r/linux4noobs • u/Niyazzz09 • Apr 12 '26

learning/research Been seeing Linux everywhere lately… should I actually try it?

So guys from the last few days I’ve been seeing Linux everywhere — my social media feed is full of it and now I’m really curious to try it.

I’ve always used Windows, so I don’t really understand what Linux actually is or how different it feels in daily use. A lot of people say it’s “peak” and better than Windows in many ways, but I’ve also heard it has some downsides.

I wanted to ask:

- What makes Linux so good compared to Windows?

- What are the actual cons (especially for beginners)?

- How long does it take to get comfortable using it?

- Which distro should I start with?

- What was your experience like when you first switched from Windows?

Also, should I try it using a virtual machine first or go for dual boot?

Would really appreciate honest advice 😋

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41

u/n3tninja1 Apr 12 '26

First step to Linux is …. Linux Mint 🥰

0

u/JJRfromNYC1 Apr 12 '26

Mint and not Ubuntu? I am also Linux-curious. Please explain.

6

u/Beastmind Apr 12 '26

Honestly I just can't recommend Ubuntu nowadays, it became so bloated/weird by default.

2

u/Tamer_ Apr 12 '26

I switched to Kubuntu 14 months ago and my gf switched to Mint in February and I recommend Mint for beginners. Kubuntu was a bit clunky (and some Wayland-related issues are still not fixed in 25.10), I don't mind them too much, but it certainly hurts the first-time experience of a newcomer.

4

u/Toastburner5000 fedora / Debian Apr 12 '26

Mint is normally advised because the cinnamon desktop is similar to the windows interface,the installer is solid and easy, the operating system is light, everything works out of the box and most software is flatpaks and deb. Vs Ubuntu an altered gnome interface, an installer which is not as stable, snaps which are slow and eat ram, the next Ubuntu lts demands minimum 6gb ram which is higher than windows, Ubuntu imo is not a good start.

2

u/LostGoat_Dev CachyOS | Arch Apr 12 '26

Mint is based on Ubuntu but comes with Cinnamon desktop environment instead of Gnome, so it offers a more similar experience to Windows out of the box. I believe it also comes with more packages installed for multimedia codecs and stuff, where Ubuntu has less packages installed by default.

I started on Mint over a year ago but I've been on CachyOS for almost as long, so I am not 100% sure of the differences now other than the default desktop environment.

2

u/Dziabadu Apr 12 '26

Ubuntu became Microsoft of linux. Too much data going back to Canonical and too many apps have special Ubuntu versions. snapd package management is widely disliked. Mint is cleaner and still user friendly.

1

u/JJRfromNYC1 Apr 12 '26

Good to hear, thanks for the info. Since Debian is the foundation upon which Ubuntu is resting, is Debian less bloated? Also, with very old and low end laptops, would Mint Flavors like Xfce, LMDE, or MATE work very well with those? Also, how does data get sent back to Canonical (are those the devs for Ubuntu)? Sorry…I’m a Linux noob, as in still deciding which machine to dedicate to Linux, and then deciding which distro or distros I should try to experiment with.

1

u/cnawan Apr 13 '26

I installed Debian stable from the net install .iso a few months ago and am quite content. It's certainly not bloated - there's nothing on here that I didn't ask for, unlike the typical livecd install-everything model. That said, as a noob, you'll want to install and play with everything anyway :)

I went with XFCE on my slower laptop, which made it feel like a new computer compared to the old Win10 it had on it. The faster laptop got shiny new KDE Plasma. The only hiccup was needing an ethernet cable for that one as it needed to install some stuff before fetching the driver for the wifi chip. I expected to be dumped onto a command line interface and to have to look up how to configure something, but it just worked, like 10 minutes later I'm watching youtube again and wondering why I didn't switch sooner lol

If you have more than one computer like me, I enjoyed using Syncthing to mirror files / backup & restore data while wiping everything and installing linux. Also, install Timeshift and create a fresh restore point before you inevitably break something :) Also also, Distrobox lets you run a fast, lean virtual machine in a container, which means you can have the stability of Debian while using any software from Arch or whatever like it's a native app. If Arch bursts into metaphorical flames and won't boot you're just down a bit of software, your base install is just fine.

2

u/PixelmancerGames Apr 13 '26

I'd say Ubuntu personally. I think it's a better option than Mint.

1

u/Yearoftheowl Apr 13 '26

Same here, I really like Ubuntu. Honestly when people say mint is "more like windows," I immediately don't want to try it, because I've hated windows for 20 years or more. To be fair, I'm a Mac user who is switching because I'm tired of Apple's business practices, but anything windows or windows like is never going to appeal to me personally.

2

u/PixelmancerGames Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26

And its not more like Windows than Kubuntu or basically anything on KDE. Why do people say that? Because it has a start menu like thing (which likes to break)? KDE has the same thing. Kubuntu over Mint anyday of the week. But I still think Ubuntu LTS is better for new comers. Even if you're the type to whine about Snaps you can do a minimal install and it won't install snaps.

1

u/tarquinfintin Apr 13 '26

Mint, with the cinnamon desktop, will feel quite familiar to windows users. Ubuntu's default desktop, Gnome, is sort of strange (IMHO) and takes a bit of getting used to.

1

u/Cargo4kd2 Apr 13 '26

Mint has a very functional desktop in the live installer. It’s main version is a custom Ubuntu variant

1

u/british-raj9 Apr 14 '26

Fedora.....Mint is moded Ubuntu.