os help

johnlee19869

johnlee19869

johnlee19869

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Joined
26 Sep 2025
Posts
24
Location
UK
Looking for linux options, hope to move from windows but need a good option for my new pc, need an operating system that deals with web browsing and running multiple browsers with multiple tabs open and is good with watching videos or movies but is also very good at playing games and is easy to use, would prefer something similar to windows look wise as i am used to that. any thoughts as i really want to move from windows and this could be the right time, i will be able to test it out on my older laptop to see what i think.thanks
 
I've recently moved to Mint and would recommend it. I've enjoyed using it so far. Has the sort of windows look by default.

I've not had too many problems getting it working and have no trouble with gaming, browsing, watching videos etc.
 
Mint sounds ideal for you.

Gaming is a little more complex potentially, depending on what you play and what platforms you use. Steam is really well supported and you can use tools like Proton and Wine for compatibility on any popular distro, including Mint.
 
I have just installed Mint Cinnamon on my old laptop and it's laid out like Windows and has most basics already installed (Firefox, Libre Office, Thunderbird Mail) not got around to gaming yet but it was recommended to me for gaming too.
 
Try arch with Kde (or gnome if you must) nice and fast bare bones and you can customise however you like.
 
Been using Manjaro Plasma for the last few weeks and I've not managed to break it yet. Although reading up I see that Windows like spy features may be coming at some point.
Not sure how true that is, but worth a mention. Tried quite a few of the Debian based flavours, same old story mostly behind the curve and sound not working properly etc, just silly niggles and clunky feel.
 
johnlee19869 said:
need an operating system that deals with web browsing and running multiple browsers with multiple tabs open
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Any OS will do that any limitations are down to the hardware you are running it on, if you have two hundred tabs open in Firefox don't expect it to be any better on Linux than on Windows if you are runing it on a potato.

johnlee19869 said:
s good with watching videos or movies
Click to expand...
It depends what DRM restrictions the platforms you are streaming from have in place.

DRM support is an issue on Linux, Netflix etc used to limit playback to 720p when using a browser on Linux, at one point I think there was a work around to get some to play in 1080p but it was a long time ago and I vaguely recall that it stopped working. I think some of them do now support 1080p if you meet the hardware requirements but probably not all of them because they think you are going to pirate their content.

I can't remember which platform it was but one allowed 4K playback on Windows PCs if it met strict hardware requirements but you had to use Edge and Playready DRM, there wasn't and as far as I know still isn't a way to watch 4k streams from those platforms on Linux.


johnlee19869 said:
also very good at playing games
Click to expand...
Again it depends on the games built in DRM / Anti cheat systems some just won't work on Linux.




Linux Mint Cinnamon is a good place to start but do setup the time machine / backup thing because when it does go wrong it can be difficult to fix.
 
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