Hey all,

I used to use Linux for a few years. Distro-hopped a bit, used Manjaro, Kubuntu, Mint, and Debian. I want to go back, but what I want is stability. I want to be able to do my regular day-to-day tasks without any sacrifices to my regular performance and stability on Windows 10.

Using Linux, I had the following issues:

  • Manjaro - for a first-timer, I think the problems here were pretty self-explanatory

  • Kubuntu - worked like a charm, up until I needed to update to the latest version, which it refused to do no matter what I did, causing me to swap to Mint. Reinstalled at a later date only for the entire distro to crash every so often with simple tasks like minimising and maximising windows, opening browser tabs, etc.

  • Mint - worked, but disliked the layout, swapped to Debian

  • Debian - Most in line with values, but could not for the life of me figure out how to install the Nvidia drivers. I reinstalled the distro multiple times after following the official tutorial to install the drivers to a tee… which would brick the distro entirely each time. Also had same issue with simple tasks like minimising and maximising windows, navigating browser tabs, etc. crashing my system.

I want to enjoy Linux, but I also want basic functionality. For all the crap I rightfully give Windows, it’s never crashed on me, whereas with the two distros I mainly used, it would crash probably once or twice a day. I’m not a AAA gamer, and I don’t feel it’s a hard ask to play a game like osu! without constant stuttering when it runs effortlessly on Windows.

I went back to Windows because I simply couldn’t deal with the issues anymore, I had to get a whole new computer and I feel that the constant issues with stability I had and needing to constantly manually turn the power on and off because of the crashes, and reinstalling distros for mundane reasons wore out my SSD much sooner than it should have.

If anybody can help me find something that I can be confident in to simply work without major issues, I would greatly appreciate it. I feel trapped, I want to ditch Windows, but also don’t want to deal with those nonstop issues all over again.

  • Atherel@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    81·
    2 days ago

    I’d recommend to try Mint again. What didn’t you like about the layout? You can run KDE on Mint and it shouldn’t make a difference to other distros.

    Other distros to look at as a beginner are Fedora or SuSE.

    • Binzy_Boi@piefed.caOPEnglish
      21·
      1 day ago

      Not huge into Cinnamon (I think that’s Mint’s default desktop environment). No idea why people hate on Windows 10 in terms of the layout of the desktop environment because it’s just about perfect for me. KDE was like the layout of Windows 10 if it was outright perfect. Kubuntu was incredible as a starter after the mess I had with Manjaro, which was so long ago I can’t even remember what happened there.

      KDE for me is an absolute necessity in a distro in terms of desktop environment. Remember having it with Debian.

      • Atherel@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        2·
        2 days ago

        Yeah I somehow misremembered that part, I thought Mint would ship with different options for desktop environment.

    • ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.netEnglish
      6·
      2 days ago

      KDE on mint is a little jank. It doesn’t integrate well with the mint tray utilities, and is using a fairly old version of KDE 5.

    • rarsamx@lemmy.ca
      2·
      2 days ago

      When OP says “layout” I think he means the old as windows 3.1 layout and workflow. It was good in the 90’s. Now it feels cumbersome and dated.

      Don’t get me wrong. I know that’s the main selling point of Mint: Familiarity and stability. I settled on it for 19 years after I got tired of distro hoping. I’ve contributed financially to it every month for years.

      However, it’s that cumbersome workflow which got me back into Gnome where I use only two extensions: transparent task bar and window autotile.

      Gnome on a laptop flows naturally and out of the way.