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What's the best Linux distro for Windows users?

Madza on January 15, 2021

What Linux distros would you suggest for the users looking to migrate from Windows? It's best if you could suggest something similar UI/UX-wise.

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Shahid Siddique • Edited

Try Linuxfx, UI is same as Windows 10

distrowatch.com/table.php?distribu...

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Raghavan alias Saravanan Muthu

Interesting. Thanks for sharing

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madza profile image
Madza • Edited

Looks great 😉

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siddiqueshahid profile image
Shahid Siddique

haven't used it myself.

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Tomas Sirio

Do you want to start using Linux? Then try Ubuntu or Pop-Os. Both are Debian distributions which are documented all over the internet.

Do you want to have a 'Windowsy' feeling? Then try Zorin-Os

Do you want to have a 'MacOsy' feeling? Then try Elementary-Os

Don't feel discouraged about the amount of Linux distributions there are out there. Linux is a pretty customizable OS and you'll find out sooner or later what do you like and what not.

I'd give Ubuntu a try as my first choice since it's the 'easiest' one

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Mat Borowiak

WSL Ubuntu + Windows Terminal = ❤
The performance of this solution is amazing.

For those who don't know:
ubuntu.com/wsl

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Raghavan alias Saravanan Muthu

Yes just to get a linux experience on linux. Be mindful of the fact that this WSL is a customized wrapper and has it's own restrictions.

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Mat Borowiak

I guess the main purpose is to be able to work within linux dev environment when programming, when you are attatched to Windows for different reasons. I personally have never experienced any restrictions in that area yet. Woud you be so kind to name some? I am honestly curious about it 😃

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Rishit Khandelwal

WSL is incomplete, you don't get hardware access (according to my memory).

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Anderlik Sándor

I would recommend Linux Mint or Ubuntu :)

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Matt Curcio

Love Mint!
I used to play with a new different distro every month,
but now I just want my computer to just work, so that I can get down to work.

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madza profile image
Madza

Linux Mint was my initial thought too 😉

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Pacharapol Withayasakpunt • Edited

I would recommend Ubuntu with default GNOME 3.

Forget about Windows looks. Focus more on out of the box experience and community support.

(Actually, if possible, I would recommend macOS. I haven't tried Hackintosh to recommend it.)

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Jan Küster

Two considerations you might want to investigate:

  • do you want all-inclusive out-of-the-box or start lean and configure a lot?
  • do you prefer a minimalistic desktop or a full-blown desktop

You should consider these questions, based on what you liked about Windows 10 and what not. Then you could add these preferences, so suggestions will be closer to meet your expectations.

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Ben Sinclair

If you want to use it as WSL, I'd say Ubuntu. It's not my favourite distro, but what's run under WSL is fairly approximate anyway, and Ubuntu is going to have the most support.

If you want to run it standalone, it honestly doesn't matter what distro you get but Gnome is probably the simplest desktop environment, or XFCE if you want something more like the classic Windows XP look and feel.

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Mohamed Ashiq Sultan

Use WSL2 if you need Windows for office and Linux only for development purpose. Docker, VS-Code support WSL2. You can even containerize a dev environment in WSL2 using VSCode and Docker.

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Paptoos Inc.

LinuxFx like windows 10
forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/20...
Zorin Os is like windows ui too
zorinos.com/

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Miloslav 🏳️‍🌈 🦋 Voloskov

Yes, Zorin OS looks really good.

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Reinhart Previano K. • Edited

For starters I generally recommend Ubuntu or Fedora-based operating system with KDE, for example Kubuntu or KDE Neon. Here's a screenshot of my desktop running KDE Plasma 5.19.5 on Ubuntu 20.04.

Desktop screenshot

However, if you feel that you have a less-powerful machine (e.g. those without dedicated GPUs) I usually recommend XFCE-based Ubuntu distros such as Xubuntu and Linux Lite.

I usually don't recommend Debian-based distros, except some such as MX Linux. Since Debian highly focuses on stability rather than frequent feature updates, some software in their repository may not be as updated as those in Ubuntu, including WINE (winehq-stable) which allows some Windows (.exe) programs to work under Linux. However, there is a workaround for this by manually adding new package sources/repository on APT.

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raddevus

I started using Windows back in 1993 with Win 3.1 and have used every Windows OS except (win98 and winME). I even had a laptop with Vista. However, after all those years of using Windows I finally switched to Ubuntu (running Gnome 3.x desktop) and have been very happy. There were a few challenges right at the beginning with a video card driver (but mine is NVidia so it worked out fine.
Ubuntu 20.04 (current) is fantastic and you will be amazed and how much better it performs. I am an Android developer and Android Studio runs so much better on Linux than windows. But I'm also a C# developer and I use Visual Studio Code for that and everything else. There is very little you will miss on win10.

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Jonathan Boudreau • Edited

ZorinOS is probably the closest I can think of UI-wise. It is based on Ubuntu LTS so the terminal should still be relatively familiar if you know Ubuntu.

If you're feeling adventurous give Pop!_OS a spin. I've found it great if you just want to get things done and like to play games once in a while.

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Tushar Tyagi • Edited

I would recommend Arch based distros if not vanilla Arch. Use EndeavourOS or manjaro. As for Desktop Environment in terms of fimilar UX/UI, KDE is your best choice but it will require heavy customization but in the end it would be worth it. If you prefer something aesthetically pleasing out of the box, then go for Deepin (but last time I checked it was little buggy in other OSes).
Also, I would recommend PopOS over Ubuntu.

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Heiker

Q4OS. They really try to be close to windows in terms of UI. It also provides a few utilities that make life a bit easier. Based on debian stable, so it should be pretty stable (I've only tried for a few weeks). Also, they have an installer that works inside windows, so you can install the OS in the same partition as windows (here is youtube video of that).

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Kiran Sethumadhavan

Ubuntu is the best for windows users .I have recently switched from windows to Ubuntu , im never going back to windows

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Prathamesh Mali

PopOs ftw

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Mauro Garcia

I usually read a lot that Mint is a good option. Maybe another good one could be Manjaro (great UI) or Deepin (also focused on provide a lot of convenience features for end users).

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The Afroprogrammer

linux mint or ubuntu

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Linh Truong Cong Hong

Kubuntu

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Chittoji Murali Sree Krishna • Edited

Linux mint with matte, kubuntu, manjaro with kde desktop environment

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PRABHAT KUMAR

Pop os and manjaro best choice.

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Md. Manzum Rahman

Linux Manjaro is good enough

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Siddharth Sharma

I guess it depends upon the use

Pen testing guys go for - > kali
And ya ubuntu is good.( for like students) who r just entering in the world of Linux

But a for serious dev mint!

Regards
Sid! :)

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Sundeep

I use Ubuntu with XFCE as the desktop environment. UI is similar to windows-xp, but I chose it for being lightweight and stable.

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Debarka Mondal

Use garuda and thanks me later

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Heinek Halwin

I use Pop-OS and i have added Arch Menu and Dash to Panel Extensions. It will look almost similar to the Windows experience. That is what i would recommend.

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Jamelle Boose

Ubuntu.

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Khushal Jangid

Elementary OS : The cleanest, lightest , User Friendly distro based on Debian.

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Alex Cameron

Deepin Linux and zorin

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Drew Knab

Probably Ubuntu or Manjaro.

Although I had a struggle doing work in .NET on Arch based distros so, ymmv.

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Major Private Parts

I came across KDE neon recently. Love it so much, it even replaced most win Workstations of mine

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Robert Hernandez

Ubuntu recommended

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Anish De

Zorin OS as it offers similar features to Microsoft's your phone app and also looks like Windows with the ability of further customisation.

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Raghavan alias Saravanan Muthu

Ubuntu to start with and get a hang of linux.

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KAIDI

Manjaro is good, I had a good experience with opensuse too

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Manbir Singh Marwah • Edited

I would recommend Ubuntu any day. If you want a UI closer to that of Windows, you can install KDE as a desktop environment and use it instead of Gnome.

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Jason F

Ubuntu Mate. The Mate desktop environment is intuitive, the install is easy, and there's a ton of resources out there for ubuntu.

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Bobby Iliev

I believe that Linux Mint or Ubuntu are quite user friendly!

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muhinda

Pop os or ubuntu

Elementary OS

Linux mint

And lastly ubuntu budgie

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Alen Abraham

Trying ZORIN OS will also be a great experiment
The user interface of zorin is super awesome
I was a windows user and now I am slowly shifting to linux by starting with zorin.