Hey everyone! I just picked up a new Asus V16 laptop for my software engineering studies and I'm looking to ditch Windows for a Linux distro. I was considering Linux Mint, but I've heard it might struggle with newer hardware. What do you think? Any recommendations or advice on what to choose? Thanks!
5 Answers
If you want an alternative to Mint, I’d suggest Zorin. It’s user-friendly and has a good layout!
You should definitely give Fedora a try! It’s got a more up-to-date kernel and better drivers for newer hardware. You can boot from a USB drive to test it out without installing anything. Check if everything works—your sound, Wi-Fi, keyboard shortcuts, brightness controls, and Bluetooth. If all goes well, installation is a breeze!
If you're unsure, Linux Mint is usually the go-to for beginners. It’s easy to use and well-supported. Just a heads up, while Mint 22.2 has a 6.14 kernel that handles newer hardware, make sure it can support any specific software you’ll need for your courses. Some programs like AutoCAD don’t run well on Linux, so double-check your requirements!
Most folks in engineering lean towards either Fedora or Ubuntu. They're both popular and well-supported!
You can test most distros without installing them by using live ISOs. Grab a USB drive, use Ventoy to install it, and load up a few different ISOs to see which one you like best! Just remember that many distros might not support Secure Boot out of the box, so you might need to disable that in your BIOS first.
Yeah, Fedora is solid! If you want really fast updates, check out CachyOS. It’s using BTRFS and is great for snapshots.