Use Linux Mint until you know enough to decide for yourself which other distro fits your use case better.

Thinking of using Linux mint, anything else?

Linux mint

I recommend first switching Windows-only software to crossplatform software so you won’t have to get used to another operating system and different software at the same time.

Mint is my recommendation, having using it myself for many years now.

If you have a Nvidia GPU, a case could be made for POP! due to the built in drivers, but installing Nvidia drivers is rather painless in Mint.

Then do it? It’s a free operating system – just download whatever distro pleases you, give it a spin, see what happens.

Try it with a Live USB stick. And maybe don’t listen to the people recommending Ubuntu. It’s somewhat okay, but they regularly do annoying business decisions that affect their users. I’d rather start with Mint or something.

There are many other websites dedicated to this question:

• https://distrochooser.de/ / https://distrochooser.snehit.dev/
• https://linuxnewbieguide.org/overview-of-chapters/chapter-3-choosing-a-linux-distribution/

For the love of god and all that is holy just use mint cinnamon it’s the easies most stable with little learning curve ever. High performance great for work gaming browsing whatever lol. If you can use windows 7/10 you can use mint cinnamon

I’d go for Linux Mint/Fedora Linux.

Another thing, I would’ve play with it first on a VM, like VirtualBox.

I wouldn’t immediately wipe Windows if I were you. I’d do dualboot with Windows.

Then, when you’re ready, stay with dualboot system or go full neckbeard /j

Why don’t you try becoming comfortable with Linux while using it in a Virtual Machine? I tried different distros too, and then I decided which one was the best for me.

We can’t really suggest you one, if we don’t know what you are going to use it for.

You may want to do some research, because different distros have different purposes (gaming, privacy, programming, easy to use etc etc).

Let us know, what your use cases will be?

Linux Mint and Pop!_OS are great options

Mint is the most mentioned choice and an extremely great beginner distro with an huge community.

ZorinOS will get a big update very soon and is also a very good choice. It was my first distro, especially because it looks very modern and pleasing.

If you’re a tiny bit more advanced and get the basics, then you might take a look at the immutable Fedora variants like Silverblue.

They have many advantages compared to traditional distros like the two mentioned above, but atomic Linux is a relatively new concept. I also find them easier to understand and use, and, imo, they’re even more user friendly, but not as refined.

Mint

I would recommend using one of the distros backed by a big company or have very long track records. They are less likely to break on updates, and have a higher chance of supporting any uncommon hardware you may have.

• Fedora
• Ubuntu
• Mint
• Pop OS

If you have new hardware (e.g. GPU newer than 6 months) you will probably have issues. Follow the recommendations from the hardware supplier, or use something arch based. I used Manjaro a while when I got new hardware.

Besides those tips, you should decide which desktop environment you like best. I prefer gnome, as I enjoy to spend time in apps and not on in settings. Others prefer customization. Have a look at https://youtu.be/09cYQJBgKEs?si=KX8FZeMRcMlPTzG2

A couple of assumptions I will be making:

• Your hardware is supported; consider to check driver support over at linux-hardware.org. Honestly, most hardware should be well-supported, unless it has been released very recently or is hardware from known troublemakers (i.e. Nvidia GPUs or Broadcom etc).
• Your ‘computer-literacy’ is at least (slightly) higher than average.
• You’ve primarily used Windows in the past.
• You prefer asking others instead of finding it out for yourself; the existence of this post supports that. (It’s either that or you like to have a second opinion in all cases; but I would have expected more input from you if that was the case 😅.)
• Your hardware is somewhat modern.
• You will mostly stick to defaults (at least initially).
• You’re aware that while hundreds of actively maintained distros exist, most of them are either niche or not worth your time in the first place. If, from the remaining ones, the less impactful derivatives are surgically removed, followed by the removal of newbie-unfriendly distros, then only 10-20 distros would remain; most of which have been named in this thread already. And your needs dictate which one out of these would suit you best.
• You will educate yourself regarding desktop environments like GNOME, KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, Xfce etc. Perhaps you will even boot into a live environment to check them out for yourself; loading a bunch of distros on your USB through Ventoy is excellent for that. This is important as they’re arguably the biggest contributor to how you perceive your Linux system. You should also be aware that in almost all cases a second (or heck; even third, fourth etc) desktop environment can be installed on your system and you should be able to switch between them relatively easily. However, in most cases, the one provided on first installation works close to flawless while others that have been tacked on later on are generally less polished.
• You will educate yourself (eventually) regarding universal package managers (read: AppImage, Flatpak, Nix and Snap) and Distrobox as collectively they’ve (mostly) ridden the Linux ecosystem of problems related to software not being packaged in the native repos. Don’t feel the need to indulge into all of them simultaneously from the get-go. But be aware that they exist and that they enable one to install (almost) any package that has been made available to Linux regardless of their chosen distro.

Any distro I should use?

Typically, distros like Arch, Debian, Fedora, Linux Mint, openSUSE, Pop!_OS and Ubuntu (or their derivatives) will be mentioned in these kinds of queries. And it becomes mostly a popularity poll that measures what the community thinks is the preferred distro for beginners. And honestly, I don’t blame them as you haven’t really given us a lot to work with. My entry to that popularity poll would be Linux Mint. If you prefer to use GNOME or KDE Plasma instead, then consider either Fedora or openSUSE Tumbleweed. Additionally, Pop!_OS should be considered if Nvidia causes problems on all the others.

Feel free to inquire if you so desire!

EDIT: I just noticed how you mentioned to someone that your use case will be primarily gaming. First of all, gaming is somewhat equal on most distros; especially with the likes of Bazzite-Arch and Conty providing excellent environments for gaming regardless of installed distro. Though, these containers do still rely on the hosts kernel, therefore any perceived difference on same hardware but different kernels might be attributed to said kernels. Newer kernels generally come with improved performance; at least for newer hardware*. Though, perhaps more performance could be gained through other means as well. I will spare you the details, however, as this is potentially another rabbit hole within the initial rabbit hole. Therefore, instead, I will name a couple of distros known for being excellent for gaming purposes: Bazzite, Garuda Linux, Nobara Linux, PikaOS and RegataOS. If you want a no-nonsense system, just go for Bazzite; while initial setup might seem slightly more involved, it’s by far the most robust system out of these. This does come at the cost of being ‘unique’ amongst the others, but I believe it’s a great fit for your use case.