Linux

It’s often a laptop, something us nerds wouldn’t buy generally speaking, so they tend to have hardware issues. So newer tends to be better. So plain old Fedora workstation with gnome. I pin their favorite programs to the dock, and show them the basics of the interface. I show them the software button and say they can install anything they want from there, and that they should do the updates that pop up from there.

Zero issues. Honestly does a better job than windows - things are more intuitive for the non tech savvy.

Edit: mint is pretty good too if it works. It’s one of those two systems.

Bazzite. It’s immutable so you don’t need to even set anything up or configure things or go into the command line if you’re just doing regular computer things (web browsing, gaming, etc). Best experience on Linux I’ve ever had in 15 years.

I don't see much love for Debian Stable + KDE in this thread, but that's what I installed for my wife and she absolutely loves it. Don't underestimate the power of a "boring" but rock solid foundation specifically designed not to break. Users new to Linux migrating away from Windows often really appreciate that.

400+ installs in the past four years - discarded/donated business laptops that get fixed, cleaned, upgraded with cheapest SSDs and donated to predominantly tech illiterate users.

99% is ubuntu lts + ansible playbook that removes snap, disables A TON of update naggings, installs flatpak, coupla apps and systemd timer to autoupdate all flatpaks. this is the only thing that has low support requests, everything else we tried (mint, debian, fedora) has a disproportionately higher support request frequency (reinstalls, wifi, fix this, remove that, etc).

I totally could adapt debian to be as good or even better (fedora with the bi-annual versions is right out), but one of the important caveats is the user being able to install it with minimum hassle if needed and that just would not be doable.

I'd urge everyone ITT to look at the thing through the user's eyes and not get lost in "no true scottsman" fallacies. the goal is to convert a user over, not to demonstrate how cool you are. once they know what's what, you can sell them on fedora and atomic and whatnot, but not as a first step.

I don't use ubuntu, have it on none of my stuff, and wouldn't go out with you if you do. but it's presently the only option for beginners for use on laptops that has a semblance of a modern desktop OS.

None... I tried with my Dad and even add some cool tools in additions (youtube dlp frontend). 2 days later he just reinstalled Windows on top because: "My USB audio dongle didn't worked".

Guess what? I didn't either on Windows and was an external peripheral issue, not an OS/driver issue.

But he also said:" Too complicated for me" 🤦‍♂️

Linux mint debian edition.

Linux mint. the go to linux distribution for recovering windows users.

Mint.

Linux users tend to forget that using Konsole even once is overwhelming for even "seasoned PC users"

My roommate is a gamer, spends lots of time on PC´s and knows his shit. But he felt overwhelmed with the CachyOS Laptop i gifted him.

I would go with Aurora or Fedora Kinoite. Atomic + KDE is unbreakable and easy for Windows casuals.

The only thing I dislike about Aurora is the illustrations baked into the distro. SDDM & Bazaar have them and can't be changed. But it's a freaking awesome distro.

I use it daily on my work laptop through an external USBC M2 NVME caddy. Today I had to move to a new work laptop and I just plugged it to the new one and that was it, my OS and all my stuff on my new work laptop in just a few seconds. No downtime. No drivers to update. Nothing.

The laptops have their factory Windows untouched. No warranty is void. IT is happy and I get to use Linux at work.

Plus, I can plug the drive to my home desktop PC running Bazzite and open files as if it was a regular thumbdrive.

This setup makes me so happy.

I use Kubuntu for that. Works good, is reliable, and uses Plasma instead of Gnome. The KDE Plasma environment is way easier to "get" for people coming from Windows than Gnome.

They get Windows because I'm not being paid to support their setup

Mint is a very good option for this purpose. In my case, it's Debian, but with a much more involved process.

The only ones who ask me to help with installing Linux are either very close friends or people in my family with whom I spend more time, and they tend to be curious about the exact setup that I'm using. I just so happen to have a fully-configured system image in a VM that I duplicate onto my machines, so I work with my friend or family to figure out what they need and how they want it to look, then I clone that VM, customize it to taste, and let them try it out. If they like it, I image it to their machine, make sure it's bootable, work out any machine-specific issues, set a new password and encryption key, and make sure that unattended-upgrades is working.

Everyone else just asks me to help install Windows. I have a penchant for LTSC, with an obligatory trick up my sleeve.

I sneak into my sysadmin's office and install arch over his slackware install whenever he is out on PTO. I don't think he knows yet who is doing it, but I am sure he secretly enjoys yelling at us while reinstalling.

Elementary on my wife's, the rest of the family manages mostly. Outside family I now go to great lengths to avoid it. I just help them find the right distro and guides.

Otherwise some will see you as 1st 2nd and 3rd line support as well as hardware engineer from installation onward. Kind of the same as in the past when tv's could be repaired. If they know you can do it, your done for. You have not stated working hours nor tariffs. And why pay for parts? You probably have boxes full of all kinds of stuff. (Including a demand to come over and fix stuff on xmas eve at 22:00)

I know, it sounds bitter, I'm not. Or ...well over this point maybe a bit, I enjoyed helping out until too many saw it as a right and not a favour.

Mint or Fedora would be my first choices. I use OpenSUSE Tumbleweed for my own computers but I think those others are better for people new to Linux. In my experience Fedora does a good job of combining up-to-dateness and stability. Mint is less up to date, but close enough to Ubuntu and Debian that loads of the help materials out there will apply to it.

ZorinOS

Ubuntu though I am less liking the snap dependence. I would avoid atomic distros for now. They are just the latest fad. Not saying bad though.

I installed Mint on a newly acquired used Thinkpad for my mom, to get her used to it as her Macbook is showing signs of giving up. So far it was smooth sailing until one day the package system broke due to some conflicts (I had set up Signal via their PPA). I had already set up remote access so I could easily fix it for her in a matter of minutes, but she would never be able to fix it herself even though the instructions were clear. Other than this though, she enjoys it. But I still need to set up a couple of additional things, in particular file sync and some way of managing her photos.

Hard to go wrong with Linux Mint as a first or last timer.

Mint XFCE 4 with a Windows-like UI. Installed on my sister's home-office, and my mom's old laptop... Haven't had any complaints so far

The one time I had to do it they got pop!_os

Not entirely related but whenever I told my dad to "install Linux" he shrugged it off. Then I specifically started telling him to look into Linux Mint and sent him a link to the site and he was more intrigued.

Since I'm doing all the admin stuff anyways, I went with EndeavourOS. Arch, but on easy mode. I've even got my sister in the habit of updating regularly!

Whatever OS they want or need, be it Ubuntu or Mint or whatever, or even Windows for that matter; it ain't my system so it ain't my decision at the end of the day.

I could recommend things for my hypothetical client to look into on their own at a later date, but whatever OS I install on that system is ultimately up to the person I'm hypothetically building it for, I can't just randomly install something without the client's permission, assuming I'm getting paid to build them a PC in this hypothetical.

Granted I'm speaking in terms of that person being a client in a business relationship more than a casual 'I'm getting sick of Windows, what should I run instead' setting-it-up-for-a-friend scenario, but still.

Mint xfce

I don't know, my family are really, really not into that. And my dad was an IT guy, he taught me about Linux when I was 10. But now he becomes so burnt out and start to turn back to windows because there are too many compatibility issues (that's what he said, honestly my mind was blown at how he handles it ten years ago but not able to do it now when the compatibility has significantly improved. And he is an IT guy which is the craziest thing because I'm a f*cking mechanical engineer and that huge obstacle did not stop me from dual booting). But if he finally decides to give Linux desktop a chance again I would recommend EndeavourOS+KDE...

I installed OpenSUSE Tumbleweed on 2 friend's pcs.

One of them has moved to an iMac now (apple fanboy, was going to do that anyway, no convincing possible) though he did like linux more than windows.

The other dual-booted for a while and finally "booted" windows off of his pc last month. He's pretty happy with it, too.

One because as soon I touch a family computer I own it and I have zero desire to remotely figure out their problems

To me it's Zorin. It's the easiest to use when you come from Windows

WIndows 7

I had some good rate of satisfaction (anecdotal empirical and personal) with Silverblue. Good support for UKI + Secure Boot + TPM2 + SELinux. All of that transparent to end user, and we can roll back stuff quite easy with the Atomic philosophy.

Those were experiments conducted on Lenovo and Dell laptops that have good Linux support with continuous firmware updates via fwupd.

Personally, I use Arch, btw. Not a big fan on the relation of companies with distros.

They get what I have so when they have questions I'm more likely to know, and if I don't I have a machine with me that I can check. It was Mint when I was still learning, now it's Fedora Atomic. Or for the really tech-averse, ChromeOS Flex.

If they are coming from Windows: Kinoite

If they are coming from Macintosh: Silverblue

You know i always keep that thang (a ventoy thumb drive with Manjaro w/ Xfce, KDE plasma, and Gnome) on me. I find that DE is what matters most to new linux convertees, since its so visible. I also like the add/remove software with gui; command line stuff is eventually gonna come up, but letting them have something to look at is critical to start.

fedora cinnamon. it doesn't have the issues with suspending that ubuntu and it's derivatives have, and it's easy to use and stable after the initial setup