I’m always shocked by all the recommendations to use Mint. It feels dated and ugly. Admittedly, I migrated from Mac, but how abused must you Windows users be to find Mint a suitable replacement? I personally wound up with Zorin OS and recommend it. The software store makes installing apps from multiple sources tolerable. It’s also got a nice UI and you can easily change it.
this post was submitted on 27 May 2025
186 points (95.1% liked)
Linux
54564 readers
572 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
Thank you! When switching it has to work better and look better. Mint does not look better. Zorin is very simple, includes Wine and has Zorin Connect.
I agree. People should raise their standards… the message is if you’re switching to Linux, shouldn’t be “just be glad to have a distribution that just works.” I think we’ll need a better sales pitch if that’s the case.
I had no issues with Zorin from a “it just works” perspective and I run an NVidia GPU. And, it also looks good. Like Mint, it’s also based on Ubuntu, but without the Windows XP era UI.
Also, the UI can either be in “has a start menu” or “has a Mac dock” mode.
I have spent so much time professionally in Windows over the years that when I decided to switch it had to look nothing like it. So Mint is out. Kde as a whole really. Vanilla gnome looks kinda sterile to me. So I ended up with Pop!_OS and have been happy so far.
Probably because it's easy to get used to.
As for the looks, I'd say it looks better than Mac, Ubuntu looks best, but that's so subjective and fairly easy to change anyway.
load more comments
(6 replies)
Try Fedora it was my first real distro. I still use it on my laptop. Everything is easy about it.
I'm not sure that you can get wallpaper engine running. Maybe someone else can say otherwise, but I wouldn't trust second hand.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Honestly I suggest learning in avm first so you can do save states. I recommend doing stunting like nix or a declarative/ composable distro. Learn the new way so that your getting the tools and things that are actually being used.
Don't get me wrong it's not an easy learning curve but I think it's the better method of learning.
Something listed in the top 10 or so on https://distrowatch.com/. Personally I like one of the Debian based distros.
Currently we use Ubuntu and Debian. Ubuntu would be the better of the two for beginners.
The distrowatch beginners list is: https://distrowatch.com/search-mobile.php?category=Beginners#simple
load more comments
(5 replies)
Keep to popular distros. I'd personally recommend Pop os or fedora. Opensuse is up there too just never clicked with me when I was a new users.
I actually have started to discourage people using Ubuntu because of forced snap packages and multiple software store GUIs. It has led to a lot more confusion for new users even though Ubuntu is supposed to be user friendly.
load more comments
(2 replies)
So... do it?
Now to the question which distro, honestly it does not matter YET!
You probably don't even know what a distro is (no offense) but what you did highlight clearly are the needs, namely :
- playing games
- popular
- not Mint because somehow it breaks (would be VERY important to understand why though)
... so that actually narrows things down quite a bit.
The most popular distribution are the easiet to find (I'm on Debian and SteamOS so I use Arch BTW) and that's a safe choice indeed. Playing games does not narrow things down much as most distro, if not all, do not prevent against playing game and IMHO the optimization specific to gaming are pretty much pointless in most cases.
Your edit point that you are trying a distribution already so yes, please, do go for it. I do suggest though that WHEN things go wrong, like it did with Mint, you take the time to understand WHY. This in itself will help you to either switch to another distribution and arguably more importantly what even is a distribution and finally which one of the remaining ones (if you do actually switch rather than fix) are more appropriate for you.
Finally my last recommendation is to back up your data. That's what IMHO make the difference between having fun distro hopping versus pulling hair out stressing that your last game save, or work notebooks, will not be deleted.
Have fun learning!
Your last point i learn it in the hard why and for the post i just wanted to see people suggests because everyone i asked near me says linux mint and i really hate it because what happened with me i already said what happened in the comments so i won't again
I have to give it that the Fedora distros are a slightly bit superior to Ubuntu variants but for those that value some degree of not favoring corporate US (IBM/Red Hat) that provides AI resources for Israel's military to do what it is doing... Myself I tried to like Mint, I really did... but could not... not just it is old-fashioned looking but has limitations with scaling and others.
Now, I do recognize for the initiators is it great! Now, for those that find Mint ugly I recommend TuxedoOS... I find it as good as Kubuntu but without its known limitations with flatpaks. Yes, TuxedoOS was created for Tuxedo laptops but they left it open to use it with others so no problems at all and very well maintained. Now, you may want remove the Tuxedo app that they installed just to free some resources... a 10-seconds thing to do. Drawback is servers in Germany so a bit slower updates than usual for most.
load more comments
(1 replies)
It’s 2025, if you’ve got the space to dual boot, you’ve got space for snapshots. There’s no reason not to set them up. Btrfs, ZFS, LVM, pick your poison. Disk is cheap, your time isn't.
And if “simple stuff” is breaking your system, that tells me three things:
-
You’re still using apt-get instead of apt
-
You’re ignoring dependency warnings
-
You’re probably not fully understanding the commands you’re running — so RTFM
So yeah, I will be telling you to use Mint, with at LEAST daily snapshots.
Well no i really use everyting on the newest version and i check two times on everyting i put or press even when downloading anything simple like discord or browser i search first then do but it just somewho goes off and now i spent more than 15 hours on bazzite to just download it. i am learning first then act after doing everyting things right and checking i said to myself this time i won't mess with the termnal for 2 days to not make my system broke and guess what after downloading steam and brave and wallpaper engine and dis i was looking at my downloaded wallpapers changing them then the screen goes black and the desktop dosent response i can search inside the system and open taps but the desktop broke and now i am looking for soultion i didn't even put a single command or play with the system i was just changing my wallpapers and that also happened in mint not the wallpaper issue but with other simple things like download one app form the software manger
Sounds more like a hardware issue. Screen black, like it goes off no output? Any visual glitching first? Desktop doesn't respond? How do you know, is it sounds stop or make funny noise?
Search inside the system? Open taps? Not sure what this means
Can you restart the computer? Or will the distro not boot after this?
And this doesn't happen in Windows?
If his drive is failing, and has bad sectors, windows will automatically repair damaged system files on boot. Also sounds like he's having an issue with hibernation with the window server not starting back up after suspension.
Okay, assuming you’re being honest, it sounds like a hardware issue. Either your RAM is corrupting, or your hard drive is prone to errors. The good news is that you have options to daily drive Linux without ending up in a situation where you have to reinstall everything from scratch.
Like I mentioned earlier, you absolutely need to be making snapshots. I'm currently running Manjiro, and I've completely borked my system like 10 times already. But when I set up my system, I made sure my main partition was BTRFS, which has allowed me to roll back easily through both the UI and in grub rescue mode.
I would also recommend that if you are going to continue to dual boot windows, make sure they're on two separate physical drives. And don't share stuff like your steam library, because windows likes to screw shit up, and steam will throw a fit if you make it read an NTFS drive on Linux.
Just don't give up, keep posting questions, and maybe even come back and post stuff like specific crash reports and system info so we can help you better. :)
I fix the problem it was just the plugn who read wallpaper engine i think glitched after reading a unSubscribed wallpaper so i just had to go delete the plugn and all my wallpapers and re install after some reboot and changing the wallpapers settings it fixed dont ask me how the wallpaper was unSubscribed and there in the same time i really dont know 😂
I'm not sure how you're getting wallpaper engine to work on Linux because it's not supported on anything other than windows.
Are you using Wallpaper Engine? If so you are likely going to keep having issues with your screen blanking while you try and use it, as it's not supported on Linux.
Wow, good job tracking that down