We often get the same question with

“I’m new, what distro do you recommend?”

and I think we should make a list/ discussion on what is our pick for each person, and just link that post for them to give them an easy recommendation.

So I made a quick flow chart (will get polished as soon as I get your input) with my personal recommendations. It is on the bottom of the text, so you see the rest of the text here too.

I will also explain each distro in a few, short sentences and in what aspects they do differ and what makes them great.

Here are my “controversial” things I want to discuss with you first, as I don’t want to spread nonsense:

Nobara

I don’t know if we should recommend it as a good gaming distro. In my opinion, it’s a highly insecure and experimental distro, made by one individual. I mean, sure, it gives you a slightly better experience ootb compared to vanilla Fedora, but:

  • As said, it’s made by one single guy. If he decides to quit this project, many many people will just stop getting updates.
  • There are many security-things, especially SELinux, disabled.
  • It’s severely outdated. Some security fixes take months until they arrive on Nobara.
  • It contains too many tweaks, especially kernel modifications and performance enhancers. Therefore, it might be less reliable.

I think, Bazzite is the way superior choice. It follows the same concept, but implements it in way better fashion:

  • Just as up-to-date as the normal Fedora, due to automatic GitHub build actions.
  • No burden of maintenence, either on the user or the dev side.
  • Fully intact security measures.
  • And much more.

Immutable distros

I’m a huge fan of them and think, that they are a perfect option for newcomers. They can’t brick them, they update themselfes in the background, they take a lot of complexity compared to a traditional system, and much more. Especially uBlue and VanillaOS are already set up for you and “just work”.
If you want to know more about image-based distros, I made a post about them btw :)

VanillaOS

It’s the perfect counterpart for Mint imo. It follows the same principle (reliable, sane, easy to use, very noob friendly, etc.), but in a different way of achiving that.

The main problems are:

  • The team behind it isn’t huge or well established yet, except for the development of Bottles.
  • They want to do many things their own way (own package manager, etc.) instead of just using established stuff.
  • The current release (V2, Orchid) is still in beta atm.

I see a huge potential in that particular distro, but don’t know if I should recommend it at this point right now.

ZorinOS

I think, for people who don’t like change, it’s great, but it can be very outdated. What’s your opinion on that distro? It looks very modern on the surface and is very noob friendly, but under the hood, very very old.

Pop!_OS

Same with that. Currently, there’s only the LTS available, since System76 is currently very busy with their new DE. I don’t know if we should recommend it anymore.

I made the list of recommendations relatively small on purpose, as it can be a bit overwhelming for noobs when they get a million recommendations with obscure distros.
Do you think that there are any distros missing or a bad recommendation?

  • ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    9 months ago

    I don’t have any specific beef with your chart but I do feel like we sometimes do a disservice to newbies by focusing on distros rather than the main desktop environments and what differentiates them. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend basically any of the Fedora spins or Debian-based distros to beginners.

    The choice between KDE, Gnome, Cinnamon, etc. is much more consequential for a new user than DNF vs. Apt (especially in the Flatpak era).

    • just_hiroshi@pawb.socialEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      Yes, I think it should end with a desktop environment (and why it was recommended), and then distros with good support of that DE (with one of them being the recommended distro for that category)

      I really like the bottom Linux Mint recommendation tho, I would keep that

  • Johanno@feddit.de
    2·
    9 months ago

    You need to limit the options.

    Linux systems

    • Debian (stable, almost no bloatware, user unfriendly, apt)

    • ArchLinux (unstable, bleeding edge software, user unfriendly, pacman)

    • RHEL/ Fedora (semi-stable, newer software, relatively user friendly, dnf)

    Then at max list 3 Systems that derive from each main OS.

    Like

    Debian: Ubuntu, Mint, PoP!OS ArchLinux: manjaro… Fedora: Nobara…

    Where each should be user friendly to use. Also explain what stable means, like that unstable doesn’t mean shit breaks on a regular basis but rather it can sometimes happen. Normal desktop users don’t need the stability of Debian. But it is nice to have if you can live with outdated software (if it isn’t already on flatpak).

  • matlag@sh.itjust.works
    2·
    9 months ago

    I’m sorry if that’s harsh, but my feedback would be: drop that chart!

    It’s daunting, it’s going to freak out many newbies. Too much choice kills the choice.

    You have one “default” at the bottom, Mint, so stick to that. Tell the newbies they can switch anytime to something else once they’re a bit more comfortable with the Linux-world. And if I’m not mistaken, you can install and try the main DEs with Mint also. Or you can recommend Ubuntu, or any other newbie friendly distro. Just pick one and don’t lose them over what they could see as an important difficult decision before they even get started.

    • caseyweederman@lemmy.ca
      1·
      9 months ago

      Don’t drop the chart! It’s really helpful for some people, and it’s fun, even for people who are looking to branch out rather than start fresh.
      Maybe have it start simple, eg. the very top choice is “First distro?” and Y points to a giant friendly MINT endpoint that takes up half the real estate, then N points to the regular cloud of options.
      But don’t ignore the benefits of graphical representations. If newbies make it all the way here, they’ve already waded through hundreds of vast, incomprehensible walls of text expounding the virtues of sysv and runit.
      I’m not saying dumb it down. There’s plenty of time to dig deeper, let’s ease the initial option paralysis.

    • chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      1·
      9 months ago

      Slight problem with the meme vs what OP is doing: Someone evaluating choices isn’t going to know what to search for from logos. They’ll n only recognize Google, Apple, and Windows, with a slight possibility on Linux distros.

  • delirious_owl@discuss.online
    31·
    9 months ago

    People who think its too complicated won’t make it to the bottom of the flow chart.

    tl;Dr needs to go at the top, not the bottom. That’s the point. They won’t make it to the bottom.

  • d3Xt3r@lemmy.nzM
    2·
    9 months ago

    ZorinOS

    I think, for people who don’t like change, it’s great, but it can be very outdated. What’s your opinion on that distro? It looks very modern on the surface and is very noob friendly, but under the hood, very very old.

    It’s great for people who have simple requirements and older hardware. Basically for folks who just want to use a PC for basic computing tasks like Web browsing, emails, document editing, printing/scanning etc. The thing about Zorin is that it uses a traditional UI/UX which is easily to navigate for non-technical people, and it’s stable enough that you almost never run into any issues (assuming you’re sticking with standard distro packages and config).

    My elderly parents have been using Zorin for several years now and they’ve never had a issue. The only time they called me was to help install their new printer last year (which was reasonably easy to install), and that was it.

    So I’d recommend Zorin for anyone who has very basic computing needs, and they are not using a brand new/high-end PC.

  • Metawish@lemmy.ml
    2·
    9 months ago

    I use Zorin OS for my laptop that’s gotta be at least 15+ years but still kicking it. Outlasted the newer laptop I bought that was only 5 years old.

    As someone who is only mildly into tech, Zorin is certainly familiar and I would probably recommend it to people.

    I downloaded Gallium OS for my mom on her Chromebook, that’s perhaps another important consideration to make…what laptop someone has.

  • june 🌿@lemmy.sdf.org
    1·
    9 months ago

    while i find the colours you chose appealing, a bunch of the font colours are too close to stand out well over their backgrounds? there are a few that are genuinely hard to read-- some better contrast would help a lot also, the vertical column is a bit weird to follow? like, what’s the process of going down after being asked about windows versions to get to gaming preference? it’s a weird way to have the path work. even if you just put something like “i don’t particularly care about windows” as the third option would help a little, i think?

    sorry that’s mostly about your graphic, and not the actual recommendations, lol

    • Guenther_Amanita@feddit.deOP
      2·
      9 months ago

      The graph was just a quick sketch in my note-taking app Logseq.

      I mainly wanted to know if the flowchart made sense. When I do it properly, I’ll use a different software :)

  • BCsven@lemmy.ca
    1·
    9 months ago

    If a user does not like CLI or is not comfortable fixing anything, then suggest OpenSUSE. Built in snapper rollback for problems and YAST2-GTK GUI apps to configure anything, no CLI skills needed.

      • Dad@lemmy.world
        1·
        9 months ago

        Guix > Nix, because I’m more angry about not being able to run the former than the latter.

  • rufus@discuss.tchncs.de
    1·
    9 months ago

    What about recommending something like MX Linux if someone has an old laptop lying around and wants to revive it, and get into Linux this way?

    And the question “Win 7 was the last good version” made me laugh. I remember the old times. All the viruses on XP… but it used to crash way less that it’s predecessors. Vista which was super slow and annoying. Feels like they’re making some progress since 7. (Okay, now they’re adding more and more data collection and annoyances to it.) But if I look back to Windows 7… I’m not feeling nostalgia 😆

    • Guenther_Amanita@feddit.deOP
      1·
      9 months ago

      Good idea. I’ve never used it or saw it recommended that much.

      Can you tell me more about it?

      Do you think there’s a big need for laptops with way less than 4 GB RAM? I’d say no, because there are barely any this old devices around, and most people here ask for their gaming PC or a mid range laptop.

      I’m just afraid people tend to overestimate their need to choose a “lightweight” distro and then complain that it feels old and barebones and that “Linux sucks, I go back to Windows because Steam behaves weird”.

      Can you tell me your experience and provide more information?

      • rufus@discuss.tchncs.de
        1·
        9 months ago

        Uh, my knowledge is a bit lacking. But I’ve been asked that question before. I don’t think there are that many devices with less than 3GB around anymore. And they’re probably 32bit, too. And have all kind of other issues, like modern webpages being way more demanding than in 2003. I’d skip all the details, people know what feels old and needs special treatment. If someone has an Athlon K7 with 512MB of RAM, they either need to get it recycled or a dedicated tutorial for that. Everything above should be handled by a good (32bit) distro with LXDE, LXQT, XFCE or something like that.

        I think MX Linux is a good choice. I’ve also used a plain Debian with XFCE desktop for that. Other choices include: Bohdi Linux, Zorin OS Lite, AntiX, Linux Lite, Puppy Linux, Q4OS, LUbuntu, Linux Mint Xfce, Tiny Core, LXLE, Slax, peppermintOS, crunchbang++ and Sparky Linux.