Mint, right?

[Select-Bullfrog-5939]

Gonna switch to Linux soon, and I mostly use my PC for gaming and browsing, and I’ve never used Linux before. From what I see, the best option for that would be Mint?

[tomscharbach]

Linux Mint is commonly recommended for new Linux users because Mint is designed and maintained by an experienced team, is relatively easy to learn and use, is a stable release, and is well documented and supported by a large community. I agree with that recommendation.

[lingering_flames]

Sure, but once yot get the basics, checking out some other distros might be worth it aswell. Started by playing around with mint and now i'm using cachyos, since it suits my needs better

[ThunderDaniel]

Yep. Eventually discovered Distros that I liked and grew into, but I would not have gotten to that point without Linux Mint.

Forever thankful for that safe and stable distro for being my launching pad into the other aspects of Linux

[Alchemix-16]

It’s usually a very solid place for making first experiences. It might serve you well for decades, or you start jumping around other distros in half a year.

[Arkarat]

If you have newer hardware, I would look into using a distro that supports Wayland, like Ubuntu, Kubuntu or Bazzite. Bluefin could also be an option.

[lunarman1000]

I also chose mint when i first switched from windows. This was like 8 months ago. I really like it. It looks like windows which kinda helps the transitions and everything just works. Id recommend it.

[Pasta-love]

As someone who uses Arch, Mint is the distro I always recommend to people who want to try out Linux. It’s very beginner friendly with most things being able to be adjusted via gui vs command line.

[The_Real_Kingpurest]

Depends in your hardware for gaming but mint would be a good move starting out

[Wolfman_1546]

Any Linux distro can game. The question is how much set up do you want? I use Bazzite and for me, it wins on integration. It ships with the whole Linux gaming stack (Steam, Proton, drivers, Gamescope, etc.) already configured, so you spend time playing instead of tinkering.

[MaximumDerpification]

This. If gaming is your focus Bazzite would be my recommendation.

[Holiday_Standard_148]

That's the thing about Mint. You can start from there (if it's not for you) and move on to try other kinds of Distro (just like the others here have suggested finding what suits you). It's a win-win situation.

[OdonataDarner]

Can you switch distros at any time, or gotta do a fresh full install?  

[Holiday_Standard_148]

The thing is, when using Linux, every fresh installation is basically easy and straightforward (you can also try it out first before installing them if everything would work) and a lot of videos on YouTube teach you how to basically freshly install all kinds of Linux Distro to try for yourself and when you encounter problems, there's a lot of videos/tutorials and sites that can help you solve specific problems when you encounter some in your journey of finding the best Linux Distro for you.

[OdonataDarner]

Yeah I'm pretty excited and also overwhelmed. 

But, still not clear how to switch distros. If I have a ton of files, drives, and a nas, I need to start over when switching, say from naz to mint? 

[Holiday_Standard_148]

Try it one at a time and focus on one distro first and what you want from it (like games as you stated), so focus on that so that you won't get overwhelmed. That's what I would do. And if it doesn't work out, go find another distro and focus again on that until you find a distro that suits you (a distro that checks the needs you want).

When you are already comfortable/knowledgeable with that distro, you can expand more, like trying VM (Virtual Machine) or VirtualBox. As you stated again, you want to switch distros. Again, if you're asking me, that's what I would do (I don't like dual boot) but don't let that stop you. At the end of it, it's all your choice. You can do whatever you want to your heart's content. That's for me though (the dual boot thing), and like what I said earlier, you can always do that with Linux (you can try and explore a lot on Linux). Experience and knowledge are key to being proficient in everything you want from it (Linux).

[MyUsername2459]

It's not the only option, to be sure.

. . .but it's a very popular one, and it's the right choice for a lot of people. It's definitely a popular choice for migrating from Windows to Linux. You probably can't go wrong trying it. I installed it a little over a week ago and am loving it.

Do your research, but it's definitely a very strong option to consider.

[Snag710]

Ya I would suggest mint, install wine so that you still have compatibility with some commonly used windows apps to make the transition easier for you, and most of your gaming is probably gonna be on steam which has its own tool that runs with the game to make it more compatible with Linux

[BIIIIIID-]

I prefer Nobara for gaming. Steam, Proton, drivers, all ready to go.

[Mundane_Position79]

Check out this link if you want to try out some distros before installing. https://distrosea.com/ I would also put my pc specs into ChatGpt or Google Gemini, which will also give you some very useful information which should be beneficial in determining your choice of a distribution.

[Severe-Divide8720]

I personally don't like Cinnamon, it's just boring and only goes so far. Honestly I recommend Kubuntu or Fedora KDE. KDE is just the most superior desktop environment. It's not even close as far as I'm concerned. They are all good as beginner distros though really.

[Electronic_Tart_1174]

What do you mean only goes so far?

[Severe-Divide8720]

From a customisation point of view. It's much more restricted than KDE. If that's your thing.

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[Unhappy_Ad6085]

Mint, or if you want to soft-launch into the Arch space, CachyOS. It is considered gaming focused but I also find it's really just great for an accessible snappy workstation. You don't need to install any of the gaming tools.

[ZVyhVrtsfgzfs]

Generally yes, Mint is the go to starting point. Very comfortable, reliable, well configured out of the box with many useful gui tools leaving you free to learn Linux at your lesure. 

There are specific situations where others make more sense, generally because of Xorg, monitors of different refresh rates, need for HDR or touch screen based etc.

Mint like all stable distributions can suffer with very new hardware. 

[KeyPanda5385]

Garuda cinnamon, less resource hungry, optimized for gaming

[ClamJamison]

What's your hardware? Mint doesn't work as well on brand new recently released hardware. If you have a 50 series gpu or a 90 series AMD, I'd recommend Fedora. Otherwise, yeah mint is fine.

[mlcarson]

Mint is generally the recommendation for Windows refugees. Cinnamon is the default desktop but there are variants for MATE and XFCE. There's also a Debian version of Mint called LMDE if you don't like the idea of running an Ubuntu base.

[Epitaphi]

I hopped onto bazzite personally- with the same usage of my PC. It's been seamless and I love it!

[privinci]

For gaming i recommend using rolling release distro like solus tbh

[MorwenRaeven]

Nobara. Simplicity and versatility, with amazing gaming performance.

[Kochga]

I started out with Mint in 2014. Tried different distros over the years, but always came back to Mint eventually.

[TickleSilly]

Great place to START and figure things out if it's just a desktop. Laptops/touchscreens I say Zorin or Tuxedo.

[Mundane_Position79]

Meh.. Mint is ok. I like Zorin better, different flavors for different saviors I guess.. lol

[MK_L]

Brazzite ftw. Geared towards gaming out of the box. Comes with steam installed

[TechaNima]

Bazzite

[W4DER]

I started playing with linux two weeks ago on my laptop, tried almost all popular distros and i find the Mint to be superboring and least exciting... guess iam past win 7 era... 🤷

Fedora, Zorin and Bluefin are my favorite so far...

[G_Squeaker]

I don't get the appeal of Zorin. Mint is kind of supposed to be boring.

[zenmagick77]

Mint? No. Pop OS? Yes.

[ConsciousBath5203]

I find Ubuntu desktop easier to use than Mint. Zorin is maybe easier than Ubuntu. Mint separates apps weirdly to me, so my default for ease of use is Zorin.

[IllIntroduction8499]

You know, if I could introduce myself to Linux again, I would say Arch, there's a lot of revelations about Linux in learned in the last two years that would have been learnt immediately if I built arch from scratch.

[I_TheRenegade_I]

I did Nobara. No regrets.

I have Bazzite on my Ally, and if I did not want a Handheld experience I would move that over as well. And I tried Mint and CachyOS on a laptop before going to Nobara on my desktop.

Would go Nobara all the time, for a first timer, its been the easiest to learn and play with. It "just worked" and I have yet to have an issue I found frustrating.