- May 8, 2015
- 881
For more than a decade now I've used Windows almost exclusively. 90% of the time I'm very satisfied with it's performance, stability, and large scale support (availability of software, etc). Windows suites my needs the best but as any other OS, it has it's shortcomings (not referring to malware, exploits, etc because all OS are affected - if not the OS itself, then the browser (or another piece of software).
Linux is most of the time dual booted alongside my Windows installation. Currently I'm trying out a new independent distro called Solus. It is pretty bugged in terms of using it's updater for both OS and software but this is normal for new distros - especially those built mostly by the developer rather than basing off another.
I'd like to own a Mac (prefer desktop) someday. The look of Mac OSX alone makes me want it badly. As for distros of Linux (especially for beginners), I recommend Linux Mint, Zorin OS, and Elementary OS. Out of the three I suggest Linux Mint for it's very good stability/support by community which I find is only matched by Arch based OS (such as Manjaro) however Arch based are one of the most difficult to learn especially if you go directly after Arch itself. Manjaro has made the Arch distro much easier to work with and I can say it's good for moderately experienced Linux users and up. The OS has the ability to boot into live mode so that you can mess around without installing anything (as does Linux Mint and many many others).
For desktop environments, I highly recommend checking out XFCE or MATE which most popular distros use via downloading the ISO that utilizes that theme. I wouldn't install them yourself since it tends to cause problems or just doesn't work at all. These two are very light but can be modified easily by downloading themes over the internet. Many themes that work for XFCE work for MATE and vice versa. If I remember correctly it is due to GTK3 being used (someone correct me if I'm wrong - might be thinking of something else).
Linux is most of the time dual booted alongside my Windows installation. Currently I'm trying out a new independent distro called Solus. It is pretty bugged in terms of using it's updater for both OS and software but this is normal for new distros - especially those built mostly by the developer rather than basing off another.
I'd like to own a Mac (prefer desktop) someday. The look of Mac OSX alone makes me want it badly. As for distros of Linux (especially for beginners), I recommend Linux Mint, Zorin OS, and Elementary OS. Out of the three I suggest Linux Mint for it's very good stability/support by community which I find is only matched by Arch based OS (such as Manjaro) however Arch based are one of the most difficult to learn especially if you go directly after Arch itself. Manjaro has made the Arch distro much easier to work with and I can say it's good for moderately experienced Linux users and up. The OS has the ability to boot into live mode so that you can mess around without installing anything (as does Linux Mint and many many others).
For desktop environments, I highly recommend checking out XFCE or MATE which most popular distros use via downloading the ISO that utilizes that theme. I wouldn't install them yourself since it tends to cause problems or just doesn't work at all. These two are very light but can be modified easily by downloading themes over the internet. Many themes that work for XFCE work for MATE and vice versa. If I remember correctly it is due to GTK3 being used (someone correct me if I'm wrong - might be thinking of something else).