Linux still not ready for the unskilled user

[AlexC1981]

I've been playing with various distros this morning for a first generation i3 laptop that is unsupported by Windows 11 and it's all a bit disappointing really.

Xubuntu - Couldn't get the blue light filter/night light to work and generally didn't feel very snappy to respond.

Debian - Wifi doesn't work after installation, but it did during installation.

Manjaro - Videos jerky and sound is out of sync both in youtube and in VLC media player. Firewall broken, but I managed to fix this by typing something into the command line that I found through google. Been broken since 2021 apparently due to a typo.

I'm using the Plasma (KDE) interface and Manjaro has been my favourite one so far. Most options are straightforward and easy to find and customise. It's laid out a lot like Windows but feels more logical. I tried installing the "video-modesetting" drivers instead of "video-linux", but it didn't help the video issue.

I think I'll try Ubuntu next. I was avoiding it as it seems quite heavy on the minimum specification compared to the others.

Years ago I used Mint and Lubuntu on a very old Pentium M laptop, but they both failed to update to a newer kernel when the old one became unsupported.

Does anyone have any recommendations? The laptop is a Thinkpad Edge 11. i3-380UM, 8GB RAM, SSD. The processor is very underpowered these days, but it ran OK on Windows 10 and all I want to use it for is surfing the web, youtube and connecting to the TV via HDMI to watch downloaded HD films, iplayer, netflix etc.

[sunbeam alpine]

Mint has been my favourite for a while now. Will take a look at Manjaro - never heard of it before.

[FunkyGibbon]

I just use standard Ubuntu distro - no issues.

[WTRacer]

I'm no tech expert but made the switch to Linux about 18 months ago, did a fair bit of research and narrowed down to 3 different possibilities. Chose Zorin, installed with no fuss and have had no issues at all thus far. I might have been lucky but for me it just works. No regrets and no intention of going back to windows.

[camel_landy]

Debian & Wifi... You need to enable the 'non free' packages in the apt sources list (IIRC - This is down to the licensing requirements from the hardware vendors).

FWIW - Debian & Gnome has been working well for some of the stuff I've been doing recently.

M

[Monsterlime]

I would avoid Manjaro for a new/inexperienced user. It purports to be a simpler Arch, but actually does quite a few things differently and has caused serious for other Arch users due to how pamac has been coded.

If you want a 'Arch' like experience, but an easy install, use EndeavourOS. Much closer to stock Arch than Manjaro, with sane defaults and a few quality of life improvements.

Fedora is a good shout as well for a more 'stable' bleeding edge distro.

[Drive Blind]

For providing something for older relatives to use for internet shopping and email I've always used Mint.

Never had to look for anything else.

[dundarach]

Mint is great and providing you don't do anything stupid, it's very stable.

However, if you do fiddle you can easily ruin it.

[AlexC1981]

I should definitely give Mint another try and probably Debian, though with the wifi issue I was of a mind that there are so many distros to try that I should be able to find one that works perfectly out of the box.

I've got Solus Budgie on at the moment. It's solved the video and audio issues I had with Manjaro. Videos are perfect now. Downside is that applications are slow to open and I can't ungroup the taskbar buttons. The more I try, the fussier I get, trying to find one that works perfectly. Solus Budgie will be my fallback option.

I'll try Solus MATE as they recommend it for low-end machines.

[DuckAvenger]

Wow..You really don't know what Linux was about.. 20+ years ago. Then it was trouble if you didn't know what you were doing.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

Pop!os has been great for me
Has a build with Nvidia drivers to make things easy haven't had any issues with it yet

[dcb]

Monsterlime said:

Fedora is a good shout as well for a more 'stable' bleeding edge distro.

+1 I've been happy with it for decades, but I am an experienced user.
When it - somewhat infrequently - breaks, I roll my sleeves up and post a fix.

If you want the Bavarian version, try OpenSuse.
Sameish thing, filtered through a Bavarian mind.

[e-honda]

Installing an OS on non certified hardware from scratch isn't really a task for an unskilled user, especially when it turns out not to fully work out of the box, I am not sure windows is that much easier / better, it is just more hardware is certified for windows.

Chromebooks are perfect for unskilled users and are linux.

[the-norseman]

I've been using Linux since about 2002.

Started with Mandrake/Knoppix then moved to Red Hat and then Suse which then became Open Suse and Fedora Core. I then switched to Mint and then eventually Ubuntu.

I stayed with Ubuntu for a fair few years just because it was easy, I even got a pre-installed Dell XPS Ubuntu edition which I moved from LTS versions to regular. At the same time I removed ChromeOS from my LG Chromebase and installed ElementaryOS, I liked it so removed Ubuntu from my XPS and installed ElementaryOS as well on that.

I then got bored of having to do fresh installs every time a different version was out (downside of ElementaryOS) and decided to move to Manjaro (Gnome).

I now have a Dell XPS and LG Chromebase running Manjaro, not experienced any of the issues the OP has with Manjaro.

[Monsterlime]

While this is a bit of an odd read, it is actually reasonably accurate re the issues with Manjaro - https://manjarno.snorlax.sh/

I used to run it, encountered some odd issues, did some more reading, moved to Arch and Endeavor. I have Arch on a couple of machines, but Endeavor is fantastic for a quick install (and even have it working with secure boot and FDE).

Mint is probably the best go to for a non-techie alternative to Windows.

[GR11MCR]

I dabbled with Mandrake 8 and Fedora core 4 back in 2002-2004 and then Ubuntu 7.10 in 2007 but neither times were productive or enjoyable. I then went full daily with Ubuntu 18.04 beginning of 2019, if there's one thing you can guarantee with a Linux desktop and that's a learning experience. I'm now currently looking at moving to Fedora.

There's a couple of good entry distros but you need to decide what you want to use your Linux desktop for and what do you want to get out of using Linux.

[768]

Just get some skills.

[Mr Pointy]

768 said:

Just get some skills.

Or just stop pissing around, spend a few quid on a refurbed laptop, install Windows & actually get on with using it.

[LunarOne]

I'm a Unix/Linux consultant but I don't run Linux on my personal machines except as Virtual Machines. For work I use mainly Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS or Rocky Linux (all three are basically clones of each other) but then I'm usually running them without a GUI. For home use I have an ancient Mac Pro from 2008, and for work a 9-month-old Thinkpad X1 Carbon (need to be able to run Linux VMs so a Apple Silicon Mac is useless) running Windows 10.

Genuine Question - Why do you need to run Windows 11? It has so many missing features compared to Windows 10 that I wouldn't dream of installing it. If your laptop works with Windows 10, why not carry on doing that?

[GR11MCR]

I'm running an old Asus Transformer, which is like a tablet but has a detachable keyboard and a full version of Windows on. I had the genius idea of installing something new on it but it didn't support Windows 11 nor did it like Ubuntu or Debian, so I reverted it back to Windows 10 and now use it for monitoring and FORscan. Unless you plan on fighting through all the errors and driver problems (you do learn more by breaking stuff) I suggest you reinstall Windows 10, run VirtualBox and then install as many distros as you like.