this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2025

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344

And so it begins (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 weeks ago by python@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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I installed Linux Mint for the first time on my personal Laptop just a few months ago, and it ran so well that I didn't want to mess with it to try out different distros.

But today, my company's IT department announced that they have some spare old Laptops to give away (technically because they didn't meet the specs for Windows 11, didn't stop the IT department from giving them out with Windows 11 pre installed though)

So now I got a few devices to play around with!! They're a Precision 7530 and a Latitude 7390 2-in-1!

I already got ZorinOS running on the little guy because apparently Zorin is nice for Touchscreen support. For the big guy I was initially thinking that I could try Bazzite, but the installer was like "Intel UHD Graphics aren't really recommended" so I might try something else first. Any recommendations? I mainly just want to try as many different flavors of Linux as I can haha

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[–] HouseWolf@pawb.social 44 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

[–] loweffortname@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 3 weeks ago

I don't understand... It wasn't even an Arch-based distro!

[–] NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip 22 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

I always wonder why mint is the one people try. It seems so out of date.

Fedora these days works really well and is really up to date.

[–] LeFantome@programming.dev 13 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Mint is very boring and middle of the road, exactly as a default recommendation should be. They are also very protective of the user experience. They are unlikely to embarrass me.

Mint has a familiar UX if you are new to Linux. It is not nearly as foreign or locked down as GNOME. It is not as configurable and complex as KDE. There are good GUI tools for most common tasks.

Mint does not change too rapidly or have too many updates but the desktop and tools are kept up-to-date.

They are being very conservative with the Wayland transition. But nobody on Mint is moaning that Wayland is not ready. They are very protective about the user experience.

And there is really no desktop use case that Mint is not suitable for.

I do not use Mint but it is a very solid recommendation for “normal” users.

I think Pop!OS is back to being that too and COSMIC is Wayland only (so no future transition to manage).

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[–] winkerjadams@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

Is there something wrong with mint?

[–] Interstellar_1@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Personally the ui looks a bit outdated and there's less customization than most other distros

[–] NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The installer if pretty nice as is the post install I will give it that. Maybe that is the most important part.

I guess I just am surprised by how many people choose it as their "windows replacement" when it is very non windows like.

Also: it is ubuntu tainted, that is never good. Then cinnamin, mate, or lxde which are kind of a pain in the ass unless you are willing to put up with it because you like it.

Lack of any real searching in the ui, a terrible file manager, an older kernel, and so on.

[–] erebion@news.erebion.eu 6 points 3 weeks ago (9 children)

I migrated my mother to GNOME (on Debian), that's very much unlike Windows, but she immediately got it. The overview of open programs is similar to what she knows on Android, for example. She is someone that struggles with email attachments from time to time, but GNOME works well for her.

It does not have to look like Windows to work for people. People use phones a lot more these days and those do not run Windows (hopefully, at least, cause that's dead).

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[–] Jumuta@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

have you actually tried it? trying mint after using arch for a year (btw), it's actually really well made and the consistency is crazy good. The UI looks and feels better in person than in screenshots

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[–] Camille_Jamal@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

A lot of beginners (like me) use mint because it is very simple out of the box and user friendly. It just works (unless, like me, you try using commands from arch on mint, and you break it)

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[–] st3ph3n@midwest.social 17 points 3 weeks ago (11 children)

I've become quite the fan of Fedora with KDE. Running Fedora 43 on both my couch Thinkpad and my gaming desktop. Only issue I'm having with it is sleep functionality on the desktop, which just sucks (it likes to not wake up from sleep) so I have that set to not go to sleep, just turn the screen off when idle.

[–] azvasKvklenko@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

Yeah, I’m normally an Arch guy, but gave Fedora with KDE a shot when I bought Framework. It's pretty sweet, does everything I want and never bothers me

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[–] erebion@news.erebion.eu 15 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

Try out Debian. Stable, base of many other distros, loads of documentation, huge helpful community, just runs and barely ever breaks (I can't even remember the last time I had issues).

[–] Jumuta@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 weeks ago

debian's netinstaller is great

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[–] The_v@lemmy.world 14 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Umm... With 2 free computers and nothing on them.

Run down the list and install all the different distros. Test them out for a few weeks then onto the next. Pretty soon you'll one that you prefer.

[–] Cyber@feddit.uk 4 points 3 weeks ago

This is the way.

The only way to find the right distro is to try them out, on the end device, with the end user.

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[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 9 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

"Intel UHD Graphics aren't really recommended"

Because Bazzite is gaming oriented and Intel UHD is barely good enough to render a display?

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 7 points 3 weeks ago

I have a Dell with UHD+Nvidia, took me a while to get Prime working to switch video cards. Even on UHD, it could do basic Steam games and Minecraft if you didn't have high expectations.

[–] JamesBoeing737MAX@sopuli.xyz 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Well, it works for MC, older games, even stray runs somewhat (from my experience). It's decent for a 300€ laptop with a quad core like the ones in the post.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 6 points 3 weeks ago

Ah, the newer UHD?

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[–] varjen@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You should try Fedora. It's the one used by Linus.

[–] python@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

[–] Cort@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago

1000004010

[–] EpicFailGuy@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

dont forget your programming socks

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[–] pr06lefs@lemmy.ml 6 points 3 weeks ago

Snagged a thinkpad today for just over 100$. Guy mentioned it was because of windows 11. Its hippie christmas for linux!

[–] Digit@lemmy.wtf 6 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

so I might try something else first. Any recommendations?

https://distrowatch.com/

try 'em all.

Edit: PS: distrowatch's search is handy: e.g. https://distrowatch.com/search.php?defaultinit=Not+systemd [Edit: PS: maybe try {in approximate increasing ambitiousness] antix, devuan (or other respins of devuan, like expiron, peppermint, vendefoul, shebang, gnuinos), pclinuxos, salix, slackel, slackware, calculatelinux, artix, obarun, voidlinux, decibellinux, gentoo, crux (or kwort), sidelinux(?), milis(?),bedrock, guixSD, LFS. Or whatever... :) Have fun exploring.

[–] silt_haddock@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago

I just got a new laptop for my work (which I also use for personal stuff, it’s a family business).

It came with Windows 11 but I’d got a bigger SSD which I’d installed before I’d even turned it on so Windows never even got a chance to boot.

I installed one of the Fedora atomic distros and it seems to be pretty good, though I’m trying to figure out how to tune battery life. I’ve setup TLP but haven’t noticed any improvement, though, it’s still much better than when I first tried Linux on a laptop.

I’d never used Fedora before, but the first distro I ever used was Ubuntu Dapper Drake and I’ve dipped my toes occasionally since then, but never fully committed until now

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

GL! Hope you have a great time.

Check out https://www.wesnoth.org/ and https://supertuxkart.net/Main_Page :D

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[–] 721_bipsty@lemmy.ml 6 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

If you wanna have fun, i woild recommend bedrock linux, haven't tried it, but it sounds cool and interesting. Also nixos might be fun to try in my opinion.

[–] radswid@feddit.org 8 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Nix might be a bit overwhelming when his first installation of linux was only a few months ago, I guess :D

[–] 721_bipsty@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 weeks ago

It might be overwhelming but still fun to explore new things, right?

[–] python@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago (8 children)

Ooh, Nix looks interesting, I'd be down for the challenge!

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[–] jaypatelani@lemmy.ml 6 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

OpenSUSE is very less recommended but I would suggest it

https://media.ccc.de/v/5012-the-first-encrypted-steam-deck-runs-opensuse#t=0

Also check out their AEON it is still in RC but worth looking out for. Meanwhile Fedora immutable can be used with Intel.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 4 points 3 weeks ago

Suse has such a corporate feel to her.

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[–] fum@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

I'd say try fedora. Then give Debian a spin as it will expose you to more technical details.

[–] UNY0N@lemmy.wtf 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I ran bazzite on a Lenovo flexpad with Intel und 630 graphics and it ran perfectly. I even ran mechwarrior 5 on it, albeit with the graphics details turned down so low that it looked like a mechwarrior game from the 1990s.

I'd give bazzite a go. Learning about how to install and use distroboxes is also lots of Linux fun.

Edit: also, you literally cannot break any of the immutable fedora distros. Very newbie friendly.

[–] Bluegrass_Addict@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

warning for bazzite: It's very restrictive and doesn't let you actually manipulate it like most distros. if you're even remotely tech savvy and want to explore/play around in Linux, do NOT install bazzite.

if you don't care, and want their team to 'protect you' from doing pc damage, the. use bazzite.

(backstory; I went to modify my fstab, it allowed me to with no issues. I broke the file.. fine, went to edit it to revert back.. root access was revoked and I was told to f myself by bazzite. I had to enter grub? (can't fully remember) to modify it back which worked but was a pain in the ass I should have had to do. promptly uninstalled and never looked back.)

[–] mereo@piefed.ca 4 points 3 weeks ago

if you don't care, and want their team to 'protect you' from doing pc damage, the. use bazzite.

I would say that most people fall into this category. They just want to install the operating system and start working or gaming.

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[–] lemmyreader@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Did you try CachyOS ? https://cachyos.org/ I'm impressed by how snappy it is on older computers.

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[–] Twakyr@feddit.org 4 points 3 weeks ago

You can, if you have far to much time in your hands, install arch, gentoo, vor any other distro with a non graphical installer. I believe its a great experience, especially because you learn a bit more about the internels, and a few cool bash commands.

[–] boredsquirrel@slrpnk.net 4 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Computertruhe could be happy about well working laptops! Dont hoard ;) you can try distros with external SSDs

[–] python@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

That's actually an awesome project and I'm coincidentally moving close to one of their locations soon :o

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[–] SlicedPotato@feddit.dk 3 points 3 weeks ago

Bazzite is the more gaming oriented flavour of Universal Blue's distros, but take a look at Bluefin if you wanna try something similar (but not focused on gaming, although gaming also works fine on it). I've used it for about a year or so myself, and I love it. It's immutable so it "just works", but I can still play around and tinker with distroboxes or VMs.

[–] INeedMana@piefed.zip 3 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Maybe not exactly what you are asking for but try out yunohost. Since you have some spares, one can be self-hosting stuff

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