depends which D.E he uses. I can confidently say from experience if he uses GNOME, there is some guaranteed to break after an update. Budgie? not so much. KDE used to be broken but it's not anymore. it's mostly stable now.
I mean with Manjaro he just needs to know how to update his system, install packages and remove them. that's about it.
Think about what 'Shell' you want to use and not so much what distro you want. If you get the top 4 Distros and it's family (Debian, OpenSuse, (Manjaro/Antegros), Fedora) you will be fine. Windows users should probably go for a shell with a similar environment like:
KDE / XFCE / CINNAMON / LXDE /
if you want a Mac-like look to the OS, there are other like Gnome or add ons you can use to customize your experience
It is actually realy impressive how different experiences can be - I am a gnome user, and except once, where GRUB got broken I have not had any trouble.
By now all the most supported DEs are actually failry stable - just qt got a big update and on unstable there are quite som quirks to solve, but thats still some time until testing or even stable.
I mean sure - if one is a bit adventurous give it a shot - manjaro can make you realy realy happy as an OS =D
I run Manjaro Gnome too for now, without any issues. But my Linux needs are quite basic. I used KDE Plasma in the past but I just couldn't fix the mouse acceleration and that was a dealbreaker. I do think that KDE is overall superior to Gnome at this point. Gnome is barely usable without the Tweak tool and certain shell extensions. In fact I wouldn't even use it if it weren't for some of the extensions. So I might go back to KDE Plasma in the future.
I think the only DE that I didn't have any issues with whatsoever was MATE. That's why until recently I was running Ubuntu MATE. It's the best Ubuntu flavor IMO.
Which I do not think is a fail - you get a baseline and everything else can be made to measure; That's what the gtweaktoll is fore and the extensions.
Biggest downside is when certain extensions loos their maintainer and noone picks them up; I am not good enough with java and the dconf api that I could step in though.
Did help debug a bit, and even fixed one extension I use, but thats all I am capable off;
So my only problem with gnome-shell is actually a problem with my knowledge of certain programming languages ^^
Which is precisely why it is kind of a fail. Why don't they just implement some of the most used extensions into GNOME? Like Dash to dock and the ability to move the panel. You can't even move the panel without an extension and I don't want to get used to the panel being on the top. I like my panel at the bottom and my dock/dash on top. I'll post a screenshot of my Mac looking Manjaro setup later. I'm currently in Windows doing Windows related stuff.
Because it's something not everyone uses - I get their approach; I - coming from gome2 back when, like the panal on top - so I e.g. do not use dashtodock ^^
I think its ok to let people use what they like and not put it all into a even huger package.
I would try Linux Mint or Korora. Linux mint has a close look and user feel to windows.
I tried Korora about a year ago and really liked the look and feel of it but I had some AMD graphics driver issues. I don't have any experience with nvidia drivers on it but I understand they should work.
If it was me I would try Korora and see if it will do the thing you need/want it to do. If it doesn't do so go try mint.
I'm guessing you're a linux noob, who doesn't want to remain a noob for much longer. If that is true, I'd suggest Fedora. All day erry' day.
Iv'e used Linux for about 20 years and honestly im a horrible gauge at what would be noob friendly, I was used to old 8-bit machines you flipped on and got a command line or basic programming language prompt as a kid. I feel the biggest obstacle in moving to Linux is just that of muscle memory, being used to a standardized GUI interface and expecting the same behaviors, right and left clicks, being able to just go to a website download an installer and click. Just about every Linux under the hood once you get past these desktop layers is complex at first and you will have to deal with it at some point. My view is installing on linux is less time consuming than windows or osx. If you want to install 50 applications you go to to one package manager GUI or you type them out in your terminal and it all pulls down and installs for you. you don't have to go to 50 websites, download installers, then run each individually. In some ways that's easier than windows.
Under the hood linux is linux, distro's are not that vastly different. the top layers for your desktop are what you will want to focus on. XFCE, mate, KDE come very close to what you would expect from win98,XP,win7 style interfaces.
I helped my friend son 13 at the time build a desktop, there was no windows installer disk around and they had dsl. He just wanted youtube, minecraft and DOTA from steam. I showed him manjaro linux and walked him through the installer, he took notes. 4 years later he is still using linux and maintaining it all by himself. the community was very helpful and welcoming.
The biggest concern IMHO is the community, how friendly is it to new users. manjaro and ubuntu tend to stand out above the rest.
Well yeah it might sound a bit cliché but just Linux Mint.
Its really one of the better Linux distro´s for new users.
Especialy for the people that come from Windows.
I agree, i have played arround with several versions of Manjaro,
And yeah, they really try to bring an arch based distributions to a more users friendlly base.
But the problem is still reliabillity.
Of course that is a bit of a nature that rollings release distributions are about.
But its kinda annoying if you have to rely on a system for day to day use and work, that an update bricks the system.
And thats exally a problem with Manjaro atleast from my experiance.
Of course those problems are all fixable, and allot of the issues seems to be related to the pamac or octopi gui update manager.
So yeah its kinda better to use the terminal for updating the system packages.
But that isnt particulary something that i would recommend for new users to start on.
Linux Mint for that matter is allot more reliable.
And you have the choice of some very decent DE´s aswell.
I have played arround with manny Linux distributions over the last 2 years.
And Mint definitelly has been one of the most stable sofar.
And of course Open Suse has been pretty sollid, however Open suse isnt really concidered to be noob friendlly.
But of course it also depends a bit on the hardware you have.
Allthough Linux mint also feutures an easy to use kernel management tool in the update manager.
Which eventually gives you the option install hardware enablement kernels like the 4.8 and 4.10 series.
For newer hardware support.
I have to say - at least the past three months (tm) - I have had good luck despite being on testing. Nothing that was a show stopper lately.
Just as of today 4.12.0 hit testing and the virtualbox dkms modules are not yet ready and thus system will freeze when VM is started... but on the other hand with the LTS kernel it works... so yeah... rolling relase, you have the new stuff and sometimes you get a freeze XD
For business or - I do want it running - I would never ever recommend rolling, not tubleweed not arch nor any other...
That works realy well for me - it even tamed my sierra WWAN card which loves to just disappear from the system ^^
(@MisteryAngel 3 edits while I type one post ^^ not bad XD)
Below is a list of the distros I've tried over the years. I'm only including ones I used for 6months+. They're listed in the order in which I've used them:
I can only comment on the distros I've actually used but out of that list not only is Mint my current choice, its also what I'd recommend to new users. I am also running Debian on a home server but I wouldn't suggest it for your main desktop.
The last version of Manjaro i tried was the 17.0 release.
And that did run allot better then say the 16.06 release which was awfull.
However after 2 /3 weeks it broke on me for some reason.
Issue with the update manager again.
They then released some new 17.02 iso´s which i have not looked at yet.
Of course its nice to be on the bleeding edge of things for experimental things.
And yeah sometimes in some circumstances you might need the new kernel,
for certain feutures and hardware support.
Then a rolling release distribution might be a better choice.
From the Arch based distributions i tried, Manjaro is definitelly one of the easier distro's to start on.
Tbh, for me it was the only one that did not require me to live in the arch wiki or refuse to install properly on my T450s, that is why I landed at Manjaro when I wanted to get away from Ubuntu (had looked at Fedora and OpenSUSE as well which both did not tickle my fancy)
I would also throw in budgie as well. With some tweaks, you can make the pannel similar to windows. Will get a desktop screenshot when I get on my computer
Wenn it comes to DE´s that is really something personal.
