I'm trying to help my dad, who doesn't want to switch to Windows 11 on his new laptop. I set him up with Linux Mint, but he's run into some major driver issues. After I got everything working, a Mint update broke his drivers again, leaving him frustrated. I can fix it for him, but I worry it'll just happen again with future updates. Is there a way to check if a Linux distribution has good driver support for a specific computer model? Also, what other distro options might be better for him? The laptop model is MSI VenturePro A15. I know there are Linux-friendly laptops out there, but this was the one we ended up with. I had trouble with the GPU driver that Mint ships with and had to do some work to figure out a safe mode. Any suggestions?
5 Answers
You should figure out what hardware is causing the issue first. If it’s the GPU, you might want to try Debian. It’s known for its stability and might not cause as many headaches with updates.
From my experience, Ubuntu tends to offer the best overall support for a mix of new and older hardware, so that might be worth considering too.
Debian is definitely a solid choice, especially with its updates every couple of years. It’s stable and as long as you set it up properly, you shouldn't have to worry for a while!
Any particular flavor of Debian you'd recommend?
If you're looking for something really user-friendly for that hardware, I'd recommend giving Bazzite a shot. It’s straightforward to set up, just make sure to get the right ISO file.
To really help out, we need to know what specific driver issue you're dealing with. Generally, hardware support across distributions is pretty similar since they all use a common kernel and similar drivers.
I thought some distros could have different kernel versions that better cater to certain hardware, but I guess it's not that different.
What version of Debian do you think would be best for him?