Seeking to explore Linux as a beginner on this platform
Seeking to explore Linux as a beginner on this platform
Opposite of what others say, I might avoid Mint if you intend to use the software manager. I haven’t had any positive results; some applications didn’t function properly from there, and many desired tools have reviews noting incompatibility with the latest Mint version or being outdated.
I enjoy Pop_OS! It's minimal but provides everything needed to start. The design is quick and the layout feels decent. It supports installing downloaded .deb files and using apt for pop shop, which is useful even though I don't like the pop shop itself. For office tools, you could use wine or opt for free alternatives like LibreOffice. Ubuntu and its versions are also solid choices (I noted Pop is built on Ubuntu). Try out a few live images, boot them up, and see what works best. This lets you test without making a long-term commitment.
I’m currently using Pop on my old tower and have received excellent feedback about its performance compared to Windows 7 and 10. I’ve also gotten comfortable with Ubuntu, since Pop is built on it. My Mac Mini works well too, so I’m familiar with Unix-like systems. As @dennito suggested, try booting into live environments and test different Linux distros to find the best fit!
Pop!_OS user here as well. Been using it as my daily driver for 5 months now. I use it both as my work from home setup and my gaming setup. It's been pretty much working out of the box for me with the few instances of me borking the DE (that was my fault since I was messing with config files to theme my Gnome theme). I have mine running with the Xanmod kernel and it's been amazing with games and it even has better FPS on games that I used to play on Windows. I mostly game on Steam but I've used Lutris more since I need it to play Genshin Impact.