G’day Brains trust. I am new to this group and would like your advice on which version of Linux is best suited to the 2021 Dell XPS 13.4 QHD+ T/S Core I7 - 1185G7 16GB ram 512 GB SSD. I want to separate from all things Microsoft and Google. Also what is a good replacement for Gmail? I am in Australia.
A few days later and no one replied to this, so I guess I’ll jump in.
I’m relatively new to Linux. Although I started messing around with it over 25 years ago I just never got any traction with it. A few years back I did get Linux MintPPC installed on an old iBook, and Elementary running on a 2012 iMac. Nice, but for my work I needed MacOS Pages, along with the Apple ecosystem. But I kept experimenting. I currently have a Raspberry Pi 5 that started with a couple of incarnations of Raspbian Bookworm that eventually were moved to KDE Plasma, then I rebuilt the entire system on Raspbian Trixie and I’ve left it on the native desktop, which I think is called Pixel. (I have no idea. I can’t keep up with this stuff in my head, too many other technical things going on in my life.) Eventually I’ll get KDE Plasma installed again, I just don’t have time right now.
I say all this to set a foundation - install anything you want on your laptop, because chances are it’ll work. If I can get a 64 bit Debian-based OS running on this little kiddie computer, and it works well (aside from the 5.1 sound going to all the wrong speakers, with no apparent fix for it), then your actual real life computer can do the job too.
As to which distro you should choose? The only answer you’ll get out of anyone here or on any other forum is “try a few out and see what’s best for you”. That irritated me to no end when I got started, but it’s very true.
Technically, there’s really no difference between ANY of the distros. They’re all the same Linux, and they all contain services on top of a kernel, and nearly all of them have a desktop environment. The real differences are in how they manage software installation (various package managers vs the command line), and how they look and feel. So thats where the whole “try everything and find out whats best for you” thing comes from.
If you go to the ZDnet Linux page there’s a few tech writers there - chief of whom is Jack Wallen - that have an immense amount of experience with Linux and they continually experiment with hardware and various Linux builds. It seems like every few days they come up with some article about a new build or a “completely new” OS, and how it promises to change everything. But it’s all really the same stuff with a new skin. Anyone who doubts it should look at these articles and tell me if the whole discussion doesn’t boil down to a few pics of the desktop and software manager, with captions like “look how beautiful this is”.
You can take any Linux, that comes with any desktop, and change it to any other desktop. You can get a command-line-only Linux like Slackware or Arch, and put a desktop on it. You can install any desktop environment and make it look like any other DE. You can install Elementary or Zorin - well known for having elegant and beautiful desktops - and have them boot into CLI mode, where you delete the desktop and move on with your life. So what is the difference?
It really all boils down to : what services do you want, and how easy do you want keeping track of updates and installs to be. Everything else is eye candy. For someone like me, who grew up on a command line back in the 80s and has nothing to prove, I just grab something on Debian and put a DE on top of it. (Then I turn the machine off and go work on one of my Macs - for my writing, or one of my crap Windows laptops - because of a few vertical apps that I absolutely can’t run on my Macs or Linux at the moment. And then I forget what I was doing with Linux and I have to start over 
So, the short answer…
Pick something out of Jack Wallen’s articles or just look at the top 10 on distrowatch and have at it. Break a few things, get frustrated, start over. Above all, have fun!
Oh, I forgot to say : Welcome to the Linux forums!
Linux Mint is probably the best for newbies.
Proton Mail would be my choice for Email.
I use MInt, as it just gets out of the way and let’s me do what I need to do.
Hello,
Read completely before beginning this project. Do added research to faliliarize yourself to fit your comfort level.
A great way to ease your way into Linux is to run it from a USB thumb drive without touching your current operating system. ALWAY begin this project with a thorough BACKUP of everything you want to keep from your current computer to an external harddrive. BACKUP!
Linux Mint Cinnamon is a Windows feel starter operating system. Mint can be installed on an empty USB drive 8gb or larger. Empty because this install will wipe the drive you install it on. Download the Mint .iso file to your computer in a place you can easily find along with an app called Rufus to install Mint to the USB drive.
BACKED UP YET?
Launch Rufus and select the USB drive to install Linux to and the .iso file you downloaded. Make sure you select the USB drive as this will wipe the drive you select. Click Start or Begin to install.
BACKED UP?
NOTE: Sometimes you may have to enter the BIOS to enable booting to a USB drive. Research entering the BIOS of your computer brand, it varies.
When the install is finished leave the USB drive in your computer and reboot your computer. Hit Enter as soon as you see the screen come to life to interrupt the boot process. Follow the key prompts (this varies by computer brand, F12 is common) to select the USB drive to boot to. This should start loading Linux and follow the prompts to RUN FROM THE USB drive to get it running and connected to the internet.
CAUTION! If you choose install at this point it will begin wiping your current harddrive and data!
Now you can try Linux and see if you like it. If not, try another version.
To boot back into your old OS shut down and remove the USB drive then restart your computer.
You have options to continue running Linux from the USB drive OR if you have enough harddrive free space you can install Linux as a dual boot system on your current drive OR
BACKUP!
you can install Linux as a fresh install that will wipe your drive. Total commitment!
Also, Proton mail is a great privacy oriented email service.