PlzGivHugsWhat would you say is the most, "it just works" distro?
Besides Debian?
Riskable
Cris_CitrusI really hate to be that person but that is unfortunately not always been my experience š
Iāve been using linux for like 10 years and aside from when I was doing really weird customization shit windows isnt supposed to even be able to do, I had pretty much zero issues. Iāve definitely experienced my fair share of jank on linux. I love it anyway, but as a less technical person Iām not entirely convinced thats always the case woth any popular distro
ProdigalFrogIf you have an Nvidia GPU, itās hard to beat Linux Mint, unless you have the absolute newest bleeding edge hardware.
If you have an AMD or Intel GPU, Linux Mint Debian edition is great.
CÄtÄ š·š“šŗš¦š²š©šŖšŗ@PlzGivHugs not quite "just works" entirely, but I've grown more accustomed with MX Linux. Everything is pretty much just one click away tucked into the MX Tools app and you don't need lots of skills to use it. Some of the said apps might open inside a terminal, but their options are pretty well explained.
Ehhh, Iād recommend against MX if only because they donāt ship with a more approachable app-store like Linux mint does.
MXās app installer tool is more similar to Aptitude, which is to say, completely functional, but entirely text based (no screenshots, reviews of apps, etc) which isnāt to say itās wrong or bad, but Iād wager itād be offputting to the average person compared to the more image-heavy and user-friendly design of app-store that Mint or Gnome-based distros have.
@ProdigalFrog isn't discover also available in the KDE version? I don't remember
Hm, that could be, I havenāt tried their KDE version. Though I canāt say Iād recommend that to a newbie either, as KDE in particular isnāt a good option for Debian based systems since it uses a pretty old and (at least in my case) buggy version that wonāt receive any bug fixes or security updates until the next major Debian release (itās bad enough that the KDE devs themselves recommend avoiding KDE on Debian)
The older version of discover that comes with Debian is also pretty bad for newbies, IMHO. It is cluttered with non-relevant library files and system themes when searching for apps (I believe this was fixed in newer versions), and has no way to filter out potentially dangerous unverified flatpaks when flathub is enabled, which a newbie wouldnāt know to look for. Mintās and Gnomeās appstore donāt show unverified flatpaks by default.
#302 The Future Of KDE Plasma Is Wayland | Xaver Hugl
With the criteria flathub uses for verification, everything in debians own repos is unverified. Weāre trusting the maintainer either way.
To become a debian maintainer, you need to have already built up a rapport with Debian by being a sponsored maintainer, which lets you submit packages, but they must be approved by your sponsor. Only after establishing and proving yourself can you become a full Debian package maintainer, which also requires a trusted Debian team member advocates for you to become one based on your previous work in detail. While not impervious to bad actors, this structure creates a pretty solid level of trust in the Debian repos.
In contrast, anyone can create and submit a Flatpak to Flathub, only needing to pass a volunteer review process. Critically, after an app passes the first volunteer review process, the submitter can then push updates to the flatpak without review, meaning they could initially upload a clean version of an app, then push a version with malware in an update. Personally I donāt think that security model is as effective at preventing malware compared to the Debian model of slowly building trust before being given the keys.
Verified flatpaks, on the other hand, require the submitter to verify they are part of the dev team for that application to the Flathub team, which makes them pretty much as trustable as any Debian repo package, which make them a good, safe default to show for an appstore (IMO).
HuudaHarkitenDebian.
I think Iām a newcomer to linux even if I did use Ubuntu for many years. But generally I have no idea what Iām doing at any given time.
About a month ago I switched to Debian. No issues. Everything works. I should have changed years ago.
Shortlist of traditional distros, ordered roughly in descending order:
- Linux Mint^[Attracts most noobs and is probs the most popular out of these; no-brainer. Lack of proper Wayland support and not offering (!) a (semi-)rolling release model are the only reasons why the others deserve to be on this list. Otherwise this would sweep clean.]
- Zorin OS^[If you want something slow-moving, but still need/want Wayland.]
- CachyOS^[Arch-based distro, but comes with very sane defaults. Recommended if youāre on very new hardware.]
- Fedora^[Relatively bare-bones. Especially compared to all the other distros found on this list. But, if you want a more minimalist approach while preserving excellent defaults, then this is definitely it.]
Shortlist of Only^[Technically, any of uBlueās distros qualifies. But Bazzite is a lot more popular than the others. Hence youāll have an easier time finding resources for it.] recommendation for atomic distros:
- Bazzite^[This probs deserves a footnote of its own in which I elaborate, but I got tired. Here, have a flower; š®.]
As for deciding between a traditional or atomic distro, Iād personally suggest to try out Bazzite first. And refer to their documentation whenever something comes up during initial setup. If at any point, youāre not able to get it to work even with the help of its community ā^[I know using the em dash here makes me look sus AF, but I can assure the reader that no LLMs were used in the creation of this writing.] be it through their Discord, Discourse or subreddit ā then simply pivot to the traditional distros.
whotookkarlMint, debian, fedora, Ubuntu, bsd, tails have all been pretty simple experiences imo
Pretty much just stay away from cutting edge, rolling release, build from source, beta, testing branch etc and youāll be fine, look for something with LTS in the versions name
I should probably change to Debian. Ubuntu has become a bit of a dumpster fire from its former glory as Debian for noobs. Also avoid Nvidia if you want it just works. (Nvidia can workā¦ probably better than it used to but if you donāt want to screw with things)
For gaming, Bazzite. It has been enough of an improvement that it has changed my opinion on immutable OSā. In my office, I use Ubuntu on Desktop/ Debian on server. But, Iām not sure those are the right answers in 2026. Ubuntu hasnāt exactly made the best decisions over the last 10 years or so, I keep using them mostly out of momentum.
teftWhatās different between LMDE and choosing cinnamon when installing debian? Do they change anything under the hood on the debian base?
Itās the same Debian base under the hood, but has:
- A more user-friendly installer (I know Debianās has improved with Trixie, but Mintās is still easier IMO).
- A newbie friendly welcome screen that walks them through setting up a snap shot back-up tool, theming, updates, firewall, as well as easily providing a link to help documents, and shows the user the software center exists.
- The excellent Mint Software Centre Appstore (I donāt think that comes with Cinnamon on a standard Debian install, I think itās just the terminal).
SaneMartiganNo issues with bazzite or kubuntu.
Fedora (GNOME)
spartanatreyuRespectfully disagree.
Gnome is the environment not implementing Server-side window decorations.
That makes everything harder for app developers since they have to implement client side window decorations to make apps movable just for Gnome.
When apps canāt be moved around on Gnome because they donāt have a window handle to drag, it doesnāt really fit the āit just worksā requirement.
TheMadCodgerIf you want to focus primarily on gaming that can also do basic office work, check out Bazzite. If you want to do primarily basic office work that can also do gaming, check out either Bluefin or Aurora depending on whether you prefer Gnome or KDE, respectively.
All three are sister distros and are part of the immutable distros collection. Unless you actively want to tinker with your system level files, immutable distros keep everything that you need to run your computer read only. The only things you can mess up are your own files, so as long as you reboot from time to time, your computer will always be up to date and working. The result is you spend less time trying to get your computer working and more time doing whatever it is you want to be doing on it.
A lot of people will recommend Mint or Ubuntu. Theyāreā¦ fine, but theyāre not what they once were and you can do better. Donāt listen to anyone who tells you to run Arch unless you are into mining your own silicon.
Depends, how new is your hardware? Bleeding edge hardware is probably going to do better on a bleeding edge distro. Or at least a rolling release.
Old and crusty? Anything Debian or Ubuntu based should be more than stable.
WiddershinsTempleOS
No one ever seems to recommend PCLinuxOS (PCLOS) despite it being around since 2003 and created by Bill Reynolds. It is my go-to distro when someone asks me to choose and install Linux for them for the first time. I get the fewest follow-up phone calls of all the ābeginnerā (not bleeding edge) distros Iāve tried.