5 Best Linux distros for beginners in 2020
Today we’re going to take a look at 5 Best Linux distros for beginners that I think are the best for people who are new to gnu Linux.
Best Linux distros for beginners
Ubuntu
Ubuntu is probably the first district site that you would have been led to if you googled the question what is the best Linux distro for Beginner to use. It has a pretty easy to navigate user interface and a community that can help you with most of the issues that you’ll come across on this Distro.
Also, if you’re running Ubuntu 16.04 or later you have snap integration. Ready to go without any extra configuration necessary which makes a lot of sense considering that Snapd and the Ubuntu Distro are developed by the same company
Snaps can be very useful for new users because they bundle together packages and dependencies so all you have to do to install a particular piece of software without having to worry about any dependencies is to just install the snap package.Now, although the snap method of installing software is easier for noobs.
It’s very different than the traditional method of installing packages through a package manager and as a result this makes them unto very different from almost any other distribution. Many people make the switch to Linux in the first place to get away from proprietary software and bloat that you see on many other operating systems like Windows but snaps break both of these rules.
Well, the software itself is still open source. It’s distributed from a proprietary canonical specific source and you have to create an account with them if you want to host your software there. And because of snapshift all of the packages dependencies together with that package, you can very quickly blow it up your system with duplicate copies of dependencies if you install multiple snaps that have those same dependencies.
And finally, although Bluetooth user interface is very clean and modern it’s laid out quite a bit differently from the UI that you would see on Windows and since most new Linux users are coming from Windows, they might find the transition a little bit harder because of this.
Elementary OS
Elementary OS as this distros name implies it is well elementary.It is one of the best Linux distros for beginners.
It has a simple yet elegant design. Very similar to the macOS. In fact, elementary OS is the Linux distro I would recommend to anybody that is switching to GNOME Linux from macOS.
The settings manager is very simple very easily laid out and you don’t have to worry about going through five or six levels deep into a context menu just to find things.
The multitasking view of elementary OS is also quite elegant and everything in the UI just goes together really well .This will use your full screen resolution out of the box and most cases without any additional software configuration.
Elementary OS is based on Ubuntu’s long-term support release so pretty much all of the software that is available in Ubuntu will be available on elementary OS as well elementary OS doesn’t come with snap support out of the box.
However, it is easy to install . you simply have to update your system from the terminal and then install SNAPD.
Now, Like I said a few minutes ago elementary OS is designed to look like macOS So again if you’re coming from Windows like most people who are going to be switching to Linux then this distro may be harder to settle into because it’s laid out like a Mac and there’s no such thing as minimizing an elementary OS so switching from Windows to elementary OS would be very similar to switching from Windows to a Mac at least as far as navigating the user interface is concerned.
Linux Mint
Mint is one of my favorite Linux distributions. It is one of the best Linux distros for beginners on our list . It is the first Distro that I used for the long-term and it’s very easy to install, It comes with a great suite of software. Its layout is very similar to Windows which is really what made the transition for me from Windows 7 to GNOME Linux that much easier. It’s fast and it just works
Linux Mint also comes with a variety of desktop environments including Mate, Cinnamon and XFCE. At first, this might be a bit overwhelming for someone who has been conditioned by operating systems like Windows or Mac OS that give you very limited customization options, let alone the choice of installing a different desktop environment, but this is a healthy step in the right direction
Since the world of Linux is going to be full of choices and starting off with making a choice about what desktop environment you want seems like a good place to start. This also makes it easier for Linux.
Mint support a wider range of hardware and aesthetic choices. If you’re installing meant on very low-end hardware, then you’ll probably want to opt for XFCE ,One of the lightest desktop environments that are out there.
If you want to get a little fancier in customize your desktop, especially if you want it to look more like Windows then you can opt for cinnamon Linux.
Mint also doesn’t support snaps. In fact, it’s made a bit of ruckus in the Linux community by being Explicitly against snaps since they violate the Unix philosophy which I talked about earlier how they do that but it is possible to install snaps on mint although it’s a little bit tougher than the elementary OS. You’ll have to remove the nosnap.pre file and update the system and then you can install snapd and install snap packages with snappy.
Peppermint OS
Peppermint OS is another easy to use Distro that is based on Ubuntu’s long-term support It pretty much takes a lot of the things that made Linux meant really great like having a user interface that’s similar to Windows and the mint install software manager, but it makes them even greater with a web app manager called Ice. it is really nice distro form our list of linux distros
Ice removes the need for a new user to learn something like LibreOffice at least as long as they have an internet connection because with a simple click of this application, they can access Microsoft Office online after logging in with their Microsoft account.
Ice also manages to do this in a less bloated fashion than just opening up office online in your web browser since it’s strips away all of the unnecessary features and distractions of your browser and it just loads that webpage directly.
Because It used this essentially creating a minimal web page for you to use you can also create your own custom web applications with access to any website or online service that you need with the simple click of a button.
Peppermint OS also comes with a very unique desktop environment, which is a mix of LXDE and XFCE. Both of these desktops on their own are snappy lightweight. And don’t use a lot of resources .So peppermint OS is great for those with older or low spec hardware that want to breed new life into their laptop. This Distro should be one of the Linux distros you should choose if you don’t want any hassle and it provide the ease what most Linux distros can not.
However, this combination of desktop environments can make peppermint OS a little bit more tricky to customize since you have to go through multiple context menus and find all of the options that you’re looking for.
If you’re like most people who are new to Linux though and you don’t really plan on doing much customization early on then this shouldn’t be that much of a problem for you. Choose this distro over other Linux distros if you are not into customization.
Manjaro
Manjaro is essentially one of the best choice between arch linux distros but without the smugness and time waste that comes from installing arch linux through a minimal CD by entering commands into a TTY and oftentimes you’ll have to pull up the arch wiki or some other set of instructions on your phone or maybe on another laptop to follow and that can obviously get really annoying and it’s not suitable for anybody who’s going to be new to Linux Mingaro, it just gives you an easy to follow GUI installation guide with a few more configuration options than the other distros that I’ve meant.
there’s an arch version which gives you almost the same flexibility and control as that arch Linux minimal CD but again without the hassle. So from here, you can choose your desktop environment or you can even select a Window Manager from within this setup.
Use your kernel and you can choose your formatting type across all of these or that single arch ISO and if you want to be as comfortable with this choice which can of course be a little bit overbearing for some new Linux users, then you can just settle for one of the options with a pre-configured desktop environment.
And all of these options also give you the choice of using free office, which is an office suite that installs locally on Linux that has a look and feel very similar to Microsoft Office.
Manjaro though is the fact that it’s based on Arch Linux which means that you have access to all of the packages that are installable with Pac-Man as well as the AUR and steps that are in the arch wiki can pretty much be followed exactly to specifications on Manjaro And when it comes to installing your packages, whether that be from Pac-Man or the AUR you can do all of these things through a GUI front-end called PacMac And it’s like having the power of Arch Linux at your fingertips and access to all of those packages without even having to open a terminal.
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And if you do end up using Linux for years and years and one day you decide that you’re too cool for Manjaro you can make an easy transition to arch Linux because you’re already used to using that package Manager .
So then you can switch to an argument setup. Print out your Neo-fetch and show people on Reddit how cool you are. So that’s it for our article if you’re new to Linux let me know what distro you decided to go with or which one you picked when you were new in the comments below
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