Finally making the transition from Windows to a Linux. I’m pretty sure it’s been asked several times but which Linux OS would you recommend a beginner to use? I’ve seen Ubuntu and Mint as a good start. Not looking to do much. Game here and there (not too worried about Linux compatibility), streaming, editing videos. If I break any rules. I’m sorry.


Aurora, it’s the desktop version of massively popular Bazzite (which targets gaming). That means you’ll find tons of up to date tutorials online (Bazzite tutorials are usually applicable unless they are about the few features Bazzite and Aurora diverge specifically).
I explicitly advise against Ubuntu and Mint for the reasons I outlined here. Ubuntu and Mint have the added downside that almost none of the guides you’ll find about SteamOS will work: Different desktop, different philosophy.
People need to realize that since the success of Steam Deck the “old classics” of newbie recommendations are out of the window and what helps these users the most is a Linux distribution as close as possible to SteamOS but SteamOS is not available for random PCs, so Bazzite/Aurora are currently the way to go. Personally I like Fedora KDE but I shifted my stance since the linked post and trying out Aurora.
Bazzite is great on desktop, it’s just more gaming focused than Aurora
Absolutely but people not interested in autolaunching Steam and other preinstalled launchers can use Aurora which is just the workstation flavor by the same people.
Yeah my Bazzite definitely doesn’t auto launch Steam. I think that might be an option during setup?
Been using it for over a year now. Never auto launched into Steam once.
I installed it in a VM and after installation Steam launched. Didn’t check if that persists after several reboots. Why would I?
Then I tried Aurora and with the exception of a Terminal app in Plasma’s quick launch panel and no gaming launchers installed, it’s pretty much the same thing, so might just as well recommend Aurora instead of Bazzite if the person in question doesn’t care much about gaming. It’s the workstation variant of Universal Blue.
see? another person has the same result
you just got ratioed!
i tell you what bazzite does do. it installs a bunch of DE extensions that are not useful. they are very easy to disable
it doesn’t auto launch anything on desktop
I installed Bazzite just last weekend and I was definitively greeted by a Steam client login window right after logging into SDDM. No idea what you’re talking about.
i have to click the steam icon to launch steam
i have no idea what you’re doing wrong on your desktop