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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by jack@monero.town to c/linux@lemmy.ml
 

A friend might let me install Linux on his secondary laptop he uses for university. He's not a tinkerer and wants something that just works.

Linux Mint is known for being very user-friendly and stable. Also easy to get help online.

However, in my opinion Mint seems rather outdated, both with its Windows-like workflow, default icons and look and also Xorg. When I tried it I had some screen stuttering I couldn't resolve, probably due to Xorg.

Instead, Fedora with GNOME is very elegant and always uses the newest technologies. It feels and looks actually nice and not outdated. But I'd have to install media codecs via terminal first which suggests that Fedora is for experienced users. Also university wifi eduroam doesn't work on Fedora for me because legacy TLS connection is not supported in Fedora (at least I couldn't get it to work). I'm at a different uni than him tho, so it might work there. In general, less help on the web for Fedora than Mint.

What do you think? (Btw, KDE is too convoluted in my opinion. Manjaro too, it breaks too often. I will not consider it.)

EDIT: From what I've gathered so far, I should probably install Mint. He can try Fedora with a live usb or on my laptop. If he prefers that then I can warn him that this may be less stable and ask what he wants.

I've only tried Ubuntu-based Mint, but LMDE is more future-proof so it will probably be that.

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[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 57 points 1 year ago

Mint.

You're working to his requirements, not yours.

[–] Uvine_Umbra@partizle.com 39 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Fedora is not for beginners.

Mint is.

I could go into more detail, but I'll leave it there.

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[–] DerisionConsulting@lemmy.ca 33 points 1 year ago (5 children)

From your post:

laptop he uses for university. He’s not a tinkerer and wants something that just works.

Mint:

Linux Mint is known for being very user-friendly and stable. Also easy to get help online.

Fedora:

have to install media codecs via terminal

university wifi eduroam doesn’t work on Fedora

less help on the web for Fedora than Mint.

Unless you're sure that screen stuttering is going to be a major annoyance, you know what I am going to suggest.

[–] jack@monero.town 6 points 1 year ago

Fair enough.

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[–] scytale@lemm.ee 22 points 1 year ago

Mint is like 99% plug and play on most laptops, so I'd recommend they go that route.

[–] vsis@feddit.cl 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I recommend Mint.

Chances are your friend's secondary laptop doesn't have extra resources for Gnome to run smoothly. Sad thing is nowadays Gnome is very heavy and bloated.

Also, he may try both distros live-usb. Maybe he don't care about Mint looking outdated. But if he does, you may try Fedora live-usb and check if university wifi works properly.

It's his laptop after all, so I believe your appreciations on the beauty of desktop environments are secondary.

[–] jack@monero.town 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Good ideas, I will consider that.

It's his laptop after all, so I believe your appreciations on the beauty of desktop environments are secondary.

You are right. I was thinking that the Fedora workflow might give him some Linux-exclusive benefits over Windows so he might consider switching his main laptop too. Mint is rather a drop-in replacement for Windows so the advantages of Linux are not very visible/important for a newcomer. At least compared to a DE like GNOME.

[–] Gemini24601@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Mint doesn’t have to look outdated if you put a little work into it. Check out this fellow’s rice in unixporn: https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/17dwneg/cinnamon_available_as_installable_iso/

[–] Skelectus@suppo.fi 13 points 1 year ago

As a fedoraman myself, I think Pop!_OS is a great option.

But are you doing this because your friend wants linux or because you want it? It's okay to recommend it but don't push it if they don't need it.

[–] Feyter@programming.dev 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In general I would recommend any Debian derivate for beginners that just don't care about how their computer is operating. So if this is really just a question regarding eight Fedora or Linux Mint then I would say Linux Mint because it's a Debian derivative.

That's simply because chances are high stat you will at least find a Deb package for any proprietary software you might want to use. Making it "easier" for the user.

If you install the system for your friend you're free to change the Desctop environment to everything you want.

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That’s simply because chances are high stat you will at least find a Deb package for any proprietary software you might want to use. Making it “easier” for the user.

Fedora ships unfiltered Flathub outof the box since quite some time. If easy access to proprietary software is a deciding factor, Fedora is among the easiest options.

[–] entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Okay, but Mint has Flathub and the deb ecosystem.

It's just straight-up better supported

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Mint has Flathub and the deb ecosystem.

Random debs don't magically work on all Debian derivatives. Simply getting debs from somewhere is just asking for problems.

[–] entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Anything that runs on Debian Bookworm works on LMDE 6, anything that works on the latest Ubuntu LTS works on the latest regular Mint

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[–] dadaredone@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 year ago

No questions it's mint, it runs and looks very good.

[–] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 year ago

You would get less hassle with Mint. One thing that came to mind is the codec.

[–] joel_feila@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

Keep in mind "it just works" also includes the windows like workflow.

[–] Moobythegoldensock@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’d say Mint.

Mint is planning to add experimental support for Wayland this winter, so he’s probably only 1-2 years away from full Wayland support in the DE.

[–] entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 year ago

They said they're targeting 2026 in the post where they announced Wayland.

[–] beta_tester@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago

Even if Mint (Cinnamon) doesn't look as good as GNOME, you can always install another desktop environment.

I'd recommend fedora silverblue. You'll install all graphical packages via a Software store and you won't brick your system. Even if, you may just recover an old state. I installed media codecs via the software store, not command line.

Fedora is very beginner friendly too

[–] snowcatridge10@beehaw.org 8 points 1 year ago
[–] airikr@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Begin small, end big. That works for everything when learning something new. So, with that said, go for Linux Mint Cinnamon.

I begun my Linux journey with elementary OS which is more for macOS users. I was a Windows user so I switched to Linux Mint Cinnamon. After a few years of exploring and learning, I am now using EndeavourOS.

[–] EuroNutellaMan@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I installed Mint on someone's old laptop at my Uni's lab (it's mostly for the field of environment and agriculture so nobody is an IT expert here), he didn't have any complaints and is actually falling down the Linux rabbit-hole, while others are considering switching to Linux too after seeing how it resurrected 2 old basically-defunct laptops.

I'd go with that, it is a trusty and reliable distro for newbies. I even know some greybeards that use it.

Then again as others pointed out he can try both from live USB. The important part is that you explain a distro can have everything another distro has with the right know-how and some patience, as well as how things work on Linux (for example: imstall programs using the package manager whenever possible). But again he isn't a tinkerer so stock Mint will work just fine with him.

[–] jack@monero.town 4 points 1 year ago

Thanks for your input.

[–] HamBrick@programming.dev 7 points 1 year ago

I can’t really give a super useful opinion given that I haven’t really touched fedora, but I’ve been using mint for school for almost a year, highly recommend

[–] OscarRobin@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

I love Fedora but definitely Mint for a normie. Even then I question if you should install Linux at all since reliably being able to do what you need to do is priority one, especially for a student, and if he may be blocked in his work as a result I don't think it's a great idea.

[–] Strit@lemmy.linuxuserspace.show 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Maybe stock Ubuntu?

It's pretty new. Has wayland and pipewire. You can just enable a checkmark in the installer to install codecs. Uses Gnome, so a non-Windows like workflow. Pretty sure Eduroam would work there, as many schools use Ubuntu by default.

[–] jack@monero.town 9 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I haven't tried Ubuntu yet myself, but generally I'm turned off by some decisions Canonical makes, especially the whole Snap thing adding complexity, slow app startup and proprietary store. Not very trustworthy.

But you are right, Ubuntu is the most popular and things like eduroam will likely work.

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

generally I’m turned off by some decisions Canonical makes

Those decision will trickle down to Ubuntu remixes like Mint eventually. Canonical's plan is to replace as much as technically possible with Snaps. They just barely delayed shipping CUPS itself as Snap but it will come, so even a basic task like printing will rely on Snap. I don't see Mint having manpower to package everything on their own, even if it's "just" about porting Debian packages. Might just as well use LMDE right now.

[–] ares35@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

that's the whole reasoning behind having LMDE. seems a little redundant today; but within a release or two mint may very well be only based on debian itself, with the way canonical is steering ubuntu.

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

within a release or two mint may very well be only based on debian itself, with the way canonical is steering ubuntu.

I expect Canonical going hard in the Snap direction leading up to 26.04. They are desperate given the fact that Flathub got a huge popularity boost thanks to SteamOS. I don't think Ubuntu remixes will come out unscathed.

[–] jack@monero.town 2 points 1 year ago

LMDE is the future of Mint, hopefully with a Flatpak-first approach.

[–] TCB13@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Go with Debian, install software using the GNOME Software GUI, it can be configured to use flatpak so you'll get the latest software without the snap overhead on a very stable base system.

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[–] slowbyrne@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago

As a few have already mentioned, a Debian based distro is a good choice, and you Mentioned vanilla Ubuntu isn't ideal do to prioritizing snaps, I would then suggest Pop!_OS or Mint. I like what System76 (Pop) is doing with their scheduler and the upcoming Cosmic DE (written in Rust and should see an alpha early next year).

[–] turbowafflz@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

At least at UVA, eduroam on fedora is possible, you might be able to adapt these instructions to your university if you end up on fedora http://galileo.phys.virginia.edu/compfac/faq/linux-eduroam.html

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[–] Censedpeak@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

Do mint, if you really wanna do fedora try Nobara

[–] GnomeComedy@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Have them check with their University if they do any Linux support. If they do - use one of the distros they support so they might possibly have KB articles about accessing University recourses from Linux.

Source: am Linux admin at a University that writes such documentation. I have seen exactly the Eduroam issue you mention and came up with an Ubuntu workaround for example.

[–] PseudoSpock@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

6 in one, half a dozen the other. Both are good.

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