this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2025
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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My wife asked me last summer to switch her, because she didn't like the news she was hearing about "recall" and being forced to have AI.
She is far from techie, but is over a year on Mint with no issues.
She actually switched before me, because I was distro hopping trying to find the right one for me, so I dual booted for a while. But I am 9 months on a single distro and happy to be rid of Windows.
Which distro did you stay on? I was trying Manjaro but Plasma had random freezes and stutters all the time, XFCE felt like an unfinished product and GNOME was even worse than XFCE. Solus Budgie gave me only black screens, and most others also didn't run well on my old machine. Linux Mint runs stable so far and looks stunning and it also runs my games better than Windows 10 so that's a win.
Xfce is pretty polished; however, you need to theme it to look good. On the other hand, even some themes from the 2000s should just work, so there's that. Either way, Cinnamon looks quite good, so if you're happy with it, good for you!
You don’t have to distro hop to switch desktop environments. You can install KDE Plasma (5.27 though) on LinuxMint.
I tried Manjaro for a while and had the same issues with KDE Plasma, which originate with the Nvidia drivers. Unfortunately, Manjaro is pretty poorly maintained and always manages to break itself within a couple months.
If you're looking a for a super stable and reliable Arch-based distro, try Garuda. I've been running Garuda with KDE for over 7 months without a single issue.
I wanted something with cutting edge. I like hardware upgrades. I also wanted something I could game on without a lot of fuss, because I was new to Linux. And not that it matters, because you can switch easily, I wanted KDE.
I ended up with Garuda. I'm pretty happy with it.
I'm glad I did choose something which keeps up with the kernel, because I was having power management issues and monitor issues on every other distro I tried before this one, and none of them affected me here. I'm pretty sure the combo or a newer kernel and Plasma 6.something is what did it.