Real question if I can sneak one in. If I want to buy a machine suitable to run Darktable for photo editing, which Linux distribution would be ideal for that? Other than photo editing, I might watch movies in browser while browsing other sites on a different screen. That's all I really use PC to do these days. Advice? I don't want to accidently use a butt plug.
Edit for additional context if it wasn't immediately apparent: I am a casual who just doesn't like Microsoft. But I don't use anything else that concerns me for a switch to Linux. I just want easy setup and use for my purposes.
I would personally recommend EndeavourOS or PopOS.
I recommend EndeavourOS primarily because of it's ease of use and rolling distro means you'll have access to the latest bug fixes and patches (and a very active and supportive community), whereas it does come with the drawback of requiring to fix things every now and then if you've installed packages from places other than endeavour/Aur or require packages/apps that are older.
Yay (package manager) is very easy to get using as a beginner, however, if you don't want rolling updates and just large update packages similar in scope to windows service pack updates I'd recommend popos or the sister/base os ubuntu. (fedora apparently may be good in this instance as well but I've very little contact with the OS and have been avoiding RHEL-related products recently because of their anti-consumer and anti-open source actions recently).
Ultimately it's definitely recommended that you try a few distro's to get a feel for what you like and then customize to your hearts content.
https://distrowatch.com/ if you'd like a more in depth review of various distros and what their performance bonuses or problems are.
EndeavourOS with xfce4 is very clean and quick to pick up with their little introductory/learning module that they include (once installed or on live, it will provide a popup that includes the following):
I’ve switched from Windows 11 to Pop!_OS and don’t have any complaints. It looks different to Windows (no start menu like windows) but that wasn’t a turn off for me. If you want something that looks closer to a windows machine, Mint is a great option
As an Arch user I feel offended but indeed I own one. So I guess it's true...
Hint: :q!
Sister communities:
Community rules (click to expand)
1. Follow the site-wide rules
sudo in Windows.Please report posts and comments that break these rules!
Important: never execute code or follow advice that you don't understand or can't verify, especially here. The word of the day is credibility. This is a meme community -- even the most helpful comments might just be shitposts that can damage your system. Be aware, be smart, don't fork-bomb your computer.