RX 9070 when it comes out, Mint is good but there are so many good options. I suggest using cachyos and trying out all the DEs so you pick something you like. Although you don’t have to stick with CachyOS if you don’t want to.
A mistake people make very often is to conflate the distro with a “look” or “theme” to the UI, and it’s not their fault.
Distros bundle a desktop environment which contains many applications used to navigate the computer graphically with things like “file managers” such as Windows explorer for example.
A DE can bundle lots of programs or very few and these programs differ in looks and functionality, not only that but these programs can be installed / uninstalled regardless of what distro you’re using.
In short: distro doesn’t affect DE but must distros bundle a DE based on things like philosophy, functionality or maybe just looks.
There are many DEs which is why I suggested installing CachyOS as part of the installation shows you options, you can try them out rewipe the drive, try out another one in less than 3 minutes. So it’s the perfect sandbox environment to try new things. I guess you can use VMs as well, not sure how well cachyos works on VM.
As a personal note on DEs when I first used Linux about 5 years ago I used KDE plasma because I thought it was the most windows-like. But I had many issues with KDE, chances are if you use your search engine you’ll see similar complaints about it which I likely share.
5 years in the future my favourite DE is basically using Sway and a file manager like Nautilus. Sway has Swaybar as a status bar and that’s really all I need.
Not sure if Sway counts as a DE though, I think it’s a window manager first and foremost.
DE is short for desktop environment. Essentially it’s the type of GUI you use. GNOME and KDE are the most popular, but there’s many others.
GNOME is the most common, while KDE is more powerful, very customizable, and will feel more like Windows (for example, it has a taskbar similar to the Windows one).
I’d recommend looking at screenshots, then trying some live DVDs and seeing what you like best. A live DVD is a Linux system you can boot from a DVD and try out without installing it. IMO one of the best ways to try several desktop environments is by using Fedora, since they have a bunch of different desktop environments available (see https://fedoraproject.org/spins ).
For a brand new user, I’d recommend Linux Mint. It’s a good distro for beginners.
RX 9070 when it comes out, Mint is good but there are so many good options. I suggest using cachyos and trying out all the DEs so you pick something you like. Although you don’t have to stick with CachyOS if you don’t want to.
What does DEs stand for? I’m very new to Linux.
A mistake people make very often is to conflate the distro with a “look” or “theme” to the UI, and it’s not their fault.
Distros bundle a desktop environment which contains many applications used to navigate the computer graphically with things like “file managers” such as Windows explorer for example.
A DE can bundle lots of programs or very few and these programs differ in looks and functionality, not only that but these programs can be installed / uninstalled regardless of what distro you’re using.
In short: distro doesn’t affect DE but must distros bundle a DE based on things like philosophy, functionality or maybe just looks.
There are many DEs which is why I suggested installing CachyOS as part of the installation shows you options, you can try them out rewipe the drive, try out another one in less than 3 minutes. So it’s the perfect sandbox environment to try new things. I guess you can use VMs as well, not sure how well cachyos works on VM.
As a personal note on DEs when I first used Linux about 5 years ago I used KDE plasma because I thought it was the most windows-like. But I had many issues with KDE, chances are if you use your search engine you’ll see similar complaints about it which I likely share.
5 years in the future my favourite DE is basically using Sway and a file manager like Nautilus. Sway has Swaybar as a status bar and that’s really all I need.
Not sure if Sway counts as a DE though, I think it’s a window manager first and foremost.
DE is short for desktop environment. Essentially it’s the type of GUI you use. GNOME and KDE are the most popular, but there’s many others.
GNOME is the most common, while KDE is more powerful, very customizable, and will feel more like Windows (for example, it has a taskbar similar to the Windows one).
I’d recommend looking at screenshots, then trying some live DVDs and seeing what you like best. A live DVD is a Linux system you can boot from a DVD and try out without installing it. IMO one of the best ways to try several desktop environments is by using Fedora, since they have a bunch of different desktop environments available (see https://fedoraproject.org/spins ).
For a brand new user, I’d recommend Linux Mint. It’s a good distro for beginners.