Mint Linux

I am a casual user of Linux, and this is about Linux from the perspective of a consumer advocate. If you want to just cut to the chase, I strongly recommend Mint Linux for most casual consumers. (Don't get me wrong, this could change, but Mint has been king now for close to a decade.)

The first thing you need to know about Linux is that it is an operating system. An operating system is the software that comes already installed on a device when you get it, which allows that device to work. Most phones use "Android" as an operating system, most computers use "Windows" as an operating system, and Apple has other operating systems for iPhones and Macs.

Most of the time when people use Linux it is on a computer that would normally run Windows. In fact most computers that run Linux originally came with Windows on them. The main reasons to use Linux instead of Windows are:

1. Linux is free. If you want to update to a new version of Windows, it's going to cost you, and it's not going to be very convenient. Linux has numerous alternatives to this.
2. Linux is more secure. No, it's not because Linux is less common, it's because Linux is designed to be more secure. Linux users generally don't have to worry about spyware and viruses!
3. Linux is open source. You can always find out what Linux is doing, because the code is available to everyone. Good luck figuring out what Windows is doing behind closed doors, probably stealing your data and selling it to the highest bidder.
4. Linux is more stable. When Linux has a problem, it's usually pretty easy to fix. Sometimes with Windows you just can't ever fix the problem because Microsoft isn't hiding their cards close to their chest, they are hiding their cards behind their back. 
5. Linux uses system resources more efficiently - or in other words it makes your computer more powerful. I do not understand why Windows seems to take up 2 gigs of RAM and 32 gigs of hard drive space, but last I checked neither of those things were free, and both things were important for my daily use of my computer.

The next thing you need to understand about Linux is what types of Linux there are. First, Linux is part of a family of operating systems based on an ancient operating system called Unix. Android, Apple's various operating systems, Chrome OS (on Chromebooks,) and Free BSD are all in this same family. But of those, the easiest to install and use on your own computer is by far Linux, which is why Linux is used by do-it-yourself people instead of those other operating systems about 99% of the time.

Now when you get down to Linux specifically, the different kinds of Linux are called "distros" (short for "distributions." If you want to follow the latest news on distros and the horse races on what distros are currently the most used, check out the website "DistroWatch.") What makes this confusing is that most distros are based on other distros. Here are some common distros for other distros to be based on:

• Debian: this is the hard core nerd maximum-power version of Linux, very elite.
• Red Hat (aka Fedora): this is the corporate business edition type of Linux.
• Arch Linux: this is like a lego set where you are given pieces with which to put together a configuration of linux for your computer and situation.
• Gentoo: this is super flexible Linux for people who want to micromanage every aspect of their operating system. This is what Chrome OS was based on back when Chrome OS was still Linux.
• Ubuntu: this is user-friendly linux meant to be used by the average computer user - I stress "meant" here, because it doesn't always deliver on this promise. Ubuntu was originally based on Debian, but Ubuntu is its own thing now.

And if you are new to Linux, the only distros you should be taking seriously are distros based on Ubuntu, because it is unlikely you will even get other distros up and running. But not all Ubuntu based distros are equal: Ubuntu was the only really user friendly Linux from 2006 to 2011, and then they made a horrible mistake ironically called "Unity" which completely fractured the Ubuntu community. Fortunately one fragment of this community dominated and thrived, and continued Ubuntu's tradition of being user-friendly, and that distro is called "Mint Linux."

Mint Linux is the way to go for most casual users of Linux and Linux newbies, because it is completely focused on being user friendly. It is easy to install, it is easy to use when it gets installed, it looks good, and it is still respectful of your system resources even though it looks good. Mint is the easy linux: it is easy, and it is linux!

It's 2020 and things are changing fast. I wish Chrome OS was a decent operating system I could install the software I need on, I wish Android was a serious challenger to Windows, I wish Google was done working on a new Operating System called Fuchsia that might be better than all of the above some day in the future, and I wish Ubuntu had never done Unity. But we install the operating system that is available to us, not the operating system we wish was available to us, and that operating system is Mint.

And honestly Mint is a fine operating system indeed, I have basically no complaints about it what so ever. The only issues that people might be concerned about are 1) not all Steam games work in Linux, and 2) some business software is Windows-only. However for most laptop and desktop users Mint is a step above all other operating systems: