this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2025
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I just found out my fiancee wants to switch to linux, lets start a distro war, what should be her first? + other questions (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 day ago by StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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So i was surprised today when my fiancee told me she was thinking about switching over to linux. Surprised because she is absolutely not technically minded, but also because she was weary about having Microsoft AI slop forced on her PC every update. ( i'm so proud!)

Now i've used a little linux but i've always been a holdout. Won't stop me from moving someone else over but i have too much going on in my setup to deal with that right now. So i'm not super versed but i was able to give her the basic rundown of what distros are, concerns when switching, what may and may not be available, shes still on board so we're doing this! Knowing her she would like to not have to transition too much, whats something fairly hands off and easy to learn. I've heard some good things about mint from hanging around you nerds the past few years but also some not so good things, any suggestions?

next concern is what kind of transfer process is this going to be? i have some spare HDD's so we can try and get everything ported over but i'm so busy with school right now i can't quite allocate the time to really deep dive this.

Any help is appreciated, cheers!

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[–] dajoho@sh.itjust.works 14 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (4 children)

Mint for Windows refugees

Fedora for Mac Refugees

My choice: Bazzite GNOME for Gamers, Children and Grandmas. It's pretty, is damn indestructible and has a speedy app store with loads of cool free apps.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (1 children)

Bazzite is awesome, but I'd go with KDE over GNOME

[–] fleet@lemmy.ca 1 points 13 hours ago

KDE if you're used to Windows, Gnome if you're used to MacOS.

[–] StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works 5 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

Bazzite keeps sounding better for her needs tbh

[–] marcie@lemmy.ml 3 points 16 hours ago

It's truly a fantastic distro. Fedora atomic is very much an attempt at making Linux as easy and secure as Android. I recommend it for beginners and experts alike, truly awesome tech going on.

[–] besmtt@lemmy.world 1 points 17 hours ago

I've dabbled with a few different distros in VMs and laptops that I don't use a whole lot over the years. I recently moved my main desktop to Bazzite and I love it. The built-in 'ujust' scripts, or whatever you call them, are fantastic. Setting up an 8bitdo pro 2 was a breeze. Getting new apps installed, even with distrobox, is really easy. I'm sold on ublue, probably going to move my work laptop to Aurora soon.

[–] obsoleteacct@lemmy.zip 6 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I'd say Mint or Fedora KDE for windows converts. They're both good "just works" options, but KDE just by virtue of being more popular has excellent software and support that make it a great option.

Fedora w/ Gnome for Mac converts is a no brainer, and I'd add that you're probably going to want the Dash2Dock Lite or Dash2Dock Animated extension for a Mac convert.

[–] thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

Fedora w/ Gnome for Mac converts is a no brainer

I use Mac (I'll install Asahi Linux once it supports connecting a monitor) and hate GNOME

I personally prefer KDE

[–] obsoleteacct@lemmy.zip 3 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Fair. I think most people start with the assumption that users are coming from a workflow they preferred in the first place.

Out of curiosity, if you hate Aqua, why did you get a Mac? Is it an industry thing or a specific software?

[–] thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 15 hours ago

My first pc was an ubuntu pc that i had for quite a while. As a teen I recieved this Macbook from my dad. My family is all Mac users rn. My dad is an IT guy and prefers FreeBSD over Linux for technical stuff such as servers, and Mac over Linux for personal computers. Now that I recently became a libre software fan, I used a Linux VM and found that KDE blows Aqua out of the water.

[–] happyfullfridge@lemmy.ml 3 points 20 hours ago

I'm not a child, gamer nor grandma but last time i tried mint a few years ago i literally cried, so it might be something for me