Hey I’m cell and my bf of nearly 2 years asked me to switch to Linux because it’s “obv way better then windows” (his words xd) and until now I always said no. I didn’t wanna learn how to navigate through a new distro all over again. I gave it some thought and decided to make it his “Christmas” present that I’m installing Linux on my laptop :3 if any of you can give me advice on what type of Linux, like arch, I should install and what I should be aware of would really help!
I’ll be the sacrificial lamb and say that contrary to what others suggest, do not use Mint. You want a distro that offers the KDE Plasma desktop. I strongly recommend starting with Bazzite if you primarily play games or Fedora KDE if you want more personal control. You could always start with Bazzite and switch to Fedora KDE later if you decide Bazzite is too restrictive.
I mostly use my laptop for school or video editing. But I’m gonna inform myself a bit more but if you say mint isn’t good for that kind of stuff then I will find something else :3 thank you though!
Video editing with open source software is still a bit rough on Linux, Kdenlive is there, but you will probably have a much better experience with Davinci Resolve. They have native linux support and most distros are well supported.
Mint should be fine for that. What I think this poster is encountering is that Mint does not always run well on the latest and greatest hardware. The Mint team favours a well tested and older base.
Bazzite and Fedora are a bit friendlier to newer hardware, but not quite as bleeding edge as Arch bases Distros.
Remember that starting with Mint and migrating to something else a year later is a normal and healthy Linux journey, as is staying on Mint for years.
Welcome to having choice! And in my opinion, being an kick ass partner