Hi, Need your suggestion to choose a linux distro for old systems. I'm basically Windows user and want to try linux for my work and slowly become a serious linux user. The Hardwares are basically desktop and laptops with: - intel 900 i7 series and sandy bridge i7 (5~6 yrs old) - 4~24 GB RAM - Geforce 500 series My Req: - A distro which is as close to Windows as possible. beautiful environment which doesn't lag (important to me) - good graphical tools (minimum use of CLI) (important to me) - good driver base for my old hardwares - has a good application manager - supports latest video editing softwares - has Office app - a distro that supports Video editing and transcoding apps like handbrake or hybrid... - a distro that has a good download manager like IDM, and supports tixati or other torrent apps Thanks in advance for any suggestion
That's definitely a wrong requirement Anyway just avoid xbuntus and mints and get a decent arch linux based distro like the Manjaro XFCE or Manjaro Plasma.
A little bit funny to read these recommendations. Choose, what you want, choose which looks better, although, everything can always be changed. Why should be software preinstalled if You can install at any time what You really need. During last week I have tested all available latest versions.
My advice to you is to put windows 7 on the computer(s) and be done with it. The amount of tweaking required is considerable. If you are not a seasoned 'nix user, you'll be cursing at whoever recommended whatever distro you decided to go with. Good luck with that. Linux is a community. If your specific piece of hardware is not supported by the community, you're S.O.L. unless you can develop. It's not like a manufacturer can make money supporting Linux. Good luck with that one too. As long as you don't care about Windows compatibility, you're fine. If you think I'm being a cynical bitch, then spend the time and take a look at the Linux threads around here. You will see more weird issues and unsupported hardware than anywhere else. And good luck trying to get answers at the Linux forums. One slight mistake and your question may erupt into a flame war, and may end up getting you banned from them. Ease of use, minimal CLI, good hardware support? That's Windows. Let me rephrase: Unless your mom was an auto mechanic, you wouldn't buy her a high-performance car that needed to be tweaked under the hood by hand, would you? You'd buy her the most trouble free, easy to use vehicle you can find. Linux is that high-performance car. Just my thoughts.
OP can try all the recommended distros using a Live USB session. There is no need to install anything if your want to try a distro.
Thanks for all of your suggestions. I already read good things about zorin, ubuntu flavors, deepin, manjaro(-deepin, lxqt,xfce..), mint, pinguy, even ElementaryOS and Pear OS... and I really got confused with so many distros with so many desktop environments of their own. I'm on a slow connection and cannot try them all. I think many current linux users were former Windows users like me and in the same situation as I am in now.
Don't get confused, most of them are just Ubuntu or Debian re skinned (different desktop environment), so if you learn to use a Ubuntu distro then you will know most of them, at least cli wise. A lot of them, like Ubuntu Mate, do not need any cli use at all. The issue you will run into is them being deficient media creation wise and having driver support issues. You can use kdenlive for video editing. If all you ever do is browse the web, email, listen to music, watch movies, edit documents the basic stuff then you don't need Windows. And I wouldn't recommend using Windows 7, Microsoft are on a path to destroy it and push 10.
My assumption is that they are doing the wrong answer. And no. There isn't any need to learn the CLI from the first day. But there are things that in Linux are philosophically different. Usually who don't cares about them, just don't need Linux, don't need anything different by Windows. I have a similar background although nowadays I'm more dedicated to IT rather than elctronics, and no, being flexible is something of universal, being hungry of knowledge is universal, and I care a little fi being "a power user" is a word that MS likes or not. It's just a good thing. And aside the appearance be sure that power users are appreciated by MS. After all people like Mark Russinovich or Raphael Rivera were just known as powerful users, before being hired by MS. Every DE on linux takes inspiration from windows, at least since the '99 and the KDE1 and gnome beta arrival. Windows itself has copied back many KDE inventions, some features native in Kde1 landed finally in W10 after 16 years. So that's not the point. Get any live distro and it will be similar to Windows. (even the latest Gnome releases who are trying to ape some macos features are still usable by a windows user way better than macos itself) What changes is what's under the hood, it's how the update process works, it's the quality of the documentation (try to compare the Arch linux documentation, with the crap available on the ubuntu servers), it's how easy is to compile an external SW, and so on. It's the amount of the alternatives. Try to install OpenRC on ubuntu and try to do so on a Manjaro and see the differences.
The OP just requests a simple solution... why go at lengths to delve into personal opinion and historical references... fact is Ubuntu and it's derivatives are the closest to getting a Windows user on board... why scare them off with CLI intensive crap like Slackware and the like? Bigger picture...!
Just people throwing in their own deluded opinions rather than answering the question, "I want to use Linux, help me"!
I beg to differ. There simply isn't a black and white answer to this kind of question so people naturally start to motivate their suggestion (using a lot of words ). Whoever is the most deluded Mac, win or linux user that's a whole other discussion if not flamewar
@Michaela Joy I very much appreciate your comprehensive and realistic answer. I've been struggling with this for years. More so since the release of Windows 10. I used to be hardcore command line (DOS) user even long after windows 95 was introduced. Up until the release of Windows 8 quite content with the Microsoft way of doing things. But windows 10 really doesn't do it for me. As much as Linux appeals to me, in most cases it doesn't work for me. In fact most distro's never even wanted to install or work correctly at all for no clear reason. You suggesting to stick to windows 7 might not be such a bad one at all. I would however like to get into linux more as it could serve a nice job in the more compact/embedded solutions area in and around my home.