this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2025
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

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with the recent windows news, I wanna switch to Linux. I tried mint a few years ago and was annoyed and frustrated with multiple things, like having to input the password all the time and the general ammunt of constant trouble shooting and needing a tutorial for the most basic things.

I want a distro that:

  1. Is very user friendly, ideally not requiring a terminal
  2. Is hard to accidentally fuck up
  3. ideally doesn't require a password for every input

I basically just use my laptop to browse the web, draw in krita and use ms office apps (have been getting used to open office lately)

What do y'all suggest?

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Did you set your Mint to autologin to desktop? If so then your Keyring is then locked and you get prompts to unlock it when you want to use anything that needs it - websites, software like email etc. The keyring holds your passwords and credentials to pass to on as needed and keeps your system secure. If you set your desktop to not autologin - i.e. have a login screen - your keyring is unlocked automatically as you log on to the PC and you don't keep getting prompts to unlock the keyring. You can disable the keyring entirely or give it a blank password, but it's better to use the login screen to keep your device secure, and let the keyring do it's thing in the background even though "login automatically" is so easy to tick and use. The wallet is the same concept on KDE desktops.

Otherwise the only password prompts you should get are similar to windows - when you want to make system level changes.

I'd recommend OpenSuSE Leap with KDE. User friendly, stable, with a good GUI for making all system changes. Fedora KDE is also a good popular distro; I'm not sure how good it's GUI is but I'd be surprised if you need to use the terminal. People often recommend the terminal (because it IS quicker - often one step instead of "go here, click here, click here") but there is usually a GUI way of doing everything.