• Marxine@lemmy.mlEnglish
    15·
    1 year ago

    I’d rather someone’s first choice about Linux was which DE to use. This plays a way bigger part in first impressions.

    The obvious choice is KDE, ofc

    • atmur@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      9·
      1 year ago

      I totally agree, that’s a way more important factor when you’re starting out with Linux.

      Gotta be Gnome though

    • Victron@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      I used to be a huge Plasma evangelist. At first I hated it, the old versions I mean. You just moved the mouse pointer the wrong way and your whole DE was fucked. Too many options and settings. But KDE 5 changed my world. Stable and lighter than Gnome, but still fully configurable. Last night I switched to Debian 12, Gnome. Maybe I’m getting old, but I’m loving it. I don’t tinker with my DEs that much anymore. Just a couple Gnome extensions and I was good to go.

  • Andrew@mander.xyzEnglish
    6·
    1 year ago

    Searched, not googled. Google is bad, M’kay?

    Reference

    Drugs are bad, M’kay? Don’t do drugs.

    • atmur@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      6·
      1 year ago

      the ultimate beginner’s distro, it’s a great start before moving on to something complicated like mint

    • Duckman@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Oddly, Gentoo was where I started out when I got serious about using Linux. That was when I was in my 20’s and I wanted to get every last bit of performance out of my computer. Also, breaking stuff was fun and gave me a chance to figure new stuff out.

      Now I just want stuff to work and be relatively up to date. So I use Debian testing.

  • Nefyedardu@kbin.social
    3·
    1 year ago

    I was a huge distro hopper until I started using immutable distros. One thing no one tells beginners is that you do have to maintain your system more on Linux than other OSs because Linux gives you the rope to hang yourself with. I would always bloat my OS and things would get unruly, everything would slow down or become unstable and I would lose track of how I had everything set up. Immutability make things so much cleaner.

  • ZephrC@lemm.eeEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    Okay, but when most people are looking for advice on which distro to use it’s because they don’t know what they want.

    • atmur@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, this meme is mostly to poke fun at the people who genuinely think that Linux Mint is only for beginners or you have to switch to Arch or whatever else, that kind of crowd.

      I’m a little bit tempted to try and make an actual flowchart with distro recommendations since I’ve used and like most of the major ones at this point, but there are better resources out there than what I could contribute.

      • xkforce@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        1 year ago

        Linux mint is the sort of distro newbies start with and long time linux users retire to after theyve explored the distro multiverse.

  • Esthergen@kbin.social
    3·
    1 year ago

    I started with PopOS. Didn’t like so many decisions being made for me so I started using Arch instead. Easy customization. Got tired of breaking systems. Jumped to Debian Testing. I think I’m settled.

    • guskikalola :linux:@social.vivaldi.net
      1·
      1 year ago

      @sharkfucker420 @atmur Same, its funny Kubuntu died on me twice on one year due to updates, while Arch hasn’t died yet. Yes, it almost broke completly twice but I was able to fix it with help ( and always the error was related to my clumsiness ). And also, using arch has lead me to understanding many things about linux that I wouldn’t pay attention in ubuntu.

      Also, now I can say Arch BTW which probably is the main reason for moving ngl

  • MyFairJulia@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    Hannah Montana Linux is the best distro! It leaves out all those newfangled things like Wayland, GNOME 3, SysVInit and gives you Hannah Montana.

    • such_fifty_bucks@lemmy.oneEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      newfangled… SysVInit

      You mean systemd? Cause SysVInit was created in 1991 based on Unix System V from 1983. Which means it’s literally older than Miley Cyrus.

  • jugalator@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    Honestly from experience I’ve learnt that the yes answer also usually applies to the no answer because it’s important to everyone. Advanced users tend to hit advanced issues and surprise, surprise, then community size matters all the same!

    So since Linux is highly customizable and the choice of e.g. desktop environment matters little (just install whatever you want on any distro, including DE), community size is the most hard-earned property and thus usually trumps all.

    So I personally try to keep closest to upstream regardless experienced or less experienced users => Debian if you adore those DEB packages and management, Fedora if you love those RPM packages and management, indie ones for indie packages e.g. Alpine, Arch… If you still run into issues it’s usually you, not the distro because it’s already battle hardened. :) But no worries, then you’ll find a lot of help and the problem has usually already even been discussed and is googleable! It’s 2023, none of the huge distros are plain shit and annoying, that’s been ironed out like a decade ago. So just go with a (big) flow somewhere.

  • mrmanager@lemmy.todayEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    If beginner, use PopOS.

    If Linux nerd, use Arch.

    That’s my guide. I don’t like any other distros. :)

    • swordsmanluke@programming.devEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      I started with Ubuntu and then migrated to Arch. I learned a ton about Linux and how tune everything for optimal performance!

      …And then I went back to Ubuntu because I just want to work with my computer, not on it.

      • mrmanager@lemmy.todayEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Yeah many people say that but Ubuntu is not very good in my opinion. Outdated packages, snaps, commercials in the installer and so on. I would pick PopOS any day over that myself. But it’s because I’m really sensitive to those things.

        • swordsmanluke@programming.devEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Yeah, I honestly agree that Ubuntu is getting worse. For better or worse though, it’s a base that I’m familiar with. I end up customizing and tweaking it, but I’ve automated enough of that to where I can just run a few scripts on a fresh install and be back up and running.

          Basically, I built myself a shittier, highly specific version of Nix in self-defence. 😁

  • Victron@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    (Web developer) I distro-hopped for years, after discovering Ubuntu 8.10 (OpenSUSE, Fedora, Linux Mint, Ubuntu Mate,Manjaro, Ubuntu Budgie, etc). Then left Linux altogether for some time. 4 years ago returned to Kubuntu, using only LTS. My best Linux experience ever. Until yesterday, when I installed Debian 12. Hated Gnome before (I don’t remember why), but not anymore, the stability is astounding.