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.

            kyrios

            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.

              kyrios I agree with you to a large extent, kyrios. That is also why we can't recommend Solus to newbies directly.

                  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.

                  1. The very large majority of users have a casual use of their machine: web, mail, chat, watching videos, listening to music, games, etc. Solus is actually better that many other distributions for this (i.e: from where does LSI come from?)
                  2. People who must remain productive for their work, especially the ones without a technical background won't suddenly wipe their hard disk and jump into the shadow to try a Linux distribution.
                  3. Multiboot Windows/Linux is a thing. People who have regular need non-linux programs (which is not uncommon for many professionals) will anyway run them a the native OS for a smoother experience.

                  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.

                      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)

                          • You are mixing newbie and professionnals although they have very different needs
                          • Home computing and profesionnals are different segments and you expect Solus to target the 2nd one while it's designed for the 1st one.

                                        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.

                                          Again we come to the unifying theme "it depends". 🙂 After reading most/all of this I think I'm still sticking to my original position - highly depends on that particular user's requirements.

                                          You really need to interrogate the individual to figure out what they're going to be doing. From there the answers should lead you to a type of distro. Probably more important for sophisticated users with requirements beyond browser/LibreOffice, to make sure there aren't any must-have deal breakers which require software outside of the repo.

                                          Still planning on having the parents using Solus by default for next PC build, probably with a Mint or Ubuntu "backup" option just in case. Just put an extra browser or two on there, make it easy to get to LibreOffice, should be good to go.

                                          For the most part it's hard to think of good reasons Solus can't meet 90% of common user requirements. Maybe gaming/Steam is a common blocker? Haven't looked into that yet.

                                          8 months later

                                          Justin It's all fun and games, until stuff start crashing or freezing. Zorin is solid for novices.

                                              HolySoap I'm new to Linux and Solus was the best out-of-the-box experience, except the multi monitor support of budgie.

                                              Wow! I standardized on Budgie after Mate couldn't handle my dual monitors. No problem with Budgie here.

                                                  WetGeek
                                                  I assume he wants per monitor panels which Budgie does not support yet

                                                    I install it on my daughter laptop and she use it without problem, easy to use i don't think there is problem for windows users

                                                    11 days later

                                                    WetGeek Why digging out such an old post of mine when nothing has changed since?

                                                    Tell me how to get a Taskbar/Dock on other monitors except the primary one, please. Same for different Wallpapers per monitor without any other software involved.

                                                    • They pulled of Hydrapaper (have to use the Flatpack now) from the repos because of some dependencies and refuse to add Superpaper because of a master.zip (the Dev is such a nice guy maybe he is willing to support Solus natively)
                                                    • Docker and Latte is no option.
                                                    • Budgie is based on Gnome and Gnome has an option to duplicate at least the Dock to other monitors, so why not copypasta of that option and expand it to the taskbar.
                                                      • btw. Raven only opens on the right side of the monitor, annoying when want the trigger on the left side
                                                    • I know they work on it with Budgie 11.

                                                    The only two DE's that support multiple monitors are Plasma and XFCE, but:

                                                    • Plasma is bugged when you have task icons on more than one monitor (Latte Dock can solve that more or less if you want a Dock)
                                                    • Plasma hogs to many resources and is buggy overall
                                                    • XFCE is perfect for multiple monitors (so its basically the only option) but looks so dated like Windows 2000

                                                    I still don't understand why Solus has 3 different Gnomes (Budgie, Gnome and MATE) and the new addition Plasma. I Get it for Budgie, Gnome and Plasma but why MATE instead of XFCE?

                                                    Hopefully nobody gets offended, and those complains coming from a stupid end-user who has no knowledge about coding or Linux overall.

                                                        HolySoap Plasma hogs to many resources

                                                        I remember reading recently that Plasma is one of the leanest mainstream DEs and even leaner than XFCE now...