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2024 is the Year of Linux on the Desktop, at least for my boyfriend. He's running Windows 7 right now, so I'll be switching him to Ubuntu in a few days. Ubuntu was chosen because Proton is officially supported in Ubuntu.
A SO that moves you to Linux? Sign me up! ❤️
The meme that will never ever go away.
I highly recommend Linux Mint (cinnamon) as an entry level Linux distro. It looks and feels similar to Windows, and it's based on Ubuntu, so it has a lot of support and compatibility.
Linux user of 20ish years here. I run Mint with cinnamon on my desktop PC - sometimes I just want stuff to work out of the box.
The only reason my windows partition still lives is so I can stream VR to the quest 2, literally everything else I do in Linux and I'm so close to 100% I can taste it!
You should try plain Debian and KDE Plasma (the desktop it's one of the options of the shelf, you just pick it with the installer). I have been doing that and it's great, even with old hardware. Ubuntu is way too much bloated. And of course proton works like magic.
Noo please don't Ubuntu. Just plain debian or mint debian instead for the closest thing without canonical. Ubuntu is based on debian and all the actual reasons to use it over debian ended probably like a decade or so ago.
I don't think there are many distro specific proton issues, if they exist at all. I've switched from arch to tumbleweed to bazzite(ublue/fedora based) and the only issues were unrelated to gaming. Proton would work on a toaster if it had a display and a vulkan compatible GPU.
If your friend ends up not liking the GNOME desktop environment because it's so radically different from the Windows UI, then maybe add the K in Ubuntu, I guess.
If I'm not mistaken it's not that Steam will just completely cease to function on that date, Just they won't be fixing any bugs related to Windows7/8 from that point on.
I strongly reccomend Zorin OS. I was in his exact shoes when I decided to switch to Linux and for very similar reasons. It feels pretty similar to Windows 7 IMHO, and I like its default dynamic background that changes throughout the day. Steam games run great on it btw.
The other reason I reccomend Zorin is that it is aimed at windows users and Mac users. There's an "app store" that is in fact a software manager, most windows apps run pretty well (although I reccomend using Bottles for that) and the layout is designed to feel similar to Windows. All the fun Linux stuff is still right there for you to use, it's just slightly out of sight so it doesn't overwhelm you at the beginning.
I can't say I'd agree with your recommendation. Its pretty obscure and not well maintained.