[xethos]

> I wouldn't recommend it for a layman though; I did have to do some initial tinkering to get it spot on.

The flip side of this is that regular computer users don't actually have preferences nearly as strong as anyone browsing this site.

If one is technical enough to have an operating system preference, they're technical enough to manage Linux Mint. It may not be their preference, but they'll be able to manage

As always, the only groups that're really in trouble are "Knows just enough to be a danger to themselves and is entirely unwilling to learn something new", and those that depend on poorly supported, or unsupported, specialty hardware or software

[cosmic_cheese]

I would second the recommendation for Mint, or really any distribution that includes Cinnamon as its default DE (as long as it’s not a bleeding edge distro like Arch). Cinnamon is probably the closest out of the box approximation to a traditional Windows desktop out there, leaning more towards Windows 7 than 8 and beyond.

I’m sure there’s a KDE fan writing up a reply right now, and while it’s also Windows-like, it’s considerably more indiosyncratic than Cinnamon is and has a bunch of bells and whistles that while great for power users have a decent chance of tripping up novices. Cinnamon doesn’t rock the boat at all which is exactly what makes it appealing here.

[Joel_Mckay]

Agreed, the Cinnamon desktop is the most unsurprising interface.

The dual ssd boot option for OS is also nice, as some games/applications in Win11 are inescapable.

However, for 99.8% of most day to day OS needs the Ubuntu repo desktop works fine (if you purchased a printer/webcam knowing it is fully supported etc.) =3

[Terr_]

> The dual ssd boot option for OS is also nice, as some games/applications in Win11 are inescapable.

Similar situation, I'm thinking I'll have a two bootable drives and then a third data-only drive so that I can share some stuff between them. (Hey, I got a desktop for a reason, let's use that space!) AFAICT this should be safe-enough provided I avoid a special case where Windows has hibernated without unmounting an NTFS drive cleanly and I try to mount it on the Linux side.

Not sure how much work I want to put into the different flavors of TPM/secure-boot-y things. Less worried about evil-maid attacks as opposed to preventing a burglar rifle through my digital life.

[Joel_Mckay]

sshfs works on both windows (winfsp, sshfs-win, sshfs-win-manager) and linux...

Or in Win shell try:

winget install -h -e --id "WinFsp.WinFsp" && winget install -h -e --id "SSHFS-Win.SSHFS-Win"

A backup ssh server running F2FS on disk-encrypt for /home is good practice. =3

[Terr_]

In this case sshd won't be running, because it's just one machine shutting down the Linux environment entirely to dual-boot to Windows.

[Joel_Mckay]

Could always run Termux/Termux:Boot + pyamsoft/tetherfi on a $10 old phone if you have no other sshd server options.

There is always a better way, but integrated backups are important. =3

[neilv]

Yeah, I was recently deciding which desktop option to use for a Debian Live variant that needs to be straightforward for anyone who boots it. I tried each option (in VMs), and decided to go with Cinnamon.

So, if someone wants a Linux to start with, installing Debian Stable, and selecting the Cinnamon desktop in the installer, is one great first option.

(The Debian default desktop is based on Gnome3, which does a few weird and annoying things. Fortunately, Gnome3 inspired alternatives, like Cinnamon.)