If you’re ready to break up with Windows, this is the Linux distro I suggest for new users

ZDNET’s key takeaways

• SDesk is available now, free of charge, and you can install it on as many computers as you need.
• SDesk is a fast and dependable Linux distribution with a user interface that anyone will be instantly familiar with.
• I experienced some minor issues during my setup, which were simple to resolve.

I wouldn’t normally suggest an Arch-based Linux distribution for new users, but every so often, I come across one that challenges my perceptions. Recently, I discovered an Arch-based Linux distro called SDesk, and there couldn’t be a clearer use case for it.

Firstly, SDesk is fairly straightforward and doesn’t do all that much to separate itself from the ever-growing list of Linux distributions. Sometimes, that’s a good thing. I wasn’t sure what to expect after installing and logging into this desktop distribution, but when I did, everything was immediately familiar.

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SDesk opts for the GNOME desktop, which is configured to resemble a “standard” desktop that would be familiar to both Windows and MacOS users. On the interface, you’ll find a panel, a menu, a top bar, favorites, and desktop icons. On the top bar, there’s the Workspaces button (far left), the time/date (which, when clicked, opens notifications and calendar), and the system tray.

The list of pre-installed applications is also fairly standard, including:

• LibreOffice (office suite)
• Geary (email)
• GNOME Music (music player)
• GNOME Video (video player)
• Octopi (GUI package manager)
• GNOME Maps
• Swirl (web browser)

Of course, if you don’t find the app you need, you can always install it with Octopi or Flatpak. 

The one curiosity I encountered was Swirl, which isn’t based on either Chromium or Firefox. In fact, I haven’t had much luck digging up any information about this web browser at all. I can tell you that Swirl is fairly minimal and has very little in the way of settings. It works fine, but I’m not ready to recommend a browser for which I can’t find much information. You can always install Chromium or Firefox using Octopi. I installed Firefox and it runs quite well.

What I like

I really appreciate how the developers created a GNOME layout that should appeal to most users. It’s clean, it’s easy, and it looks quite good. It’s also helpful that the distribution ships with most of the tools you’ll need (the primary being a web browser and an office suite). I would, however, suggest you install Firefox or Chromium (as I mentioned earlier).

The performance is also quite good. I found applications responded instantly, nothing stalled, and apps installed quickly. This is fairly typical of Arch-based distributions, so I wasn’t at all surprised.

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There’s also window snapping, which SDesk does well. Most Linux desktops have this feature, but some limit the basic configuration to half of the display. SDesk takes this a step further and allows you to drag a window to any of the four quarters of the screen.

What I don’t like

SDesk is a fairly new distribution, which means it can be a bit rough around the edges. Let me explain.

After the usual round of testing (installing applications, tinkering with the settings, etc.), I ran an update and rebooted the machine. Upon reboot, I went to log in, and the desktop locked up. This happened after selecting the default user that popped up in the login window. I did a quick test (after a hard reboot) and clicked “Not Listed.” After typing my password, I was able to successfully log in. I’m sure this is a bug that the developers will soon fix.

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Another issue was multimedia playback. Out of the box, SDesk doesn’t have the codecs to play MP3 or MP4 files. Fortunately, this issue was easily resolved by installing the VLC media player like so:

Once I installed VLC, I could play whatever I needed.

Bottom line

Other than those two caveats, I found SDesk to be a take on Arch Linux that is viable for just about any user. As with any Linux desktop OS, there really wasn’t much I couldn’t do. After installing a few simple apps, I found SDesk could serve just about any purpose.

It’s a beautiful, simple, fast, and reliable OS. What more do you need from a desktop operating system? You might even find yourself preferring it over your Windows desktop. You can download an ISO for SDesk here.

Since publishing this story, SDesk has released version 19.1. I’ll be deep-diving into that in the near future, so stay tuned to ZDNET.