It is based on Arch but that is about it. The installer is easy, maintenance easy, not a bad distro. But, do not ask for advice on the Arch forums because they will rip you a new one

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Mainly from an ease-of-use perspective. The installer is probably about 6-7 questions (give or take) and it's just general things. Probably the hardest thing is disk setup/partitioning and even that can be done automatically for you if you tell it do it "automatically". I would honestly say some earlier Windows installers are more complicated and ask more questions.

I have very little experience with Arch. From what I have seen though it much more complicated than Debian/Ubuntu. Manjaro I believe is supposed to be a little easier in terms of installation, but I have no experience with it. I am actually planning on diving more into Arch/Manjaro once things calm down a little.

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ARCH based, manjoro. ArcoLinux. those two are rather nice they both have a different setup default desktops. with ArchoLinux I've used https://arcolinux.info/download/ arcoLinux iso they've got it set up for 3 different desktop all setup for defaults. ie there gui installers for apps and such. it is done rather well, manjoro too is nicely done. not to leave that one out.

I recently installed the latest Manjaro (KDE) after doing an Arch install. The issue I had with Arch was my wifi. It worked fine during the installation but after I finished and rebooted, the drivers didn't carry over like I hoped. I used to be a Slackware user and probably would have known exactly what drivers I needed and how to fix the problem, but I didn't feel like working through it. Long story short, I installed Manjaro and I'm impressed. Between the Arch repositories and the AUR packages, there isn't anything I need that isn't immediately available. Installation was simple and it worked right from the start. I recommend it, and certainly for anyone who is new(er) to Linux.

You have two things to consider.

1. Do you want a rolling-release or a fixed-release distro? The former may sometimes cause a problem with a premature upgrade of a program, but then the latter may have problems when you switch to a new edition (as Windpws users know).

2. What sort of GUI do you like? For something classical that will not be a culture shock for a Windows user, consider Xfce or Mate. For something fancy and full of eye-candy, yet still very efficient, consider KDE — but it does have a reputation for premature releases with odd bugs. Lastly, Gnome — make your computer look like a phone! — which some love and others loathe.

So, my recommendations for a beginner are
Xfce — MX or PCLinuxOS (rolling)
Mate — Mint or PCLinuxOS (rolling)
KDE — OpenSUSE or PCLinuxOS (rolling)
Gnome — Ubuntu.

Vito95,

You have prioritised ease of use and stability. In which case you should really consider Linux Mint 19.3 MATE (or Xfce) which is supported until 2023. There are sometimes graphics problems with Mint Cinnamon on some hardware.

For gaming you can always install Steam.

Whilst Manjaro may be a less daunting introduction to Linux than Arch, I would still recommend Linux Mint because of its Debian .deb packages and apt installer which are very easy to use and reliable.

After you have decided on your distro, you will then need backup all your personal data to an external drive.

Then you need remove most of your existing W10 installation, whilst keeping your EFI system partition (see below).

But first download the Linux Mint MATE 64-bit ISO image (or similar) and use Etcher or Rufus to install it on a USB drive:
https://linuxmint.com/download.php

You will have UEFI boot enabled in W10 64-bit.

Secure Boot is best disabled in BIOS/UEFI.

Also disable Fast Startup:
https://help.uaudio.com/hc/en-us/art...-in-Windows-10

Boot from the installation media by tapping the special key for Boot Device such as F12, F2, F9 or whatever and select the boot media (e.g. SanDisk UEFI).

Double click on Install Linux Mint icon.

Select language.

Connect to the internet via wifi or ethernet cable.

Install third party software.

This video will show you how to make 3 additional partitions (main part starts at 10.00) using the Something else option:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_4Kh5kE3xA

You MUST keep the EFI system partition (esp), (probably sda1) and delete all other existing Windows partitions to create free space for the Linux Mint installation.

Then create the 3 Linux partitions below using the Mint installer and the Something else option.

Create 3 new Primary (not Logical) partitions in the free space. Make sure to select Beginning for the location of each partition.

Highlight the free space and click on Change.

First create sda2:
sda2....formatted (X in the box) as ext4 as the root partition (/)......Size: 25000MB
Click on OK.

Highlight the free space and click on Change.

sda3.....not formatted (no X in the box) as the swap partition.............Size: 2000MB.
Click on OK.

Highlight the free space and click on Change.

sda4......formatted (X in the box) as ext4 as the Home partition (/home)......Size: Remainder of hard drive.
Click on OK.

Install on sda and follow the rest of the video above or the Linux Mint installation guide:
https://linuxmint-installation-guide....io/en/latest/

Note that Linux Mint 19.3 MATE and some other Linux distros now automatically create a swap file (not a partition), so 2 extra partitions (root and home) will be enough. Either way works.

It is very useful to have a separate home partition for future use when upgrading or switching distros:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...-distro-37074/