Jesus. Another one of these? Every freaking day. (Promise it’s different)
I personally like mint and pop!os for new users, but for this user I want to try something windows like with more sex appeal. I don’t want to have to touch this computer again. Proprietary software is not an issue/consideration. User is techier than most. What has your experience been with kbuntu? Pros/cons? Other suggestions?
I learn a ton on Nobara, but I’m not so sure it’s a forever distro
Maybe Aurora by Universal Blue?
It’s based off of Fedora Silverblue, so it’s atomic, rock solid and basically guaranteed to work (more secure by design as well). But uses KDEPlasma instead of Gnome and has a bunch of improvements here and there, including proprietary codecs and Nvidia drivers preinstalled (latter depending on the image you choose)
This is an excellent answer. Kinoite (basically the same thing as Aurora) is what enabled me to finally make the switch to full time linux a few months ago.
I think you should cruise this guy’s channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg6gPGh8HU2U01vaFCAsvmQ
He’s very fair and uses all operating systems. I’m almost certain he’s had a video on this exact question.
You’re asking for a distro to best fit certain criteria; what’s better for you.
What you’re going to get is everyone waving the flag of their favourite distro and selling you on it as a solution; what’s better for them.
Every time I’ve tried Kubuntu it’s been a mess. Though it’s been a couple years since I subjected myself to it. It’s still going to use Snaps, so there’s that.
If they want bulletproof and up to date, Fedora KDE.
I used to recommend Ubuntu. Now that immutable distributions exist, I prefer to recommend openSUSE Aeon or Fedora Silverblue to new users. However, check this website before installing Linux.
This site refers to “local repair cafés” more than once. Is that a regional thing? I’ve never seen those three words in that order ever before.
I know I’ll get down voted for this, but from that site:
"Microsoft wants you to buy a new computer.
But what if you could make your current one fast and secure again?"
Kind of a sensationalized statement. I’ve upgraded tons of machines from 2015 and newer to windows 11 without issues. Sure, not all of them, but I’d say a majority of them, and the “upgrade” is free.
I guess I wanted to point out this piece isn’t as doom and gloom as it seems.
ZorinOS or the recent AnduinOS can be very Windows like with modernish windows sex appeal as you call it.
Edit: If a gamer you could add Nobara with its own theme or bazzite with KDE.
You have had many answers, all of them revolving around Debian / Ubuntu. Yet it doesn’t give the “like-windows” esperience. It’s More like “slightly windows-flavored Linux”.
For a more Windows-like Linux, which helped me transition easily because I retained muscle memory, is Zorin OS.
Get an immutable distro. You’ll never need to touch it again.
This may actually hinders new users because you can’t just change stuff on the system.
And no, not everything always work out of the box. Fedora & OpenSUSE codecs, I’m looking at you.
fwiw I am a power user by Windows standards (n00b by Linux standards) which is to say I tweak a lot of settings and do a lot of customization, and in six months of using Kinoite I have not encountered a single thing I wanted to do but couldn’t because of it’s immutability.
I think you overestimate the average persons need to configure their computers. Most people just use a web browser, email, and maybe some light gaming. No one new to Linux is going to be really upset that they can’t do complex system operations on the command line.
I commented elsewhere, but I do a lot of customizing and immutability has not proven to be even the slightest barrier for me in over six months now.
No, but they’d be upset if they cannot play their usual media files. H265 is known to be absent by default on a lot of these distros.
Atomic distros by Universal Blue build proprietary codecs into their images
I’ve never had a problem with any media playback. I don’t think this is an issue on Bazzite, the immutable distro I’ve been using for over a year.
Linux. Mint.
Everytime.
OP explicitly said Mint isn’t what they’re looking for.
Best I can offer is Hannah Montana linux
Fedora Atomic (immutable OS), install it and you can swap between Atomic, Kinoite, Bazzite, and any other atomic distribution easily.
Fedora KDE is a good one.
Agreed. For a new user that wants to minimise system maintenance I’d recommend the atomic version, Fedora Kinoite. Flatpak plus rpm-ostree makes it like a phone where you can just do system updates and install/remove apps.
I’m personally a fan of Debian. Default KDE isn’t bad looking from what I can remember (I personally don’t use it - I neither hate or love it just because I love XFCE). I’m personally a big XFCE fan, but you do have to do some work to get it working good, and there are still jank parts here and there.
While no distro is completely set and forget, I think Debian Stable is as close as you can get. Once you install it and get it working the way you want (depending on your setup, you might encounter minor issues as with any distro), it will pretty much stay that way until you upgrade to the next version, and you can go up to 5 years before upgrading.
I would recommend you use the KDE (or whatever DE you want) live installer, though, as the default installer is quite unintuitive. You can find it in the list of installers at https://www.debian.org/distrib/.
I’ve never used Kubuntu specifically, but I would personally avoid Ubuntu these days if just because of Snaps. Also, Ubuntu is heavily bloated - base Ubuntu is almost unusable in a VM now, while vanilla GNOME and PopOS run well in VMs on the same machine. Personally, when I need to test Ubuntu builds, I always prefer working with PopOS.
Overall, I’d say if you don’t end up using Debian (I don’t blame you - while I like it, you might not), just please don’t use anything Ubuntu-based that isn’t Mint or PopOS.
Well there are no operating systems that you can install and forget, unless they never plan to go online with the machine. They all need updating which can be set automatically. The only problem is if it requires manual intervention, sometimes updates don’t go as planned, then a roll-back might be necessary. They could try an immutable linux distribution if they are worried about screwing up their installs or something. Fedora kinoite may be their thing, or Bazzite which is based on that.
Bluefin and Bazzite have been good to me so far.
The embedded IoT crowd would like to refute your claim that there are no operating systems that you can install and forget.
The collective would like to stress that any operating system can be installed and forgotten. Please note, that usefulness and security may be impacted.
/s
Also, to be technical there is CollapseOS which is an install once and forget sort of thing.
