I recently chatted with a friend who is interested in switching to Linux. He loves the idea, but there are a few specific things he's looking for:
1. He wants to see a noticeable performance boost compared to Windows.
2. He needs a live desktop environment to try out before making a full installation.
3. He really doesn't want to deal with the terminal at all.
I was considering recommending an immutable distro since they seem stable, but he also wants to be able to install applications like .deb or .rpm packages, and I'm not sure if that's possible on immutable systems since I've heard they mainly use Flatpaks.
Right now, I'm thinking about ZorinOS, Fedora, or Ubuntu since he prefers a GNOME desktop. Do you have any suggestions?
5 Answers
After about a year of using any Linux distro, he'll have enough experience to make more informed decisions about what he needs. In the meantime, there are many resources he can read up on to get familiar with Linux.
Nobara has a GNOME version that encourages using the GUI for updates instead of the terminal, so that might be a good fit for your friend too if he's really against using the command line.
Any of the three distros you mentioned would work fine! They're all solid choices for beginners. ZorinOS is particularly good for those moving from Windows, and Fedora is nice too.
If he wants something user-friendly that can install .deb files, Mint is perfect. It has a nice software manager that will let him find a variety of apps without having to dig for them online. Plus, it has a live desktop, doesn't require terminal use for most tasks, and is generally lighter than Windows.
It really depends on what he means by performance—like RAM usage or loading times? Generally, any modern distro can perform well, but it varies by hardware. Also, almost all beginner-friendly distros have a live environment. For newbies, Linux Mint is a great option as it resembles Windows but offers the Linux benefits and has tons of support.
Totally agree! Mint has a great community and provides lots of resources for beginners.