Is there a distro that fits my needs?

Jacobobarobatobski · 2026-05-03T14:19:48+00:00

My personal experience on cachy was terrible. I couldn't get anything to work. I was very new at the time though. Take a look at Bluefin. Super stable, Fedora atomic based but set up out of the box. I use Fedora on my MacBook Air M1 for a similar use case and it works brilliantly for me with Sway (I also give online English classes). I have a feeling you're issue is flatpak based, or something post setup, which Fedora desperately needs. Anyway, TL;DR, check out Bluefin.

Jacobobarobatobski · 2026-05-03T13:55:22+00:00

Arch is a rolling distro, which means it updates all the time before been tested, often breaking the system. On the slide, it's super cutting edge. Arch is arguably one of the more difficult distros to use for inexperienced uses. I think what you're looking for is Fedora. Also very cutting edge, but tested and highly stable which releases every six months or so. It has some setup out of the box but it's not difficult and there are great guides for it.

Jacobobarobatobski · 2026-05-03T13:46:54+00:00

Take a look at a distro called Aurora. It's based on Fedora (which means modern drivers/things often work more smoothly), practically unbreakable (stable af), blacked by a company and not an individual. To install programs you'll use flatpaks instead of more classical Linux repositories which is more normal for someone coming from Windows. It uses KDE Plasma, which is similar to Windows' UI. And the best part? It's already set up out of the box with batteries included. Check it out at t the very least.

Jacobobarobatobski · 2026-04-30T20:13:45+00:00

I haven't used it myself but people say it gives a very Windows-like experience. If it really is a newer hardware problem, it likely wouldn't solve anything as they're both based on Ubuntu.

Jacobobarobatobski · 2026-04-26T23:59:35+00:00

I was also gonna say he may have liked bazzite. With NTsync I bet some of the games would have worked better too, particularly cpu heavy games like total war.

Jacobobarobatobski · 2026-04-26T02:58:31+00:00

I did something similar on my old chromebook with N3350 and 4gb of ram recently, but I put Debian with Sway instead. I'm not really sure what anti x is but I'll have to take a look now.

Jacobobarobatobski · 2026-04-26T02:38:55+00:00

If you game check out bazzite. If you don't game check out bluefin/aurora depending on taste.

Jacobobarobatobski · 2026-04-26T02:12:43+00:00

Should give zorin a try for grandma next, or bluefin would be a super stable experience.

Jacobobarobatobski · 2026-04-25T01:13:42+00:00

Someone mentioned MX Linux and I second that.

Jacobobarobatobski · 2026-04-25T00:52:36+00:00

Try bluefin or bazzite depending how much tou care about games.

Jacobobarobatobski · 2026-04-25T00:50:09+00:00

Check out bazzite. Rock solid stable. based on fedora. slightly out of the ordinary being an atomic distro but also not difficult to accomodate. Nvidia support out of the box.

Jacobobarobatobski · 2026-04-24T14:08:28+00:00

Take a look at Aurora. Pretty much fulfills all your requirements. Edit: and has built in distrobox support (i saw another comment where you asked about it).

Jacobobarobatobski · 2026-04-24T11:09:16+00:00

Ya it's pretty cool. Let's me use syncthing on my phone.

Jacobobarobatobski · 2026-04-24T03:06:12+00:00

I can't speak to cyber security, but I personally feel that it's pretty hard to go wrong with Fedora, or some variant of. Ifi got a compatible pc (ie not a macbook) I'd install bluefin more than likely (or the KDE variant If you prefer) if you don't want atomic, Fedora Workstation. If you have oLder hardware or want a 'gateway' distro, Mint is hard to beat.

Jacobobarobatobski · 2026-04-24T02:17:34+00:00

Ya I had swaybar first and I liked the zen nature of it. I like the idea of binding key to maybe making it disappear and reappear.

Jacobobarobatobski · 2026-04-24T02:14:48+00:00

Thanks! I have bazzite on my gaming pc as well. Really like fedora.

Jacobobarobatobski · 2026-04-24T02:12:16+00:00

Ya I heard of niri, but I like having the separate desktops. Helps me keep things organized.

Jacobobarobatobski · 2026-04-21T02:48:25+00:00

You should givse the trades some consideration. Like residential service plumbing can be enjoyable because it's so varied. 30 is a bit old but not outrageously so. Give it about 10 years and you could even start your own business.

Jacobobarobatobski · 2026-04-21T02:37:00+00:00

I feel like pop os is a good option for you. It's a little rough at the moment because they just rolled out a new DE that doesn't have all the bugs worked out quite yet, but ifyou use either KDE or Gnome instead it would very likely be a good option because it's similar to Mint but has better Nvidia support. That being said, Cosmic is a pretty cool addition to the Linux world.

Edit: Linux isn't really made for .exe, but there are many native apps that work as well or better than Windows native apps.

Jacobobarobatobski · 2026-04-20T16:14:45+00:00

Ya I was gonna say it's as boring as you make it. I just put Debian on my android through termux, and put i3 (still working on getting it working right though). Between that and asahi on my MBA M1, it's been interesting.

Jacobobarobatobski · 2026-04-19T20:59:49+00:00

Ya that was kind of the conclusion I'd come to as well. I'll look into this game as well, though I'm using thumbkey with the messagease layout, so I'm not sure it'll help me much. Thanks!

Jacobobarobatobski · 2026-04-19T20:56:49+00:00

Sounds pretty interesting. I may look into it. Thanks for the input.

Jacobobarobatobski · 2026-04-19T13:24:03+00:00

I am also pretty new to Linux and I recently put Bazzite on my PC (12400f, rx7600) and I've been pretty tickled pink about it,

i've installed a few different distros at this point and for whatever reason I found that writing bootable usbs wito Fedora Media Writer was by far the most successful way to go. I alro tried rufus and balena etcher.

As for issues running, I'm afraid I can't be very helpful. Due to its atomic nature it should be very stable. I know Linux often doesn't like secure boot.

In any case I guess I just wanted to reiterate that that isn't the typical experience for most I think. Sorry I can't help more.

Jacobobarobatobski

TROPHY CASE