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Microsoft tells Windows 10 users to just trade in their PC for a newer one, because how hard can it be?
(www.xda-developers.com)
this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2025
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Just use Ubuntu. (Surely I'll get hate for this.)
It's based on Debian, a major branch off the tree. It just fucking works. Millions of tutorials, groups, etc. to find troubleshooting info. Probably won't have to do anything to get a machine running that does everything you're doing now.
Get the swing of that and go from there, if you want to try other branches.
This realization helped me quite a bit: Windows does all sorts of arcane voodoo with the registry and DLLs and such. Weirdness Linux appeals to many because all the configuration is contained in simple text files. Got a program that reads and writes plain old text? Aight. You can configure Linux. In a way, it's so simple it's hard to get your head around coming from Windows.
tl;dr: Just download and install Ubuntu. Go from there with your nicely working machine.
Yes, I hate it.
Use Mint - it works better than Ubuntu, Canonical has made enough 'mistakes' to get on the blacklist.
So basically, Ubuntu just with a different name and paint job. (I've used them both)
We are all at the most basic level, running pretty much the same kernel, one of the same small handful of desktop environments, and we choose from the same pool of software, (unless you need to get out into the weeds for a program on git hub). Everything else is either window dressing, (package mangers are window dressing-- they all do the same basic thing), or a choice on just how close to the bleeding edge we want to be, (rolling releases or immutable).
No snap by default is on its own a huge difference. Far from window dressing.
If you give a new user snaps, many things will not work as they expect, and that is not a hurdle beginners should have to pass.
Nobody cares about kernel, I don't even know anyone who builds their own (I use Gentoo btw), they either go bleed, or stable, nothing in between.
But package delivery matters a lot.
It's still the same function at the base level-- to deliver and install/remove, in an easy manor, whatever software package the user wants to use/remove. Whether it's a good system or not, is a separate issue.
Every Ubuntu based distro I've tested allows snaps. The highly touted beginner's distro Linux Mint sure does. Even Fedora can use snaps and Ubuntu can use flatpaks if you want to be that silly. I have tested that both ways and it worked. But it was merely OKish. It's just Ubuntu pushes snaps and Fedora pushes flatpaks. So snaps aren't as insular as you seem to think.
For the user, there isn't much difference between a snap, flatpak, deb, or rpm in use. The basic install or remove experience is meant to be the same, it's supposed to be a carefully curated point and click. Even Gentoo's portage is supposed to be simple for the user. The one other not quite as common, but a bit more universal installation method for users is the appImage package. I use several appImages because that's the only way they are available. And personally, over the nearly 3 decades of fooling with Linux, I've had issues with all of the package management methods. I still have PTSD from being repeatedly caught in rpm hell back in the day or needing to compile from source. (Damn, I'm old)
The longer I use Linux, the more I think that whatever distro you choose, it's more a matter of how you personally vibe with that distro than anything intrinsically better than the rest of them. Just about everything else is window dressing.
Every container package delivery system will have issues with access - be it filesystem, other processes, whathaveyou.
Which is not an issue you want beginners to face.
Which is why I suggest Mint - which does not use snap by default at all. It just goes down much easier.