I have no experience with Linux, but I’d like to give it a try. I’m looking at the System76 Meerkat and Thelio with the Pop!_OS option.
I don’t see myself gaming on it because I have a Windows machine for just that. I’d mostly be using it for learning Linux and doing basic things like web surfing and word processing (Libreoffice perhaps).
Any recommendations or advice? Thanks!
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We have a 30 day return policy, so if you don’t like the Linux experience, you can return it for a refund. Customers have access to free customer support that can help with any issues you encounter. This is also an official community, so I may answer questions asked about Pop!_OS here.
I put Pop!_OS on a laptop for my (elderly) mum and she used it for years, never had any issues, every now and then I’d tell it to update to the new version and everything was just fine. In the same time period I would have had to fix a windows install several times.
Yes, I started off with Pop! As my first distro back when I started to use Linux. TBH you can’t really go wrong with Pop! Or Mint as your first choice.
You don’t need to buy a new computer just to learn Linux. You can create a bootable flash drive and install it on an external SSD and boot from the SSD when you need to use Linux. If you don’t want an external SSD, you can dual-boot and keep Linux on a separate partition on your machine.
In terms of distros, I’d recommend Ubuntu or Pop!_OS to get started with. Other distros like Elementary OS, Linux Mint, or Debian can be suitable as well.
Be warned though, windows update likes to remove other partitions from the bootloader (at least from grub) so that may cause some headaches
I’ve used a few different flavors of Linux, and I now use a System76 with Pop OS for work, and I’m quite happy with it. I don’t feel any need to change to anything else.
I found Pop! quite good for gaming, since it has a fairly recent kernel and the drivers built in. (Not as good as Arch, which I’m using now - it has cutting-edge everything and great documentation, but is not for newbies - some of its derivatives sand off the rough installation edges.) I do find the Gnome3 interface infuriating, but speaking as a Linux dev at a Linux company, there’s loads of my colleagues that have no problems with it, so YMMV.
Before shelling out on a laptop, I’d get yourself a Virtual Machine setup on Windows (VirtualBox works for me) and try out a few Linux instances. Dead easy to set them up, test various distros, and throw them away again, and if you foul it up, then no harm is done. Installation and setup will teach you a lot. Completely free, as well.
Documentation - the Debian adminstrator’s handbook is available free online, and the Arch documentation is extremely comprehensive and up-to-date.
And good luck!
Why is Arch better for gaming than Pop?
I find the main thing that’s important for gaming is having the latest kernel and drivers - for me with AMD, that means the open-source mesa ones. Pop! is excellent for having the cutting-edge version of these, Arch is superb, but really, that’s not much to quibble about, they’re both very good choices.
I’d rate these as ‘why Arch is better than Pop!’ for gaming; note that they are all pretty minimal improvements:
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doesn’t install anything you don’t want it to. The Arch ‘installer’ is basically a utility script that installs the packages you’d like on your new instance - doesn’t even include the kernel, in case you’re intending to run containerised. That’s not very friendly, but it does mean that I know what every running service does, because I chose to install it myself. It’s exactly the way I want it. That may matter to you for a gaming machine.
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I’ve some slightly weird USB audio on my main machine; PipeWire supports it better than PulseAudio. Arch doesn’t include either by default, so I don’t have to uninstall Pulse to install something else.
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similarly, I don’t like Gnome3, so I don’t have to uninstall it to install Cinnamon - Arch defaults to ‘neither’.
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utterly superb documentation.
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Thank you everyone for their input! I’m impressed by how thoughtful you all are here on Lemmy. I will read up on the links some of you provided and I’ll give a shot at trying Pop!_OS on a VM on my windows machine. If all goes well, I’m still leaning on either a Meerkat or Thelio since I know they will work out of the box. Again, thanks everyone!
If you want a cheap option, I just installed pop os on one of lenovo’s education edition thinkpads with zero issues. Everything just worked. They’re usually on sale, with the highest spec ones going for about $250. Even has a touchscreen with built in pen. It’s not blazingly fast, and is missing some bells and whistles (backlight keyboard, high res display, USB c charge port) but it has a rather good keyboard, it’s durable and cheap, and it will even boot off a micro SD, so you can try booting different linuxes without even touching your local install. And with linux, it’s fast enough you won’t know it wasn’t a fast machine unless you’re deliberately doing something you need speed for, like transcoding video or something. Oh, it also has an Ethernet port.
Anyway, I highly recommend them for learning linux on.
Definitely try pop on another computer for like a week or so before making a big purchase, it may not be for you after all, though from what you said on your usage, you will very likely have a good experience, you can never be too sure!
Look up how to dual boot popOS and Windows, there should be plenty of guides out there on YouTube or in text form
I think Pop OS Is the right distro to start and to stay for a long time
I liked this article. Choice advice for Linux first Timers.
I also tend to use Windows for gaming just because I’m too lazy to worry about potential compatibility issues, but depending on your machine you might find it useful to get some extra performance out of your games. Back when I played competitive TF2 on a junky old desktop I got way more consistent framerates with Ubuntu. (Wouldn’t recommend stock Ubuntu these days, it’s very bloated)
And supposedly, gaming on Linux is getting better all the time, especially since Valve released Proton and SteamOS. Like I said, too lazy to try it myself, but I’ve only heard good things. Maybe once they finally discontinue Win10.
I bought one of the tall meerkats in 2021 and have had no issues with it so far. The thing is fantastic for a work from home setup. It barely takes up any space on my desk and runs so smoothly for anything from basic office tasks (libreoffice, only office, office365 pwa whatever ya use), to analyzing MRI datasets, to light gaming, i.e. Stardew valley type games. Absolutely love the thing!
Edit: would also like to add that pop is super user friendly and a great choice as a beginner distro
I find Pop!_OS to be the best general purpose, non-server OS. Encryption out of the box, amazing low-level optimizations for desktop/laptop usage, native flatpak support, and their tiling/desktop hybrid is beyond awesome. Great for beginners but also great for anyone who wants a great Linux experience without all the hassle.
I think you would find a system76 machine to be a good choice overall, but if you are just learning you might want to start with the OS in a VM in windows and then progress before investing in hardware. You can try Pop out there if you like, or even with the live boot option to get a feel for it.
Personally I use my Thelio with gaming and the windows compatibility tools in steam. It works beyond great.
Yeah, just do it, it’s the best place to get a full experience from vendor support to a polished OS with help videos on YouTube to teach you how to do things like tiling. Nobody else comes close.
