For the first time user I agree the choice, even if you restrict it to the 100 on Distrowatch it looks daunting, that is why I always say try at least 6 different desktop distros to see which you like the look and feel of, and runs best on your kit, or where something more specific is needed I may list a few for them to try, but still usually say something like, you could try, or there are others available or even the applications you need can be installed in most distributions, there is nothing worse than recommending your favourite distribution because you like it, and it works for you, then the poster has a bad experience in trying to install it or running it,making the choice hard.
Not an easy job at all.
It's never a good idea to run an unsupported os because they don't get security updates, so running Windows 10 is still better because it's a supported os.That being said, I would say there is nothing wrong with using Windows 7/8. But I can not support the use of Windows 10 unless you enjoy getting sodomized Qaddafi style. "We came we saw we killed"
So, ask yourself what you are looking to get out of Linux? Security? Stability? Performance? Fun? Freedom? Customisation? Sticking it to M$/crApple? Nice OOTB experience? Ethics? Openness? Purism re GNU philosophy? Full control of your system?
Before Linux, my first introduction to Unix was SunOS.
I do like Mate, as a faithful, but modernized Gnome2. Used G2 so many years ago, and it's nice to install Mate every now and again for a bit of nostalgia.I personally like the Gnome2, MATE desktop.
At macOS core is a POSIX-compliant operating system built on top of the XNU kernel with standard Unix facilities available from the command line interface.At macOS's core is a POSIX-compliant operating system built on top of the XNU kernel,[58] with standard Unix facilities available from the command line interface. Apple is more or less a Unix under the hood. If you used the terminal much, you'll note some similarities.
And, thanks for voting. If you're gonna stick around (and you are most welcome to do so) then you might want to do an introduction thread so that folks can get to know you and see what you're about.
But, everyone isn't using Apple, especially since Micro$oft is the dominant OS, in fact Micro$oft is the largest software company in the world. Talk about dystopian, Windows is why Bill Gates was the richest person in the World for the longest period of time. Get your facts straight. Oh, so you saw one ad (1984) during Super Bowl XVIII and it scared you?i think we need to start imagining dystopian scenarios at that point...if everyone were using apple, then people would get pissed at the high prices (even though this takeover would drive down the prices some...), then apple would take control of the government and it would be some nightmarish form of socialism. Welcome to the Apple-States of America!
I had a friend in high school who thought that it would be good if the government made all computer parts so that there weren't all these issues with compatibility. This is never going to happen.
I did even one better, I went and bought an actual Micro$oft brand Laptop and immediately displaced Windows 10 with Linux. It's neat watching the Micro$oft Windows logo pop up on the screen as the Laptop starts to boot into Linux!I just now operate in that my first choice is opensource where possible and to use as little proprietary anything whenever i can.
I so badly loved that Apple and ignorantly trusted them so much to be the best when in-fact all i was doing was funding the enemy all along and condoning all their privacy violations through sheer ignorance and i am so perturbed by my ignorance and possibly stupidity that i refuse to even buy a windows computer to use as Linux for example.
I am still v newbie to linux and outside of comfort zone yet i know i am now doing the best thing regardless to needing to re-learn another way of being online yet it is what it is as i need to do what i need to do.
Thanks to all you people and this site and such like otherwise newbie peop like me would just be left totally lost and alone with no where to turn other than selling our souls to Apple and MS etc.
Chill, I was just imagining, screw your condescending bs. Apple is a trillion dollar company by the way, at least in terms of their assets. If that doesn't mean anything, then I don't know what does.But, everyone isn't using Apple, especially since Micro$oft is the dominant OS, in fact Micro$oft is the largest software company in the world. Talk about dystopian, Windows is why Bill Gates was the richest person in the World for the longest period of time. Get your facts straight. Oh, so you saw one ad (1984) during Super Bowl XVIII and it scared you?
I became an OS/2Warp 3 user just a few months before Micro$oft released Windows95. I continued to use Warp 3 and then later Warp 4 for the rest of the decade, or whenever it was that IBM gave up on it. If there ever were a 64 bit version, that is probably what I'd be using today. OS/2Warp had so many firsts, unfortunately the best don't always win.It wasn't that I disliked the kernel, I just didn't see it as important (to me anyway).
It didn't worry me if I was using GNU/linux (GNU's not Unix) or BSD (an actual unix), they both worked for me, and given my primary OS was OS/2 at the time, I was really just playing with the *nix as it was on the newish-device. (Debian came on the dell; I installed a BSD on another desktop; being on a desktop meant it had a real IBM model M keyboard which is a huge ++). I continued to play/use both for a long time, but was finding GNU/Linux easier to work out (despite it's keyboard; eg. networking, sound, much later on SaMBa etc); which would often cause me to learn enough to subsequently get it working in BSD later. Years later I dropped any play with BSD as GNU/Linux I found much easier.
If you need an answer (dislike & kernel); on that really old Debian, I would have liked to have sound & networking.. but I had a script that would `rmmod` one & `insmod` the other.. but I took that as a limitation of RAM (32MB at that time in the dell debian laptop). Later kernels didn't have that limitation though; but that didn't worry me either; I had my sony walkman (with my self-mixed cassettes for music!)