Kubuntu is the best. It’s Ubuntu with KDE tools and programs. You have Plasma as a desktop environment, which is very close to Window but that you can customize to your need.
Ubuntu is very popular so you get pretty much everything available and with tutorial, ressources and everything. KDE really push it to the most user friendly, GUI for everything kind of state.
Steam is easy to install, take charge of Proton or anything needed for your games to run.
I was very frustrated by Gnome (the default desktop environment for Ubuntu), failing miserably to make it more like Window. I guess Gnome is more for Mac users.
The only thing I recommend is deactivating Snap and installing Flatpack. It’s easy to find tuto on how to do that. Both Snap and Flatpack are doing the same idea, to bundle a program and it’s dependencies in a format that allows easier distribution to many distro. But Snap is not as good as Flatpack. You are free to leave it or to use both.
Either way, you can also install program made for Ubuntu or Debian. And with KDE come Discover that is like an App Store and updater.
Linux Mint is also good but I really think Plasma is the best desktop environment. Good thing to know you can always install more desktop environment then the one already installed, so don’t hesitate to try other.
If you are already engaged in a very pro open source stance, you might look at Fedora.
Anyway you choose, there are community of people passionate with Linux that can help you every step of the way. LLM can also help you get the basic. Good luck and welcome 🤗
Honestly I’ve found Kubuntu breaks in weird places for weird reasons. It’s always been that way. Neon was supposed to address this but it just broke in other places instead.
If KDE is your priority, I see only 2 top tier options. Fedora if you want it to just work out of the box, arch if you are okay arguing a little to make your point and have it work how you want.
No “breaking” in my experience. I had a weird thing with sound in the beginning that I tried to fix and failed but fixed itself after an update (at this point I believe it is a rite of passage for Linux 😂) and a weird bug with Nvidia on resume from sleep that was a bitch to figure out but really easy to fix. Since then no issues at all. 25.10 is smooth sailing, the update was easy and problem free. I hope I’m not cursing myself.
Now that I feel a little bit more experience with Linux in contemplating moving to Fedora KDE.
I fear one thing, it’s that my GPU’s driver is technically not maintained by Nvidia (GTX 1070). I heard Arch user suffered from that and it will eventually come for Ubuntu. Don’t know what to do for now, but I’m sure there will be solution.
Ugh NVIDIA, just rip off that bandaid and get over it. And fedora is not terrible not has a sort of corporate feel I can’t explain and dislike, and selinux is the fucking devil, but it’s probably wise to learn it even if you end up not using it. DNF an absolute delight though, and the out of box ease reminds me of Ubuntu back in its heyday.
I would highly recommend against installing arch AS your first distro. You could go with EndeavourOS (or some other Arch based Distros), but plain arch will be very unforgiving if you dont know what you are doing.
Kubuntu is the best. It’s Ubuntu with KDE tools and programs. You have Plasma as a desktop environment, which is very close to Window but that you can customize to your need.
Ubuntu is very popular so you get pretty much everything available and with tutorial, ressources and everything. KDE really push it to the most user friendly, GUI for everything kind of state.
Steam is easy to install, take charge of Proton or anything needed for your games to run.
I was very frustrated by Gnome (the default desktop environment for Ubuntu), failing miserably to make it more like Window. I guess Gnome is more for Mac users.
The only thing I recommend is deactivating Snap and installing Flatpack. It’s easy to find tuto on how to do that. Both Snap and Flatpack are doing the same idea, to bundle a program and it’s dependencies in a format that allows easier distribution to many distro. But Snap is not as good as Flatpack. You are free to leave it or to use both.
Either way, you can also install program made for Ubuntu or Debian. And with KDE come Discover that is like an App Store and updater.
Linux Mint is also good but I really think Plasma is the best desktop environment. Good thing to know you can always install more desktop environment then the one already installed, so don’t hesitate to try other.
If you are already engaged in a very pro open source stance, you might look at Fedora.
Anyway you choose, there are community of people passionate with Linux that can help you every step of the way. LLM can also help you get the basic. Good luck and welcome 🤗
Honestly I’ve found Kubuntu breaks in weird places for weird reasons. It’s always been that way. Neon was supposed to address this but it just broke in other places instead.
If KDE is your priority, I see only 2 top tier options. Fedora if you want it to just work out of the box, arch if you are okay arguing a little to make your point and have it work how you want.
No “breaking” in my experience. I had a weird thing with sound in the beginning that I tried to fix and failed but fixed itself after an update (at this point I believe it is a rite of passage for Linux 😂) and a weird bug with Nvidia on resume from sleep that was a bitch to figure out but really easy to fix. Since then no issues at all. 25.10 is smooth sailing, the update was easy and problem free. I hope I’m not cursing myself.
Now that I feel a little bit more experience with Linux in contemplating moving to Fedora KDE.
I fear one thing, it’s that my GPU’s driver is technically not maintained by Nvidia (GTX 1070). I heard Arch user suffered from that and it will eventually come for Ubuntu. Don’t know what to do for now, but I’m sure there will be solution.
Ugh NVIDIA, just rip off that bandaid and get over it. And fedora is not terrible not has a sort of corporate feel I can’t explain and dislike, and selinux is the fucking devil, but it’s probably wise to learn it even if you end up not using it. DNF an absolute delight though, and the out of box ease reminds me of Ubuntu back in its heyday.
I would highly recommend against installing arch AS your first distro. You could go with EndeavourOS (or some other Arch based Distros), but plain arch will be very unforgiving if you dont know what you are doing.