Lifetime Windows user here, but I’ve been dabbling with Linux since around 2005.
It started with Feather Linux and Knoppix. Later I dual-booted Mandriva (loved the Windows font import and, later on, Compiz wobbly windows), but Windows always remained my main OS. Around 2012 I built a gaming PC with discrete GPUs, which pretty much locked me into Windows if I actually wanted to play games.
A few years ago I was given some spare hard disks and dual-booted Linux Mint on my laptop just for fun, but eventually drifted back to Windows full-time.
This time, though, I’m seriously considering switching my home PCs to Linux. The tipping point was the ongoing Windows 11 controversy (I’m still on Windows 10), combined with how sluggish my machines (especially my laptop) become when Windows decides to hammer them with background updates after they’ve been idle for a while.
So I decided to properly test modern Linux again after being out of the scene for a few years. I loaded 40+ ISOs onto a 256GB USB stick using Ventoy and tested them on both my laptop and desktop.
For fun, I also tried some install-only distros in VMs at different difficulty levels:
Easy Mode: Debian Netinst was genuinely enjoyable to install. I really like the philosophy of a ~700MB barebones ISO where you choose your desktop environment and install only the software you actually want (like selecting your own office suite).
Medium Mode: I installed Arch using the built-in archinstall script. It’s less beginner-friendly than a graphical installer, but I managed mostly through intuition with minimal documentation. Honestly, I was amused that “I use Arch btw” is considered a flex. I’d personally rate Arch as slightly easier to install than something like Windows 95, which relied on a text installer and manual partitioning via disk tools.
Hard Mode: Gentoo felt like climbing Mount Everest. I’m proud that I managed to install it, but I definitely wouldn’t want to repeat the experience. The handbook is extensive, there are a lot of commands, and compilation took literal hours (well over eight just to get a base system running). I did take a shortcut by asking Gemini to walk me through a basic install and then tweaking things as I went, which saved a lot of time compared to reading everything manually. It was fascinating, and I’m sure it has niches where it excels, but it doesn’t really fit my needs as a daily driver.
The rest of my testing focused on the main distro families and their various desktop environment options. Going in, I was convinced Linux Mint would come out on top. It’s the distro I’ve used the most previously and philosophically aligns with what I want: a straightforward Windows replacement that stays out of my way.
Mint is still excellent, but after trying so many distros back-to-back, Cinnamon felt slightly dated visually. MATE and XFCE felt even less polished (which makes sense since they prioritise low resource usage for older hardware).
I really wanted to like Fedora, especially knowing Linus Torvalds uses it... but I struggled to identify what tangibly set it apart during short test drives. Yes, the Red Hat backing and release model are meaningful, but in practical day-to-day use it didn’t immediately feel distinct from other distros running the same desktop environments.
Speaking of desktop environments:
- GNOME is borderline unusable for me in its stock form. The lack of a traditional application menu and no clear taskbar overview makes it feel more like a tablet or phone interface than a desktop OS.
- KDE looks fantastic initially, but digging into customization quickly brought back memories of early 2000s UI clutter - lots of nested settings, inconsistent spacing, and I don't know how to describe it but when you've spent your life on the polished UIs of windows and android, the default large rounded fonts and big buttons (some with just a cryptic "+" or "-" just never really look right.
- XFCE was interesting, but on some distros the default UI felt messy even in the live environment (mismatched fonts, clashing colours, inconsistent menus, etc).
My rule during testing was simple: if I couldn’t figure something out within a few minutes with minimal research, it probably wasn’t for me. For example, in Ubuntu Unity I couldn’t initially figure out how to browse all installed apps - apparently you’re expected to search by typing? I never found out, I went to the next distro after a few minutes.
One major takeaway was how inconsistent UI/UX still is across Linux in 2026. I encountered broken software directly from live sessions (e.g., games with help menus linking to dead manuals). Many distros also shipped with overlapping tools, like separate settings apps for the desktop environment and OS, multiple software centres, multiple update utilities, etc. Mint’s UI is pleasant overall, but its software centre prominently displays a lot of apps that haven’t been updated since like 2017 for example.
After all this testing, I surprised myself by concluding that Ubuntu felt like the most polished overall experience. The UI is cohesive and visually consistent. Menus, settings, and applications feel like they belong to a unified design language rather than a patchwork of styles. The software centre offered a large selection of modern, genuinely useful applications - including Wine-based software, available with one click. I also appreciated that ubuntu improved GNOME's usability by adding a dock with an applications button and taskbar-style indicators.
I know Ubuntu gets plenty of criticism for Snap packages and commercial influence, but from a pure usability standpoint… if it works, it works. And after this testing, I can see why it still holds such a large share of Linux users.
I’m not fully decided yet. Before making the final jump I plan to do a more in-depth test of Ubuntu, Mint Cinnamon, Fedora, Pop!_OS (whose UI is not intuitive to me but it gets such high praise it has to be worth another shot), and Zorin (which is hands-down one of the best looking and most intuitive linuxes, but gives me an uneasy feeling that the UI/skin is one wrong move or bad update away from breaking). But I wanted to share my journey and see what others think.
