this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2023
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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Linux Mint. You won't regret it.
Linux Mint is a great beginner distro.
I got my dad, who is very non-tech, to switch from Windows 10 to Linux Mint; he has been using it for over 2 years now. He went from using Edge, Microsoft Word, and Outlook to using Firefox, LibreOffice and Thunderbird.
I tend to disagree.
Usually, I would 100% support that recommendation, since Mint is really a great introduction into the Linux world.
BUT, for this specific setup, Mint won't be the best choice imo. Cinnamon (@OP the desktop environment/ GUI) doesn't support Wayland (the modern display management protocol) yet and still uses X11 (one from the 80s).
This will make the experience a bit worse with two monitors, resulting for example in performance loss, inconsistencies, and so on. Not bad, but not as great as it could.
I would rather recommend Fedora. It is not as super beginner friendly as Mint in holding your hands, but also not throwing you into the cold water.
There is the "Workstation" edition, the default, which uses Gnome as DE. This one is simple and elegant, and quite different than Windows or Mac, which will (imo) make the transition easier, since you don't expect it to work as it used to before on Windows.
Or the KDE edition, which is really really customizable with more features, but also a few more bugs.
Just my 2 cents