My go to back in The Day was just Ubuntu because I was lazy. We’re talking the 14.04/16.04 days. Ubuntu was simple and mostly just worked. I now find myself needing to de-spywareify as the coming administration is likely to force Microsoft into tracking “dissidents” so need to get back into weaning myself off the Windows teat.
I recently dualbooted my main desktop with Ubuntu 24.04 and have been… entirely underwhelmed. The whole separation between APT and snap packages doesn’t work well together and is really the big problem I have, as a lot of standard deb packages just refuse to install properly now. the UI is hard to use and doesn’t make me happy, and it’s not been playing nice with my Zen 4 desktop when it comes to ACPI power states (no sleep, doesn’t reliably turn the power off when i ask it to turn off, etc). So overall, I am just not terribly interested in using Ubuntu anymore.
What I primarily want is the sort of “mostly just works” like old 16.04 but still gave you the full ability to monkey under the hood- and is also something based on a normal distro that most people write guides for because I am a smoothbrain. Should I just head to using basic plain jane Debian or something?
Linux Mint, Debian and Fedora
Fedora is debatable but it solid if you use Silverblue
Sadly I can’t recommand pop-os. In 2 years, the updates broke twice on me.
The resolutions where simple enough if you can use the command line to run
sudo apt update,sudo apt upgrade. But the GUI shop updater just crashed on me without the apt error message visible.It is a nice distro overall with which you can even try tiled windows without commiting to it.
-> pop-os is nice but it may break from times to times. So if (like me or most dev) you are ok with the CLI and just a bit of fixes from times to times then go for it. But if you are affraid of the CLI or never want to fix anything, then some other distro may be a better choice.
The short rant:
- You don’t need to ask which distro, ask which mint version
- The answer to #1 is MATE or xfce.
The longer rant:
I’ve been using xubuntu a bit, for guest OS in desktop VM, but I don’t really know if I like it enough to recommend it. It’s less rough than Arch, but so is 24 grit sandpaper.
Like others have said, there are many contenders for your use case, but mint stands out. I’m probably gonna go with mint once windows 10 stops getting updates. Mint or parrot. But TBH I don’t want to daily drive parrot either.
Which version of mint then? That’s really the question to ask. And if you ask me then I don’t care for all the bells and whistles, I don’t need animations or semi transparent windows. And when Ubuntu went with unity back in the day I walked. So I guess I want my GUI to stay the same. So I’d go with MATE or xfce.
Bazzite is the new Ubuntu without snaps etc, give it a try
Should I just head to using basic plain jane Debian or something?
Every time I try a new distro I end up back on Debian. It just works.
Same. I can barely even tell what “good” Ubuntu brings to the table other than the task bar icons, which I just add in with am extension.
Which distros aren’t set and forget?
I use Arch btw
I’ve been using ParrotOS as a daily driver and it’s been good to me. I don’t need much though. Based on privacy and security and for that field of work. They have a pen test version and a home DD version.
Considering your previous experience with Ubuntu, I would recommend Debian. Just make sure to get the right ISO for what you want.
Since you’re complaining about Ubuntu not working with ACPI power states, my next recommendation would be Endeavour to be more up to date and get fixes and stuff sooner. It’s pre-configured Arch.
Linux Mint and PopOS are usually listed as friendly distros and are derivatives of Ubuntu without Ubuntu controversies like Snap. Mint even has an alternative direct Debian base skipping some Ubuntu packages, so might be ironically closer to old Ubuntu in that flavor.
If you’re open to going non-debian, Manjaro is often sold as the more user friendly Arch.
Debian or Arch aren’t bad to use directly either and are far more newbie friendly than they were a decade ago even if not as out of the box opinionated as their derivatives.
All the good stuff from Ubuntu has mostly been upstreamed into Debian. And Debian’s rekease cycle is much faster these days than it was back then. So, just run Debian.
Set and forget: Arch Linux. There might be much setting involved, but you can forget later.
Don’t even set and you can forget: Linux Mint.
I think OP wants something that also minimizes the "set“ part. Arch is for enthusiasts who like to put a lot of effort into creating their own perfect Linux system. I’ve tried it once and to be perfectly honest I don‘t want to fiddle around with basic settings if there is no need to. I’m pretty busy with other things in my life and want stuff to work out of the box with sane defaults if possible. It’s essential that stuff can easily be customized afterwards though.
Arch is very good for people who want to invest time into learning what goes on under the hood. Perfectly valid use case, but probably not for OP.
For this purpose Mint is great. Comes pretty much preset to use and requires almost no maintenance for normal use. It’s like Windows used to be in the past.
Any major distro should do it imo. Personally I run Fedora because I tried it out years ago and I’m past the distro hopping phase. It just works™ (most of the time, as every distro).
PopOS is getting traction, and I think it’s deserved. I only use it on my gaming rig and never had major problems. Based on Ubuntu if I recall so the majority of Ubuntu tutos should be compatible.
I tried ZorinOS as well. It’s paid (10 bucks per major version if I recall), but it’s surprisingly stable and well fleshed out. It aims to mimic Windows or MacOS design out of the box, for people that migrate to Linux. They have a free lite version. Based on Ubuntu as well. The only reason it’s not my main OS is because Fedora is already installed on my main rig and I’m lazy.
As suggested, Debian is still its old self, and it’s a good thing. The stability thing although means that you won’t get the latest bells and whistles. On the other end of the spectrum there’s Arch but it’s far less “set and forget” than the other distros. At least it’s longer to set, harder to forget. I would rather go with Manjaro, with which I had a really good experience years ago, never any major struggle. But It still needs a bit of minimal maintaining.
Years ago, when Ubuntu started their Unity and Amazon partnering bullshit, I switched to Linux Mint. I don’t know how it is today, but at the time it was the go-to replacement for Ubuntu: all the advantages without any of the inconvenient.
Honestly, just pick one of the major ones, try it in a live environment to be sure the defaults suit you, and you should be good to go for years.
I was worried about that with Arch, and yes the setup takes longer, but other than that for me it’s just been “run ‘pacman -Syu’ every few weeks” and otherwise forget, been running like that for a few years. So I’d still say it’s set and forget tbh, just that the set part is a bit more work.
I’ve had Fedora on several computers, and everything worked for quite a while while. Eventually though, things just began to break randomly - probably a sign of me not doing much maintenance.
The most common issue was Gnome Software center failing to update anything. I just ignored that app, and continued to upgrade through the CLI for a while. Eventually, I just got tired of that, and installed Debian on my HTPC.
Now I can finally treat that computer the way I want. Just install, watch videos, update when needed, and ignore the rest. I have another computer for satisfying my tinkering desires, so this one is just for the videos and very light browsing, but not much else. Therefore, Debian is the perfect distro for this kind of use.
I have had lots of issues with the Software Center in the past as well. I just blamed it on Gnome and used the CLI anyway, as I’m more comfortable seeing what exactly happens in case it goes wrong. But it seems it has been fixed now because it’s been month (maybe even a year or two, I couldn’t say) that I’ve not had to complain.
(But yeah, to each their own, in the end it’s not really important)
There was another post on here about Manjaro taking about going opt out on some things that to me is a deal breaker. EndeavorOS has been mentioned a decent amount for a more user friendly Arch based distro. I can’t personally speak about it, but just a little extra but for others going through here.
The Manjaro maintainers are a bunch of clowns. Constantly letting TLS certificates expire, enabling an indev, broken driver on Macs without asking the asahi devs why it was disabled in the first place… literally clowns
Manjaro might have been my first step into Linux last year, but it was brief and I switched to Arch. It was brief enough that I didn’t remember if that’s what it was. Glad I made the switch, but a non GUI installation is not for most people.
Edit: Nvm, I used Garuda. I was reminded in another comment. A good stepping stone to experience Arch and KDE.
Or Garuda. Sure, the theme it applies to KDE by default is pretty garish but nothing keeps you from just going to System Settings and seeing a different theme. Other than that it’s basically just Arch with a bunch of stuff preinstalled and some convenience scripts.
Should I just head to using basic plain jane Debian or something?
👌
I run PopOS on two notebooks (thinkpad, MacBook air) for about a year now and so far everything worked. Printer needed some fiddeling
I recommend Arch and KDE. The community to docs are really good. It’s a rolling release distro, so always up to date.
I hate being the, “I use Arch” guy, but it’s really been a great experience for me with KDE. Minimal issues after a complicated first time setup, but it’s absolutely been worth it. For anyone that’s pretty decent with computers already, and can understand the documentation, I would recommend trying it out. I just converted a laptop the other day to Arch and used archinstall for the first time. It did pretty well other than a couple of small tweaks that most users would never know about in fstab relating to SSDs and LUKS encryption.
There’s a steep learning curve, but it’s made me learn a lot about the Linux operating system and a lot about computers in general.
Pretty much the same experience with me. Also, once I heard that The Streamdeck uses Arch and KDE, I was willing to give it a try. Flatpaks are pretty nice too.
I’m really excited about the budding relationship between Steam and Arch. The Steamdeck has already been invaluable in adoption and progression, and now their serious. The future appears bright here.
