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"I’m here to save you some time and energy by telling you that the distro you pick doesn’t matter that much. " That's the point I stopped reading.
by toast42 5y ago
"I’m here to save you some time and energy by telling you that the distro you pick doesn’t matter that much. "
That's the point I stopped reading.
- jneumann004 5y agoI've been using Linux for years, so I've got my opinions about distros. Why should the distribution a new user pick matter that much? They can easily switch if they don't like the first one they pick.
- read_if_gay_ 5y agoGP probably conflated distro with DE, which is covered in the next paragraph in TFA, maybe shouldn't have stopped reading after all.
- asciimov 5y agoStability of install. New users probably shouldn't use a rolling release because updates can cause the install to be unbootable, leaving a bad impression of linux.
- wayneftw 5y agoWhat happens then is that the new Linux user soon needs a newer version of some package and they have to add a third party repo to their stable system and after having done this a few times, soon an update from one of them will cause the install to be unbootable. I've had a way better experience with desktop Linux when using a managed rolling release like Manjaro.
- zepto 5y agoEasily switch? You mean by reinstalling from scratch, or is there another way? I’d like to know because I am interested in trying different distros but don’t want to have to keep setting up machines.
- throw7 5y agoWell, IMO, a new user should pick a distribution that has different DE's available in it's repository. That makes switching and trying different DE's very easy. As opposed to some distros which are specifically tailored to only a specific or supported DE.
- shreddit 5y agoAnd I’d like to know the reason
- dmart 5y agoIt really doesn't. And the desktop Linux community's obsession with bundling a few tweaks and preinstalled applications as separate "distros", splintering the community into a million tiny sub-groups, is part of the reason it's failed to achieve mainstream popularity.
- rovr138 5y agoWhat's the best way to bundle those?
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y agoWhy would you bundle them at all?
- petepete 5y agoI think Ubuntu-style 'flavours' of distro pattern work well. They're called Spins in Fedora.
- alpaca128 5y agoJust don't. Why bundle stuff if the user can just install it using the package manager? It's easier to add to the system than remove redundant packages, and if the distro developers focus on the repositories and package management software it benefits everyone much more. That's one of the big reasons people go for Arch. Nobody cares if LibreOffice or Inkscape or whatever is preinstalled. Just put a usable appstore on the taskbar by default, it works for smartphones too. Many distros are about as necessary as Samsung's or LG's customized Android builds.
- prox 5y agoWhy is there such a fascination with having so many versions?
- blacktriangle 5y agoOff the top of my head... Some people want to build everything from source. Some people want a preconfigured Gnome enviornment. Some people want a preconfigured KDE environment. Some people want a distro with the latest version of packages. Some people want a distro that is conservative about upgrading packages. Some people are running in VMs and don't need all that extra crap. Some people want a version that pedantically sticks to the spirit of the GPL. Some people want a version that is maximally convinient GPL be damned. I'm sure there's more reasons.