Hi all, thanks in advance for indulging a complete newbie! I'd like to try Linux on an 11-year-old MacBook Pro (gifted by a relative), but I don't know where to start. What distribution would you recommend based on my background?
-Coming from the Mac world; haven't used a PC/Windows since before the pandemic. I'd prefer something that feels similar to MacOS.
-Not a techie. I've forgotten everything (everything!) I ever learned about command line because I never ended up needing to use it, and I haven't had to debug anything in a long time.
-What I'll be using it for: accessing the internet, various kinds of creative projects that I'll probably try making with FOSS software (something I've only recently started to look into), and making another attempt at learning programming (my interest will probably peter out before I get anywhere with it, though, because that's what happened the last two times). Probably won't be gaming. I'd prefer having the option to use mainstream office software in case anything happens to my current computer, but I don't actually expect anything to happen to it in the next few years, so that's just a nice-to-have.
-Priorities: works on old Mac hardware, good for privacy, decent software availability, not buggy, ability to avoid generative AI (i.e., no repeat of Apple installing the Image Playground app on my computer along with a software update, without the ability to remove it.)
It seems like a lot of people recommend Ubuntu or Linux Mint to beginners, but I'm seeing some people complaining that Ubuntu is has spyware(?) and forces things users don't want, and it seems like Linux Mint is usually recommended to people coming from Windows, so IDK if either of those make sense for me. Advice/recommendations appreciated!
Some distributions like Debian get releases once per year or two, people tend to joke around that those are "stale" rather than "stable". Fedora lives somewhere in between, you get more testing than on Arch, but less than on the likes of Debian. Usual Fedora release cycle is once in half a year.
Oh, OK. Once in half a year sounds just fine, I don't think I'd actually want it to be more often than that. I do like stability. Thanks!
Also, notably but perhaps not obviously, stable releases still get security patches, just not feature changes.
Don't think you don't need updates when updates means five different things.
Yeah, I'll definitely want the security patches on whatever timeline. I just don't want other kinds of updates frequently.
Then you'll be in a good place. With many long-term support releases, you only need to upgrade every 4-5 years and it's often a relatively painless process.
Also companies like Red Hat offer some enterprise services to individuals (i.e. not for business purposes) and you might get the extended support, which can be up to twelve years in some circumstances.