I think Windows 10 going EOL is a good opportunity for Linux. People know how objectively bad Windows 11 is and how intrusive Microsoft ads can be.
That's exactly what made me finally pull the trigger. I would never have guessed how easy the transition would be.
Windows 10 EOL and Windows 11 being an actual regression are exactly what got me to switch. Had already been using Linux on servers for 10 years but decided it was time to make the jump. OpenSUSE Tumbleweed has been fantastic
OpenSUSE is still bloated vendor specific
Why do you feel openSUSE is bloated? You can choose what to include when you install. I just did Leap install about a week ago and included barely anything.
What do you recommend for users coming from Windows?
Linux Mint
Other options include Fedora and Debian. They both have other trade offs so keep that in mind. I have also heard people recommend Bazzite but I have never used it so I don't know if that's a good recommendation or not.
How is Linux Mint less bloated? Linux Mint also suffers from poor Wayland support and isnt a (semi-)rolling release distro like Fedora or Tumbleweed. I wouldn't recommend to anyone other than people who are tech iliterate. Even then, I would still suggest VanillaOS or Fedora Workstation. I used Mint as my daily driver for a year and it was fine, nothing amazing.
Bazzite is a good distro, I convinced a friend to move to Linux from Windows 10 and Bazzite was the only one that worked well with their nvidia hardware.
Linux Mint is built on a clean base that is a lot less heavy. It does come with a few stuff preinstalled but those can be removed without breaking the system.
Linux Mint is built on top of Ubuntu, which itself was a fork of Debian. Ubuntu is not something I would call a "clean base". It is clunky, slow to adopt new technologies, and very (Canonical) opinionated. Linux Mint actively works against its Ubuntu base by removing Snap and other Canonical weirdness.
Tumbleweed and Leap offer the option to add or remove ANY package from your system before you even install it through their GUI installer, actually 2 GUI package choosers for either simple or advanced users. I don't think it is accurate to suggest that Linux Mint is minimalist with its packages, especially when comparing to openSUSE distros.
I will not argue against Linux Mint being user friendly, it is pretty good. But "not bloated", especially when comparing against openSUSE, is inaccurate.
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