Which Linux should you start with? Definitely not the one click-hungry mainstream sites are peddling
Every so often, the same kind of article resurfaces in the mainstream tech press: “What’s the best Linux to start with?” “Which distro should you pick when you’re starting out?” “Top 5 easy Linux distros for total beginners”… That broken record has been spinning for a few years now.
It’s flat-out become a full-blown evergreen for clickbait sites out of ideas. The more serious ones knock out a few lines in Microsoft Word and call it good. The rest don’t even bother, ChatGPT is at the wheel. For sites like that, talking confidently about everything and nothing, human experience counts for zero. Because as long as enough people keep feeding their ad-based business model, why would they bust their asses producing anything decent?
The big problem is that the bland slop they serve up with the warmth of a fake tour guide drags a fine collection of clichés behind it, and they die hard. Like the idea of a Linux built for beginners, and the idea of a Linux reserved for insiders. Plus the good old myth of the console, supposedly essential and reserved for a small elite. I won’t hide it, this kind of nonsense has a real gift for pissing me off. So we’re taking it all back to basics and handing out some actual advice. Compare the end result with the useless articles that treat their readers like idiots.
The Linux for beginners is the one that suits you
The first myth is also the most stubborn, so we might as well start there. Beginner Linux doesn’t exist. It’s just a concept invented out of thin air to sell things. It can come from writers who can’t be bothered with professional standards, and also from distros that figure a bad copy of Windows or macOS earns them the gateway-to-Linux label.
So let’s be clear! The right Linux to start with is the one that fits your needs perfectly. And it’s also the one you feel good with. Once you’ve got that, the supposed complexity is completely beside the point. If you want to start with Arch or Slackware, which are genuinely harder to handle than an Ubuntu, what right do I have to talk you out of it? There are great tutorials online and very good support forums. And a more complex distro doesn’t mean it was built like a riddle stuffed with traps for its users. The opposite: it’s all logical, made to be understood by anyone willing to put in the work. All that to say, if you want to start with Arch and somebody tells you that’s a mistake because you have to start with Ubuntu… yeah, you’re allowed to think they’re taking you for an idiot and that something’s off.
And let’s stop overplaying this so-called difficulty. Me, I’ve never once put my hands on a Windows 11 or a macOS in my life. If I got the stupid urge to try tomorrow, I’d obviously flounder for a few days, just long enough to find where they hid their settings. Should I write to Microsoft and demand a special beginner edition of Windows? The idea is as ridiculous for Linux as it is for any other system.
The right question isn’t which Linux to pick for a beginner, it’s which Linux to pick to get started.
You’ll find a Linux for every use you can think of. Some distros are built for gaming, others for server hosting, others still for scientific research or education. There are even ones for sharp little niches, right down to ham radio fans. So picking a distro isn’t about hunting for the version stamped special edition for simpletons. The right move is finding the one that best fits what you want to do.
And what if you just want a versatile system with no particular use in mind? Then no rule applies. You can pick your distro for the philosophy behind it and the human project driving it. You can also pick it just because you like its face, and that’s a perfectly good reason. Plus, the magic of Linux is that you can test almost all of it for free, since the vast majority of distros run live straight off a USB stick, installing nothing and breaking nothing on your machine. So it’s really no big deal, you try it and if it works for you, you install it. You can even keep your Windows alongside, but what’s the point of keeping spyware on your computer?
The myth of the closed club of “real” Linux users
Right next to this beginner-Linux silliness sits the exact same fable, flipped over into its expert version. According to some veteran Linux users, certain distros are supposedly reserved for a handful of insiders. And anyone who doesn’t run them is just some kind of loser. It’s an old pedantic refrain that’s been hanging around the scene forever. For those people, you’re only a real Linux user if you dig yourself into difficulty. To be credible in their eyes you’d have to run nothing but distros famous for their complexity. The kind where you recompile half your system yourself and the slightest tweak eats a whole evening. To hear them talk, I should drop my Linux Mint for one of those systems I have no use for, just to prove I’m up to it.
Here’s the thing. On my main computer I run Linux Mint with Cinnamon. And the machine I use for testing runs Linux Mint XFCE most of the time. Nothing impressive. And to top it off, Linux Mint got tagged as a beginner Linux by people who’d do better to think before spouting nonsense. Yes, it’s true, Linux Mint is very easy to use. So what, where’s the problem? Does it not have a Linux kernel? Is it limited? No! All of that is false. I’ve been running Linux since 1997 and I just enjoy using an operating system that’s both ergonomic and pretty nice-looking, design-wise.
So the big question is why I should switch. Work or fun, Mint nails everything I ask of it day to day without ever getting in my way. It’s stable and I know exactly where to find what I need. No way I’m switching distros just for the prestige and the thrill of impressing three self-absorbed purists on a forum. And I admit I always take a sly pleasure in saying I use a distro for “beginners.” The really fun part isn’t knowing which distro you run, it’s what you manage to do with it. Because until somebody proves otherwise, a Linux distro isn’t what makes its user good. In the end, don’t forget there’s the software, how many resources you can throw at it and the way you use it. Everything else is fake controversy that only makes the people stirring it look ridiculous.
Putting the myth of the must-have console to rest
After the fake beginner Linux and the fake expert Linux, the biggest one is left to knock down: the myth of the console! Because that’s exactly the kind of nonsense that slows Linux adoption at scale, sticking it with a reputation as a system for keyboard pros. When in fact, and let’s be clear about this, with most modern distros you can use Linux perfectly well without ever opening your console once.
And worst case, the day you screw something up and have to open it, you’ll be glad it’s there. Because the console is what lets you repair your system if it ever hits a problem. You don’t need to know a single command by heart. Just lay out your problem on a forum and you’ll always find somebody to hand you the commands to paste into your terminal. And your system is back in shape. With Windows, meanwhile, all you get to do is wipe everything and reinstall all your software.
Because day to day, what is Linux exactly? For me it’s the same thing as Windows or Mac. I have my icons on the desktop, I click them and they open. I have my taskbar to launch my programs. And when I want to install software I go through the software manager and pick, same as in a store. In normal use there’s not a single moment when I need the console.
So what’s it actually for? Uses that don’t concern the vast majority of people who use a computer. Typing SSH commands to run a machine remotely, installing something a bit exotic now and then or coding. And even for coding, personally, I dodge it as much as I can. I write my code in Geany, a graphical editor, because it’s a lot more comfortable and less grim than typing lines into a black window. I mostly use the console to start or kill processes, to compile and to check everything runs with testing tools.
I’ll grant you it looks less cool than the hoodie hacker tapping neon-green symbols on a black screen. Except that image is pure theater, and it makes people believe Linux is reserved for some kind of elite when it’s nothing of the sort.
That said, I’m not going to rewrite history. Granted, until Ubuntu showed up, Linux wasn’t easy to tame and it was often unstable in graphical mode. But that era ended many years ago. A Linux Mint, for example, takes no time to pick up when you’re coming off Windows. Like plenty of other distros it’s super fast and very well maintained with regular updates. I sometimes go more than a month without rebooting my machine, and in that time I’ve coded, edited images in GIMP, opened dozens of browser tabs, listened to music… And it all stays stable without opening the console to fix a thing. Which proves that yes, whether some people like it or not, Linux has gone mainstream. And that huge win is really worth celebrating instead of complaining that it’s less badass.
Pick the Linux you can shape most easily around what you do with it
In the end, the only real trap to avoid when you move to Linux is the shitty advice that claims to tell you which distro to pick as a beginner. Because the reflex behind those articles is almost always to palm off a Linux that imitates Windows or macOS so you don’t feel too lost. But let’s be honest for two seconds. If you absolutely want a Linux that looks as much like Windows as possible, stay on Windows! And if you want a Linux that behaves like macOS, stay on macOS! You gain nothing at all installing a pale copy of what you already have on hand. You’re just signing up for frustration.
The right move is picking a Linux you can shape easily around your preferences and what you’re going to do with it. Because the big advantage of Linux is that the system adapts 100% to you, not the other way around. It’s also the best way to dodge the trap of the slightly embarrassing distros, the Zorin OS types and a few others of the same kind that pile on bloat and end up betraying the spirit of Linux. Never mind their 100% commercial logic dressed up as a supposedly user friendly philosophy.
Conclusion: Linux has matured nicely, and it’s on us to spread the word
It’s a real pleasure to see how much Linux has become a must-have and to watch more and more people switch for good. But if we want the movement to keep its momentum, there’s still a hell of a job to do on communication. And we shouldn’t leave that job of informing people to the media outlets that talk garbage. As a Linux user you’re a media outlet at your own level, one that can speak up on social media and share its user experience far from the unbearable clichés. That’s how Linux can keep spreading and prove the open source spirit can kick Big Tech and its bad practices out of computing.
I want to be clear that I used Linux Mint as my example in this article because it’s the one that’s suited me best for a few years. Maybe just out of habit. But I never said everyone should pick this distro. Again, there are dozens of really nice distros. I could just as well have told you about Kubuntu or MX Linux, which I’m particularly fond of, but those are just my personal tastes. So there’s no directive here. Just an invitation to stay curious and put your critical thinking to work.
After all these years, the only things that could turn me off Mint would be its maintainer having the very bad idea of building in an AI by default or piling on bloat that has no reason to exist. Because a Linux ought to stay light, it’s a matter of principle. As for AI, it has no business in an operating system or a browser.
And if those red lines ever got crossed, well, I’d probably swap my current OS for a Slackware or a FreeBSD. Or maybe NovaFuture would end up releasing its own distro. What’s one more 🙂 In the meantime, we wish you good times on Linux and see you very soon for new adventures.
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