For those of you that are just starting out with your Linux-switching journey, this video will give you five tips to help you make your transition smoother.

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Tip #1: Consider the age of your Hardware

Here’s a tip that most people that are new to Linux don’t know about. And that is to consider the age of your hardware. Believe it or not, this can singlehandedly make or break your entire experience.

Consider this scenario. You go to Best Buy and purchase a brand-new computer. Let’s consider it has the latest hardware in every category. Let’s also consider that it’s a WIndows PC that you want to convert to Linux.

The thing is, having the latest hardware might work against you. Think of it this way, if your computer was released in 2025 and you install a Linux distro that was released back in 2023, then that distribution can’t possibly know about hardware that was released in the future. For this reason, if you plan on installing Linux on a brand new computer, make sure you use a distro that’s seen a major release recently.

One primary culprit here is Debian. Debian is one of my favorite distributions, so I’ll try not to criticize it too much. But the fact is, Debian sees a new major release every several years or so. In fact, as I record this in 2025, the latest release of Debian Stable was back in 2023. So if your computer was produced after 2023, you might have hardware incompatibilities to deal with. On the other hand, Ubuntu sees a new major release every six months – so it has a much better chance of working with newer hardware.

Other distributions, such as Linux Mint, release major versions infrequently as well. However, to Mint’s credit, the distro does have a feature that will enable you to download an updated kernel, so you can work around it without too much trouble.

On the other hand, another factor to consider is older hardware. If you install a distribution that releases frequently, then it might be a bit resource intensive on older hardware. For that reason, if you’re using hardware of a certain age, Debian would work out much better for you because it doesn’t update often, meaning you can use your hardware for a longer period of time.

For antiquated hardware, consider the Xfce version of Debian. The Mate desktop on Debian should work pretty well too.

Tip #2 – Choose a desktop and focus on it

My next tip is to choose a desktop environment for yourself, before you start distro hopping. This way, you can focus your Distro search on those that feature your preferred desktop. This narrows down the list a bit, and that can be very helpful.

Thankfully, you can use live media to try out LInux desktops, and that’s exactly what you should do. Live media gives you the ability to run an entire distribution from a flash drive, without installing anything. The downside here is that in live mode, a Linux distro might not run as well as it would if it was actually installed on your computer. But even with a performance penalty, it’s a great way to test out distributions, and desktop environments.

If you need help choosing which distributions to test out in live mode, here’s some suggestions.

First, Fedora. Fedora features the GNOME desktop environment, which is for those of you that don’t need a ton of customization options and wants something that just works. In GNOME, applications take up the majority of your screen real estate, with most OS controls hidden in the activities menu and also the system control menu. Other than that, GNOME stays out of your way. The downside of GNOME though is that it’s a modern desktop environment, so it’s not a good desktop to pick for antiquated hardware.

The reason I mention Fedora as a means of checking out GNOME is because out of all the distros I’ve tried, it does the best job of implementing it. In fact, Fedora gives you a first-class GNOME implementation so that means if you don’t like Fedora, then you probably don’t like GNOME.

Another GNOME implementation worth checking out is Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a super popular distribution, and like Fedora, it also features GNOME. The difference though is that Ubuntu’s integration is extremely customized, to the point where some people might think of it as an entirely new desktop. What Ubuntu gives you is GNOME with additional quality of life features, such as a dock that’s always visible.

Another distribution I recommend you try out is KDE Neon. This distro isn’t something I’d recommend for your daily driver, because its purpose is to give you an opportunity to check out the Plasma Desktop, which is featured in many Linux distros. Plasma itself is a desktop environment that stands out from all the others, with a very specific design language. It’s very Windows-like in appearance, with its application launcher being close to the Windows start menu. Perhaps the biggest selling point of Plasma is that if you like to tweak settings, then it has quite possibly the most customization options of any desktop environment out there. So, if you like to micro-manage your computer, you’ll absolutely adore Plasma.

If you do use Neon as a means of checking out Plasma and then decide that’s the direction you want to go, then you can consider a distribution that features Plasma, such as Kubuntu, which is a great choice. OpenSUSE also provides a pretty good Plasma experience.

Continuing, Xubuntu. Xubuntu features the Xfce desktop environment, which is another one thaf you’d like to watch a dedicated video that’s all about desktop environments, I recommend you consider Xfce . It is a very lightweight environment, so it’s great for those of you that don’t need a lot of bouncy icons while you get your work done. It’s not the most beautiful looking environment you can use, but that’s only because Xfce focuses on productivity and not so much on fluff.

Xubuntu is a distribution based on Ubuntu that features Xfce, and it does a very good job at integrating it. Xubuntu does take some liberties with Xfce, giving you a customized experience. However, I still recommend Xubuntu because they don’t go overboard with their tweaks, and their implementation ends up looking better in my opinion.

Another contender here is MX Linux, which also features the Xfce desktop. However, unlike Xubuntu, MX Linux tweaks their Xfce integration quite a bit, to the point where it might not be immediately obvious which desktop you’re using. However, this distribution is really good and has quite a bit of attention to detail, and is full of features. Also, keep in mind that MX Linux is based on Debian, so in some cases it might not be a great fit for brand-new hardware.

Of course, there’s more desktop environments to consider, but the ones I just mentioned are the most popular.

Tip #3 – Consider the Community

My next tip for choosing a distribution is to consider its community first.

Regardless of which Linux distro you might be considering, there’s going to be a community behind that distribution. It’ll either be a community of volunteers, or maybe even a group of people that actually work for a company. Depending on the size of the distribution, you might find that its community is either larger, or possibly quite small.

The reason why this matters is because when you’re just starting out, you’re naturally going to have a lot of questions. A natural thing to do is to access a distributions forums or discord channel and ask people about something. If you are considering a fairly popular distribution, then there’s a good chance there’s quite a few people to talk to. If you’re using a distribution with a smaller userbase, then you’ll have to wait a lot longer to get a question answered.

Another thing to consider is the culture of the community. For example, while looking through the forums of a prospective distribution, try and get a feel for how patient everyone is. If you see mostly messages where people are telling everyone to read the manual every time, then you should probably avoid it. On the other hand, if you find that community members are generally helpful, that’s a good sign.

One distro to consider that has a great community is AlmaLinux OS. The team behind that distro are extremely welcoming, and are present at just about every Linux-related trade show. These people are passionate about their distro, and it shows.

But even if your chosen distribution doesn’t have much of a community, consider mine. On the main website for this channel, you can access the community forums and ask your questions there. Just be sure to provide any relevant info for what you need help with, and then a community member will help you out.

Tip #4 – Check your Apps

The next tip I have for you guys when it comes to choosing a Linux distro is to consider the apps you want to use.

Obviously, it goes without saying that applications written for Windows or macOS won’t run in a Linux distro without specialist tweaking. But that’s okay, because Linux has a ton of apps available and most of the ones you use at work are available. For example, Microsoft Edge and Slack – applications that are very popular in the workplace, are available on Linux.

However, the problem is that when it comes to software availability, this differs even further between one distribution and the next. For example, Microsoft Edge is available for Linux distributions that use the RPM and DEB formats for packages, which include very popular distributions such as Fedora and Ubuntu, but it might be difficult to install it on something else. For that reason, if there’s a piece of software that’s mandatory for you, that alone might narrow down your list of distros quite a bit.

And to make matters worse, there’s a bit of a shift happening when it comes to software delivery for Linux distros. Up until now, each distribution uses their own specific format for applications, which resulted in developers just publishing apps for select distributions. Nowadays, the concept of universal packages has appeared – which is a means of only needing one application format, regardless of which distribution you use. Since we’re in a state of transition, not all popular applications have switched to this new style, but universal apps gain more adoption each year.

Tip #5 – Security Responsiveness

Finally, we need to talk about security.

As I talk about during the Enterprise Security Podcast here on this channel, both residential and business users are constantly dealing with security threats. People are dealing with ransomware, stolen identities, data theft, you name it. For that reason, we have to stay especially vigilant and be on our toes.

But what does that have to do with choosing a Linux distro?

Well, the thing is, Linux is a more secure platform than others but that doesn’t mean that something still couldn’t happen. If a new security threat emerges, it’s crucial that our chosen distribution releases a patch to their users as soon as possible. If a distro takes to long to release an update, then its users are vulnerable for a longer period of time in general. We need to be sure that our chosen distribution is on top of things.

One good way to get a good idea how good your distro is when it comes to responding to threats, is to pick a random high-risk vulnerability that’s been on the news recently. These vulnerabilities will have a CVE number attached. What you’ll do is see how much time is passed between the vulnerability being disclosed, and your distribution releasing a patch for it. Check a few of these. This will give you a good idea of how responsive they are.

The popular distributions all seem to do a good job of responding to threats in my experience. However, I still urge you to check this out for yourself and come to your own conclusion.