this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2025
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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There are too many choices. I’ve tried the chooser and at the end it gave me 9 distributions to choose from (i.e. nine distributions with no marked negatives). I’ve tried again and it gave me 13 distributions to choose from. This is absolutely useless for someone who knows nothing about Linux.
If someone selects ‘I have little or no knowledge about Linux’ it should go straight to recommending Linux Mint or with no other questions. Or maybe Bazzite if they selected gaming as main use case.
And if I select Windows experience, why doesn’t it mark Ubuntu with a negative as it has more of a MacOS feel?
last time it got posted here people dismissed it. I don't get why it got a positive reaction this time. It's a kinda cool app but also completely impractical. If you already know if you want systemd on your system or not, you aren't a noob and you already know what you want, or at least know what to search for.
This thing is more like one of the "What Power Ranger are you?" type of surveys.
You can narrow it down further by looking at the reviews for each suggestion at distrowatch.com - I think these reviews are often spot-on!
Also, a lot of smaller distributions are derived from a few larger ones. Therefore, they are usually not very different.
In the end, it is more important to try, after gathering a reasonsble amount of information!
Why am I using the tool if I then have to read through several reviews anyway?
Yes, that’s the point. That’s why if a newbie asks, recommend one of the big ones.
People who know nothing about Linux need a clear choice. If you’re giving them dozen suggestions, than the tool didn’t help them in any way.