dlalinsp Very first sentence on the Solus homepage
Solus is an operating system that is designed for home computing.
This of course doesn't mean that Solus couldn't or shouldn't be used for other purposes but the statement cannot be more clear, can it ?
I don't get this whole "Linux Mint is the most polished Linux" argument. In my experience, it's absolutely the worst. And no, this isn't from just using it once or twice, I've used it extensively both for work and personal use, and I've had nothing but issues with it. The biggest problems with it, though, have been with their preferred DEs. I can't stand Cinnamon and I simply can't understand how people can deal with Mate. Solus Budgie has been by far the most polished experience I've ever had with Linux. The few pain points I've had to deal with have been more general Linux issues rather than anything specific to Solus (other than the Software Center, but that's another topic). As I said before, other than those with advanced needs who can't find what they need in the Software Center, Solus is the one and only Linux distro I'd recommend to newbies.
I find Mint to be boring. Their forum also was not the friendliest, although I haven't been on it in awhile. That's an important thing. People are going to look to forums for help (if they don't just give up and run back to Windows because even a slight amount of effort and learning is too much for them).
I agree that Manjaro is not a good first choice. But is Ubuntu? Is Gnome 3 going to make sense to them? Perhaps it's a little better than Unity (well maybe a lot), but is it still a bridge too far? Elementary makes sense to the Mac crowd. But it doesn't even come with an office suite. Although Xubuntu or Mint XFCE might be good. Perhaps Ubuntu Mate. Kubuntu is definitely not a good first choice. I can't comment on MX as I have not used it, but it's been #1 on Distro Watch for sometime now.
All in all, I think Solus is a reasonable choice, along with Zorin, which has always been Windows-users friendly. Those would be my top recommendations at this point. Mainly because of stability and ease of use. Both have a Windows feel to them, and an intuitive layout that is easy to grasp. both also have friendly forums.
Maybe I've just been lucky, but I had pretty much no issues with Solus ever since I started using it. Very much unlike the "more mature" distros like Ubuntu or Linux Mint, which made me go back to Windows after some time because I didn't want to constantly google for solutions to annoying problems. Not major problems, mind you, just a whole lot of minor ones that sum up.
I do understand however, that some other less lucky people feel the same way about Solus.
I used mint for a few years and had no real complaints about it apart from synaptic.
I wasn't really involved in the community but the few bugs I reported and the suggestions made on segfault blog where always handled/answered pretty quickly.
The negative points imho were that it was pretty obvious the the xfce & kde editions didn't get as much love as the cinnamon & mate flavors. At the very beginning, I had great hopes that the LMDE edition could one day take precedence over the Ubuntu-based edition but I quickly realized that it's nothing but a playground for the devs. This really disappointed me.
kyrios People don't really seperate home computing and computing at work. Often, they are intermingled. Like I said earlier, a lot of people do work from home. We really can't expect them to use two different operating systems to do some work. With all due respect, you will have a tough time explaining that to people coming from Windows if they can't do what they need to do. You will end up scaring them away from Linux. That is why it is better to recommend a distro that is officially supported by third party software devs.
dlalinsp If people don't understand what they read, there is very little we can do about it. Employers that allow home working usually provide a laptops their employees. And not offending anyone but a profesionnal that is a little serious will ensure to have the appropriate tools to accomplish the tasks he/she has to do.
And let's be frank, most companies won't support linux, most profesionnal software won't be available on linux and when they are, they usually aren't free (so the company will expect these software to be installed on material they own) and they are usually distributed only as .deb or .rpm -> Solus is not the best cadidate for that kind of usage.
Perhaps I am an exception but in my surrounding, I don't know anyone who is asked to use his personal computer by his employer. Some companies like mine have BYOD policies but it is very limited as it's on a separate network which has some gateways to things like the exchange server or give access to the company private cloud to use office and onedrive things (the kind of things you can use from any kind distro, even from smartphones or tablets), but it certainly not allow you to use everything and anything and for most advanced professional apps, you need a full access to the company network.
lizabrown01 This is for discussing first-time Linux usage, please create a thread with your issue.
Hi all,
I switched over from my Macbook Pro with OSX in December 2018 after buying a new laptop. I had never used Linux before so very much in the first time user category.
I did isntall Ubuntu first but did not like it's standard DE. Within in couple of days I switched over to Solus after doing a little research and talking to some friends who have been using Linux for years. My experience can be summed up as follows:
1) The installation wasn't flawless. For whatever reason, it took me 3 - 4 attempts to get Solus to correctly install and boot. I don't even know what I did different on the last try (as I don't think I did anything different) to get it working but after multiple tries one time it just started working? As a GUI installer though, I have to say the Solus installer is slick and nice.
2) The update via Software Centre crashed the first time doing a big update and had to take a few reboots and multiple smaller updates to get everything to latest. This hasn't been an issue since but from reading around the forums this is a known but unresolved issue with software centre.
3) As someone who doesn't know anything about Linux, searching around the web got me loads of articles around Ubuntu, Arch and other "more well known / supported" Distro's. It's not as clear how to do things on Solus as it is on some of these other distro's but I guess that's due to the size and popularity differences at this point in time.
4) It is known that the quality of packages supported by Solus is less than other Distros. I can't use PureVPN or Wireguard as some examples because they aren't supported by the developers or Solus for easy installation guides. However, mostly, I can find what I need and the Software Centre seems a lot faster to install than on other Distro's I have subsequently tried.
5) Budgie is an awesome DE. It feels familiar for anyone used to Windows, it's slick and polished and all round I just like it. Coming from a mac, you can also tailor it to use a dock and have that feel to it as well so it can be familiar to anyone with any experience with a little tinkering.
6) I have issues with a square box around my cursor which I think is due to the NVidia drivers. I have to logout and log back in after first boot to resolve this as a temporary issue. This is a bit frustrating and doesn't happen on Ubuntu or some other distro's I've tried so I know there is a fix somewhere, I just haven't figured it out for Solus.
7) Boot time on Solus is much faster than any other Distro I've tried. The computer just feels quicker using Solus that any other Distro.
Overall, I would say it's not a super easy transition from Mac or Windows to Linux. I think Solus is one of the easier Distro's to transition to in large part to Budgie being a solid DE that looks great and feels easy to learn and use. I think some things like Software centre crashes and package curation might make it a little harder for some users to jump on and have everything they want. I've switched around a few Distro's in the last 6 months as I get to grips with Linux. There are definitely things I don't like about Solus but the bottom line is... I keep coming back!
rav101 3) As someone who doesn't know anything about Linux, searching around the web got me loads of articles around Ubuntu, Arch and other "more well known / supported" Distro's. It's not as clear how to do things on Solus as it is on some of these other distro's but I guess that's due to the size and popularity differences at this point in time.
There is the help center for this (Docs link in the top navigation bar of this forum). Unlike some other distro's that have exhautive wiki that cover advanced topics, Solus help center is kept intentionally small and simple to allow people who begin to easily find the basic info they need to settle down.
rav101 4) It is known that the quality of packages supported by Solus is less than other Distros.
Quantity and quality are different things you know !
rav101 I can't use PureVPN
That's not correct. OpenVPN configuration files are provided and instructions on how to set it up (here). I know this is not what you expect but you can set it up.
Hi,
I actually agree on all points. I was just putting my point across as a first time user. I guess in each aspect, it's a little more involved. Help centre is great but I know there were a few things I couldn't find the answer for on Solus that I could see lots of guides for on Ubuntu for example. There are some programs that I was recomended to use when I first started out that weren't on solus, it was just a case of looking for alternatives. With PureVPN, there is a PureVPN app that works through terminal which easily allows you to choose from any of their servers rather than the OpenVPN approach where I believe you have to set up each vpn server individually.
Overall, like i've said I have stayed with Solus as I think it's a solid distro. I'm just saying for first time users, its not completely idiot free and you do need to put in a bit of work yourself.
This is my first linux distro, I switched over from Windows 10 and its basically a straight swap if you've got any sort of computer literacy. Sure some things a bit different, but not so different that the experience with windows doesn't transfer pretty well directly. The biggest hurdle I had was identifying which file was which in the file manager, but that is a linux wide difference not something specific to Solus.
Besides that, everything is pretty well were any experienced windows user would expect it to be.
dlalinsp I agree with you to a large extent, kyrios. That is also why we can't recommend Solus to newbies directly.
And here I disagree at 200% with you.
Newbies who try Linux from themselves or on advise of some friends don't have a work usage of their machine in mind. The ones who use linux for work usually install what their company uses (Redhat workstation, Ubuntu, ...) and even then the computer is usually installed/configured by the IT responsible.
elfprince 3-Thumbs-Up !!!
Plus more things are moving to web-based applications, MYOB for instance.
kyrios Your first point is very true. Even so, there are many essential applications that are not directly supported on Solus. Take Viber or Google Chrome for example. It is true we have worked around these problems but it is still buggy and inconsistent. We are already slowly solving most of these issues but it will take a little time before it is ready to be recommended to newbies. Your second point is true and I won't argue with that. However, it is our job to make a suitable environment for professionals to use Linux. Solus doesn't have official support for a lot of third software that might be needed by professionals. That is why we need to recommend something with official support for the little amount of professional tools we may have. Otherwise, they will surely never try Linux. Your third and fourth point are not always true. There are a lot of average users who might want to use Linux due to Windows 7 losing support and most of them would probably just buy Windows 10, if they are told to dual boot just to use a few specific tools. Also, we may lose many serious professionals who are considering Linux as an alternative because they would anyway have to get Windows 10 if they dual boot. So, it is important to recommend a distro with a lot of official support from software devs because people don't want to jump through hoops to do something. They want simple solutions. I hope there are no hard feelings, bro! 
dlalinsp there are many essential applications that are not directly supported on Solus
Well if "essential" applications were really missing as you say, nobody would use Solus. And when a package is refused, almost everytime alternatives are proposed.
Could you please give an example of essential application that is missing ? Meaning what common/casual task a new comer wouldn't be able to perform on Solus that he would be able to perform on another distro ?
dlalinsp Take Viber or Google Chrome for example.
They both are in the 3rd party repo. Viber is also available as a snap and as a flatpak package so there are 3 possibilities to install it. Regarding the browers, a newbie will most likely use Firefox as it's the preinstalled brower. Should he not like it and have issues with chrome, there are still plenty of alternate browers in the repo.
There are no reason for not recommanding Solus to new linux users because of this.
dlalinsp However, it is our job to make a suitable environment for professionals to use Linux.
Nope this is not our job. Solus mainly targets home computing. There are distributions dedicated to professionals. Professionals usually need to support multiple architectures (which is not the case of Solus and only supports x86_64), they need helpdeks/support services that aren't free of charge and that are irrelevant for home computing, Professionnals need fixed point release, most of the time even LTS because the applications they use might expect specific version of components to work, Solus has a rolling release model and components are constantely updated. Targetting home computing, Solus has not server edition. Professionals won't make their life harder and more costly by using many different distributions.
Also professionals can be everything. For example, a professional musician interested in linux would use a specialized distribution and that's the beauty of linux.
dlalinsp Otherwise, they will surely never try Linux.
Well perhaps you should stop mixing newbies who discover linux for the first time and professionals (if they use linux for their activities it's on purpose, they don't discover it for the first time and if they do they get trained anyway).
dlalinsp There are a lot of average users who might want to use Linux due to Windows 7 losing support
I am not sure there are lot of users, the end of windows XP which was a big thing compared to the end of Windows 7 didn't cause a massive migration to Linux. Such machines are old and are going to be replaced at some point and since it's very hard to find computers sold without an OS, they'll get a new windows license anyway. Other people won't care and will keep on using their computer as it is. The few people interested in recycling their machine, are anyway pro-active and willing to try. This does not concern any professionals.
dlalinsp if they are told to dual boot just to use a few specific tools. Also, we may lose many serious professionals
We woudln't loose professional since we don't target them. Also if they are really professionnal they would simply keep on running their windows application on native windows. Using emulation or things like virtualbox for such case is just unprofessional. Even if you pay lot of money for a software a supplier would never give you support if you run their applications if you don't follow their requirements.
My conclusions are the following (and I'll end here)
kyrios I see what you are getting at, bro! I still don't agree with you, though, that Solus should be recommended to 'first timers'. However, I understand that you have a different opinion and I respect that. Salut, mon amigo! 
P.S. I did not mix up professionals and newbies. I do believe that we were referring to entirely different subsets of professionals, though. That might be the cause of the mix up. Thanks a lot, man! This was educational.
