Installing Linux on friend's new PC, which distro should he use?

10 months ago by sbeak to c/linux

edit: Fedora it is then!

He will be running the AMD 9800 X3D w/ RX 9070 XT, B850 motherboard.

I am deciding between either Fedora (probably KDE) and Bazzite (also KDE), but I'm not sure whether an atomic distro would be better/worse for a newbie.

As far as I understand, atomic distros can be easily rolled back after an update, but you are unable to use apt/dnf/etx, you need to use Flatpak, I think. Would that be limiting for the average user? Also, does Bazzite have better driver support for newer AMD hardware compared to Fedora?

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ElectricEelPoweredAxe 19 points 10 months ago

I would recommend Linux Mint. Its really simple to work with and basically plug and play. Comes with a solid software selection and built in tools. I personally really like the cinammon and mate editions. Cinnamon has a bit more modern look to it and MATE is a bit more retro.

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sbeak 6 points 10 months ago

I heard that Linux Mint doesn't play nice with newer hardware? Or is that only an Nvidia thing

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Neptr 6 points 10 months ago

It has to do with LTS kernel (iirc) making it incompatible with certain new(er) hardware. I recommend Fedora KDE.

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thericofactor 4 points 10 months ago

I ran an older Nvidia card an currently a new amd card on Linux mint without problems. I suggest you try it out first using a live install on a USB stick.

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artyom 3 points 10 months ago

Anything Ubuntu-based (and thus Debian-based) may not be the best choice for brand new hardware, as it takes a bit longer for all the drivers to make it into the kernel.

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hakase 3 points 10 months ago

It also doesn't have HDR if that's important to you. I switch into kubuntu whenever I want to watch something in HDR.

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psud 1 point 9 months ago

I had to use an AMD provided script to get Mint to work with my ryzen AI 9 370, as the system couldn't drive the built in graphics

First boot had to happen with the "nomodeset" ( no [graphics] mode set[ting]) or it couldn't do any graphics, the screen went black as soon as it got out of the initial text mode

So no, Mint isn't great with very new equipment

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bassgirl09 1 point 9 months ago

My husband is using the non-LTS version of Ubuntu 25.10 with a 9060XT and has driver support and is happy with it. Mint would not support his card at this time according to our research. Bazzite was just a disaster for him -- lots of issues with not sleeping and the immutable distro made it hard to do what he wanted since he uses spinning hard drives for storage and wanted them to automount as well as managing a huge music library housed on a NAS. I think some of the issues were with his older B450 motherboard despite having updated the bios to the latest stable version. I am on older hardware and love Mint. I feel at home on the Debian-based distros though. Depends on your use case and how much you're willing to learn. Protip: Before you leave your friend alone with the system, make sure that it will do normal system things properly -- enter sleep, wake from sleep, reboot, etc since these are the things that will drive an average person insane when they don't function correctly.

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chairlegoftruth 1 point 10 months ago

I believe you need to be on kernel 6.12+ for the 9070 XT. Mint 22.3 will support that.

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