this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2024
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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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Could we add "Distrochooser" to the sidebar? (distrochooser.de)
submitted 10 months ago by onlinepersona@programming.dev to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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Quite a few posts about selecting a distro to use. Maybe it's time to make that link a little more prominent?

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[–] throwawayish@lemmy.ml 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Thank you for your response. But our conversation seems so far somewhat inefficient. And I fear it might be due to reasons related to the XY problem. Therefore, before I reply to the points made in the above comment, I would like to ask you if you could state the following:

  • Ultimately, what are you trying to achieve (and why); what is the problem even?
  • What is your solution to this problem? And where does adding Distrochooser to the sidebar come into plan? Have you perhaps thought of other possible solutions and why they might be inferior to the suggested one?

Thank you in advance!

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Ultimately, what are you trying to achieve (and why); what is the problem even?

There have been complaints in posts about people asking for advice on which disto to use, that there are too many such posts.

What is your solution to this problem?

Provide users the tools to possibly answer the question themselves before creating a post.

And where does adding Distrochooser to the sidebar come into plan?

DistroChooser is a self-help tool for that purpose.

Have you perhaps thought of other possible solutions and why they might be inferior to the suggested one?

  • keep answering posts --> more complaints, possibly silent quitting of community
  • write bot --> I ain't got the time, maybe somebody has, dunno what the bot would do
  • find alternative website --> I ain't got the time

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[–] throwawayish@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 months ago

XY problem confirmed. Thank you OP!

There have been complaints in posts about people asking for advice on which disto to use, that there are too many such posts.

This is a legit concern.Thank you for trying to tackle this!

Provide users the tools to possibly answer the question themselves before creating a post.

Noble. And in its essence, it makes a lot of sense.

DistroChooser is a self-help tool for that purpose.

As a self-help tool it's very bad. Sorry*. I actually hoped that you would mention how it might be used as a basic requirement for anyone that asks which distro to use. The enforcement could be done with a bot which simply scans if any link to distrochooser is present in a post that remotely resembles one that asks for advice on which distro to use. I would actually even argue against this, but I think we might be able to reach an agreement on which questions are actually worth keeping around for further use...

  • keep answering posts --> more complaints, possibly silent quitting of community

Honestly, this is better than to limit newbies to strictly stick to Distrochooser for asking which distro they should use 🤣.

  • write bot --> I ain’t got the time, maybe somebody has, dunno what the bot would do

I haven't got any experience with building a bot, but I suppose it works by scanning for words in posts. In that case, simply 'flagging' everything that contains the words "which" or "what" in combination with "distro(s)" or "distribution(s)" and ask them to refer their questions to a dedicated Lemmy community in which they can ask would already solve a lot.

  • find alternative website --> I ain’t got the time

You don't have to find an alternative website. Nor write one yourself. As it stands, as far as I'm aware, there's simply nothing that satisfies the basic needs for this.

So what do I propose? Relegating these questions to their own dedicated Lemmy community is probably a great and easy solution. If something like a test/algorithm/flowchart/quiz/whatever has to be created, then that one might need substantial effort to get off the ground. However, perhaps comments like these might be helpful as a blueprint.