Linux Mint is the easy recommendation for a new user to Linux. If you know nothing about Linux it is your best bet.

https://bazzite.gg/

mint is the easiest to transition from windows to

it is easy to handle without using the terminal

and looks and handles enough like windows that you can feel your way through

just remember that it is a new os and you will need to learn a few things

do not be afraid to ask before doing something if you are not sure

Linux Mint was often the recommended distro for beginners, but I think that's changed with the rise of immutable distros.

Linux doesn't hold your hand. If you do something harmful, perhaps not knowing that it's harmful, it won't stop you. An immutable distro blocks the core system to any modification, and everything else runs in a container in user space. If you mess something up, just remove it. No permanent harm done. The immutable nature helps protect you from yourself.

Right now, I think the best gaming-focused immutable distro is Bazzite[bazzite.gg]. I tested it out on my laptop, and I liked it so much that I went ahead and decided to daily drive it on my main desktop too. That was months ago, and I'm still going strong.

引用自 Haruspex：

Linux Mint was often the recommended distro for beginners, but I think that's changed with the rise of immutable distros.

Linux doesn't hold your hand. If you do something harmful, perhaps not knowing that it's harmful, it won't stop you. An immutable distro blocks the core system to any modification, and everything else runs in a container in user space. If you mess something up, just remove it. No permanent harm done. The immutable nature helps protect you from yourself.

Right now, I think the best gaming-focused immutable distro is Bazzite[bazzite.gg]. I tested it out on my laptop, and I liked it so much that I went ahead and decided to daily drive it on my main desktop too. That was months ago, and I'm still going strong.

Depending on what you do and eventual issues you might run into. Immutable can be both a blessing and a curse. You might not be able to break it easily if at all. But, if it ever happens or you need deeper access to add/fix something, it's quite harder to do. Especially without prior knowledge of the OS.

引用自 Thermal Lance：

Depending on what you do and eventual issues you might run into. Immutable can be both a blessing and a curse. You might not be able to break it easily if at all. But, if it ever happens or you need deeper access to add/fix something, it's quite harder to do. Especially without prior knowledge of the OS.

Absolutely true, though if something breaks in the core system, it most likely won't have been the end-user that broke it, and the distro maintainer will likely fix it in the next update. For someone like myself, where I'm tech savvy but not a Linux pro, I'm much more likely to break a non-immutable distro more by trying to fix a problem that I created in the first place, speaking from experience.

引用自 Haruspex：

Linux Mint was often the recommended distro for beginners, but I think that's changed with the rise of immutable distros.

Linux doesn't hold your hand. If you do something harmful, perhaps not knowing that it's harmful, it won't stop you. An immutable distro blocks the core system to any modification, and everything else runs in a container in user space. If you mess something up, just remove it. No permanent harm done. The immutable nature helps protect you from yourself.

Right now, I think the best gaming-focused immutable distro is Bazzite[bazzite.gg]. I tested it out on my laptop, and I liked it so much that I went ahead and decided to daily drive it on my main desktop too. That was months ago, and I'm still going strong.

Bazzite is good if basically all you do on your computer is gaming and web browsing, it really isnt a good option for general usecase and its not hard to prevent doing something harmful so long as u dont copy random sudo commands from the internet and provide your password for stuff you dont know what it does.

引用自 Ayiar：

Bazzite is good if basically all you do on your computer is gaming and web browsing...

I use my computers for basically everything, and I haven't felt like it holds me back at all. I lean on Flatpaks and Appimages for the most part, but when those aren't available I can use Distrobox to install apps in their own containers along with any prerequisites I might need. Then of course there's the wealth of Windows applications I can run with Wine or Proton, either using Steam, Bottles, or Lutris.

When I say everything, I have a gamedev hobby, and that requires multiple disciplines ranging from graphical asset creation, audio, and programming. I also dabble with local AI, and Linux really expands my options there with an AMD GPU thanks to better ROCm support.

引用自 Haruspex：

引用自 Ayiar：

Bazzite is good if basically all you do on your computer is gaming and web browsing...

I use my computers for basically everything, and I haven't felt like it holds me back at all. I lean on Flatpaks and Appimages for the most part, but when those aren't available I can use Distrobox to install apps in their own containers along with any prerequisites I might need. Then of course there's the wealth of Windows applications I can run with Wine or Proton, either using Steam, Bottles, or Lutris.

When I say everything, I have a gamedev hobby, and that requires multiple disciplines ranging from graphical asset creation, audio, and programming. I also dabble with local AI, and Linux really expands my options there with an AMD GPU thanks to better ROCm support.

What exactly is the point of using bazzite which is focused on gaming over a more standard and less niche distro like mint or fedora/opensuse if u want newer software?

引用自 Ayiar：

What exactly is the point of using bazzite which is focused on gaming over a more standard and less niche distro like mint or fedora/opensuse if u want newer software?

For the reasons I've already stated. Bazzite is immutable. If you're not a Linux expert but you still have a propensity to tinker around, the immutable nature will help protect you from yourself. I tend to tinker myself into a corner eventually with mutable distros, and I end up needing to either reinstall or retreat back to Windows.

I don't necessarily need newer software. I just need the software that allows me to do what I need. Besides, Bazzite is new enough. It's not some rolling release with all the bleeding-edge updates, but for stability that's probably not what the average user wants anyway. They'll get those updates after more knowledgeable people have tested them and ironed out all the kinks.

That being said, if you know what you're doing, something immutable like Bazzite will probably only be frustrating, but for us normies who spent our whole lives on Windows and only know what Sudo does because of the memes, it's great! This has been the smoothest, most stable, least frustrating Linux computing experience I've ever had, and I've dabbled with it off and on since 2002.

My vote also goes to Bizzite for the very first Linux distro. I used to recommend Mint in the past.
Bazzite is likely the most similar distro to Steam OS but with Nvidia support.

Ubuntu

Depending on how new your computer is Linux might not be easy now. There is a BIG issue with Nvidia cards and booting to a black screen on 4000 series and newer cards as the 'nouveau' drivers can't quite cut it. Pressing 'e' at the install screen and adding 'nomodeset' will get you past that but then you have to jump through a few hoops setting up Nvidia drivers and booting to live USB stick and mount your drive or doing what is called a chroot into your main install to get around it.

If you have an older card like a 1070 for example Debian would be a good choice to start with. Pretty easy to learn lots of people run it and it is stable compared to some other distributions. I like XFCE4 since it is simple and clean like Windows 7 for example :)
I also have raspberry pie's so Debian was an easy starting point kind of (not really a newbie as I have been running Unix since 2001 but Steam has issues on BSD so ...)

I installed Arch on a system to see how it was and I would definitely not recommend starting out trying Linux with Arch :)

There was one Linux I was going to try but since I have a 1070 installation was not supported. The "maintainer" demanded a 2000 series card or greater to install can't recall which one it was.

Linux Mint was hacked a long time ago and as such been shying away from it. Probably clean and the hacker had their back doors removed a long time ago I am sure but you never really know. :)

Ill try Mint, seems the easiest

引用自 Im smoking gas：

Ill try Mint, seems the easiest

Mint is stable but always outdated (used older kernels and ubuntu LTS).

If you're truly a linux noob stay with immutable distro's like bazzite, since you can't screw up the OS and can easily roll back to the latest stable version in case something goes wrong.

All the major software is available in flatpak/appimage/.. format anyways so it's not like it's JUST for gaming and web browsing.