Best distro to start with

Hi!

I’m a long time Mac user, but I want to set up a laptop or mini desktop (something not too old but powerful enough for image editing, really just for photography workflow), and try a Linux distro with FOSS tools for this purpose. I’m done with Adobe.

I’d like to scale one day to having a NAS of some kind.

I’ve experimented with Ubuntu before but it felt a little noddy, I just didn’t like it. Any recommendations? I’d like something with a decent community that would tolerate my noob questions.

Many thanks.

24 comments

Linux Mint. It’s a great intro to Linux. When you’ve got your feet under you — which won’t take long coming from Mac — try Debian or another distro to find the perfect fit.

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- Second Linux Mint. I've tried a bunch of distros and DE for about a decade, and have always returned to Linux Mint. It's intuitive, the installer is easy, and the OS just works.
  
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  I’ve heard about Mint and it seems to have a good rep. My tech lead at work recommends it. I’ll look into all of these.
  
  Dummy question but, I assume the commands/syntax across Mac terminal and whatever the bash/shell equivalent are similar/same?
  
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- Seems pretty good, except for the lack of a good DE.
  
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  I like Cinnamon, but it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. It is a pretty stable distro, though, and the DEs available are good for learning Linux.
  
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Any general purpose distro, really. If you don’t like Ubuntu, maybe you’d like Mint or Fedora?

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I'm currently very happy with Solus. Give it a try

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Have a look at popOS or elementary, both were really low maintenance for me and offer great workflow tools.

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- I’ve had a look through system76’ site and pop looks interesting, def a contender. Their hardware is a tad pricy. I assume like most of this the hardware is something to research carefully if you choose a distro first, compatibility, drivers, support etc.
  
  It’s a bit of an experiment for me so I won’t be dropping a grand on some HW.
  
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  Yeah, I’m using the distro on a thinkpad yoga.
  
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  Just use an old PC or laptop if you have one. If not install VirtualBox and give the different distros a try. It'll run slower than if it was on actual hardware but it'll let you try the OSes until you find something that you like.
  
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What desktop environment were you running? I usually recommend GNOME to people who just want an OOB experience and KDE to people who want to invest into a more personal experience.

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- gnome is hell for people coming from windows though
  
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  That’s really only true of some users. Most people now are used to at least 2 OSs. GNOME acts a bit more like a mobile OS in my opinion, and KDE behaves more like a desktop OS. Ultimately if you’re moving to linux of your own volition, you’re usually going to be more tech friendly than anyone staying on windows.
  
  To be honest, I personally disliked GNOME, but not because it didn’t match Windows. It just didn’t have the level of customization and accessibility that I expected from linux.
  
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  OP's a long time Mac user. I don't think he will have issues with gnome. Hell he might find it more familiar than kde
  
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  I hate Windows with an unbridled passion. I’m forced to use it lately for work and it absolutely sucks (Win 10 anyway).
  
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- I don’t actually know. It was Unity I think, whatever that is. Felt a bit, um, amateur and not very polished. Best way I can describe from what I remember.
  
  I will be seriously researching every response here. Very grateful for the help.
  
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  Unity was abandoned for a few years by Ubuntu, so I’d assume it’s behind most other DEs in terms of development. Most of what users experience in a distribution is the DE, so using a bad one can ruin it.
  
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