I have used linux in a past job (I did not set it up), so im not a total noob with linux. But I am far from an expert. I bought a tablet that had a flavor of linux on it and found myself woefully unprepared trying to navigate the tablet. I was planning to use it for DnD for pdf reading, but it apparently wasn’t capable of that bcz it was a rather custom OS. With windows 10 support being dropped by Microsoft in the next few months, I want to transition my desktop to Linux, and I thought I’d get a headstart on that. I have a windows 11 laptop (and I hate it), but im kinda stuck with it for now. So, in the spirit of I am a noob who isn’t quite a noob, what do ya’ll recommend? p.s. I used Ubuntu for a bit way way back in high school

Edit: I do game dev with Unreal. Another user pointed out that may affect my choice of distro

  • Apocalypteroid@lemmy.world
    2·
    6 days ago

    I’m a noob myself and have found Kubuntu the best experience so far, although my laptop is a bit niche so a lot of the other distros didn’t work correctly.

  • t0mri@lemmy.ml
    3·
    7 days ago

    Well Microsoft’s sure started doing good stuff lately

    For your question, consider fedora with KDE plasma

    • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.worldOP
      1·
      7 days ago

      Thanks will take a look at those. I should ammendment it post. I do game dev with Unreal, another user pointed out that might affect the distro I choose.

  • zerakith@lemmy.ml
    171·
    8 days ago

    I think the usual consensus is Linux Mint (and its a solid distro) but I think the best advice is not to be afraid of trying different ones and finding out what works best for you.

  • BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world
    11·
    8 days ago

    Desktop environment will be the most impactful for you. I recommend picking a distro with KDE Plasma, which will feel like the best version of Windows you’ve never seen before.

    If you are almost exclusively gaming and don’t want to fiddle much, Bazzite.

    If you like to fiddle: OpenSUSE Tumbleweed or Fedora. If you want more Ubuntu compatibility, Kubuntu.

    There are lots of options and it’s hard to go wrong. Bazzite is special in that the system is immutable, so everything needs to be run as a container.

      • BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world
        3·
        8 days ago

        In that case you are best off with Kubuntu, since UE for Linux is distributed as a .deb.

        If you prefer to compile the engine yourself, then you can use anything you like, but OpenSUSE Tumbleweed is worth a look since it’s a rolling distro and stays up-to-date (especially handy for GPU drivers).

  • nous@programming.devEnglish
    4·
    8 days ago

    There is not really one best distro out there - or else there would only be one distro. But for someone new you will find basically any mainstream/popular distro good enough for your usecase. The best one for you will come down to personal preference and will likely - at least at the start - be centered on which desktop environment you like the most. KDE will probably feel more like Windows. Though gnome I think tends to be the default on most distros. You will find popular distros have multiple flavors with various desktop environments as well. Your best bet is to download a few and put them on a usb and try them out before installing. That will give you a better idea of what you want.Or just pick one and go for it if you don’t care that much - it will probably be good enough.

  • XXIC3CXSTL3Z@lemmy.ml
    2·
    8 days ago

    If you are familiar with Ubuntu still I recommend you fallback to that or if you hate canonical and telemetry then use mint. Honestly bro it depends on what you wanna use it for.

    Generally:

    Noobs -> popos, Ubuntu, mint, Devs -> fedora, Ubuntu (ease of access), debian Power users -> Arch, Nix, tails, (a bunch of other distros ig since any distro can be used in a powerful way tbh) Neckbeard -> Gentoo, LFS (not really a distro tho but amazing for learning)

    But seriously speaking it’s your choice bud. All Linux distros work amazing and are all the same to the kernel. You can always install multiple distros on an ext. SSD if you can’t decide.

  • Bronstein_Tardigrade@lemmygrad.ml
    1·
    7 days ago

    I’ve found that any of the top distros work just fine. It’s the Desktop Environment that I interact with most often, so I’d spend some time studying which is most comfortable. (I’m a Gnome man myself.) Go to distrowatch.com as they do a pretty good job describing each distro and their standard packages.