How to choose your first Linux distribution - Switching to Linux part 2
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When you’re moving to Linux, your first experience matters a lot. If you feel limited, if you don’t understand what you’re doing, or if you have to spend hours researching what to do to make stuff work, you’re going to have a bad experience, and that’s why choosing your distro is a every important step.
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Your use case will define what you need to install. What you need to remember is:
- All distros can virtually run the exact same software nowadays, so choosing one doesn’t close any doors
- All desktop user focused distros can play games.
With that out of the way, we can boil down your choice to 2 factors:
- What desktop environment do you want to use
- Do you prefer to use something stable, or do you want the latest software available
Desktop environments: GNOME is the one that ships by default on most distributions, including the biggest one, Ubuntu. GNOME is very simple, sleek and minimalistic. It’s really easy to handle once you’ve spent 5 minutes with it. It can be customized using extensions, but these aren’t always super stable. GNOME is the default for Ubuntu, Fedora, and a GNOME variant is also shipped by almost all distributions.
KDE or Plasma is the second big one. it offers customization options for almost everything. From the position of the panel, the widgets you want to add to it, the whole layout of the desktop, the behaviour of the windows, the position of the window controls, everything can be adjusted to your liking. KDE is the default on KDE Neon, its flagship distribution, and KDE variants are available for most major distros.
Now you get many smaller desktop environments. Cinnamon is the pendant of KDE, but using GNOME-like technologies and applications. Its default layout is also very close to wht you’d get on Windows, but it can be changed to your liking easily.
XFCE is a lightweight desktop environment, which might not look as good by default as the big ones, but is still very easy to customize, and runs on lower end machines without a hitch.
Mac users might prefer Pantheon, which ships on elementary OS, and uses a layout reminiscent of OSX, with a similar dock and top bar, minus the global menu.
You can also use MATE, which is using the same technologies as GNOME, but with a more traditional desktop behavior, or Budgie, which is a derivative of GNOME as well, with its own notification center and more customization options.
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