We have a 30 day return policy, so if you don’t like the Linux experience, you can return it for a refund. Customers have access to free customer support that can help with any issues you encounter. This is also an official community, so I may answer questions asked about Pop!_OS here.

Yes, I started off with Pop! As my first distro back when I started to use Linux. TBH you can’t really go wrong with Pop! Or Mint as your first choice.

You don’t need to buy a new computer just to learn Linux. You can create a bootable flash drive and install it on an external SSD and boot from the SSD when you need to use Linux. If you don’t want an external SSD, you can dual-boot and keep Linux on a separate partition on your machine.

In terms of distros, I’d recommend Ubuntu or Pop!_OS to get started with. Other distros like Elementary OS, Linux Mint, or Debian can be suitable as well.

Pop is a great starting point. Others have mentioned Mate, Cinnamon, or Ubuntu, and those are likewise pretty easy to start with. Pop is the one that I install on my kids’ and parents’ computers, because it’s that easy, and it’s also the one that I use daily because it has some key features (I’ll say below).

Hopefully by now you’ve already read or watched some videos about differences between using Windows and various Linux distributions. If not, here’s one channel on TilVids (a fediverse version of youtube) that I think has some useful stuff: https://tilvids.com/c/thelinuxexperiment_channel/videos

This video from System76 also gives a short and straightforward intro to the pop desktop environment:

[Edit: actually, I should link to the pop os info page because the explanations there are more up to date.]

Here are my key features, in order of how I think a new user might care about them:

• the launcher: Other linux distros have a similar one, but pop’s is a little more streamlined. On pop and the other distros with launchers, it’s a little different and I think a lot better than the Windows/Mac versions. It’s worth learning about and using.
• virtual desktops: All linux distros have this, and if you haven’t used them before I highly recommend taking the time to get used to them. Pop has some nice features to make switching workspaces a little easier, but they might be the same or similar to other distros (I’m not sure).
• pop shop: Most linux distros have a similar thing, and actually I think Pop’s version is a little worse (a little more laggy/buggy). But, as an interface for finding the software you actually want to install, it’s way better than the windows/mac app stores. This is another thing that’s worth learning and using, even though it’s different. You might have seen a lot of arguments online about flatpak v.s. snap v.s. appimage (if not, don’t bother). For a beginner, I think it’s now worth suggesting to just use flatpak apps whenever possible, and you can find them in the pop shop.
• nvidia drivers: Only relevant if you have nvidia graphics, but if you do, the pop disk image with those drivers already integrated is much easier than figuring out how to set them up in other distros.
• window tiling: Pop is the only distro that makes this so easy to set up and use; at first I thought it would be terrible, because it’s so different from what I was used to, but for productivity it’s actually much better. Now that I’m used to it, I really miss it in other desktop environments. (It’s possible to install a similar thing on other distros–this is linux after all–but my impression is that it’s kind of a hassle.)

I put Pop!_OS on a laptop for my (elderly) mum and she used it for years, never had any issues, every now and then I’d tell it to update to the new version and everything was just fine. In the same time period I would have had to fix a windows install several times.

I think Pop OS Is the right distro to start and to stay for a long time

I found Pop! quite good for gaming, since it has a fairly recent kernel and the drivers built in. (Not as good as Arch, which I’m using now - it has cutting-edge everything and great documentation, but is not for newbies - some of its derivatives sand off the rough installation edges.) I do find the Gnome3 interface infuriating, but speaking as a Linux dev at a Linux company, there’s loads of my colleagues that have no problems with it, so YMMV.

Before shelling out on a laptop, I’d get yourself a Virtual Machine setup on Windows (VirtualBox works for me) and try out a few Linux instances. Dead easy to set them up, test various distros, and throw them away again, and if you foul it up, then no harm is done. Installation and setup will teach you a lot. Completely free, as well.

Documentation - the Debian adminstrator’s handbook is available free online, and the Arch documentation is extremely comprehensive and up-to-date.

And good luck!

I’ve used a few different flavors of Linux, and I now use a System76 with Pop OS for work, and I’m quite happy with it. I don’t feel any need to change to anything else.

Yeah, just do it, it’s the best place to get a full experience from vendor support to a polished OS with help videos on YouTube to teach you how to do things like tiling. Nobody else comes close.

I find Pop!_OS to be the best general purpose, non-server OS. Encryption out of the box, amazing low-level optimizations for desktop/laptop usage, native flatpak support, and their tiling/desktop hybrid is beyond awesome. Great for beginners but also great for anyone who wants a great Linux experience without all the hassle.

Thank you everyone for their input! I’m impressed by how thoughtful you all are here on Lemmy. I will read up on the links some of you provided and I’ll give a shot at trying Pop!_OS on a VM on my windows machine. If all goes well, I’m still leaning on either a Meerkat or Thelio since I know they will work out of the box. Again, thanks everyone!

I think you would find a system76 machine to be a good choice overall, but if you are just learning you might want to start with the OS in a VM in windows and then progress before investing in hardware. You can try Pop out there if you like, or even with the live boot option to get a feel for it.

Personally I use my Thelio with gaming and the windows compatibility tools in steam. It works beyond great.

I really Pop and think it’s a great distro for beginners. If you’re getting the laptop from System76 you know the hardware is compatible and you won’t have to mess with the installation which is also a plus.

Gaming on Linux have made great progress in recent years and quite a lot of games run great on Wine/Proton. I have a duel-boot setup but hardly ever boot Windows because I don’t need it much anymore. However if you’re playing online games with anti-cheat, that’s a different experience as they are less supported.

One thing you should note is that Pop works best with Cosmic DE, now running over Gnome but at some point at an independent DE, and it’s not a good choice if you prefer some other DE (technically possible to install something else but missing the point IMO). So try it first on a VM or something to see if you enjoy the Cosmic workflow.

I also tend to use Windows for gaming just because I’m too lazy to worry about potential compatibility issues, but depending on your machine you might find it useful to get some extra performance out of your games. Back when I played competitive TF2 on a junky old desktop I got way more consistent framerates with Ubuntu. (Wouldn’t recommend stock Ubuntu these days, it’s very bloated)

And supposedly, gaming on Linux is getting better all the time, especially since Valve released Proton and SteamOS. Like I said, too lazy to try it myself, but I’ve only heard good things. Maybe once they finally discontinue Win10.

Definitely try pop on another computer for like a week or so before making a big purchase, it may not be for you after all, though from what you said on your usage, you will very likely have a good experience, you can never be too sure!

Look up how to dual boot popOS and Windows, there should be plenty of guides out there on YouTube or in text form