Hi all, thanks in advance for indulging a complete newbie! I’d like to try Linux on an 11-year-old MacBook Pro (gifted by a relative), but I don’t know where to start. What distribution would you recommend based on my background?
-Coming from the Mac world; haven’t used a PC/Windows since before the pandemic. I’d prefer something that feels similar to MacOS.
-Not a techie. I’ve forgotten everything (everything!) I ever learned about command line because I never ended up needing to use it, and I haven’t had to debug anything in a long time.
-What I’ll be using it for: accessing the internet, various kinds of creative projects that I’ll probably try making with FOSS software (something I’ve only recently started to look into), and making another attempt at learning programming (my interest will probably peter out before I get anywhere with it, though, because that’s what happened the last two times). Probably won’t be gaming. I’d prefer having the option to use mainstream office software in case anything happens to my current computer, but I don’t actually expect anything to happen to it in the next few years, so that’s just a nice-to-have.
-Priorities: works on old Mac hardware, good for privacy, decent software availability, not buggy, ability to avoid generative AI (i.e., no repeat of Apple installing the Image Playground app on my computer along with a software update, without the ability to remove it.)
It seems like a lot of people recommend Ubuntu or Linux Mint to beginners, but I’m seeing some people complaining that Ubuntu is has spyware(?) and forces things users don’t want, and it seems like Linux Mint is usually recommended to people coming from Windows, so IDK if either of those make sense for me. Advice/recommendations appreciated!
For starters if you are dual booting with Mac OSX you’ll need to use rEFInd Boot Manager. This is something you’ll usually be asked to select at install, so don’t sweat this part too much.
When you mention wanting a Mac like experience, I’d recommend going with Gnome Desktop. That’s going to have a familiar look and feel to you.
There is a custom flavor of Gnome called Cosmic by System76. It was designed for their distro Pop!_OS and has been very popular. Cosmic basically came about by System76 not being happy with how Gnome did some things that didn’t fit their needs.
Most distros (versions of Linux) will allow you to install whatever DE (Desktop Environment) you want.
As you mentioned Linux Mint comes up a lot, which ships with Cinnamon DE which is based on GNOME 3, but modified to look a little more traditional in the Windows sense of things. There is also an alternate version of Mint that ships with a custom version of MATE, a DE that is based on Gnome 2, but that may feel a bit dated to you.
Distros to consider:
Fedora - very well maintained and stable distro.
Offers Gnome (or other desktop environment of choice)
Offers Atomic options. Atomic or immutable distros are a newer thing that basically ensures there’s always a path to roll back on in case something gets messed up. There’s a bit to read here about all the benefits of this, but worth looking into.
Fedora Silverblue ships with Gnome and is atomic
Fedora Cosmic ships with Cosmic and is atomic
Pop!_OS by System76 is pretty popular and easy to get running. Popular with people looking for gaming, tho I know you mentioned you’re not doing that. Ships with Cosmic Desktop. Definitely worth a look into.
Thanks for all of this! Yeah, I’m not sure whether I’ll need to dual boot or not since this won’t be my main work computer, but I’ll keep that in mind.
Everyone seems to be recommending Gnome. I’ll check out Cosmic too. At first glance, it looks pretty cool, but I don’t totally know what I’m looking for yet since I haven’t really had to look at desktop environment choices before.
re Fedora - very well maintained and stable sounds excellent! I’m assuming this applies to both Fedora Silverblue and Fedora Cosmic? Might look into Pop!_OS as well, if it’s popular I’m guessing I could find resources to troubleshoot anything that goes wrong.
I’m curious about Atomic options. That sounds like a great option for someone who’s kinda worried about screwing things up, especially if I really do get into programming this time and fall into the rabbit hole of fiddling with computer things. I’ll definitely read up on that.