future of the Linux desktop.

Debian stable.

I’m sure someone will link you the install media…

Slackware. It just works. Even current is pretty stable