I installed Linux Mint for the first time on my personal Laptop just a few months ago, and it ran so well that I didn't want to mess with it to try out different distros.
But today, my company's IT department announced that they have some spare old Laptops to give away (technically because they didn't meet the specs for Windows 11, didn't stop the IT department from giving them out with Windows 11 pre installed though)
So now I got a few devices to play around with!! They're a Precision 7530 and a Latitude 7390 2-in-1!
I already got ZorinOS running on the little guy because apparently Zorin is nice for Touchscreen support. For the big guy I was initially thinking that I could try Bazzite, but the installer was like "Intel UHD Graphics aren't really recommended" so I might try something else first. Any recommendations? I mainly just want to try as many different flavors of Linux as I can haha
welcome to the penguin. distro hop a bit, see what you like.
initially though, you should focus on what DE you are choosing rather than the distro itself, as it is the focal point of the OS, especially for beginners.
Good advice.
Can install any/all Desktop Environments on the same install, and switch to them at login. XFCE, Trinity, Mate, KDE, LXDE, LXQt, Enlightenment, Cinnamon, COSMIC, etc, etc. ... And/or, Window managers, of which there are dozens and dozens.
It depends on the distro but generally yes. If you want to do this, choose a distro with up-to-date packages. I would recommend either EndeavourOS or CachyOS.
I've been an XFCE loyalist for so long, finally gave GNOME a go and now that I've got something more simple and less customizable, it finally feels like Linux is a daily tool and not a project that I have to keep tweaking.
Yes, I'm a Debian person lol
I've tried a few desktop environments and ended back with XFCE... all the whizzy snazzy stuff breaks over time, or get's "up"graded to something I don't like... XFCE just works...
Yeah I'm pretty minimal on GNOME plugins for that reason too. XFCE will always be my backup at least. KDE is just too much.