fast linux distro .. for windows noobs

lurkio

lurkio

lurkio

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Hi Folks,
Which distro would be easiest to use for a non linux person ?
Iam looking for something fast and easy to use (for a friend) their laptop
doesnt have a windows COA sticker and I cannot read the windows key of the
corrupted HD , so it looks like linux is my only option :(
 
Ah, replaced it, i get you now :D

Mint would be a good place to start, you'll probably feel the urge to experiment with others before too long. Which is fine.
 
I must disagree with everyone here, I think that Linux Mint is kind of bloated, the default MATE environment was slow in my experience, and I had a variably fast PC, so it wasn't that. I recommend that Debian. Debian is quite fast and it isn't bloated at all. It's a very easy transition from windows. If you really MUST use mint, then use LMDE (Linux mint Debian edition) so you don't get all of the Ubuntu bloat.

Fedora is good, too!
 
I must disagree with everyone here, I think that Linux Mint is kind of bloated, the default MATE environment was slow in my experience, and I had a variably fast PC, so it wasn't that. I recommend that Debian. Debian is quite fast and it isn't bloated at all. It's a very easy transition from windows. If you really MUST use mint, then use LMDE (Linux mint Debian edition) so you don't get all of the Ubuntu bloat.

Fedora is good, too!
 
Activeellis said:
I must disagree with everyone here, I think that Linux Mint is kind of bloated, the default MATE environment was slow in my experience, and I had a variably fast PC, so it wasn't that. I recommend that Debian. Debian is quite fast and it isn't bloated at all. It's a very easy transition from windows. If you really MUST use mint, then use LMDE (Linux mint Debian edition) so you don't get all of the Ubuntu bloat.

Fedora is good, too!
Click to expand...

Key thing here is the user isn't Linux initiated. Mint MATE works like any recent OS, it's fine on modest hardware and is fairly beginner friendly (especially if they don't care how it works, just that it works). Ubuntu is good too, it's probably the most friendly Linux to someone who just does "the internet" on their computer

Anyway, Debian minimal network install + LXDE (for the noobs :p) FTW
 
d_brennen said:
Key thing here is the user isn't Linux initiated. Mint MATE works like any recent OS, it's fine on modest hardware and is fairly beginner friendly (especially if they don't care how it works, just that it works). Ubuntu is good too, it's probably the most friendly Linux to someone who just does "the internet" on their computer

Anyway, Debian minimal network install + LXDE (for the noobs :p) FTW
Click to expand...

I see your point, but to be honest it isn't really the distro that matters, it's how the distro is set up. You can set up Arch to be as good as Ubuntu, it just takes effort. With Debian, you already have got all you need and more. If you don't think the DE/WM is user friendly, remove it and install a better one. Debian unstable comes with gnome, which is great for any user, but if you don't like gnome, you can just remove it and install LXDE or XFCE.
 
Odds are if they aren't into Linux they won't want to spend tons of effort setting it up. Mint is great out of the box, and by no means slow on most computers.
 
Van Hellseek said:
Mint MATE!

I know this because I used windows for 20 years, and 2 days ago I started playing with various linux.

Mint MATE was the easiest of what I've tried by far.

http://linuxmint.com/rel_maya_whatsnew.php
Click to expand...

Mint Cinnamon is on my laptop... Been using linux for 14 years, at least 10 of them for a desktop.

Only have windows for the gaming pc and work's laptop. And Cinnamon is one of the nicest desktops :)
 
PermaBanned said:
Odds are if they aren't into Linux they won't want to spend tons of effort setting it up. Mint is great out of the box, and by no means slow on most computers.
Click to expand...

Effort? OP could just say to the person "Okay, find the terminal application and type 'sudo apt-get install lxde" and it would be done. My grandma could do that. :D

And when opening MATE's menu, there was a quite noticable delay. This happened both on my desktop and my laptop. MATE isn't great.
 
Nunzio said:
Mint Cinnamon is on my laptop... Been using linux for 14 years, at least 10 of them for a desktop.

Only have windows for the gaming pc and work's laptop. And Cinnamon is one of the nicest desktops :)
Click to expand...

It's nice looking but I had problems with cinnamon on my netbook. It was slow and video played with the audio out of sync. Also it wouldn't remember any file associations when I changed them. So I switched to MATE which has worked much better for me.


MATE :
Mint said:
Pros:

MATE is stable and it works on all computers
MATE is among the most productive and easy to use desktops available.
MATE continues where Gnome 2 left off and introduces its own incremental improvements.
MATE comes with support for mintMenu, mintDesktop, Compiz and everything that made Gnome 2 the most popular Linux desktop.
MATE is built with GTK2, it features more themes and integrates with more applications than any other desktop.

Cons:

Some parts of Gnome 2 were not migrated to MATE yet and a few aspects such as Bluetooth support might not work as well as they did with Gnome 2.
Click to expand...

Cinnamon :

Mint said:
Cinnamon is among the sleekest and most modern looking environments
Cinnamon features innovative features and emphasis on productivity with traditional desktop metaphors
Cinnamon is built on rapid technologies and its development pace is really fast
The Cinnamon community is very active, and produces a lot of new themes and applets

Cons:

Cinnamon requires 3D acceleration and might not work well for you, depending on your graphics card and/or drivers.
Cinnamon is brand new and unfortunately not yet as stable as more mature and established desktops such as MATE, KDE or Xfce.
Cinnamon relies on Gnome 3 and Clutter, which are also both brand new and going through rapid transformations.
Click to expand...
 
I tried mint , which after I changed the screen resolution totally borked itself and will not login
Going to play with ubuntu a bit more
 
Opensuse is good too!

Please shadowze do not use ubuntu, unity is dire.

Fedora is also worth a try.

Also the XFCE windows manager is very nice, and not bloated like gnome, KDE etc, this isn't an issue if its a fast computer.
 
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