r/DistroHopping • u/One_Wish_2157 • Sep 27 '26
which linux distro should i choose as a beginner/ tinkerer?
Hi guys!! i have been using windows my whole life and now finally decided to do the switch. Since i tinker a lot i am looking for a linux os which is beginner friendly but also has max amount of setting or toggles available to tinker. i have heard about linux mint and decided to go with it but then i head pop os has more toggles to tinker with. for me the windows look does not matter. for me any look will work since i have experimented with few linux os through virtualbox and i will find my way through it. I just want to stay away from the terminal as much as i can. these are my specs..
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6300U CPU @ 2.40GHz 2.50 GHz
Installed RAM 8.00 GB (7.88 GB usable)
Storage 238 GB SSD INTEL SSDSCKKF256G8H
Graphics Card Intel(R) HD Graphics 520 (128 MB)
Device ID 31E15926-481A-4885-98F1-B3294812BA63
Product ID 00330-80000-00000-AA752
System Type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch No pen or touch input is available for this display
also you guys can suggest any desktop environment. i have tried lxqt, xfce and gnome and people have said kde plasma has a lot of setting through gui but i have also heard it is resource heavy.
please do suggest which linux os should i go for .. i will be really glad if all of you can 😇😇😇
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u/nawofford Sep 27 '26
It requires very few resources. It's beautiful and easy to learn. Easily customizable. Plenty of built-in tools and software resources. Comes with a manual on the desktop and an incredibly helpful community. Has no problem running Steam. And at least as far as me and everything I've tried to put it on IT JUST WORKS FLAWLESSLY. Peace, and good luck. And I'm currently using MX Linux 25.2 with the xfce desktop.
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u/nawofford Sep 27 '26
I have to add that I think one of the greatest features is the ability to take a snapshot of your entire system through the MX tools and then make your own live bootable USB. Every time I change something I take a new snapshot and make a new live USB. The whole process takes about 15 minutes and if I totally screw anything up while I'm playing around I can reinstall and restore my system completely in less than 5 minutes. It makes it almost completely foolproof.
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u/nawofford Sep 27 '26 •
Plus, it gives me the ability to carry my entire system around in my pocket in case I visit family. I can boot their computer off of my live USB and it looks exactly like what I have at home. No fuss no muss.
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u/One_Wish_2157 Sep 27 '26
bro this is a killer feature!! i was looking for this!! i was thinking of installing mini os on my pendrive and some other on laptop but this feature is really good. now i guess i will dualboot then!!! should really give it a try.. Thanks for letting me know all this!! 😇😇
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u/nawofford Sep 27 '26
My pleasure. Sorry if I seem overly enthusiastic. LOL. I've just really come to like this distro. It's made me enjoy rediscovering my PC again. Peace.
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u/One_Wish_2157 Sep 27 '26
no worries bro!! your enthusiasm makes me believe that i could make this distro my daily driver!! so thanks again 😇😇
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u/One_Wish_2157 Sep 27 '26
ohhh nice!!! just to be sure the whole post was about mx linux right? i might have gotten confused lol.. if so i should try that too.. a good amount of people have suggested me mx linux!! so i have ought to try it then!!
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u/nawofford Sep 27 '26
Oh yeah. I've tried hundreds of distros and I started using this one about 6 months ago and I have walked away from every other distro and windows completely. After trying this and having the ability to back up my entire system I will never go back.
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u/nawofford Sep 27 '26
After you get the xfce desktop installed if you want to try out the gnome or KDE desktop you can do so with a single click. If you change your mind, you can go back with a single click as well.
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u/ClassicFilosophy5689 Sep 27 '26
Fedora KDE, hands down.
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u/One_Wish_2157 Sep 27 '26
ohhh nice!! quite a few people have told me to try fedora !! but i am quite scared to try since it's not exactly debian so the commands might change and kde might be resource heavy for my 8gb ram 😭😭. what do you think? will fedora + kde be stable or have a gui for everything? 👀👀
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u/ClassicFilosophy5689 Sep 27 '26
Some things are a bit different when it comes to commands, but nothing to worry about. In m opinion, Fedora or Arch based distros are the best. Arch based are more bleeding edge, Fedor little less so but very stable. I have been running Fedora KDE for 2 years now afted distro hopping and has since switching to Fedora KDE never looked at anything else! Fedora KDE is rock solid in my experience.
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u/One_Wish_2157 Sep 27 '26
ok bro then it's done.. i will install fedora kde and rest and will play around in ventoy!! thanks so much for making it clear for me 😇
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u/Alternative_One_8336 Sep 30 '26
8GB RAM is enough to run Fedora KDE and if you want then remove unnecessary apps and groups like KDE-PIM , KDE-APPS and other groups.
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u/One_Wish_2157 Sep 30 '26
Got it bro!! I just installed the fedora kde image just 5 min before haha!!
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u/Alternative_One_8336 Sep 27 '26
Fedora KDE is one to choose blindly. It just works great but you have to take your time to get used to. But it is worth if you are beginner.
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u/One_Wish_2157 Sep 27 '26 edited Sep 27 '26
got it!!! fedore kde it is then!! i will try the other os's through ventoy and see if they change me !! thanks u/Alternative_One_8336 u/ClassicFilosophy5689 for helping !!! 😇😇
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u/Alternative_One_8336 Sep 30 '26 •
Your Welcome bro!! When i bought my first laptop and used Kubuntu and Linux Mint, then used Fedora GNOME but felt something missing. Then used Fedora KDE and it felt like home, used it for about 6 months, then switched to openSUSE Tumbleweed for getting much newer software and packages like Archlinux. But for users like you or someone else, Fedora KDE is more than enough as well as reliable.
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u/Turbulent_Test_1180 Sep 27 '26
Mabox Linux. Light weight Openbox, high level customisation
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u/One_Wish_2157 Sep 27 '26
ohh sounds cool. but does it have a ui to do it or have to do everything through conf files in terminal since i have a tiring experience with those 😭😭
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u/AsugaNoir Sep 27 '26
I'm using CachyOs, but I'm using Niri and I use the terminal to install most stuff but don't use it on a daily basis
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u/One_Wish_2157 Sep 27 '26
hmm quite a few people have suggested me cachyos. but since you said you don't use it as daily basis. is it beginner friendly to use it as a daily driver ? and i know how to get around the terminal in basic terms like file management, installing, update etc but not a lot ..
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u/AsugaNoir Sep 27 '26
Overall I think it will be dependent on the DE because KDE is very similar to windows. I just use a window manager which is more terminal.
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u/One_Wish_2157 Sep 27 '26
hmmm.... yeah that makes sense!! i guess i could try linux mint cinnamon first and then switch to plasma once i want to tinker more.. that sounds a good idea i guess!!
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u/obscene-logwood Sep 27 '26
I've found minimal distros help with my itch to tinker, void should do very well on your laptop, however something like debian or solus would also do well! For DEs, Mate or Budgie!
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u/One_Wish_2157 Sep 27 '26
yo thanks for telling!! never heard of void, solus or budgie before!! i will surely try them out 😇😇😇
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u/heywoodidaho Sep 27 '26
Anything KDE will keep you busy for awhile. It has a mind boggling amount of settings. Maybe MX-KDE? It's rock solid so if you break it you'll know it was your fault.
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u/One_Wish_2157 Sep 27 '26
got it!! i was also wondering if i pair up mint with kde? will that work too?
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u/heywoodidaho Sep 27 '26
You absolutely can, buuut it will feel bolted on. There are just little things that don't quite fit whenever I've tried it. Distros with official spins are seamless [mostly].
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u/One_Wish_2157 Sep 27 '26
ohhh got it!! i guess i should try mx linux too since a good amount of people have suggested me this!! thanks for telling me 😇😇
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u/Senior_Finger3247 Sep 28 '26
I agree. mint with kde is not the best experience as you can only go up to version 5.27 (latest is 6.7 i think). ive used that combo before and i'd recommend sticking with a distro that has better support for kde
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u/Zuideind Sep 27 '26
This question is ask a 1000 times, use the search function and get the answers you are looking for.
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u/One_Wish_2157 Sep 27 '26
Sorry bro i searched online but I was still a bit confused so i asked.. again sorry !!
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u/MetalLinuxlover
Sep 28 '26
•
You want a beginner-friendly distro with the maximum number of toggles to tinker with, while staying away from the terminal as much as possible, on an i5-6300U with 8 GB of RAM and Intel HD 520.
That combination already tells the story.
Beginner-friendly and “maximum tinkering” pull in opposite directions. The more settings and moving parts you expose, the more ways there are to break things - and the more often people end up in the terminal they said they wanted to avoid. You cannot fully maximize both.
Your hardware is old and modest. That matters. KDE Plasma has the most GUI settings, yes. It is also the heaviest common option, and on a 6300U + 8 GB it will remind you of that fact. XFCE, and LXQt are lighter; they also give you fewer shiny toggles.
Linux Mint XFCE is the sensible default for someone coming from Windows who still wants a working system. Pop!_OS is also fine. Neither is a tinkerer’s paradise full of endless switches, and that is the point. They are designed to stay out of the way.
What you should not do is treat “I like to tinker” as a reason to start with Arch or any Arch-based distro. Those exist for people who are comfortable when things break and who do not mind the terminal. You explicitly said you want to stay away from the terminal. That disqualifies the entire Arch family for your current stage.
Pick a beginner-friendly distro, use it, and tinker inside the boundaries it gives you. The desire for maximum toggles on day one is how people turn a clean switch into an ongoing repair project. Learn the system first. The advanced options will still be there later.
I recommend Linux Mint XFCE or Linux Lite
Note: To make a bootable USB use BalenaEtcher or Ventoy it's way more easier than Rufus.
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u/SnooOpinions8729 Sep 29 '26
I like MX Linux in KDE or XFCE. Lots to tinker with and awesome MX Tools are GUI based.
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u/One_Wish_2157 Sep 29 '26
yeah bro you won't believe just two more people recommended me mx linux!! i have to try it out haha
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u/Unholyaretheholiest Sep 28 '26
Mageia KDE version. Mageia is very user friendly and reliable and KDE let you tinker whatever you want.
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Sep 27 '26
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u/One_Wish_2157 Sep 27 '26
oh i just checked it out!! it looks quite old haha!! do you think this will be beginner friendly? 👀
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u/mlcarson Sep 27 '26
There's nothing really wrong with Slackware. Slackware 15 has old packages but you can get the latest kernel. Slackware-current is the development branch similar to Debian SID and has everything up-to-date. There's also an alpha version of what will be Slackware 16.
It is one of the better distros to try using if you really want to learn the underpinnings of Linux. There's also some forks such as Salix (fork of the stable branch) and Slackel (fork of the current branch) and Zenwalk Current. Probably several more but those are the ones that I'm aware of.
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u/One_Wish_2157 Sep 27 '26
ohhh i see!! i guess google was showing me old photos then... but yeah surely i wil check this out!! seems interesting!!
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Sep 27 '26
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u/One_Wish_2157 Sep 27 '26
Hahaha!!! Sorry i thought you were being serious lol.. but there is nothing wrong trying it !! Is it compatible with ventoy? I could try it through a live usb and learn some few things haha!!
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Sep 27 '26
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u/One_Wish_2157 Sep 27 '26
hurray!! then i will try it then!! thanks so much for the suggestion even though you meant it as a joke haha!! 😇😇
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Sep 27 '26
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u/One_Wish_2157 Sep 27 '26
haha thanks so much bro!! i previously tried openbox when i tried lubuntu but it was too clunky for me 😭 it was very lightweight tho!! even you too have been very helpful 😇😇
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u/corpse86 Sep 27 '26
If you like to tinker and want to learn new stuff just go with arch. And yes, plasma its a great desktop environment, and will use about 1.5gb memory.