HOW do I choose a distro?

Here’s the DE side of the discussion…

You mentioned Cinnamon as the DE for my iBook, but I recall it had KDE on it, and it was somewhere between version 10 and 12, I think. I lost the power adapter so I can’t even bring th thing up now to verify this. It was incredibly slow, and I think there was some sort of memory leak or resource hog because the longer the computer sat there running, the slower it got. When I drag a window and I have to watch it redraw the outline every few centimeters, I gave up on it. It sounds like you’re saying if I install the XFCE version of Mint the thing will speed up, but you based that on your impression that I had Cinnamon on there, not KDE. Does your opinion change now that you know differently?

But leaving that aside, I see all these different flavors of GNOME and KDE, basically, and every distro has their own versions of these flavors, and one can be made to look like another, so again there’s my question : “HOW do I decide?”
What is the big difference between GNOME and KDE? Are there “holy wars” between different DE crowds like the distros? I recall when I was trying to learn about Linux back in 1999-2001, I got involved in an online chat room for Linux enthusiasts. Coming from the Mac I wanted a GUI, so I asked about window managers, and a couple of people in the room started telling me "well there’s KDE, or you could try GNOME. If you’re more… alternative… you could try Enlightenment, if you’re into that kind of thing ". I’m paraphrasing but that was the main point of their “advice”. Over 20 years later I still have no idea what they were talking about.

Linux Mint has always been on the GTK environment development. They never touched the QT that is the base for KDE. So, it must have been a version of Gnome 2 or MATE (fork of Gnome 2) DE. Cinnamon is an evolution of their Gnome 2 fork attempt.

In short, if I may say so, you are overthinking it. There is only one person on this planet who can decide which distro and desktop environment is good for you: you. Nobody else. Unless you experiment with a few of them, everything else is just - please forgive the term - useless theory.

Eventually, no, not all distros have gigantic repositories. Since you mentioned that you are new, I recommended the most commonly welcoming distributions. For more details, you can visit:

As a note, KDE apps run on GTK (Gnome) environments and vice versa. And from the uses you mentioned you need Linux for, virtually every distro has the capacity to accommodate these tasks. Unless you are looking for specialized applications.

My best advice is to grab a few USB Sticks (they’re quite cheap nowadays) of 8 or 16GB and flash a few of them with different distros. Do a few test drives and keep your files in an external SSD/HDD. Linux doesn’t cost anything other than the time you invest to see what works for you. That’s the long and short story about it. :slight_smile:

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I finally remembered which Mint I used - it was Jeroen’s MintPPC. Perhaps thats why it had KDE?

I’m headed out to the local BuyMore in a few minutes to pick up some USB drives so I can give these distros a try. I figure about half a dozen oughta do for now. I’m also going to grab a 2TB external, move my TimeMachine backup to that, and then repurpose my current 1TB backup drive as a data drive for Linux.

BTW, I plugged in my 2009 MacBook and it booted right up - as long as it was attached to the wall. The battery has gone bad, the center of it is swelled a bit. I have to get another one from OWC to make this usable. I also found my old MacBook Pro Core Duo machine from about 2005, but I don’t think that thing is worth trying Linux on. Not as bad as my old G3 tower, but still pretty dusty.

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Was that a shout out to the the old TV series “Chuck”

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Hello,
If I change from windows 10 to Lubuntu instead of Ubuntu, am I limiting my self on a solid state computer?
Ubuntu has firefox and I only want brave.
And if I start out with a light distro can it be added too, built up over time with things that are in the computer already, like activating the graphics card to a higher standard than the light version.

Hello @CC and welcome to the forums!
It really doesn’t matter. Lubuntu is indeed very light to begin with, but it doesn’t mean it won’t recognize the hardware you have. You can also install expansion apps, like Plank (that looks like the macOS dock) and have it running on your system as well.

Additionally, you can install an additional desktop environment and switch back and forth, depending on your mood. There are but a few limitations on that, which are only confined to the fact that there might be some settings conflicts (it depends on the desktop you’ll want to install).

As for Brave, it always comes as an external browser (additional), which is easy to install. I actually conformed all the necessary commands in a simple script. You’ll find the instructions below: :slight_smile:

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You got it! The greatest tv show of the past 20 years, IMO. I use the term BuyMore to represent any big box tech store, especially BB (not that there’s really much else left). Occasionally you will find people working there who are serious about technology and get into things like Linux.

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Hello @vasileios,
Thank you for the warm welcome and answering.
Will happily install your Brave Browser dl, nice work.
Aggh In class just then, we looked at another distro.
Which one to choose? Got Ubuntu on a flash ready to go…
I want to take the plunge but being cautious is delaying the inevitable. lol
This week I’ve got to do it, because yesterday windows slowed my mouse to half speed, among other things and freaked/creeped me out.
Going to watch the class videos one more time and just jump in the water, choose a distro and leave windows in my wake.
:grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: :mermaid:

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Hello here @CC!
I took several deep dives with distros before I decided. The reason I showed Zorin Pro 16 yesterday was because it comes nicely packed with everything you’ll need. That was one reason. The second was to support the people who put in the effort building it in the first place.

Initially, I just wanted to check it out. In the end, I found myself installing it on three systems. The good thing about it is that it’s Ubuntu-based, so everything that applies for Ubuntu, also works in Zorin.

As for WindowZzz, out of curiosity I upgraded my now empty Windows 10 Pro to Windows 11 Pro. I think I may have spent a couple of days with it and then I switched back to Linux. That’s when I picked up Zorin Pro. :slight_smile:

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Would you recommend distrotest.net?

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Yeah, that works. It is an easier way of testing a distro out before really diving in.

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Hey @CC!
I am so happy for you! :smiley: You’re almost there! I’ve played around with distros myself for years, but I seem to be sticking with Zorin now. Perhaps have a second system to just play around with distros to get creative ideas (or keep my brain under constant challenges)!

Yes, I pop a little on Telegram here and there. I rarely have time to do so this past month or so. I noticed that the chat there is for more quick solutions, while I tend to go deep into investigative mode to try and research or reproduce the issues people are encountering. I’ve actually installed distros just to take screenshots! It’s hard to do the on a chat channel. Today I left two-three responses on Telegram to help with some of the problems, but I have yet to hear back. Oh, wait, I just got one response back!

Anyhow, I do enjoy the forums a lot more, as we get to build a database with good references. Also, I believe it’s much better structured, where people can ask and find what they need much easier and at a comfortable pace. :slight_smile:

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LOL @vasileios , you seem to be making up some lost time on telegram this morning.
One thing, could I still use the purchased security until I work out how to do the VPS keys?
Would love to drop windowzzzzz, now…
Need that VPN. Wont do it without it. :grimacing:

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Hey @vasileios,
Getting very excited about this new chapter free from the viruses and general trouble of windowzzz…
The more I look at Linux and everything it offers, the more baffled I am that it’s not used by the majority of domestic users.
Makes sense why all the operating systems are based on it and why the baddies keep that information to themselves.
You, Will and Jeff are deeply decent men, thanks for sharing your knowledge.
CC
:grinning:

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Hey @CC!
Yes, LMS, HelpDesk and the Forums were cleared, so I dropped by Telegram to check things out. It turned out to be productive, since we were able to finally deal with the Mac’s toughest WiFi module successfully. This was the last tough one - per my knowledge - to handle on Linux. Especially on a system that couldn’t connect to the internet via Ethernet, due to a faulty port.

Which security software are you using? You may have informed me of it in the past (Kaspersky?).

Thank you so much for your kind words, @CC!
The reason Linux hasn’t spread out much is because of the fact that it doesn’t have an advertising budget. Therefore, awareness is not at the levels it should be.

I suspect, especially now that its reputation is rising, there will be hit-pieces paid for by Big Tech. One was brought to my attention today, regarding DNS. I read through it and it’s so full of holes that it made me cringe! :laughing:

What I know about Linux can fit on the head of a pin, but I got all ready with my flash drive to format one of my two desktops that sit side by side, but then I ran into this video about virtualbox and ended up installing it on my windows computer, and installing the Kali Linux ISO (no usb flashdrive required) on virtual box, and got to test out Kali Linux (or whatever ISO you want) without formatting windows. Virtualbox is a computer inside your computer that you can use to install linux without blowing up your windows. Worked for me because I got to install KALI then test to see if gab, telegram, darwinex, etc would run on it. Keep in mind, this was my first experience with any linux computer, ever. Everything worked great. I even installed Brave browser in the terminal. Only spotify wouldn’t fly on Kali. Apparently it doesn’t like it. But take a look at this video. you need to learn Virtual Machines RIGHT NOW!! (Kali Linux VM, Ubuntu, Windows) - YouTube You might end up trying this too. Pretty fun. With low if no risk, really. You can partition a portion of your HD as a virtual machine to have two or more different distros on your computer depending on how much ram you have to work with. And you can delete your virtual machines at will with no damage to your windows/mac set up; you can clone distros once you make them, snapshot them before you do something crazy, then reinstate your saved distro like a video game if something goes wrong… I’m on to Ubuntu next. After I try out and install a bunch of them and know what I’m doing, one of these desktops is going full Linux, probably. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX75Z-4MEoM&t=3s

Rob Braxman just did a Virtual Box and Linux video as well called “Is Linux Ready for Primetime? Desktop Distro Shootout!”. He them goes on to give his opinion on the most resource efficient and easiest to use for Windows users.

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I installed Mint on Virtual Box to test it out and ended up installing it on my desktop. I thought it was a great way to familiarize myself with it.

I’ve been doing it the Wipe & Install way. I actually just installed my 4th distro, Manjaro Arch KDE Plasma. Guess I’m enjoying myself rebuilding my desktop each and every time.

Ubuntu LTS
Zorin 16 Core
Mint Cinnamon
Manjaro Arch KDE Plasma

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