this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2026
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Linux Mint isn't the answer for Windows refugees anymore (www.xda-developers.com)
submitted 1 week ago by cm0002@literature.cafe to c/linux@programming.dev
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I've been having a big think over Linux distros. See, I've been looking back at my still-new Linux experience of nine months, and wondering how my own journey can help other people get started with FOSS operating systems. Whenever the topic of a Windows refugee-friendly OS came up, I would recommend Linux Mint because, first, it's the one everyone says, and second, it was the Linux OS that I started with, fresh off Windows.

I always follow that up with a comment about how you don't have to stick with Linux Mint if you don't want to. You can do what I did, which is to dip your toe into the Linux distro water and find something that suits you better. But if I'm setting up Linux Mint as "my first Linux distro," why not just skip the middleman and get right into the distros that have a bit more meat on them?

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[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 week ago

I think for the users that they're talking about would mostly care that the directories in

/home/tux0r

are organized the same as they would be in

C:\Users\tux0r\

But... that's already the case pretty much. Most distros have default directories like Downloads, Documents, Pictures, etc.

That’s not really distribution-specific though. All GUI configuration tools I know are distribution-agnostic.

But they usually get bundled with a desktop environment and the default desktop environment is usually shipped with the distro.

Personally I think Plasma does this configuration stuff well, better than Windows. I haven't really used anything Gnome or Gnome-based (Cinnamon, MATE) recently so I don't know what they're like these days.

IMO Mint with its Cinamon or MATE desktop environments, or anything Plasma based would be fairly easy for a lifelong Windows user to pick up.