I see often people say that the distro you are using doesn’t matter. One can turn any distro into another. And I do not agree with that. If that was true, why do we even have so many distributions? I always said, if distros don’t matter…

  • … why distro hop?
  • … why don’t you use Ubuntu then?
  • … why don’t you recommend Archlinux to a newcomer?
  • … why don’t you use Kali Linux as a server?
  • … why don’t you use Batocera or SteamOS as your daily driver?
  • … why do you trust a community distro more than a corporate distro? (or vice versa)

I don’t think that distros only matter to newcomers. Maybe it matters for experienced users even more.

  • IratePirate@feddit.org
    63·
    14 days ago

    Just like your “opponents” are over-generalising, you’re deliberately picking the most extreme examples to make your argument. (Batocera as a daily driver - you know that’s what Hanna Montana Linux is for!)

    My Linux axioms are: for most new users…

    1. choice of DE is most noticeable and decides whether they like their initial experience.
    2. choice of base distro family does matter a lot in the long run (Debian-based vs. Arch-based vs. Redhat-based); if you stay inside the same family (e.g. Pop!OS vs. Ubuntu vs. Zorin vs. Mint), choice matters a lot less (and DE is most impactful, c.f. point one).
    3. choosing a distro with specialised security hardening (immutable systems, Nix, Qubes, Bazzite) does matter; most of these will make new users unhappy or even question their sanity.

    Where you are right: yes, the choices embedded within these three axioms do matter a lot and are noticeable, so it is helpful to have an experienced user recommend a distro to you when starting out.

    Where the “distro don’t matter” people are right: there are a lot less choices to be made than meets the eye. Effectively, it can be boiled down to three.

    • sudoer777@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      14 days ago

      choosing a distro with specialised security hardening (immutable systems, Nix, Qubes, Bazzite) does matter; most of these will make new users unhappy or even question their sanity.

      Out of curiosity, as someone who’s never used Bazzite/other uBlue/SilverBlue/etc, what makes it difficult for new users? I definitely agree with Nix and Qubes though (and SecureBlue to some extent).

      • IratePirate@feddit.org
        18·
        14 days ago

        Basically, anything that isn’t packaged as a flatpak needs to be installed from the CLI using distrobox containers, which will go over the heads of the majority of new users.

      • Taasz/Woof@piefed.socialEnglish
        3·
        14 days ago

        There’s a ton of added friction when doing things outside the basic ‘install Flatpak app’. Security generally comes at the price of being difficult to use.

        For new users it also means virtually every guide or there on fixing an issue or installing extra software won’t apply.

      • [object Object]@lemmy.ca
        2·
        14 days ago

        If you install home brew 90% of the issues go away.

        The problem is that most Linux software assumes it can do whatever it wants, and immutable distros do not let you write to the system files.

        This creates confusion, because you see a guide for Fedora and it said dnf install xyz, but dnf doesn’t work. The solution is to add it to your image tree (no) or to create a toolbox with that package (complicated, requires setup, gets complicated if your tool needs access to Wayland for clipboard or something)).

        Bazzite solves this by using brew, which is a package manager built for macOS which has had immutable systems for years. Brew solves most of the issues.

        For me by the time I went immutable it just made more sense to go full declarative with nix, but nix is also a steeper learning curve.

    • thingsiplay@lemmy.mlOP
      16·
      14 days ago

      There is another point, which makes this discussion very variable. Also the choice matters or does not matter a lot, depending on the person, expectations and what is being done. This is probably the biggest reason why we don’t agree on simplifications like these. And BTW, just because the examples I gave are extreme does not make them wrong in any way. They are just easy for illustrating my points I’m making.

      If someone is coming from Windows, does not care much about trust and just want something that runs a browser, doesn’t care about community or technicalities, then yes it does not matter if the person chooses Ubuntu or Mint. On the other hand, if someone doesn’t like corporations, has strong opinions about standards and is a developer, then the choice suddenly matters a lot more.