this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2025
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What's the easiest and most secure linux distro for a non-techie? This is for a spare thinkpad I want to try linux on.
Fedora (with KDE Plasma) or OpenSUSE tumbleweed (with KDE Plasma)
Mint is good but its kernel is usually slightly out of date and it still has upstream Ubuntu issues.
Other Ubuntu downstreams are subpar imo.
Plus Fedora & OpenSUSE ships with SELinux if you want MAC security support.
The only downside for Fedora is you have to enable 3rd party software after install and run a couple of commands to swap to full ffmpeg and Nvidia drivers if you have Nvidia hardware. I think OpenSUSE might ship with these enabled but I forgot.
Wait, I've been on fedora for a few years now and never noticed any ffmpeg problems, am I missing something? Maybe I ran the command at install and forgot, but I don't remember that being one of the things I did on set-up.
Mint. It’s a great, simple, well supported first distro. And last distro, TBH. I know plenty of people like to distro hop as a hobby, but if you just want to use your machine pick a well supported basic distro and stick with it. Mint, Ubuntu, Fedora are all good options, but Mint is really aimed at newcomers.
Mint. Cinnamon is great. MATE if you have a less powerful computer. XFCE for potatoes.
It's thinkpad T420. Is it powerful enough for Cinnamon?
Looking at the specs, I would guess it is
You can setup a Ventoy USB stick if you want to try multiple options
Mint is great, but if you have a touchscreen ThinkPad like I do and actually like to use the touchscreen a lot, Mint is very hit or miss.
I installed Fedora with Gnome and it works beautifully with the touchscreen.
I've installed mint, pop os and Ubuntu. TBH if it's a spare, just download one and give it a go.
I really just play games and use a browser, so it's been easy peasy for me. Look into making a partition for /home if you feel like you'll swap around it makes it pretty easy. Then you can try a few out without too much of an issue.
Ubuntu
Ubuntu has broken too many times on my computers for me to recommend it anymore
Skill issue
Good mix of usability and learning curve. You will need terminal, but that's never been easier with AI assistants to learn how. Plenty of support for applications or open source workarounds. It also is familiar enough to use rather quickly, but not so much that it feel like a Windows clone. Highly recommend starting with Ubuntu.
That's going to vary based on your definition of 'secure', and in my experience, most distros are very secure, it's usually the user that ends up messing the security up.