Zorin is a solid distro and is designed to appeal to Windows users.
Buuuut knowing what I know now I worry Zorin’s simplicity could turn people off of Linux. Zorin is a good OS for your grandmother but the average person who would consider installing Linux wants to be able to tinker. Heck, I would consider the very act of changing your operating to be tinkering. Nobody accidentally stumbles installing Linux.
The options with Zorin are either use it as-is or risk breaking it. That’s why I would personally recommend a KDE distro, probably something immutable like Fedora Kinoite. That way you can tinker to your heart’s content with no fear of breaking it.
There’s anther thread on here about linux for new people and suggestions regarding that. A lot of people in that thread just didn’t get it. They were talking about learning the terminal, learning how to CD, installing stuff via the terminal etc and I’m like “your average user isn’t going to do that”
Hell most average Window users today don’t even download an exe and go through the install process. I know some that have never even opened file explorer. They have apps that get those files or pictures or whatever in the default directories for them.
so telling a user like that to open a terminal emu and type in “sudo apt install firefox” and to remember to “upgrade and update” is beyond them. like WAY beyond them.
So yes in that regard your’e right, Zorin would be the way to go. just have somewhere to download their apps/programs in an easy to understand and clean GUI.
I would dare say the “average person”, as in, Windows refugee, probably doesn’t want to tinker, they do want things to just kinda work as expected and just want freedom and options.
I don’t see why Zorin couldn’t be a valid jumping off point for new users to get their feet wet. As much as I love more tinkery distros, I will usually onboard somebody with something like Mint because it’s just familiar enough but still lets you explore the how and why, without requiring it.
I didn’t say “average person” and end the sentence. I said the average person installing linux. The type of person who installs Linux in the first place is already extremely far from average.
I would consider act of installing Linux itself to be “tinkering”.
If I wanted an “easy” Linux distro to do things like run a home server and media storage - I mean, it sounds perfect for that??? With kids, I don’t have TIME to tinker with OS stuff anymore, I just need something that works and is more stable than Windows.
The best news is that most distros would be good for those kinds of tasks! :D
I can’t personally speak to Zorin, although it looks fine! People say it comes with lots of stuff out of the box. Worth trying out!
Mint is really user friendly with an excellent forum and tons of support. The Cinnamon desktop environment is very Windows-esque in a usability way, and it tends to be slow to adopt new features that could break things, so by the time you update, most things should be fixed.
It doesn’t require terminal usage at all, but I started to enjoy using it because it makes “computing” feel really fun. :)
For a home media server that’d be running all the time that can be a little bit of a hobby…(But a rewarding one!)
In depth to avoid more downvotes for my ADHD lol.
Definitely hit up online communities too, like searching for “selfhosted” here on lemmy! That’s where you start learning to run stuff like Jellyfin for watching your movies and such.
BUT… for starters: You could totally just share SAMBA shared folders off any Linux machine if you wanted. Boom, technically a file server. Pretty sure this is easy in Mint with GUI.
For a more dedicated “headless server” system for this, I’d look into Open Media Vault
The important takeaway is that starting is really simple. Just be patient and try things, and make sure your data is always backed up.
Before you install anything bare metal, both have a “Live USB” feature where you can see how they’d be on your system without actually installing anything.
There are a lot of people who think “customization” of an OS goes no further than changing the wallpaper. How many people have the same 8-charachter email password in 2025 as they had in 2003 when they signed up for Yahoo mail?
The more grannies that have a kid help them get on Linux, the more people experienced with Linux there are to say “Oh, you’re still on Windows? Why?”
I’d cheer if windows users starting installing an operating system called SwerageShitOS at this point. literally anything but that mutant bloated dataveillance virus with genocidal parent-company Winidows-🤮-11
I don’t think the focus should be on the average current Linux user. Guaranteed that if Linux gained substantial market share, the fraction of tinkerers would dwindle substantially
I think its alright. Its better if they start with something simple and understand that there are another 20 really good distributions they can try.
Most users coming from windows dont want to tinker… They just want their system to be a peaceful foundation for what they want to do with their computer.
I agree that an immutable distro is probably good for newcomers, but KDE is also full of features most windows users never need or want to touch even. Saying that as someone who primarily runs Solus Budgie since 2017, a Steamdeck with KDE and many different VMs with gnome/kde/xfce/…
Also installed Zorin years ago for family, still running and they are happy.
I rather take a distro/DE where 98% i want is working out of the box than one where 200% of features i never need need to be removed/customized first. Why am I using Solus? Because it has a well curated software repo and not every piece of code ever and yet I still managed to run everything I wanted over the years on it. Over all those years it was an install once, upgrade forever distro that just works.
As someone who came from Windows 7, and then a short period with 10, KDE was perfect for me.
Not only could I customize almost anything, visually, there’s all sorts of shit that I always wished I could do on Windows, but never had the functionality.
Immutable distros are not good for beginners, for two main reasons:
A lot of general-purpose Linux guides just don’t work with them, making newbies confused and forcing them to learn a lot of new stuff when they’re not ready
Some software just doesn’t run with immutable distros - for example, most VPNs are not ready
Setting btrfs snapshots on respective directories, so folks can rollback unwanted changes? Great! Tying people’s hands? Might come with complications.
KDE is a brilliant DE for people coming from Windows: it has similar layout, it stands out of your way, and overall has a very easy learning curve. I’ve never seen anyone seriously stuck with setting up anything it has to offer, and yet, it’s very, very customizable. Folks I offered it to either stayed with the defaults and were totally happy with it, or immediately started tuning everything to their liking with no issues whatsoever.
After all, someone who didn’t touch Windows for a while might forget how much convoluted are settings there, and how Windows users are ready to dig through them.
I would argue that it depends a lot on what kind of beginner you have. If you have someone that only uses basic desktop PC functions, like browser, email and maybe stuff like video, photos and documents. You can set it up once, and then have a system that updates itself reliably and has minimal maintenance overhead and isn’t easy to break.
In my experience that system is more robust and gets updated than a generic Debian system.
Of course there are downsides, and those include issues caused by apps running inside flatpak, like system themes are disrespected, opening files in one app, doesn’t respect the xdg-mime settings for the file type and open them in unexpected apps, printer does not work… But those are just bugs, and they need to get reported and fixed.
Yeah I agree and was going to add the same thing. Immutable for newbies is going to cause trouble. I run a non immutable daily driver, but on my point of sale terminal at work - immutable all the way.
There are a few things that are just too extra to get running on that immutable system.
Zorin is a solid distro and is designed to appeal to Windows users.
Buuuut knowing what I know now I worry Zorin’s simplicity could turn people off of Linux. Zorin is a good OS for your grandmother but the average person who would consider installing Linux wants to be able to tinker. Heck, I would consider the very act of changing your operating to be tinkering. Nobody accidentally stumbles installing Linux.
The options with Zorin are either use it as-is or risk breaking it. That’s why I would personally recommend a KDE distro, probably something immutable like Fedora Kinoite. That way you can tinker to your heart’s content with no fear of breaking it.
Nope; the average person wants to only customise/personalise, not tinker.
I’m suggesting this distro to friends and family moving off of windows and wanting to save money. They think using command line is too “extra”.
I didn’t say average person I said average Linux installer which is FAR from the average person.
There’s anther thread on here about linux for new people and suggestions regarding that. A lot of people in that thread just didn’t get it. They were talking about learning the terminal, learning how to CD, installing stuff via the terminal etc and I’m like “your average user isn’t going to do that”
Hell most average Window users today don’t even download an exe and go through the install process. I know some that have never even opened file explorer. They have apps that get those files or pictures or whatever in the default directories for them.
so telling a user like that to open a terminal emu and type in “sudo apt install firefox” and to remember to “upgrade and update” is beyond them. like WAY beyond them.
So yes in that regard your’e right, Zorin would be the way to go. just have somewhere to download their apps/programs in an easy to understand and clean GUI.
If you’re going to game, just go with Bazzite over Kinoite since the former is based on the latter, just built more for gaming.
And it’s awesome.
Yes Bazzite is great I tried it out recently and loved it.
But that’s the issue, no? To really take users away from Windows and MacOS there needs to be a distro that works without tinkering.
The average person who is installing Linux wants to be able to tinker.
The type of person who installs Linux in the first place is already extremely far from average.
But that’s exactly the point I’m trying to make.
Average people don’t install/use linux because of the tinkering (amongst other stuff). If that’s eliminated, it’s accessible to more people.
I would dare say the “average person”, as in, Windows refugee, probably doesn’t want to tinker, they do want things to just kinda work as expected and just want freedom and options.
I don’t see why Zorin couldn’t be a valid jumping off point for new users to get their feet wet. As much as I love more tinkery distros, I will usually onboard somebody with something like Mint because it’s just familiar enough but still lets you explore the how and why, without requiring it.
I didn’t say “average person” and end the sentence. I said the average person installing linux. The type of person who installs Linux in the first place is already extremely far from average.
I would consider act of installing Linux itself to be “tinkering”.
If I wanted an “easy” Linux distro to do things like run a home server and media storage - I mean, it sounds perfect for that??? With kids, I don’t have TIME to tinker with OS stuff anymore, I just need something that works and is more stable than Windows.
The best news is that most distros would be good for those kinds of tasks! :D
I can’t personally speak to Zorin, although it looks fine! People say it comes with lots of stuff out of the box. Worth trying out!
Mint is really user friendly with an excellent forum and tons of support. The Cinnamon desktop environment is very Windows-esque in a usability way, and it tends to be slow to adopt new features that could break things, so by the time you update, most things should be fixed.
It doesn’t require terminal usage at all, but I started to enjoy using it because it makes “computing” feel really fun. :)
For a home media server that’d be running all the time that can be a little bit of a hobby…(But a rewarding one!)
In depth to avoid more downvotes for my ADHD lol.
Definitely hit up online communities too, like searching for “selfhosted” here on lemmy! That’s where you start learning to run stuff like Jellyfin for watching your movies and such.
BUT… for starters: You could totally just share SAMBA shared folders off any Linux machine if you wanted. Boom, technically a file server. Pretty sure this is easy in Mint with GUI.
For a more dedicated “headless server” system for this, I’d look into Open Media Vault
The important takeaway is that starting is really simple. Just be patient and try things, and make sure your data is always backed up.
Before you install anything bare metal, both have a “Live USB” feature where you can see how they’d be on your system without actually installing anything.
Sorry for the long reply!
There are a lot of people who think “customization” of an OS goes no further than changing the wallpaper. How many people have the same 8-charachter email password in 2025 as they had in 2003 when they signed up for Yahoo mail?
The more grannies that have a kid help them get on Linux, the more people experienced with Linux there are to say “Oh, you’re still on Windows? Why?”
I’d cheer if windows users starting installing an operating system called SwerageShitOS at this point. literally anything but that mutant bloated dataveillance virus with genocidal parent-company Winidows-🤮-11
I don’t think the focus should be on the average current Linux user. Guaranteed that if Linux gained substantial market share, the fraction of tinkerers would dwindle substantially
I think its alright. Its better if they start with something simple and understand that there are another 20 really good distributions they can try.
Most users coming from windows dont want to tinker… They just want their system to be a peaceful foundation for what they want to do with their computer.
I agree that an immutable distro is probably good for newcomers, but KDE is also full of features most windows users never need or want to touch even. Saying that as someone who primarily runs Solus Budgie since 2017, a Steamdeck with KDE and many different VMs with gnome/kde/xfce/… Also installed Zorin years ago for family, still running and they are happy.
I rather take a distro/DE where 98% i want is working out of the box than one where 200% of features i never need need to be removed/customized first. Why am I using Solus? Because it has a well curated software repo and not every piece of code ever and yet I still managed to run everything I wanted over the years on it. Over all those years it was an install once, upgrade forever distro that just works.
As someone who came from Windows 7, and then a short period with 10, KDE was perfect for me.
Not only could I customize almost anything, visually, there’s all sorts of shit that I always wished I could do on Windows, but never had the functionality.
I have the absolute opposite of your opinion :D
Immutable distros are not good for beginners, for two main reasons:
Setting btrfs snapshots on respective directories, so folks can rollback unwanted changes? Great! Tying people’s hands? Might come with complications.
KDE is a brilliant DE for people coming from Windows: it has similar layout, it stands out of your way, and overall has a very easy learning curve. I’ve never seen anyone seriously stuck with setting up anything it has to offer, and yet, it’s very, very customizable. Folks I offered it to either stayed with the defaults and were totally happy with it, or immediately started tuning everything to their liking with no issues whatsoever.
After all, someone who didn’t touch Windows for a while might forget how much convoluted are settings there, and how Windows users are ready to dig through them.
VPN software can work just fine on immutable, you just might need to layer it or install it as a local package.
I would argue that it depends a lot on what kind of beginner you have. If you have someone that only uses basic desktop PC functions, like browser, email and maybe stuff like video, photos and documents. You can set it up once, and then have a system that updates itself reliably and has minimal maintenance overhead and isn’t easy to break.
In my experience that system is more robust and gets updated than a generic Debian system.
Of course there are downsides, and those include issues caused by apps running inside flatpak, like system themes are disrespected, opening files in one app, doesn’t respect the xdg-mime settings for the file type and open them in unexpected apps, printer does not work… But those are just bugs, and they need to get reported and fixed.
That’s fair! :)
Yeah I agree and was going to add the same thing. Immutable for newbies is going to cause trouble. I run a non immutable daily driver, but on my point of sale terminal at work - immutable all the way.
There are a few things that are just too extra to get running on that immutable system.
An immutable distro is a terrible recommendation for someone wanting to tinker with their system.
No it’s a great recommendation.
Dude the market share isn’t even what, 7%? I don’t think Linux’s complexity/advanced functions is the issue here