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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).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Looking for a Desktop Environment recommendation for my Mother's new 2-1 laptop. (lemmy.zip)

submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by Blisterexe@lemmy.zip to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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My mother has never daily driven a laptop more recent than a nearly decade old macbook running macOS Sierra. (except, briefly, a quite nice work-provided windows laptop that she hated using.)

She is, however, about to buy a 2025 Lenovo Yoga 7 14", and wants to use linux on it.

As the designated "techy person" in my family, I have been tasked with choosing which distro to put on it. I chose fedora it supports modern hardware nicely, and it's what I use, which would make tech support easier.

What I'm not sure about is what desktop environment she should use. I'm currently split between GNOME and KDE, since they're the two that are the most polished and work the best on the kind of hardware she'll be using.

She seems to prefer a more traditional desktop paradigm (dislikes overly flattened ui's and autohiding ui elements like scrollbars), but given she's not very techy and currently uses an iphone and ipad quite a bit, so gnome might feel more friendly with how simple it is, and be a bit more touch-friendly.

I asked her and she's not sure either, so I'm asking here which one is might be better given the hardware and the preferences she's expressed.

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[–] paequ2@lemmy.today 3 points 4 days ago

If it were me, I'd set up my mom with GNOME because I feel like KDE might provide too many footguns or may look/feel overwhelming due to the many available customization options.

IDK though. I've used GNOME for years and have only briefly used KDE for experimentation. I'm guessing there's some way to customize KDE to make it more simple? I imagine GNOME would be nice on a tablet because it tends to have nice big button targets, but I haven't tried it.