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Is Linux (dumb)user friendly yet?

So I’m building a new computer before the end of the year and lemmy is obviously pushing me towards Linux.

I am not computer savvy, I have a family member that will help me set up my PC, but I do not want to be calling/messaging them every day when I want to open a program.

Basically my question comes down to: can I operate a Linux PC these days without needing to troubleshoot or type code.

I use my computer about once a week for a few hours I would say, so any time spent troubleshooting is time wasted.

Thanks!

EDIT: since a lot of people are asking what programs I typically use, I’ll just list my most used programs.

Word, Excel, ect(I’m fine with alternatives)

Spotify

Gimp (would have been a make or break, so I’m glad it’s supported)

Brave browser (browser is a browser)

Steam

Discord

I would say that while I could figure out how the kernels work, I’m at a point with computers these days where I don’t have the time. My priorities fall with a seamless daily experience. If I have the time to figure something out I can, but ideally my day to day usage being unbotherd is what I’m after.

A lot of the comments so far have been helpful! I’m definitely going to give Linux a fair shot with my new build, probably start with Mint.

just_another_person , (edited )

I assume you’re talking about Desktop Environments. Yes, of course. KDE and Gnome rival MacOS as far as usability goes. The better part is that other software development groups port their software over to Linux as well and make it as seamless as possible.

People run into confusion here when people flood the comments on user questions like this, so let me shut that down right now.

If you need something that is a straight Desktop Environment, get a distro with KDE or Gnome, and a known OS that will have a lot of user base getting questions and answers if you even run into any.

Fedora or Ubuntu. Don’t listen to anyone arguing for their preferred favorites.

Don’t listen to performance comments.

You want a solid, no issues, not needing to look for help kind of distro. It’s those two, no question, and they both have KDE and Gnome variants.

That’s really about it.

wulf ,

Fully agree with this. There will be a slight learning curve since it will be different from what your used to, but it’s friendly enough to figure out.

If you know the windows program you want to use just search something like “Linux alternative for x” (sometimes there is specific KDE or Gnome progs)

thayerw ,

I would maybe add Linux Mint to that list, but otherwise you’re spot on. Fedora and Ubuntu are the easiest and most robust systems for novice computer users.

just_another_person ,

Linux Mint is Ubuntu with specific changes.

Feathercrown ,

That’s how all distros work. They exist so that you don’t have to make changes yourself.

subtext ,

Only thing I might add would be potentially Bluefin. It is Fedora with Gnome, except Atomic. It markets itself as:

The best of both worlds: the reliability and ease of use of a Chromebook, with the power of a GNOME desktop.

It’s been fantastic for me with automatic updates and everything installed through flathub so you don’t bork your system with any misconfigured installs.

projectbluefin.io

just_another_person , (edited )

No. This is your own spin.

Why the fuck can’t y’all just let people have it easy and try shit out before you feel you MUST say your piece about your own fucking experience and offer complicated alternatives?

Fedora and Ubuntu for beginners. That’s it. Nobody’s asking for performance or immutable bullshit until you confused them with it. STFU!

subtext ,

Well this is literally Fedora, and I offered it for consideration, not a recommendation. This seems a tad hostile.

just_another_person ,

*Immutable. Get lost.

subtext ,

Also: should you wish for something with Fedora literally in the name, Fedora Silverblue and Fedora Kionite are the upstream—published by the Fedora Project—versions of Bluefin that use GNOME and KDE, respectively.

Either could be an excellent choice should you wish for

Atomic

The whole system is updated in one go, and an update will not apply if anything goes wrong, meaning you will always have a working computer.

fedoraproject.org/atomic-desktops/silverblue/

fedoraproject.org/atomic-desktops/kinoite/

JustMarkov ,

There’s also a KDE spin called Aurora: getaurora.dev

deadbeef79000 ,

Yes it is. Pick a newbie friendly distribution. Say Ubuntu.

IMHO Windows is only “user friendly” because it’s preinstalled on most PC’s.

User friendliness comes with experience.

SandbagTiara2816 ,

What do you typically use your computer for? That’s going to have a major impact. If it’s pretty basic stuff (web browsing, text editing, etc) you shouldn’t have any issue. If it’s something that’s more complicated or unusual, then sometimes it’s easy to do and sometimes not, depending on what you want to do. In general, a little bit of comfort searching the web and working in the command line helps a lot with troubleshooting Linux

cabbage ,
@cabbage@piefed.social avatar

A test could be to start by using Libre software on Windows.

Switch to LibbreOffice or some other alternative instead of Word. Gimp, Inkscape, and Krita for graphical stuff. Whatever proprietary software you use, check if it exists for Linux; if not, see if you can find an alternative you're happy with.

For the people I know, Word is the biggest deal breaker.

jalapeno_popper561 ,

Linux Mint is pretty user friendly. I’m also not a fan of typing code, but so far the only thing I’ve HAD to use terminal for came with really easy instructions and the commands were listed out (like a recipe) so all I had to do was copy/paste and things worked out just fine.

The 1 issue I ran into was upgrading from LM 21.3 to 22. I had to go back to 21.3 because 22 couldn’t connect to wifi (I’m guessing because my machine is old) but 21.3 works perfect. My other machine is a lot newer and just about to the end of its warranty period, so once that’s up I plan to switch that one to Linux as well.

boredsquirrel ,
@boredsquirrel@slrpnk.net avatar

I guess uBlues main images are. I use Fedora Atomic Kinoite, which is not ready at all.

GustavoM ,
@GustavoM@lemmy.world avatar

If you mean “dumb friendly” by “An exact Windows clone”… there are plenty of “Windowslike” Linux distros out there.

If you mean “user friendly” by “Easy to understand by any user”… then yes, (any) Linux distro is user friendly as is.

PoorlyWrittenPapyrus , (edited )

It could not be simpler.

My grandfather in law kept getting scammed and installing viruses while on Windows. I installed Linux Mint on his desktop last year, setup automatic updates, created a non admin account for him, changed a few easy configurations to hide the technical stuff that appears when you turn the computer on, and he fucking loves it.

Keep in mind getting this man to login to Netflix on his TV is a minimum 30 minute long phone call. One time, we had to send people to check on him because his phone was off for 3 days straight; he put it on airplane mode and couldn’t figure out how to turn it off.

He has had 0, yes, exactly 0, problems with his computer since I installed Linux Mint. It’s faster, to point where he noticed and commented on it, and he finds it easier to use than Windows, which has been on every computer he has ever owned.

He brags to anyone who will give him the time of day how much he loves it.

I promise you, it’s really that easy.

wazzupdog ,

I had a friend who was about as computer illiterate as they come, they had a crappy gateway laptop(netbook maybe) that had kubuntu on it they preferred it to when they had win vista(yes this was forever ago, i replaced vista with kubuntu because it was lighter than gnome at the time) they loved the kde interface and most of what they did was Myspace Tumblr and Facebook, but even they managed to figure out play on Linux and wine after a few months

vzq ,

Most operating systems these days are just micro-kernels to run the actual operating system, your browser. Most users will be perfectly happy using whatever in most cases as long as you can get one of the major browsers on it.

If they have special requirements, then you need to figure them out first.

Telorand ,

Yes. If you want something easy, look at:

  • Pop!_OS (Ubuntu-based, great for newbies)
  • Linux Mint (Ubuntu-based, great for newbies)
  • Spiral Linux (Debian, easy to set up, rock solid)
  • Aurora (Fedora Atomic based, hard to break, automatic updates)
theshatterstone54 ,

Never heard of Spiral, and I’ve heard of a lot of distros, so I’d steer clear of projects like it, that are new and/or niche, as there will be lower reliability and support available. Aurora is also pretty new, but it (and Fedora Atomic, and uBlue in general) has a strong community, so I’m more likely to trust them.

PopOS and Linux Mint get a thumbs up from me.

Telorand ,

Spiral is to Debian as Endeavor is to Arch. It’s a painless way to get Debian (bookworm) set up.

dhhyfddehhfyy4673 ,

Linux Mint w/ Cinnamon is a pretty painless transition.

bloodfart ,

Everyone is saying yes.

They are wrong.

You will absolutely have to troubleshoot in order to figure out how to do what you want to do.

Linux is different than windows or macos and you’re gonna have to gain an understanding (however dumbed down you might describe it) of those differences in order to use the computer.

If you can get over that hump of understanding then I think you’ll be fine.

theshatterstone54 ,

They are wrong.

The sad truth. Enough said. Linux is still not there, as much as we’d like to pretend it is. And it’s especially not there for dumb users.

cabbage ,
@cabbage@piefed.social avatar

Dumb user here. I completely disagree with this.

I was using Ubuntu for a few years, now I'm on Fedora. I don't really know how to do anything. For my needs it's just very easy.

Maybe my needs just aren't sophisticated enough for me to encounter all those problems I'm supposed to be having. But I've been using it for years and my experience is that it really just works.

christian ,
@christian@lemmy.ml avatar

While there’s a little bit of getting acclimated to slightly different programs for the same tasks, I kind of imagine sophisticated needs primarily comes down to hardware. A company making some sort of computer hardware doohickey might design and test and provide support for something with Windows/Mac in mind, and maybe for other operating systems they’re not cooperative with documenting support, under the mindset that it would reveal trade secrets or decrease shareholder value in some other way. Linux support then comes from other means like reverse engineering. This could mean that it will take time before all the kinks are ironed out, or if the product was short-lived the linux community might not care enough to have someone volunteer to keep up with support. Common, time-tested hardware will have good support. Plugging in some old printer that was discontinued shortly after launch will be more of a crapshoot.

cabbage ,
@cabbage@piefed.social avatar

Yeah. I've double checked that my last few laptops worked well with Linux before buying them. But I don't buy very flashy technology, so it was never really any question.

My printer is from Brother, and it's just plug and play. At work it's all web print and has been since I started working for pay, really.

ColdWater ,
@ColdWater@lemmy.ca avatar

Another dumb user here Been using Arch for a year now, things just works without much tinkering… mostly

cabbage ,
@cabbage@piefed.social avatar

If you're ok Arch I guess it at least signals a willingness to learn! I would never dare to go there haha.

Enkers , (edited )

I’ve got to agree with this. I love Linux and have run it on my servers for years. That said, I’ve got Mint on my laptop and tried to print an image over wifi at a friend’s place and could not for the life of me get it to print properly.

For the most part things do just work, but there are a lot more “obscure” scenarios that are handled correctly in windows but not Linux.

I also find that when things go wrong on Linux, they are harder to fix. I’ve had several times I’ve had to deal with circular dependency hell to get something to install properly. I did eventually get those problems resolved, but it was often a single person having a tangential problem that hinted me to how to solve it.

Edit: I think if your usage patterns are straight forward enough, it is by far and away the better choice. If you do the same stuff all the time, it’ll pretty much never break, which is not something I could say about windows. So for OP, it sounds like it would be a good fit.

Dagnet ,

I consider myself a reasonably tech literate user and tried to set up dual boot on my pc using a whole separate ssd just for Linux to be safe. Installing it went fine but GRUB wouldn’t let me boot into windows, somehow the instalation nuked my windows boot partition and no amount of repairing would work, I had to completely reinstall Windows and now I’m seriously worried of trying Linux again.

bloodfart ,

That sucks. I’ve done that a lot of times by either not understanding what I was doing or fat fingering some decision.

If you do decide to try again, tag me and I’ll set up a vm environment similar to yours and walk you through any confusing steps.

just_another_person ,

Dude, your wrong. Not what OP was asking about.

Desktop light usage only. DFQOH and don’t come back.

deadbeef79000 ,

DFQOH

I can’t work out what this an acronym for. Please help!

GustavoM ,
@GustavoM@lemmy.world avatar

So you are saying that dumbs can’t read? Because hey, that is all it takes to troubleshoot a problem on linux.

Thus, even your grandmother can “do google” nowadays.

spittingimage ,
@spittingimage@lemmy.world avatar

If you pick a new user-friendly distro, nine times out of ten it’ll run like a dream out of the box.

If you want to change something minor like a desktop background, you might need to search through menus for the settings or ask for advice.

If you want to install new hardware, like swapping in a new video card, you’ll definitely need some assistance.

bstix ,

Yes. Linux Mint works “straight out of the box”.

It comes with a preinstalled browser (Firefox), so if you only use your computer for online stuff, then you dont need to do anything at all. Just use it.

The only technical thing you might want to do is to enter the WiFi password and find the software manager to install any additional apps you need.If you can install apps on your phone, then you can also install apps on Linux Mint.

I actually found that it was a lot easier to install Mint than setting up a new Windows pc. The most difficult part was using a windows pc to download it and making a bootable USB stick. Your friend can help you with that or you can follow a guide.

I have had zero issues and I have never written a single command line. It just works.

pr06lefs ,

No more tricky than windows these days. Nice thing is there’s a lack of commercial BS - spyware, ads, unwanted apps etc. And pretty much no matter how old your computer gets, you can still run brand new linux on it.

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