Need advice Distro needed, no gaming needed.

I am an "aged" linux user. I have a few recommendations based on a few use parameters.

1: Do you NEED linux.
2: Can you use tools outside of windows for forever?
3: Are you going to play with stuff? (UI's system, system stuff, etc)
4: Are you willing to break and reinstall?

If yes to any / all of these then welcome to our world!!

To start: Do you need linux? I say this because BSD is solid as hell and awesome. I love OSX as a unix and freeBSD is solid as hell. Look into that and nothing will break unless you smack it with a cement club.

If you don't care, ok! Great!

I am going to throw out Ubuntu Mate as a first choice. It has all sorts of work in there from the devs and users just like Arch Linux. It's awesome.

Next, Arch. I only recommend it as a way to build what you want and learn linux from the ground up. Easy to install and easy to learn from. It's a little concerning at the start because you start at a command prompt and thats it. If that doesn't scare you you really are a linux user XD

Lastly, Debian anything. Start on debian based distros if not arch and add what you want later on. Doing it that way will give you the biggest support pool possible.

Lastly, in looking at OS's, look at what support you can get. Research anything you are unsure of and if something seems like it will go wrong look at what you can ask about where. IRC is normally the best place but if you don't know how to use it look at forums where you can ask. For example asking somewhere like somethingawful's forum is a bad idea even though there are thousands of linux users there. Asking here could get you some support but not immense amounts. Asking at ubuntu forums is a good idea, but there are still a lot of users who think ubuntu and windows are the same.

Past all of that, strap in and hang on!

I used a handful of Linux distributions ages ago, when "Linux for Dummies " didn't exist, so I got "Unix for Dummies" instead. The funny thing is that people say that Linux is much easier than it used to be. I'm not sure that is true. I wish I had a burning yearning to become a Linux user now, but my true motivation is to ditch M$ and it's manifest evils. This isn't the best motive, dang it.
Admitting this is embarrassing, but I'm sure that at least a few posters in this thread fingured that out already.

I don't want to choose a command line only distro, I'm trying to remember the distro that was infamous for being very difficult years ago---why in heck do I want all that aggravation? Truth is that I don't have enough time left to me to start with a hard core brand of Linux. Afraid that point 'n click became habitual ages ago. They say confession is good for the...

I can only remember two of them... one of them being highly toxic towards... any person starting *cough* Gentoo *cough* (talking back in 2004+). Then there's Slackware Linux that was pure command line installation, as far as I know finally got the very intuitive command line based installer. I loved using Slackware, truly felt like a polished distribution last time I used it.

Why, I have been wondering the same for a while. Maybe to drink the kool-aid and feel "awesome" (that you just wasted 3-4 hours of your life doing the initial configuration then 3-4 hours more installing all the packages you use (this is without including the hours you use to make a WINE game run)? God knows, after the talk of Linux Mint in another thread I decided to install LM with Cinnamon and I've been pretty happy with it even though I was aiming to get Elementary OS but... I'm waiting for their next release. Confession... I've already gone through a lot of linux variations Arch Linux, Slackware, Debian, openSUSE, Fedora, Ubuntu, etc... I'm glad that I've been able to get knowledge from some of them and be able to write guides that helps other people such as the pulseaudio one... beyond that meh, same crap in a different wrapping.

Don't _ever_ feel let down in choosing an easy to use distro. I'd say who gives a crap about the distribution you use, I used to think I understood the mindset behind that.. now as I'm growing old it's pretty much nonsense, just an stupid ego boost. Admittedly I'm using linux just to develop (still more straightforward than windows in many ways plus Powershell takes too long to learn to automate tasks) and browse stuff in the internet. All things that requires presentation, word processing is done in my main desktop which has windows.

I agree wholeheartedly with @allenskd on this. When it comes to distros like Arch or the other "advanced" distros, they are primarily just for the specially interested. Either those wanting to learn more of the inner workings, or control freaks like me that simply enjoy spending time micromanaging the operating system.

This can't be stressed enough. Choice of distro comes down to what you personally need and expect from your operating system.

As for your reason, I think it's as good a reason as any.

Wow guys, thank you for your support! Yes, it was Slackware that was the true bear, thank you for filling my memory gap-- I totally avoided it. There are so many deserving causes that need seeing to at this time of year that I'm not sure I can afford my new Linux only machine yet. Argh. I cancelled my AVG renewal for early next year, so I really have to get to it!

Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays to everyone if that's more appropriate at Gamers On Linux!

Sorry to be a bother, I see that Mint 17.3 is a Beta release, and I saw that someone said that it crashed the first time they moved their mouse. One person's gripe, I know, big deal.
Am I right in thinking that Mint Cinnamon 17.2 might be a smarter OS for this beginner?

Anyone dealt with OSDisc.com? They offer both Mint 17.2 and 17.3 versions on disc for very reasonable prices. They list Mint Cinnamon 17.3, however 17.2 is described as "Linux Mint 17.2 KDE." I really liked KDE years ago---but is Cinnamon far better?
I want to have the OS on disc, please no complaints of "why not off of the Web?"

Thank you very much for your expertise!

I think you'll probably like Cinnamon better as it has a very familiar look akin to Windows XP, Windows 7 in general. Granted I love KDE myself; thing is that KDE 4 is no longer supported as they are all moving to Plasma (KDE 5), my point is that KDE 4 has some glaring issues when it comes to searching files through Dolphin (File manager) as Nepomuk/Akonadi is one hell of a giant turd that corrupts itself easily. Plasma has moved away from Akonadi/Nepomuk (and the whole semantic search shebang) and now uses baloo which is the difference of integrity and speed is huge.

If you are going to get KDE wait a year at least till Plasma is stable.

As for your other post

Sounds like a video drivers problem, I personally use Linux Mint Cinnamon 17.3 for over 2-3 weeks now and hasn't given me any problems, rock solid imho... note that most of the user problems don't apply... as it depends on the hardware you use. If you use AMD video card then yes it will give you problems as the kernel with AMD improvements is in kernel 4.x series.

I hope this helps. (my vote goes to LM 17.3 with Cinnamon)

@cloasters oh and Linux Mint 17.3 has been out of beta for a while now... get your DVDs or USB stick from the Linux Mint supported stores http://www.linuxmint.com/store_cds.php

You guys are indeed the best, thank you very much for posting such valuable information, at least for me! It's good to learn that Mint 17.3 is out of Beta, it looks like 17.2 with KDE would have not been such a good choice. Thanks for the LinuxMint store link, the OS discs come from OSDisc.com, but Linux Mint gets a cut by using their site. I will put a GeForce vidcard into my Linux only machine, looks like an AMD card would have caused problems--because Mint uses an older stable kernel?

Mint Cinnamon 17.3 looks very good to me!

Many thanks to booman, Gizmo, Daerandin, allenskd and Happy New Year to everyone at GamersOn Linux!

I liked Red Hat years ago but chose to "go steady" with SuSE, why I'm not sure. Maybe it was KDE?

Thank you for your very kind offer, booman! I'm happy to buy 17.3 Cinnamon from linuxmint.com/store, I like to support the folks that sweat over a distribution, they deserve more than a couple of bucks. If I really like Mint I'll donate to 'em.

I ordered the Mint Cinnamon 17.3 disc from the Mint folks, as well as "Linux for Dummies," which should be about my speed. How important is it to buy their umpteen disc set with "everything" on them? I put it off for now.

I'll probably break plenty of things, I sure did way back when. Thanks for the advice about the "library" set of CD-ROM's, they're not exactly inexpensive.