Good afternoon.
Im want to install an open source operating system on my laptop and need to know which operating works best with eos.
I’m aware of Linux and Ubuntu and it will likely be one of these 2.
Any guidance for a noob is welcome.
Regards
Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/OS the deGoogled mobile OS and online services
My advise is Ubuntu Mate 24.04.2 LTS (gnome2 based) (Long Time Support)
Ubuntu because it is a “Standard”
Mate because i don’t like the default “Cinamon Ubuntu” interface (gnome3 based) that don’t include essentials apps / tools…
Coming from Microsoft world, Kubuntu (ubuntu with KDE) can be a more familiar interface
Ubuntu is a Linux distribution.
There are plenty of official “Ubuntu” flavors according to your personal tastes and needs. (Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu Studio, etc…) All will work pretty well with /e/OS like any Android device…
Also consider Linux Mint or Zorin OS (also based on Ubuntu, but not feed by Canonical) which also have good quotes from the audience.
Ubuntu is Linux 
If you want a full suite you can just us Ubuntu (LTS) Download Ubuntu Desktop | Ubuntu .
But I do like piero’s pick, it is for sure more lightweight than Ubuntu. I think I will try that tonight on a older Intel NUC I have.
Many Ubuntu supporters here ! Should one prefer “cleaner”, that is without the Canonical commercial support, one might consider https://www.debian.org/ on which Ubuntu is based.
Try Ubuntu or Fedora. Both are the most know of Linux’s distribution. For a noob, it’s perfect.
Choose Fedora. It’s a robust ans user-friendly operating system where you can install Nextcloud Client to synchronize Murena.
Whatever Linux distro you choose to install (for me, Ubuntu on my laptop, Debian on my server PC with Nextcloud) I would also suggest KDEConnect both in computer and phone: it will make easier to share files from each other device and to receive notifications from phone no the computer screen.
Thanks for the suggestion on KDE.
I use Pop_OS, an Ubuntu clone focused on privacy and very user friendly as it let’s install apps from their PopShop. However, when I connect my Fairphone with e/OS with USB to my laptop I cannot access files or photo’s or transfer them. Maybe I am doing something wrong here, because also on Windows I don’t get access.
Thank you, Piero. This solved the problem. I’ve seen the screen when installing e/OS. I wasn’t aware of the fact I had to activate it again. Thanks a lot.
Scroll the top bar when plugged, it is very small, smaller than usual notifications !
OR
you can set custom default USB settings…
I use Mint 22.1 Cinnamon as my daily driver and have been happy with it ; I have my older computer running pop_OS and that has also worked fine. My recommendation would be to identify a few different distros that look good to you and either run a live USB (so that it runs right from the removable media) or install them on a VM and play with them for a few days to see if you like how they feel. There’s no “right” Linux distro, the most important thing is that it fits your needs. I’m personally a fan of the Debian side of things because they feel more consumer friendly to me, but there’s also some really cool projects in the Fedora and Arch space.
To make a live USB, there’s lots of tutorials like this one (https://itsfoss.com/linux-mint-live-usb/) and generally they follow the same broad strokes.
Ubuntu is bundled with outdated software and doesn’t receive updates fast enough so you’ll always have problems trying to get updated software.
Fedora’s goal is to always run the very latest software, so you’ll not have to look for workarounds to get updated software.
If you’re feeling adventurous then you could try CachyOS which is based on Arch. It has a very active community on Discord that can help with anything.
I’m on Fedora and everything just works out of the box.
You’ll get hundreds of answers to this, if you’re unlucky. I’d recommend you select the distro mentioned the most here, as long as it is beginner friendly.
The most beginner friendly distro in my opinion is Linux Mint. This distro is also listed as the second most popular distros on Distrowatch.com. It is the most polished beginner-friendly distro I have tested.
By “Linux” do you mean “Linux Mint”? If so, I’d say that is a good choice. It is a distro that is based on Ubuntu but may be slightly friendlier to newcomers and its variants are supported with security patches for five years. Standard Ubuntu (“LTS”) also has support for five years but other variants come with only three years. If you pick a version of Ubuntu which is not designated as LTS (Long Term Support) it is supported for just 9 months. As I mentioned, all versions of Linux Mint are supported for five years.
Another difference is that Ubuntu pushes Snap packages as the preferred way of installing applications. Nothing wrong with that, but most other distros have gone with the Flatpak system as default (in addition to deb or rpm for binaries). Both Linux Mint and Ubuntu can use both types of packages though, if you decide to permit them, so as with most other differences it is mostly a matter of taste although Linux Mint might be considered slightly more mainstream in this regard.
Linux Mint, like Ubuntu, comes in different “flavours”. The flagship version Cinnamon Edition comes with the Cinnamon desktop, but for some reason I tend to prefer one of the more lightweight alternatives: MATE Edition and Xfce Edition.
Again, most Linux distros are great and you can’t really go wrong if you pick one of the distros already mentioned in this thread.
Mint - stable and good driver support but, I have found it can be fiddly to get the display settings right as I need everything larger on the screen than comes as standard. I prefer Mint LMDE based on Debian rather than Ubuntu, from a security perspective.
Ubuntu - is fine and I have had no problems with it but, prefer some of the other options - a great choice for a newbie.
Fedora - I like the UI - KDE Plasma. Very stable, well supported. But, you will need to make a tweak to add the control buttons to windows. One of my favourites.
Debian - Also a favourite. Very stable, secure and reliable. Fewer updates. Great, if you are not bothered about having the latest versions of software from the software repo.
The questions that you need to ask yourself are what you like and don’t like about your current system, and what could make it better. If you could specify that, then it would be easier to recommend one that you might like. There are many good systems but, they have different benefits and weaknesses.
Debian and latest versions: unstable is underrated as “almost” rolling distro. Preferable to Ubuntus release model too. It can get sec patches after stable, but in practice is close, in doubt pinning experimental or for browser using Mozillas apt repo or flatpak gives a tmp fix quickly.
