I’d recommend Ubuntu or Mint for most new users; straight up Debian only in cases when the user don’t need the latest or greatest in terms of updated packages. As Debian is great, I’ve used it as extensively as Ubuntu…
However, Debian is built against older drivers and kernel, making it stable, if not a bit stale.
Ubuntu is a bit fresher with a higher kernel version (packages can still be behind something like openSUSE or Arch, Debian based distro truth). However, flatpaks allow for more recent software versions!
I install most of my software via Flatpak and Snap anyway, so I don’t need the latest and greatest in terms of apt packages, and Debian brings the benefit of a rock solid base.
I agree, so many people disregard Debian, but if you’re not gaming and don’t need to keep up with the latest things - Debian is rock solid and most of your packages you can just use flatpak. For the majority of daily users who aren’t gaming, I think it’s a super solid choice.
i don’t recommend ubuntu anymore. recently tried it on my laptop and holy hell it’s bad. couldn’t install flatpaks and the only way to install from repo was to use terminal. couldn’t get any version of steam to work at all. and I’ve been a linux user for years now…
also for some reason mint wouldn’t install on the same thinkpad, the installer wouldn’t boot at all, just gave some grub message. also fedora was no success, the usb media wasn’t recognized. ultramarine finally worked even though it’s just fedora with tweaks. some say it’s a bad thing to have tons of distros, but for me it’s been a blessing. one distro won’t work for every pc.
I was pretty successful doing the terminal commands necessary to make flatpaks work on Ubuntu in recent memory, as out of the box the distro is Snap centric. Its odd you had so many issues on a fresh install of Ubuntu. Oof, sounds like my legendary problems with Arch.
Yeah, Mint requires some workarounds on older hardware. Its possible, but, probably not worth it unless you’ve got a burning desire to use Mint on that hardware.
i looked up multiple guides to enable flatpaks and all i achieved was that i could install them from terminal, but the apps never actually appeared so i couldn’t run them.
took me a while to realize the default store is snap only, but i couldn’t install another store either (can’t remember why). if i wasn’t so pissed i probably could’ve figured it out, but steam not working was too much of a dealbreaker that it wasn’t worth the effort
Better than normal Arch I guess… idk I would give beginners Mint, Ubuntu or maybe Debian.
I’d recommend Ubuntu or Mint for most new users; straight up Debian only in cases when the user don’t need the latest or greatest in terms of updated packages. As Debian is great, I’ve used it as extensively as Ubuntu…
However, Debian is built against older drivers and kernel, making it stable, if not a bit stale.
Ubuntu is a bit fresher with a higher kernel version (packages can still be behind something like openSUSE or Arch, Debian based distro truth). However, flatpaks allow for more recent software versions!
I install most of my software via Flatpak and Snap anyway, so I don’t need the latest and greatest in terms of apt packages, and Debian brings the benefit of a rock solid base.
I agree, so many people disregard Debian, but if you’re not gaming and don’t need to keep up with the latest things - Debian is rock solid and most of your packages you can just use flatpak. For the majority of daily users who aren’t gaming, I think it’s a super solid choice.
i don’t recommend ubuntu anymore. recently tried it on my laptop and holy hell it’s bad. couldn’t install flatpaks and the only way to install from repo was to use terminal. couldn’t get any version of steam to work at all. and I’ve been a linux user for years now…
also for some reason mint wouldn’t install on the same thinkpad, the installer wouldn’t boot at all, just gave some grub message. also fedora was no success, the usb media wasn’t recognized. ultramarine finally worked even though it’s just fedora with tweaks. some say it’s a bad thing to have tons of distros, but for me it’s been a blessing. one distro won’t work for every pc.
I was pretty successful doing the terminal commands necessary to make flatpaks work on Ubuntu in recent memory, as out of the box the distro is Snap centric. Its odd you had so many issues on a fresh install of Ubuntu. Oof, sounds like my legendary problems with Arch.
Yeah, Mint requires some workarounds on older hardware. Its possible, but, probably not worth it unless you’ve got a burning desire to use Mint on that hardware.
i looked up multiple guides to enable flatpaks and all i achieved was that i could install them from terminal, but the apps never actually appeared so i couldn’t run them.
took me a while to realize the default store is snap only, but i couldn’t install another store either (can’t remember why). if i wasn’t so pissed i probably could’ve figured it out, but steam not working was too much of a dealbreaker that it wasn’t worth the effort