So ive use windows pretty much for everything and ive kinda had a enough of windows. i was thinking of trying linux on an old laptop that i just upgraded to 8gb of ram and im not sure wha tos to put on it. i was thinking something lightweight maybe ubuntu mate? i need somethign like windows that will allow me to game and do other things liek gaming maybe even streaming or reading? idk. also what are some neede dsoftware, browser so rthigs needed for linux. i com efrom a family who has never trie dlinux and hates it because its “the smar advanced coders os” somethign liek that.
anyways im a noob so go easy on me please als i may have ben linux distro hopping but i still feel lost.
Linux mint is amazing for you, I personally would say its better than zorin
Zorin is designed to be a Windows replacement, but my personal recommendation is LinuxMint. Sure it’s not trying to be a carbon copy of Windows, but it’s designed to be easy to learn, stable, functional, and support pretty much everything from the get go (just not bleeding edge), with a readily available store that lets you download everything you need (that isn’t already included in the install).
Linux Mint Cinnamon is a good choice. Even as a sysadmin and DevOps engineer I use it on my workstation because it Just Works. It has good window management, settings management, file management and just stays out of the way. Flatpak is well integrated for things you may need that aren’t natively packaged, like discord.
Made me remember this classic post!
This reads line the “Am I out of touch” image macro. “No, it is the new users who are wrong !”
I would recommend that you check out Linux Mint. It is based on Ubuntu, but is in my experience easier to use out of the box.
They have a MATE version on their website.
A lot can boot from a usb stick and you can look at them. Linux Mint should look very familiar to a Windows user. Their main edition is Cinnamon, however they have an Xfce version that is lightweight. Xubuntu is another option that is also using Xfce. Ubuntu Mate is an option but it will be less familiar out of the box and with more of a learning curve.
Most distributions will support your use case, but how old the laptop is might influence how well they run. That said, even full GNOME can run perfectly fine on older systems.
The similarity is really only superficial. You would have to learn about the OS one way or the other, even if some distro has Interfaces similar to Windows. You might need to find software alternatives for example, or be comfortable with package manager.
For gaming, you want to checkout Steam w/ Proton and Heroic Game Launcher
So, how deep does the “similar to Windows” needs to go? Are you thinking in terms of ease of use, things that works out of the box, something that looks similar to Windows?
In terms of look and feel, I’d recommend something based on KDE. KDE out of the box looks a lot like Windows (in fact, Windows 11 has some stuff that looks like it’s been ripped off KDE) Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Manjaro and Mint all have KDE versions you can install. I think Cinnamon also looks a fair bit like Windows. Although I wouldn’t exactly rule out other desktops just yet - maybe you’ll quickly realize hey, that other desktop I tried does look and function pretty neatly for my needs and you won’t feel like you need something that looks like Windows.
In terms of tutorials and being able to look things up online, Ubuntu and Manjaro tends to be the two most popular and therefore most documented. pop_OS! is also fairly popular and they do a good job at making Linux accessible for newcomers, but it’s based on Gnome so the experience will be different.
My personal advice is get VirtualBox, pick a few distros and try them out. You won’t exactly be able to game on them, or if you do, you’ll probably be limited to more lightweight games. But that should be plenty enough to install Discord, OBS, Steam and give a few distros a try. You can expect real world performance to mostly feel more responsive than Windows, and for games you can expect similar or maybe 5-10% lower performance in most cases. So don’t look too much at how fast it runs in a VM - VMs are fantastic piece of technology (and I actually game in one with a VFIO setup, but don’t bother just yet it’s a whole rabbithole), but especially under VirtualBox or VMware you’re not going to get the full performance.
Try a bunch of distros, try a few of the main Desktop Environments (DEs), see what you like, see what you dislike. Gnome on Ubuntu will be very different than Gnome on Fedora. Don’t rule out a distro because the DE, and don’t rule out a DE because of a distro. You can install as many as you want in VirtualBox, so take your time to get a feel of what you like and dislike and go from there. Once you’ve made your choice, you can partition your disk and keep Windows around if you want to have that safety net. Sometimes there’s that one game that just won’t work in Linux, and you can reboot to Windows to play it. I started this way, and found myself rebooting to Windows less and less until I reached a point where I was actively avoiding it and willing to make sacrifices just to avoid it because Linux had become my primary OS. If you have 2-3 distros you want to try, nothing stops you from installing all of them on hardware as well, they’ll happily cohabitate for the most part. Spend a day in Ubuntu, spend another day in Manjaro. Get a feel of which one has less friction for you.
In the end, Linux is Linux. Some distros ships everything you need for gaming out of the box and are easier to set up, but ultimately, Linux is Linux, you can (with some effort) get anything that runs on one distro on another distro. Heck, on ArchLinux land, we have a whole bunch of Ubuntu-patched packages in the AUR to bring in some of Ubuntu’s modifications in.
Speaking of ArchLinux. It’s a pretty good distro, it’s also become a bit of a meme distro. Don’t feel like you have to jump in all the way and get into ArchLinux, Gentoo, VoidLinux, Alpine, etc. You can if you want - honestly, if you really want to dive in deep and learn Linux from the ground up they will get you there, but beware that the learning curve on that will be steep. Those distros are aimed at more advanced users that want to control every aspect of their system in great detail. There’s no shame using a normie distro like Ubuntu or Fedora. Those are made to just kinda work and be reliable, whereas the ArchLinux installer is basically “here’s a command line, install what you want, good luck have fun”.
You don’t have to “commit” to a distro. For some it becomes a bit of a religion, but it’s perfectly normal to hop around distros a bit before you find the one that clicks with you. That’s why there’s so many of them: different goals for different people and different minds. I started with Ubuntu in 2007, ran to Debian around 2010 when they introduced Unity and I didn’t like it, wasn’t a fan of Debian either, ended up breaking it with Debian Sid, went to Fedora for a bit, and back to Ubuntu with a different DE before I felt like I had enough and wanted something I had more control over, and that’s when I switched to Arch and stayed on Arch to this day. Meanwhile my fiancée put Arch on her laptop but increasingly feels like it’s too much maintenance for her and wants a laptop that just kinda works to run Chromium and VSCode. So she might end up just switching to Ubuntu. That’s perfectly fine! The computer should work for you, you shouldn’t work for the computer.
If you end up not liking Linux, that’s fine too! Most of us here swear by it, but maybe Windows just happens to be the best operating system for you, just like for some people that’s macOS.
With that, good luck, hope you enjoy your Linux experience and ask questions. Lemmy is a great place to ask for help, there’s also lots of still very active IRC channels on libera.chat, and there’s some Discord servers too if that’s your thing.
If you want a familiar Windows-like experience, the general consensus is that Mint and Zorin are the best for helping people transitioning. Lightweight-wise, Mint MATE, Xubuntu, or Lubuntu would work. Could install MATE, LXDE, or XFCE on Arch, too. Might be a Fedora spin, too, for some or all of those.
If you want super lightweight, Void is awesome to play with, but you have to get it going yourself somewhat like old-school Arch. It’s definitely more advanced, but worth doing for the learning.
No.
Linux is not Windows. Don’t try to make Windows from Linux. It can be visually similar, but it will never be the same. Don’t expect a seamless migration. Stay on Windows or be ready to learn new things.
There are excellent suggestions in this thread. However, I want you to change your mindset. What you’re asking is like “I don’t want to drive my car. I’m sick of 4 wheelers. I want to ride this new thing called a motorbike. What are some good motorbikes? It should have AC and the safety and comfort of my previous car. Also are there any 4 seater bikes which is family friendly?”
When you are shifting from one platform, please be prepared to make some changes in the way you normally operate. You can’t magically expect the new platform to be perfect when you have a decade of experience in the previous platform.
I wish you all the best in your Linux journey.
Mint (cinnamon) is really nice, has a Windows like look and feel. Stable and friendly 👍
People usually recommend Linux mint or some Ubuntu version. I recommend neither.
Ubuntu is a proprietary-solution-ridden piece of hot garbage that tries to hinders what you do at any chance. I use it daily for work, unfortunately.
It’s been a few years since I tried mint. It looked good and felt nice for the first few hours, after that I don’t remember what happened, it was maybe lack of configurabilità or lack of support, but I noped out very quickly and I just remember that my thoughts were “never again”.
I never tried it, but it looks like Pop!_OS might be the thing to look out for in this space.
Besides that, know that Linux is different from windows starting from its very philosophy. Keep an open mind, it can be a confusing journey for a beginner (which is why I am holding back about telling you about the many possibilities).
One thing to keep in mind is that some software that you were used to will not be available, and that you might need to look for alternatives. But as far as the things you mentioned go, these are my recommendations:
- browser: Firefox
- gaming: steam
- streaming: OBS
I think that linux mint will be perfect for you!
ZorinOS or Linux Mint. Both are rock solid and very friendly to windows users :)
