WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.440 So, you've finally had enough of 00:00:03.080 --> 00:00:09.440 Windows. The pop-up ads, the buggy updates, the constant OneDrive sign-in 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:12.880 prompts, the Copilot button in Notepad, Copilot in Paint, Copilot in the 00:00:10.920 --> 00:00:18.340 taskbar, Copilot as a dedicated app, Copilot inside Edge, the Office app 00:00:15.080 --> 00:00:18.995 being renamed to Microsoft 365 Copilot. 00:00:18.340 --> 00:00:25.680 >> [gasps] [sighs] >> Now, you decide to install Linux and 00:00:23.400 --> 00:00:31.520 you're greeted with over 600 different versions to choose from. Ubuntu, Fedora, 00:00:28.240 --> 00:00:34.080 Arch, Mint, Zorin, Gentoo, 00:00:31.520 --> 00:00:36.880 and Puppy. And then you go to Reddit where everyone's telling you to use 00:00:35.320 --> 00:00:40.800 something different and that picking the wrong version could mean hours of 00:00:38.680 --> 00:00:47.280 troubleshooting, broken drivers, AND INDECIPHERABLE CONFIG FILES. WHAT'S A 00:00:43.320 --> 00:00:48.680 Windows refugee to do? Hey, don't worry. 00:00:47.280 --> 00:00:53.120 We're here to help you decide which version is right for you. Let's break it 00:00:50.800 --> 00:00:58.120 down. It's going to be okay. Now, first, all of these versions are 00:00:55.360 --> 00:01:02.040 called Linux distributions or distros for short. So-called because they 00:00:59.960 --> 00:01:06.400 distribute the various components of the operating system as a self-contained 00:01:04.040 --> 00:01:10.440 bundle. You see, Linux by itself is what's called a kernel, the code in the 00:01:08.680 --> 00:01:15.600 middle of the distro that talks to your hardware. You can think of a full distro 00:01:12.520 --> 00:01:18.320 like some kind of glorious egg roll. 00:01:15.600 --> 00:01:22.640 Linux is just the filling. A distro takes that kernel and wraps everything 00:01:20.480 --> 00:01:27.440 else around it into one delicious package you can actually eat. I 00:01:24.720 --> 00:01:31.240 I mean, use. Specifically, that wrapper includes a desktop environment, the 00:01:29.360 --> 00:01:35.520 graphical interface you can see and click things on, a package manager, how 00:01:33.760 --> 00:01:40.080 you install new software and keep everything updated, and in a way, it 00:01:37.920 --> 00:01:44.120 also includes the philosophy about how all of those things should work 00:01:41.560 --> 00:01:48.800 together. Now, as we said, there are over 600 of these tasty little egg 00:01:46.440 --> 00:01:52.720 rolls, I mean, I mean, distros. We shouldn't have shot this before lunch. 00:01:50.200 --> 00:01:56.200 But we've picked nine of the most widely used ones to help you figure out which 00:01:54.560 --> 00:02:00.040 is right for you. Here's how we're breaking it down. We got five for people 00:01:58.440 --> 00:02:04.520 fleeing Windows who just want their computer to work. Got three for people 00:02:02.400 --> 00:02:09.520 who want to game on Linux, including one distro you might already be running, and 00:02:07.040 --> 00:02:12.800 another for the tinkerers out there. Again, there are hundreds more you can 00:02:11.360 --> 00:02:18.360 go explore, but these are the ones that'll cover almost everyone watching 00:02:14.840 --> 00:02:20.560 this. So, let's start simple here. Linux 00:02:18.360 --> 00:02:24.480 is the single most recommended distro for people leaving Windows. It looks 00:02:22.440 --> 00:02:27.640 like Windows. It feels like Windows. It comes with media codecs and drivers 00:02:25.960 --> 00:02:33.320 already configured out of the box, and its entire philosophy is stop bothering 00:02:30.600 --> 00:02:37.240 the user. They've had a very hard day. If your reaction to this video so far 00:02:35.200 --> 00:02:41.720 is, "Please, just tell me what to install and get me out of here." It's 00:02:39.320 --> 00:02:45.600 Mint. But if you're still watching, then good because it gets a lot more 00:02:43.080 --> 00:02:49.440 interesting. Zorin OS is like Mint's cooler sibling. It has a feature called 00:02:47.800 --> 00:02:53.680 Zorin Appearance that lets you make the desktop look like Windows or macOS, 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:58.480 depending on which operating system you're fleeing. It's arguably the most 00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:02.360 polished switching experience out there. There's a paid Pro tier with extra 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:07.400 layouts and software, but the free version has everything most people will 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:10.280 ever need. Now, Ubuntu is the most 00:03:07.400 --> 00:03:14.040 popular Linux distro, period. It has the biggest community. It's available 00:03:11.880 --> 00:03:18.320 pre-installed on some Dell and Lenovo hardware. And if you Google literally 00:03:16.160 --> 00:03:23.280 any Linux problem, the first result is almost certainly a solution written for 00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:28.320 Ubuntu. That community alone makes it the safe pick, especially for beginners. 00:03:25.920 --> 00:03:33.360 And then there's Pop!_OS, made by System76, a company that actually builds 00:03:31.120 --> 00:03:37.440 Linux laptops and desktops in Denver, Colorado. It's for the person who wants 00:03:35.120 --> 00:03:41.840 more control than Mint, but doesn't want to go anywhere near a config file. 00:03:39.640 --> 00:03:46.480 Everything lives in a nice, neat settings panel, perfectly designed for 00:03:44.120 --> 00:03:50.720 your dumb brain. It also has the best NVIDIA graphics card support of any 00:03:48.560 --> 00:03:55.040 distro, which matters a lot because Linux and NVIDIA have historically 00:03:52.760 --> 00:03:59.680 gotten along about as well as a cat and a bathtub. We talked to System76 00:03:57.640 --> 00:04:03.920 co-founder Carl Richell about what people end up loving about Pop!_OS. If 00:04:02.320 --> 00:04:08.720 you're into personalization, if you're into um kind of refining your workflow, 00:04:07.440 --> 00:04:13.400 a really good, especially if you're keyboard driven, it's a fantastic uh 00:04:11.160 --> 00:04:16.519 experience. There's the keyboard shortcuts are amazing. You know, tile 00:04:15.080 --> 00:04:20.440 one workspace and not the others, you can have mixed floating and tiling 00:04:18.160 --> 00:04:23.440 experience, but all without it feeling overwhelming. Our philosophy was that 00:04:22.320 --> 00:04:29.680 with with very careful and thoughtful design, 00:04:26.440 --> 00:04:31.600 we could build a desktop experience um 00:04:29.680 --> 00:04:36.120 that didn't have to compromise on what the user how the user wanted to use 00:04:33.720 --> 00:04:40.400 their computer. That's kind of the whole pitch of Pop!_OS. It gives you the depth 00:04:38.480 --> 00:04:44.680 and flexibility that makes Linux worth switching to in the first place, but 00:04:42.200 --> 00:04:48.400 that depth is surfaced through menus and toggles that feel familiar if you're 00:04:46.520 --> 00:04:52.080 coming from Windows or Mac. You're not unlocking new power by learning a new 00:04:50.400 --> 00:04:56.680 language, you're clicking around in a settings panel that was made for a 00:04:54.120 --> 00:05:01.680 normal human being. Which brings us to Fedora. It's backed by Red Hat, one of 00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:06.320 the biggest names in Linux, which means it's usually one of the first distros to 00:05:03.520 --> 00:05:09.960 ship new Linux technology. Most distros make you choose between stable and 00:05:08.200 --> 00:05:13.400 current releases. You either get software that's been tested for a year 00:05:11.880 --> 00:05:17.200 or software that just shipped this morning and might break your system. 00:05:15.320 --> 00:05:22.560 Fedora doesn't really make you choose. It ships tools like Wayland, PipeWire, 00:05:19.800 --> 00:05:26.680 and BTRFS first, but still goes through a proper release cycle before they reach 00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:30.680 you. You get to be ahead of the curve without being the person who finds out 00:05:28.120 --> 00:05:35.120 something is broken. Now, those five cover probably 80% of people watching 00:05:33.160 --> 00:05:40.880 this video. But what if you're not just trying to escape Windows? What if you're 00:05:37.440 --> 00:05:42.840 trying to game on Linux? We'll get into 00:05:40.880 --> 00:05:47.280 the distros that are making Linux gaming arguably better than Windows right after 00:05:45.080 --> 00:05:52.000 we thank today's sponsor. Tello, wireless that doesn't drive you crazy. 00:05:49.640 --> 00:05:55.600 Tello me about it. Have you ever had to pull up the 00:05:53.320 --> 00:05:59.360 calculator app on your phone, punch in your paycheck, and start subtracting 00:05:57.640 --> 00:06:04.520 bills to figure out your budget? Feels pretty bad when you hit minus 200 just 00:06:01.960 --> 00:06:10.000 for a phone plan. Well, Tello has mobile plans starting at $5 with an unlimited 00:06:07.680 --> 00:06:14.920 option for just $25. Or get 10 gigs of data and unlimited 00:06:12.240 --> 00:06:19.280 talk and text for $15. Every plan comes with extra freebies 00:06:16.720 --> 00:06:23.480 like hotspotting, Wi-Fi calling, and more. Plus, they pride themselves on 00:06:21.600 --> 00:06:26.720 offering friendly, live, and responsive customer service. Check out Tello's 00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:30.680 unlimited plan with the QR code on screen or click the link in the 00:06:28.280 --> 00:06:34.960 description. Okay, so Linux gaming, a phrase that only a few years ago was 00:06:32.480 --> 00:06:38.960 basically a punchline in itself. Now, it's genuinely competitive, largely 00:06:36.840 --> 00:06:43.960 thanks to Valve and CodeWeavers building a compatibility layer called Proton that 00:06:41.520 --> 00:06:48.120 lets you run most Windows games on Linux without doing anything weird. And a 00:06:46.640 --> 00:06:52.840 handful of distros have built their entire identity around making that 00:06:50.200 --> 00:06:57.440 experience as painless as possible. Bazzite is one of the most talked about 00:06:55.240 --> 00:07:02.120 gaming distros in recent years. It was built specifically to bring the Steam 00:06:59.720 --> 00:07:06.360 OS-style gaming experience to hardware Valve never officially supported. Your 00:07:04.320 --> 00:07:11.680 ROG Ally, your Legion Go, your gaming PC, running on Fedora under the hood 00:07:09.120 --> 00:07:16.400 rather than Steam OS itself, but looking and feeling almost identical. Bazzite is 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:21.040 a distro that's classified as immutable, meaning the base system is read-only and 00:07:18.920 --> 00:07:24.960 nearly impossible to break. Think of it like a gaming console. It updates 00:07:22.800 --> 00:07:28.520 itself, it supports HDR, it works on handheld gaming devices like the Steam 00:07:26.520 --> 00:07:32.040 Deck and the ROG Ally, and if you somehow mess something up, you can just 00:07:30.440 --> 00:07:36.720 roll back to the previous version. It also comes with everything a gaming PC 00:07:34.160 --> 00:07:40.800 actually needs already configured. GPU drivers, Proton, controller support, 00:07:38.840 --> 00:07:44.640 codecs, none of which you have to hunt down yourself. On a general-purpose 00:07:42.880 --> 00:07:50.680 distro, getting all of that working is an afternoon project at least. On 00:07:47.400 --> 00:07:52.560 Bazzite, it's just done. Next, Nobara. 00:07:50.680 --> 00:07:58.880 It's built by a Red Hat engineer who goes by Glorious Eggroll online. 00:07:55.560 --> 00:08:01.880 Oh, that explains it. I'm not hungry, I 00:07:58.880 --> 00:08:04.280 just love gaming. And I'm hungry. 00:08:01.880 --> 00:08:08.360 Anyway, Mr. Eggroll got tired of Fedora not being gaming ready out of the box, 00:08:06.560 --> 00:08:13.720 so he took Fedora, stripped out everything that wasn't pulling its weight, and preloaded it with everything 00:08:11.520 --> 00:08:18.440 a gamer actually needs. Steam, open-source game manager Lutris, NVIDIA 00:08:16.120 --> 00:08:22.640 drivers, multimedia codecs, all configured and ready to go. There are 00:08:20.680 --> 00:08:26.680 five editions of this distro, including one built specifically for handheld 00:08:24.480 --> 00:08:31.280 devices. And speaking of handhelds, if you own a Steam Deck, congratulations. 00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:35.599 You're already running Linux. Steam OS is itself a fully functional Linux 00:08:33.320 --> 00:08:39.080 distro. The Steam Deck has two modes, the gaming interface you actually use, 00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:42.640 which looks and feels like a console, and a full Linux desktop running 00:08:40.880 --> 00:08:46.880 underneath it you can switch into anytime. But most Steam Deck owners 00:08:45.080 --> 00:08:52.960 never touch the desktop mode, and they have a perfectly fine time. 00:08:49.160 --> 00:08:54.680 Now, for the power users, the tinkerers, 00:08:52.960 --> 00:08:59.600 the people who decided that installing an operating system should be a journey 00:08:56.840 --> 00:09:04.200 of self-discovery. Arch Linux is the legendary do-it-yourself distro. If you 00:09:02.440 --> 00:09:09.600 spend any time in Linux circles, you've heard the joke. 00:09:06.720 --> 00:09:13.080 I use Arch, by the way. It's a meme about insufferable people 00:09:11.560 --> 00:09:17.680 who won't shut up about their operating system. They're the vegans of the tech 00:09:15.560 --> 00:09:23.120 world. But the reason Arch users are like that is actually kind of earned. 00:09:20.680 --> 00:09:28.400 Arch Linux is also a rolling release distro, which means there's no Arch 00:09:25.520 --> 00:09:31.560 version 2024 or whatever. You just keep updating continuously, and you're always 00:09:30.440 --> 00:09:36.680 running the latest version of everything. Then, there's the AUR, the 00:09:34.280 --> 00:09:41.200 Arch User Repository, a massive community-maintained library of software 00:09:38.800 --> 00:09:45.560 available to all Arch users, including stuff that would never make it in to 00:09:43.080 --> 00:09:50.760 Ubuntu's official repositories, those prudes. The tradeoff? A lot of this 00:09:48.480 --> 00:09:54.880 software hasn't been formally vetted, so it could be broken or worse. Ubuntu 00:09:53.320 --> 00:10:00.240 wouldn't even know what to do with any of this. But for Arch users, that's kind 00:09:57.560 --> 00:10:03.840 of the point. Arch also has a wiki, and it is genuinely the single best 00:10:01.920 --> 00:10:07.640 technical resource on the internet. The trade-off for that, you better enjoy 00:10:05.640 --> 00:10:11.760 reading documentation. But, on the other side of that learning curve is a machine 00:10:09.560 --> 00:10:15.560 that does exactly what you want, nothing you don't, running exactly how you 00:10:13.920 --> 00:10:18.920 configured it. And that's what they're also smug about. At the end of the day 00:10:17.280 --> 00:10:22.520 though, here's the thing that nobody tells you about picking a Linux distro. 00:10:21.080 --> 00:10:26.840 For most people, it barely matters. Seriously, every 00:10:24.840 --> 00:10:31.040 major distro can browse the web, run LibreOffice, play games through Steam, 00:10:28.960 --> 00:10:35.320 and handle 95% of what you do on your computer every day. The real differences 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:39.120 are in update philosophy, how much hand-holding you get, and how much you 00:10:37.200 --> 00:10:43.480 want to tinker under the hood. And the people actually building these things, 00:10:40.760 --> 00:10:48.320 they'll tell you the same thing. I think you can come to Linux and just be a 00:10:45.520 --> 00:10:51.400 user. And that is absolutely awesome. You can also know that coming to Linux 00:10:50.080 --> 00:10:57.880 and being a user means that you're helping support the ability for everyone else to go as 00:10:55.440 --> 00:11:00.760 far as they want to with an operating system. 00:10:58.560 --> 00:11:04.920 >> you're paralyzed by choice, install Linux Mint. Use it for a week, if you 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:09.880 love it, you're done. If you want more control, try Fedora. If you want all the 00:11:07.960 --> 00:11:13.760 control, try Arch. If you want a polished desktop with tiling built-in, 00:11:12.200 --> 00:11:18.440 and the company that makes your laptop also makes your OS, try Pop!_OS. If 00:11:16.320 --> 00:11:23.240 you're a gamer, try Bazzite. The beautiful thing about Linux is you can 00:11:20.440 --> 00:11:28.920 always reinstall, and it takes about 10 minutes, not the 45 that Windows needs, 00:11:26.440 --> 00:11:32.880 plus three Copilot installations you did not ask for. And if you're still on 00:11:30.839 --> 00:11:37.200 Windows 10, and you don't want to move to the never-ending revolving door of 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:41.360 buggy updates and malware masquerading as AI, your clock is ticking. 00:11:39.640 --> 00:11:46.680 Microsoft's extended security updates for Windows 10 end October 13th, 2026, 00:11:44.640 --> 00:11:50.240 which means no more patches after that. So, I don't know, maybe don't overthink 00:11:48.600 --> 00:11:53.600 this one. If you want to learn how to actually install Linux step-by-step, 00:11:52.400 --> 00:11:59.080 we've got a video about that over on LTT. As for me, I'm going to go mass 00:11:56.560 --> 00:12:04.800 downvote everyone on r/Linux who doesn't use my distro, RileyOS. The whole thing 00:12:01.960 --> 00:12:09.080 is just cat memes from 2003 and Homestar Runner videos. Somehow, it works.