I’m looking for something my sister can use, but I don’t want her to face trouble when needing to change major releases, like debian or ubuntu do. So I’m thinking a rolling release distro could be of great help for this.

Being as vanilla as possible is a nice to have.

Ideally, she shouldn’t be dealing with config files though. So even though Arch or some derivatives like Manjaro would fit, they require users to investigate for the proper configurations and such, and as mentioned, she’s a non tech person. If there would be something Arch based, but having safe configs by default, and pretty much requiring to keep updating the SW often, that sounds fine, but I’m not aware of any. Having a graphical SW updater/upgrader should be required as well…

It shouldn’t matter much, but I believe KDE would be the best DE option for her, offering what she might need to feel like windows.

I was thinking of KDE Neon, but I’m not sure how ubuntu major releases are handled, neither how it is for a non tech person to go and add SW, not officially covered by KDE repos, neither if its “plasma discover”, or its upgrade on the air tool works for other things, rather than just KDE stuff upgrades… Maybe kubuntu might as well be an option, but major upgrades might be as user involved as the ubuntu ones…

If you’re wondering, I’m using Artix, and I 've used for quite some time before, Arch, Debian (unstable) and SourceMage. I’m honestly not familiar with something that might help my sister move from windows. She once told me someone helped her try ubuntu, but she didn’t feel comfortable with it… Any suggestions are welcome.

  • marmulak@lemmy.ml
    62·
    4 years ago

    To be honest I’m not sure if rolling release is the best thing for regular people, because I feel such distributions favor updating over stability, although I know it’s not a 1:1 correlation. Rolling release could still be used to make intentionally stable distributions.

    I would still probably recommend something like Ubuntu LTS release, because you mentioned that it has to be “vanilla for non-tech individuals”, which I mean pretty much just means Ubuntu. LTS gives you something like five years of support, which is almost like “never” having to upgrade it. Also upgrading an installed system is not that difficult when it eventually does have to be done, or you can just do a fresh install.

    That being said there are probably some user-friendly rolling distros out there. Maybe Manjaro? I am looking at the top distros at distrowatch.com, and this description of Manjaro (currently one of the most popular distros on that site) seems to fit the bill:

    Manjaro Linux is a fast, user-friendly, desktop-oriented operating system based on Arch Linux. Key features include intuitive installation process, automatic hardware detection, stable rolling-release model, ability to install multiple kernels, special Bash scripts for managing graphics drivers and extensive desktop configurability. Manjaro Linux offers Xfce as the core desktop options, as well as KDE, GNOME and a minimalist Net edition for more advanced users. Community-supported desktop flavours are also available.

    Also in the top ten, EndeavourOS claims to be the same thing. I just did a quick Google to make sure, and you also get rolling release with:

    • OpenSUSE TumbleWeed
    • Solus
    • Sabayon

    I’d probably narrow your choices down to the three, Manjaro, OpenSUSE TumbleWeed, and Solus. I know them to be popular and major, well-established distros. Obviously Manjaro has the Arch base, and SUSE stands on its own merit. Solus too I have heard a lot of good things about, so maybe it’s perfect for the end user.

    • Bilb!@lemmy.ml
      42·
      4 years ago

      Yeah, I think I would suggest Manjaro KDE Plasma with flatpack source enabled, and the AUR should be used sparingly. Any time I had trouble with upgrades (rarely) it was due to installed packages from the AUR.

      • Dreeg Ocedam@lemmy.ml
        31·
        4 years ago

        Rolling release doesn’t mean bleeding edge. I could be rolling release while still retaining updates and doing testing. I don’t know much in terms of stability of other distros, but I found myself having very few issues with Arch while I have had a lot with Ubuntu (though it may be biased by the fact that I used Ubuntu while I was quite inexperienced).

        I think it should be possible to build a good rolling release distro that requires much less manual maintenance and has a much easier install process than Arch though.