Distrochooser
distrochooser.de
The Distrochooser helps you to find the suitable Linux distribution based on your needs!

Quite a few posts about selecting a distro to use. Maybe it’s time to make that link a little more prominent?

  • @[email protected]
    74•4 months ago

    Oh boy here we go again

    Distrochooser is not a good resource for newbies IMO. There are too many questions, many of which are misleading or hard to understand (NOBODY taking this knows what systemd is)

    Many answers are misleasing: “I want a distro that is supported by game publishers” for example implies each distro has its own game compatibility, this is NOT the case.

    And when you’re finally done it recommends too many distros, many of which are irrelevant, niche, or flat out not recommended anymore (PCLinuxOS?!?!)

    When someone asks for a distro, please just run a random number generator to choose between ZorinOS, PopOS, or Linux Mint. If someone is only gaming, maybe include Nobara too.

      • @[email protected]
        13•4 months ago

        It would actually be pretty effective. Just have it return one of the mainstream distros and be done.

        • @[email protected]
          11•4 months ago

          Style it like a Tux slot machine. Click on the raised wing to pull it down and let the reels roll, stopping on the perfect distro for you!

    • @[email protected]
      7•4 months ago

      Exactly! Many of the criteria included aren’t all that good for new users, and neither are the suggestions. It’s not really a good resource for experienced users either.

    • @[email protected]English
      2•4 months ago

      One of us could probably put that together pretty quickly lol

      But if we did want to build a new distro recommender… Maybe there are like 5 or so questions that would be relevant.

      Just off the top of my head some possibilities:

      If you’re a beginner, Mint is a good choice. One could argue Ubuntu (noobs don’t gaf about snap if they even know what it is). I think noobs would want good GUI tools and a very popular, very polished distro. So issues are infrequent but finding answers is easy.

      Into gaming? There’s a few distros that come up like Nobara. (I’ve seen Manjaro mentioned but idk).

      If you want something that looks kinda like macos there’s Endeavor. Does anyone recommend that one these days? I don’t usually see it mentioned.

      Idk.

      You’re probably right, an rng that chooses between a few distros might be better lol

    • @[email protected]
      2•4 months ago

      Exactly. If you have to ask this sort of question, the answer is those three. Everything else is just confusing.

    • @onlinepersonaOPEnglish
      -7•4 months ago

      Yeah, I disagree. It’s the least subjective resource I can find as nobody asks the questions on that questionnaire here. I’d much prefer it if people used distrochooser and then shared their answers (e.g https://distrochooser.de/en/d5b60b6e6134/), wrote some extra stuff e.g “I want NVIDIA support because I want CUDA” or something, and based on that, we recommend distros. Instead of the herd mentality of “duh, linux mint stoopeed”

      CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

      • Aatube
        1•4 months ago

        “least subjective”? All it does is have a list of some distros with some qualities, which is the same level of subjectivity as anyone who lists qualities, not to mention most of the times you get a frick ton of results which doesn’t solve your problem. And yes, I’ve tried to use it when I was a newbie like nine months ago.

        • @onlinepersonaOPEnglish
          1•4 months ago

          The suggested distros have advantages and disadvantages stated for the responses you gave. For example, I simulated being a newbie here: https://distrochooser.de/en/d5b60b6e6134/

          Mint, Zorin, Ubuntu flavors, Pop!OS are on top. Then OpenSuse is listed and it has a caveat “May require additional configuration for gaming”. The ones below that all have such warnings and reasons why it wouldn’t recommend it e.g for Knoppix “Can be used for daily work, but is built for live-mode”.

          CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

          • Aatube
            0•4 months ago

            I look at it, and I have to scroll down 10 entries before I see something that isn’t all plus signs. Yes, you can count them, but at a glance it gives you choice paralysis. Not to mention how obnoxious seeing every single DE of Ubuntu is, and how distros like elementaryOS shouldn’t be chosen by anyone.