What should be the easiest flavor of Linux to transition away from win7?

Question

Ever since MS has been hyper-aggressive about forcing win10 down your throat and not caring about their users, I would like to convert. I'm looking for Steam support, hw acceleration (amd drivers), software-based audio enhancements (bass boost, loudness eq, etc -- audio is really important to me and I'm afraid this will require a bunch of "tinkering" and I don't really consider myself to be a "tinkerer"), a basic firewall that disables out-bound traffic to specific applications, and minimal use of console typing to do really simple things like mounting/un-mounting volumes, which probably translates into a more powerful right click "always admin" context menu like in windows -- or even double-clicking.

I've heard Mint or Ubuntu are first choices. I've tried Ubuntu several years ago and just got bored of it. Kubuntu might be on my list though. I really hope there's a good tweetdeck-like application out there, I like having instantaneous updates on who I follow. I was intrigued about reading some other completely different architecture flavors like FreeBSD, but I'm assuming that's way above my head and not feature-rich.

Answer 1

In the linux world, the first decision is whether you want to go with RPM or DEB based. I think the Debian fork is more easy move from WIndows. Of the Debian branch, choosing the right distro (Ubuntu vs. Mint vs. Kubuntu ... etc.) usually had a lot to do with your hardward specs (as some distro's were specifically setup to be lightweight for older hardward, some without a windowing environment just a terminal interface, etc.), but now all the major distros are using a windowing environment that is close to Windows by default, and you can even choose different deskop services to change the way the windowing stuff behaves.



Ubuntu is probably the biggest show on the block for Windows converts - it's how I got started from Win 7 also. However I would probably recommend Linux Mint now after having messed around with a few different distros. But look at Black Cyrus's list and do a little reading up on each if you want to by picky about the "perfect fit".

Answer 2

I'm not a huge fan of Ubuntu but this is clearly the simplest solution to have something which works out-of-the-box including proprietary drivers and so on.

Also, the Linux version of Steam is actually an Ubuntu version. It works on my Debian, but I probably had to force a bit to get it installed (I don't remember any specific detail).

Steam also runs perfectly under Wine (I use PlayOnLinux), and about half of my game can run on Linux either natively or through Wine (with no noticeable loss of performance, only a few bugs). By a happy coincidence (which is probably more than a coincidence), the games I like most are usually available for Linux. Games I own that I can not run under Linux are mostly old games.

FreeBSD (or Hurd or whatever) is clearly not what you want. That's more of a toy for geeks rather than a genuinely useful OS.

Answer 3

Linux Mint https://linuxmint.com/ (Cinnamon Edition).



Steam has 1900 + game which have full Linux Support. They [Valve] are currently working on the new Vulkan api which will help with the Gaming support on Linux as Vulkan out performs both OpenGL and DirectX (actually it would be more accurate to say that Vulkan is the successor to OpenGL)

Answer 4

Ubuntu is a pretty natural transition from the Windows environment. So is Linux Mint.

Answer 5

You realize that Steam works under linux, but not the games in steam? There is a collection of games that work under linux, but not many.



Update: Awesome, glad the ones you play work! (L4D2 is one of my favorites!)

Answer 6

It depends.....what kind of user are you?a gamer?office guy?

My advice is to try these one their(low size)lives then go to the original one....

Office using:

Ubuntu fedora mint debian....

Gaming:

Steam os again ubuntu arch(its a little hard to use.manjaro is good to start)....

Daily usage:

(The swiss army knife:))ubuntu mint opensuse....

Programming:

Dear ubu one....again arch debian gentoo

Hacking(lol):

Kali black arch(the hackers tool box)

And something else th e last two kinds are less likely cause if you were a professional you wouldnt ask this kind of...how to say....N00Bical question(just kidding:)=)

Answer 7

I am happy with Ubuntu GNOME Edition myself, not the Canonical GUI spin, I dislike that, but GNOME 3 GUI is different proposition entirely.

Answer 8

Try all of them and see what you like best.

Install to a thumb drive.



Use the one that you like best. You can add features from one flavor to another fairly easily.

Answer 9

Kubuntu is Ubuntu. Its just using a different desktop, KDE packages. All the *buntu are Ubuntu. You can just install ubuntu and install and choose a different desktop to transfer to Kubuntu. They are all based on ubuntu which itself is based on debain.

Answer 10

you could look here for ideas