Hello! I’m new to Linux, and I’m thinking of switching from Windows to Linux because I don’t want anything to do with Microsoft, Google, or any other evil corporation, and I don’t want them spying on me. I’m thinking of using Linux Mint since it’s the most recommended for beginners, but there’s also Ubuntu. I don’t really care if it looks a lot or a little like Windows, I just want it to have a nice design and be easy to use. Kubuntu is also recommended for those coming from Windows, and ElementaryOS for those coming from macOS. I don’t know which one to choose; they all seem very good to me. Here are some of the features I would like the distribution to have:
- Nice design and easy to use
- Customizable
- Focused on privacy and security
- Easy to install
- Best for Linux beginners Which one do you recommend? Which one do you use?


Ah hah! I went to write “Fedora”, and someone beat me to the punch! I find that you’ll get a lot of Bazzite, Silverblue, KDE Neon, Pop OS recommends, but I find that Mint and Fedor tend to work without too much fussing. I sometimes need to get rpmfusion or flathub stuff for Fedora to be 100% for me, but it really works quite wonderful after that. Mint is funny, because it’s the one everyone recommends for beginners, and, well, I keep coming back to it. It somehow manages to be more reliable than the Ubuntu base it’s built on.
I would not recommend pop!_os for beginners if they have nvidea drivers. A few of the recent updates have had problems
Pop!_OS was personally a terrible experience for me, even when not on NVIDIA. It seemed great until I actually tried it lol, but I’d recommend almost literally anything else.
I’ve had a mostly good experience with pop. It’s definitely a different workflow than I was used to, but it works for me. Looking at switching to nobra though.
I was just reading through /r/NobaraProject myself, haha! I may try to stick with Mint Cinnamon for now, though, since I’ve already got it installed…
Good choices!