Best Linux for a Windows/Android user?

we're at 1.20 now, It's come a long way. Only day to day issue is that the alt+f2 launcher doesn't automatically close occasionally.

Get Leap for stability, although it likely does not yet have the 4.10 kernel. Tumbleweed is a rolling distro, but it does have the kernel that you need.

The current Solus ISO is from January and probably has a 4.8 kernel, so that'll be no good at all for you. As I mentioned earlier though, we expect a big upgrade presently, at which time a new ISO will be released.

Try tumbleweed, it won't bite. openSUSE is a highly polished, very professional operation. You shouldn't have any trouble getting it up and running.

EDIT: You may find this interesting.

I'll keep on about PCLinuxOS till someone listens.

Kernel 4.10.10 so Ryzen out of the box get support.
Rolling but tested so stable without many of the associated bleeding edge issues of Arch or Tumbleweed.

As for Tumbleweed it's a bugger to redo your graphics drivers every time the kernel gets updated.

PCLinuxOS has all of the codecs and drivers you need to get stuff done. No one will shout at you on the forum for asking dumb questions. I know that PCLinuxOS doesn't get much mindshare because they don't care for social media or being involved with the Linux bubble, but it's a great distro designed to be a welcoming place for Windows refugees.

I never realized how many factions and how passionate this subject is.
With so many differing opinions, I'm having to research this even more, and even have another YT video on my schedule!
A friend messaged LinuxLite to me, yet another opinion!

@tkoham
I was going to use Universal USB Installer but a member has made mention of Rufus, can we at least get a consensus on the best installation tool?

That video slams opensuse!

Most of the negative critique is about KDE, with which he has a love/hate relationship. Most people positively LOVE KDE, but if you don't openSUSE is available with 6-8 other desktop environments, which are easily added.

I'm a big fan, and have been fallowing them since 2011, though Remix OS is way better for a desktop (IMO), but neither support dual monitor, however Remix OS is supposed to be working on that. Hopefully soon. Thanks for sharing!

Is PCLinuxOS Ryzen ready, or must a new ISO be released?

@BarkingMad
I got from that video the impression that from the start he didn't like the default settings and the need for tweaks/configuration.

Let me thank everyone who gave input, even though it must seem like I'm indecisive, if anything it has led to me more questions and research.
It would be really awful if at the end of the day I made my decision based on the fact that I like Cinnamon in my coffee, and Mint in my chocolate.

Thing is, All of them work, more or less. You can practically use most of them day to day. I typically avoid recommendations for this reason. At the end of the day it's a learning process, and you have to do a lot of that learning on your own.

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One thing I found out here that is critical, is that all may not be ready for the Ryzen platform.
Whatever I do, I had better get this one right!

Again, this is a KDE issue, not so much a Linux issue, or an openSUSE issue. The primary reason why KDE is so popular is that it is infinitely customizable. The reason why some people do not like KDE is that you almost NEED to spend a considerable amount of time customizing it, before it becomes particularly user friendly.

If you find that KDE is not for you, there is always Cinnamon, GNOME3, IceWM, LXDE, Openbox, WMaker and XFCE in the openSUSE repositories. You can also add additional repositories to access dozens of other desktop environments.

If this is proving difficult to grasp, consider early versions of Windows. With Windows 3.1, we had an independent graphical desktop, which sat on top of DOS. In this analogy, Linux is like DOS and all of these desktop environments mentioned above are like different versions of Windows 3.1, each with a different look and feel. These desktop environments can easily be installed and deleted, until you find one that you like, without affecting the base Linux install.

Each distro typically does something a little different and special with their flagship desktop and then they will typically offer a few alternative desktops. Therefore, not all Cinnamon desktops are created equally. For instance, Cinnamon was designed and built by the Mint people. They go out of their way to tart it up and make the experience special. While Arch, openSUSE, Ubuntu and other distros may offer Cinnamon in their repository, expect this to be a plain vanilla Cinnamon experience, which you are expected to customize to your liking.

So what's the point of all this variety. Well, if I particularly like Cinnamon, I'll probably want to run Mint. However, if I need the latest kernel for my bleeding edge hardware, I have some choices. I can wait a couple of months until the new version of Mint comes out, I can download and install the latest Linux kernel, or I can switch to a rolling release like Tumblewed and install the Cinnamon desktop on that. That Cinnamon won't be identical to Mint's Cinnamon, but with the right theme, icon pack, wallpaper, etc., I can make it look exactly the way I want it.

As you start peeling away the layers of the onion, you find near infinite variety and customizability, which can be quite overwhelming. That's why it's important to just jump in and start playing with it. The distro that you start with is totally unimportant (except in your case, you need a 4.10 kernel), because odds are that in six months you will be using something completely different. I started out with Red Hat Linux OS and from there I went to Ubuntu to Mint to to Arch to Solus. I've also used CentOS and FreeBSD for special projects. I've also spun up several dozen distros in a virtual machine to see what all the fuss was about and if they had something special to offer me. The only sure thing, apart from death and taxes, is that next year, I'll probably be running something different. It's the same thing with motorcycles. It's not important what you ride, but THAT you ride.

To answer your question, yes PCLinuxOS is on the 4.10 series kernel and it would also be a great introduction to Linux.

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Thank-you!
I think I'm finally tracking all this now after this last post, but also probably because I got a few hours of decent sleep!
Now all that remains is my question with regards to which is the best formatting tool for the USB Flash Drive. Is Rufus really better? I ask partially because I had what seemed to be errors in this program detecting my drives. Also, because the Universal USB Installer has the checksum to detect a corrupt download while I did not see that feature on Rufus.
Of course, I'm expecting to find other recommendations from the community as I always seem to open up a can of worms around here.

On the web site of the distro you choose will be instructions on the best way to make the install media. As for opening a can of worms, we love this. Talking about our favourite distributions, arguing back and forth. This has been one of the best threads in a while. :grin:

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So far, I've downloaded about 7 distros. I have only 32GB capacity on the USB Drive so...
One of them was your suggestion advocating PCLinuxOS!

Good luck and have fun :slight_smile:

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LXLE for very low horsepower older machines. One thing is important to know is if the user wants to customize the OS or just wants to game or surf and could care less what the OS looks like.

Also, Don’t necro.

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