!rant

I'm a Windows slowly trying to convert to Linux (except for stuff that you need Windows for, obviously).

Being relatively new to desktop Linux, which distribution do you recommend with which desktop environment?*
Any tips for newbies? :)

*I'm aware that this could end up in a fight that divides devRant :P

You can go with ubuntu at start. And start to figure sh*t out. Don't do distabution jumps while you leaening linux. Im on arch my self.

Ive been jumping between linux distributions for years, I have finally settled on Arch, but i wouldn't recommend it for beginners as it can be tricky to setup and configure. the most important thing about a linux distro is making sure it has a good package manager. anything based on Ubuntu would be the way to go, personally i hate ubuntu's Unity bullshit, so I would go for Linux Mint or Xubuntu

I don't recommend Ubuntu, since the latest version still uses Unity as a desktop environment and that is pretty fucked.
I would recommend using Linux Mint with the Cinnamon DE or Kubuntu, which uses the KDE Plasma Desktop. Those are both more classic and effective desktop environments and they are easy to get used to when coming from Windows.

I use fedora, though, it probably suggest again, Ubuntu, probably with the xfce DE.

Fedora has had an interesting past with frequent issues but lately it seems to have settled down, however due to their policy certain pieces of software can't be installed for legal reasons, I can work around that cos when I first got into Linux it was the redhat9/fedora core 1 days and the very first Ubuntu release (4.04 "warty warthog") had not yet been released.

I switched back and forth over the years but just kept coming back to fedora.

Check out KDE Neon! It is based off Ubuntu 16.04, features the latest KDE desktop and is tailored by the KDE team itself, thus making it a very stable OS. Also, KDE in general is easily riceable.

Linux mint with cinnamon. You won't miss windows UI anymore after trying this!

Ubuntu gnome

I've tried everything from gnome😕 to elementary🙃 to arch😲. I settled with xubuntu and have no plans of changing again 😁

Manjaro is really reasonable as a starter distro these days. I use to use the xfce flavour and it was pretty rocking, I came from pure windows background to it and found the process very easy

Recommending mint!

I would recommend OpenSUSE. Not the easiest to start with, but easiest (imho) to configure. YaST is awesome.
And it has the best package building/maintenance system among all distros.

Mint with Cinnamon de

Also recommending Mint with Cinnamon!

Honestly, I'd download VMware and give Lubuntu a go (light weight Ubuntu).

I installed it today and I like it a lot more than the standard Ubuntu.

Linux Mint is also quite nice way to start.

hey i would like to point www.elementary.io to your attention. take a look. try it either in vm or native.

For a beginner, Mint with Cinnamon for sure.

Why? Being able to use both Apt, PPAs and Deb installers means installation of applications is a breeze. Almost all hardware will work out of the box due to binary drivers, installing "non-libre" apps like Chrome, Discord, Slack or Steam just works without a hassle.

Desktop environments (the GUI stuff you see) are more or less independent from the distros. Most distros provide a default though.

Cinnamon (Mint default) as a Desktop Environment is very windows-like. Less eyecandy, but almost everything, from wifi to windows shares to running backups, has a GUI. All the hotkeys make sense from a windows perspective as well.

Sure, most Linux fans might prefer more libre systems, more bleading edge repositories, leaner configs in dotfiles instead of GUIs, more commandline apps, and possibly a very lightweight tiling desktop like i3.

But as a starting point, Mint is great.

I can strongly recommend fedora! I installed it on my work machine and the process was a breeze and Just Worked™. It was running gnome as the de, and I was blown away how well everything worked out of the box. I switched to i3 though, as that's what I'm used to.

Manjaro could be pretty sweet too, gotta love pacman. I'm running Arch on my personal machine and it's been great for my (mostly dev & uni) needs.

start with Ubuntu or Elementary then go to Arch

Ubuntu fam, or go for Debian Jessie (gnome)