What kind of tech stuff do you guys do?

That's kind of the double-edged sword of arch. There is a lot of activity at the beginning, but then the computer only does what you want, and you have to do very little to maintain it. The ONLY programs on my computers are ones that I installed.

 

I was laughing about this post earlier. I had no intention of coming in here and flexing on everyone because I run Arch. That may mean something in Linux circles, but it shouldn't have meant anything here. Lol

But also don't believe the hype. It's not as difficult as people make it out to be. Especially once it's up and running.

 

Debian is a GREAT distro. One of the oldest and most-trusted distributions out there.

In fact, it was on that server computer until I decided I wanted to try a little experiment with Arch.

Under Debian, it was up for probably four or five months straight serving up files and movies to the household 24/7...the only maintenance I did was a reboot on Sunday nights just because it's good to occasionally reboot stuff. Lol

Zero issues. And it's the distro I will immediately install if this Arch experiment blows up in my face.

 

Mint is always my go-to for new folks on a full pc. If you're going raspberry pi, raspberry pi OS (formerly called "Raspbian" because it's based on Debian) is a great choice.

More recently, I have heard great things about Zorin and Pop OS for new people on full PCs, but I have no personal experience with that.

My idea has always been if they were on Windows, put them on Mint. If they were on iOS, put them on Ubuntu...but Ubuntu has been making some kind of questionable decisions the last few years, so I find it hard to recommend them.

But in the end, it's more about desktop environment than it is the distro. Some distros have good tweaks for the desktops, though. Ubuntu does great with Gnome...a pity they are being weird.

But if you were on Windows, Cinnamon desktop on Mint to start, then maybe KDE Neon once you have the basics down.

Unfortunately, Mint doesn't support KDE currently, so you'll have to jump ship eventually. But once you have Mint down, you'll be good no matter the distro.

And then some people stay on Mint because it's perfect for them. There are no wrong choices.