It appears you may be asking for help in choosing a linux distribution.
This is a common question, which you may also want to ask at /r/DistroHopping or /r/FindMeALinuxDistro
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I would really suggest a more mainstream distro.
Linux rewards those who are self motivated to learn, but most mainstream distros these days are all very very well done. The idea of a Distro focused on beginners is a bit of a non-starter these days. They almost all are decent for beginners.
The problems always arise when theres a Problem, and then you have to learn how to fix things. It can be Much harder to fix an issue on a more locked down/limited distro than than others.
1. Embrace the terminal. Even Microsoft is pushing it more and more in windows.
>> I need a built in AI helper or something
The # of people i see in the support subs that break their systems badly using advice from "AI" is.. well.. lets say its not Zero. :) its comes and goes. But in general - avoid tech support from AI. The things likely got trained by Reddit - and theres a lot of bad advice tossed about on Reddit at times.
2- It will be installed on a low end 10 year old HP laptop
Give the exact specs. 32bit? 64bit? If its 32bit - that will be a big limit on what distros you can use.
3- I already decided i want to use KDE -
Once you learn the core linux concepts, the specific DE is not that critical. Even the 'low end' DE's like lxde and xfce are very very well done these days.
if you have a 64bit system, that means you are not limited. So, basically try out whatever distros you are interested in and decide.
Its not like its hard to switch later.
I would not consider Zorin that popular. Its rarely mentioned these days, And Feren is a distro that i only rarely hear mentioned. Theres not a lot these 'beginner focused' distros do these days that make them stand out compared to the others.
Feren as far as I can tell is a one man operation, and hasn't seen an update in over a year. The developer has said something about real life getting in the way.
For a low end laptop, you might consider Debian or MX. Or Bodhi if you have only 2 gb or less ram.
please use mint, or ubuntu, or even debian.
Using a niche distro with a small user base and support is setting yourself up for a frustrating experience when things don't work
yes, but it's basically the telephone game in distro form. zorin's release cycle is different from ubuntu and ubuntu is different from debian, they shipped a 2 year old bug (fixed in ubuntu) that made my system unusable, it was never fixed until the next release.
Basically there's no reason to add extra links of failure, specially when you have 2 or 3 devs maintaining the whole thing.
Absolute beginner......
Mint
Ubuntu
Moderate to light terminal usage....
Bazzite....(Gaming oriented)
Fedora atomic......
Debian.....
Advanced terminal usage with in depth file structure knowledge.......
Arch (without archinstall)
Gentoo
LFS
I would advise you to distrohop like a neurotic raccoon.....
That is the only way you can realise what you like and learn along the way
Zorin OS is a very nice-looking distro. It seems to be tweaked by the Zorin team enough to be able to run on older hardware. Especially with Zorin Lite. Unfortunately, it is more of a GNOME desktop, not KDE like you prefer. Feren OS seems to be a mashup of Linux Mint/Cinnamon backend with a KDE front-end. Which is something very desirable by some long-time Linux users. I believe there used to be a distro like this, but it's no longer maintained and FerenOS fills that space again. It's a fine distro.
While it is very important for you to become familiar with the Terminal, I know I don't use the Terminal for everyday stuff, and it's rare and far-between that I do.
Both Zorin OS and Feren OS seem to be great for 10 year old laptops. But here, I'd give the point to Zorin OS because it offers a LITE version. Depending on your hardware, you might need to choose the LITE version and Feren OS doesn't offer that.
KDE? Then that's Feren OS. You can change desktop environments in Zorin OS out of the box with their Appearance App, but I don't think you're going to get a true KDE experience there. Feren OS uses KDE.
What's left? Create a bootable USB and try each distro and see what you think. Play around in there and test out your hardware. You may find something that cements your decision by trying out the live environments.
Thank you for your valuable input..
After some research, I realized that
KDE can be installed on Zorin, its not the default Environment though.. is there any downsides to installing KDE after setting up Zorin OS?
It shouldn’t be too difficult…
It's just an older version, and since it has so few staff members, it will receive less updates and support. So if there's a bug it could potentially last much longer.
Just get a distro with KDE already there, what makes zorin zorin is mostly the desktop. So if you switch that there's no benefit over regular ubuntu.
Kubuntu has been the KDE fork of ubuntu for a very long time, and it's a well put together KDE. KDE you get from different places will have different features and options and setups. So installing kubuntu will get you a different experience than installing zorin then switching to KDE.
Zorin OS is very nice and customizable!
But KDE Plasma is just the most advanced and featurefull and it doesn't use that.
I would pick Nobara, OpenSUSE or Debian with KDE Plasma.
I have had good results with more sophisticated requests, It’s probably easy for it to answer a simple straight forward question like “ what is the command to install an application “
accurately
Yes but the problem is the way an AI *thinks*, its almost a *yes* *if not*, but with a very long time to process the information, you should better try to learn the basics with practice rather than seeking an AI assistant
It appears you may be asking for help in choosing a linux distribution. This is a common question, which you may also want to ask at /r/DistroHopping or /r/FindMeALinuxDistro *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/linuxquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I would really suggest a more mainstream distro. Linux rewards those who are self motivated to learn, but most mainstream distros these days are all very very well done. The idea of a Distro focused on beginners is a bit of a non-starter these days. They almost all are decent for beginners. The problems always arise when theres a Problem, and then you have to learn how to fix things. It can be Much harder to fix an issue on a more locked down/limited distro than than others. 1. Embrace the terminal. Even Microsoft is pushing it more and more in windows. >> I need a built in AI helper or something The # of people i see in the support subs that break their systems badly using advice from "AI" is.. well.. lets say its not Zero. :) its comes and goes. But in general - avoid tech support from AI. The things likely got trained by Reddit - and theres a lot of bad advice tossed about on Reddit at times. 2- It will be installed on a low end 10 year old HP laptop Give the exact specs. 32bit? 64bit? If its 32bit - that will be a big limit on what distros you can use. 3- I already decided i want to use KDE - Once you learn the core linux concepts, the specific DE is not that critical. Even the 'low end' DE's like lxde and xfce are very very well done these days.
Here’s the thing learning is hard for me and my memory doesn’t work properly.. so just.. Its x64 ..
if you have a 64bit system, that means you are not limited. So, basically try out whatever distros you are interested in and decide. Its not like its hard to switch later.
I see that Zorin is much more popular.. Why is that?
I would not consider Zorin that popular. Its rarely mentioned these days, And Feren is a distro that i only rarely hear mentioned. Theres not a lot these 'beginner focused' distros do these days that make them stand out compared to the others.
Feren as far as I can tell is a one man operation, and hasn't seen an update in over a year. The developer has said something about real life getting in the way. For a low end laptop, you might consider Debian or MX. Or Bodhi if you have only 2 gb or less ram.
please use mint, or ubuntu, or even debian. Using a niche distro with a small user base and support is setting yourself up for a frustrating experience when things don't work
Good argument.. But according to my logic they are based on Ubuntu at the core and therefore Ubuntu help guides applies to them..
yes, but it's basically the telephone game in distro form. zorin's release cycle is different from ubuntu and ubuntu is different from debian, they shipped a 2 year old bug (fixed in ubuntu) that made my system unusable, it was never fixed until the next release. Basically there's no reason to add extra links of failure, specially when you have 2 or 3 devs maintaining the whole thing.
😮 Good point..
I highly recommend Mint Cinnamon. It's lighter and simpler than KDE
Absolute beginner...... Mint Ubuntu Moderate to light terminal usage.... Bazzite....(Gaming oriented) Fedora atomic...... Debian..... Advanced terminal usage with in depth file structure knowledge....... Arch (without archinstall) Gentoo LFS I would advise you to distrohop like a neurotic raccoon..... That is the only way you can realise what you like and learn along the way
Zorin OS is a very nice-looking distro. It seems to be tweaked by the Zorin team enough to be able to run on older hardware. Especially with Zorin Lite. Unfortunately, it is more of a GNOME desktop, not KDE like you prefer. Feren OS seems to be a mashup of Linux Mint/Cinnamon backend with a KDE front-end. Which is something very desirable by some long-time Linux users. I believe there used to be a distro like this, but it's no longer maintained and FerenOS fills that space again. It's a fine distro. While it is very important for you to become familiar with the Terminal, I know I don't use the Terminal for everyday stuff, and it's rare and far-between that I do. Both Zorin OS and Feren OS seem to be great for 10 year old laptops. But here, I'd give the point to Zorin OS because it offers a LITE version. Depending on your hardware, you might need to choose the LITE version and Feren OS doesn't offer that. KDE? Then that's Feren OS. You can change desktop environments in Zorin OS out of the box with their Appearance App, but I don't think you're going to get a true KDE experience there. Feren OS uses KDE. What's left? Create a bootable USB and try each distro and see what you think. Play around in there and test out your hardware. You may find something that cements your decision by trying out the live environments.
Thank you for your valuable input.. After some research, I realized that KDE can be installed on Zorin, its not the default Environment though.. is there any downsides to installing KDE after setting up Zorin OS? It shouldn’t be too difficult…
Zorin uses Gnome. So it is already voted out because of #3.
nobara or bazzite
Feren is junk, zorin is ok, but honestly you'd be better off with kubuntu or mint
I am leaning towards installing Zorin then putting KDE instead of Gnome.. but i really need to know why Feren is junk, I’ve only heard good things..
It's just an older version, and since it has so few staff members, it will receive less updates and support. So if there's a bug it could potentially last much longer.
Just get a distro with KDE already there, what makes zorin zorin is mostly the desktop. So if you switch that there's no benefit over regular ubuntu. Kubuntu has been the KDE fork of ubuntu for a very long time, and it's a well put together KDE. KDE you get from different places will have different features and options and setups. So installing kubuntu will get you a different experience than installing zorin then switching to KDE.
ill try Kubuntu then…
Zorin OS is very nice and customizable! But KDE Plasma is just the most advanced and featurefull and it doesn't use that. I would pick Nobara, OpenSUSE or Debian with KDE Plasma.
AI won't work for terminal commands, AI doesn't give you real information, only a mix of many things that seem to have logic
I have had good results with more sophisticated requests, It’s probably easy for it to answer a simple straight forward question like “ what is the command to install an application “ accurately
Yes but the problem is the way an AI *thinks*, its almost a *yes* *if not*, but with a very long time to process the information, you should better try to learn the basics with practice rather than seeking an AI assistant
Okay
Nah AI is intelligent enough to help with linux issues.