I’m thinking of switching to Linux as my daily driver after trying it out both Fedora Workstation and KDE using Live USB, but I’m wondering if I should consider other distros besides Fedora. I’ve heard of openSUSE, is that decent? Not many people really mention them. Linux Mint is great, but I don’t like Cinnamon all too much.

What’s a good desktop-agnostic distro that lets you easily swap between the two?

edit: Woah, it seems that you’re able to swap between DEs from the login manager as long as you install both. Okay then, new question, for a beginner friendly distro, should I go for Fedora, OpenSUSE, or something else?

edit 2: a bit more information about my device and my preferences…

On KDE Plasma vs GNOME, I would like to try both out and see which I like better long-term. KDE Plasma seems a bit more familiar (closer to Windows 10) whereas GNOME is a bit more different but I’m open to using either.

I’m running a laptop with an Intel i7-1360P. It’s one of those 2-in-1 convertible 360 degree hinge laptops.

I would say I’m open to learning how to work with the terminal and customising the distro a bit, but I don’t want to do anything too out of my scope. I don’t want to spend too many hours setting it up, I’d rather have something that works mostly out of the box :D

I want a stable distro as in I don’t want to break my system after an update, but still want something up-to-date though. I’m open to rolling release distros, but to my knowledge those are usually less stable with more breaking changes than fixed release options.

edit 3: just installed Fedora Workstation and it works really well! Multi-touch with my trackpad works fine and everything runs smooth. File read/write speeds were also strangely a bit more consistent (on Windows it jumps between <100KB/s and 60MB/s whereas on Fedora it’s consistently around or over 45MB/s…weird…)

My only issue right now is that the touchscreen doesn’t work anymore, how do I install the drivers for that?

edit 4:

Touchscreen and even rotating the screen when the device works now after an update :DDDDD

now I’m slowly installing my programs again…

  • HayadSont@discuss.online
    2·
    2 days ago

    Okay then, new question, for a beginner friendly distro, should I go for Fedora, OpenSUSE, or something else?

    OP, consider making up your mind regarding which one between GNOME and KDE Plasma you’d like to use (at least for the foreseeable future). Afterwards, consider answering the following so that we may do a better job at helping you:

    • What kind of hardware are we dealing with? Can we have the specs?

    Note that both Fedora and openSUSE may be considered beginner-friendly. Though, there does exist some considerable difference in design ethos between these and say something like Linux Mint; the former two give you a relatively bare system and assume (at least some) responsibility from its user while setting up the system. By contrast, Linux Mint offers considerable more hand-holding. This may of may not be to your liking.

    Note, however, that Fedora and openSUSE are far from the worst offenders in this regard; within the spectrum, they definitely belong to the better half as we’ve even got distros that assume their users are willing to learn an otherwise useless programming language from scratch. (FYI: I love NixOS and I wouldn’t want it anyway else.)

    Therefore, allow me to ask another question:

    • How much hand-holding would you deem desirable?

    There’s also the fleet of distros by Universal Blue that some swear by. These operate with a different paradigm; most of its users would describe them as a better alternative for newbies (under certain circumstances). But I digress…

    Finally, I have noted how you’ve pronounced your preference for a stable system. I do think I understand what you mean by stable, but just to be sure:

    • Stable, as in little to no updates except for those related to security? OR Stable, as in not being afraid to bork your system after an update or otherwise (i.e. kinda synonymous to reliable)? OR… Another use/definition that I’ve missed?
    • sbird@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      1 day ago

      On KDE Plasma vs GNOME, I would like to try both out and see which I like better long-term. KDE Plasma seems a bit more familiar (closer to Windows 10) whereas GNOME is a bit more different but I’m open to using either.

      1. a laptop with an Intel i7-1360P. It’s one of those 2-in-1 convertible 360 degree hinge laptops.
      2. I would say I’m open to learning how to work with the terminal and customising the distro a bit, but I don’t want to do anything too out of my scope. I don’t want to spend too many hours setting it up, I’d rather have something that works mostly out of the box :D
      3. Stable as I don’t want to break my system after an update. I still want an up-to-date distro though. I am open to rolling release distros, but to my knowledge those are usually less stable with more breaking changes than fixed release options.

      Also, how are the “immutable” distros from UB different from the “mutable” distros? Does it just mean that you’re unable to change system-level settings and such/break anything with a mistyped terminal command? What are the downsides to using an immutable distro?