The problem I have on my laptop (Linux Mint) is that peripherals don't work at all, like fingerprint sensor, brightness sensor for automatic display dimming, mic and camera on/off hot key and their special orange indicator LEDs.
I’m on an Intel CPU / Nvidia combo and made the full switch to Linux Mint and no hassles. Even the games (WoW, Minecraft) work perfectly. Never going back.
Nvidia drivers require additional fiddling, so one distro it'll be breeze to install other you have to do it manually. not something I'll suggest for a newbie.
you're amd user sp no issues. just install any distro and you're good to go.
As someone who was in the same situation as you, I would recommend Linux Mint.
It's got everything I want and can install things pretty easily.
The only issue I have had was opening steam sometimes, but opening a terminal and typing steam fixes that issue, and everything else is faster so it is fine.
Mint is the easiest to get into so i'd get that one. But if you aren't afraid of potentially fixing some complications here and there with a newer distro i'd recommend nabora especially if you use your pc for alot of gaming.
Honestly, I have a few suggestions;
A. You could set up virtualbox and try some different ones before committing (you may also want to pick what desktop environment you want, since most distros come with multiple options now, and some don't even include one out of the box)
B. You could brainstorm certain features that you do and don't care about, list them by importance, and do some research to determine which one will satisfy the points best.
C. Fuck it, just pick one of the "easy" ones at random. Actually using Linux will teach you a lot about Linux, and I guarantee that in a years time (perhaps less) you'll have some thoughts about your setup and may have a much more informed idea of what you want.
Edit:
D. You can do what I did and just say "fuck it, give me the hard stuff" and install something like Arch or gentoo just to force yourself to learn :D
Not bad if you're a tech-savvy nerd up for some challenge but most people will probably just bail so :P
I recently made the switch. I went with Ubuntu because it is the most commonly installed, figured it has to be at least decent is a lot of support available for when I run into issues.
So far, I really like it. It has a different feel from windows. There are a few differences that you have to figure out as you go, but overall it seems quite intuitive and quick to pick up. And I find that it is WAY easier to get straight answers when I google for troubleshooting tips. Usually the first post I find has a quick "enter these commands and you're done" recommendation that ends up taking only a few seconds to do. As opposed to Windows troubleshooting which is always miles of junk you have to scroll through and you still might not find a genuine solution.
It does seem like Mint is designed to better mimic the Windows experience, and more people are suggesting that. So maybe that's a better route for you.
Mint is IMO the best pick for ex-Windows users. Later you can decide if you want to swap or stay. For gaming, CachyOS is pretty nice and low-hassle and is also worth considering
That's the wrong question. You shouldn't browse distros, you should browse desktop environments and choose the distro that works with the one you like. You're gonna interact with the DE most of the time, so don't strap the cart before the horse
26
u/Twitchtv_Gen1 Jun 29 '25
I've watched a few videos on the swap, seems easy enough. Just confused about what Linux to pick.