I can’t understand why there’s so many people suggesting newbies something really complicated distro, when all they need is to start with a something really user friendly, like Linux Mint. User can then move on to other distros if they want to when their skills improve.
I use Arch BTW.
Yeah, I totally agree. The only thing I can guess, aside from people just being assholes, is that someone with many years of experience is only thinking of what they liked after gaining that experience.
For example, if someone learned with Debian and then moved on to Arch, they think Arch is “better” and I think they are telling others to not waste their time on Debian. They are totally ignoring the fact that they spent quite a bit of time learning before they moved on and they are advising that a newcomer skip to what they perceive as “the end.”
because it’s pretty hard to recommend anything you don’t use. Seeking advice on a distribution in geek forums, therefore, is a losing plan right from the start. It’s smarter to install whatever you want and then come to the forums with your problems.
How about “I personally use this distro but it’s probably a bit much for you to handle. I hear Mint is beginner friendly so maybe consider checking their forum for advice.”
It gives people place to start with, and since you’re in that comminity you would very likely heard some recommendation. There were a time Google will recommend people PopOS where they’re undergoing changes that makes the OS so buggy to use and not user friendly at all, as a human person that participated or heard discussion about it, you will most likely tell new comer to steer clear from it. Google won’t do that.
“Just google this” is definitely the worst way to treat people who just want an easy recommendation in a sea of choices.
That’s alright, I’ve used them all. Don’t ask me about Fedora cause I will shit on Red Hat for the rest of my life. This also includes stuff like Bazzite by extension.
Nah, adding “I use Arch BTW” is something you’re seeing in Reddit all the time.
I found it hilarious, didn’t realize how literally it was taken here.
I would add that actually I have used Mint for ages, but I don’t want to make you think that I want to feel important.
I think you overestimate skills of the average computer user. Most of them don’t even know how to install operating system, even that Windows which came with their own computer. That’s why you shouldn’t recommend them any distro which is easy for average Linux user. They need something very simple and easy for the start up.
Even Debian is a lot harder to use than Mint if you want things like the login page recognising your external monitor and realising that it should be your primary monitor before logging in, especially if a KVM means that it wasn’t attached when you first booted. Or wanting that setup to persist after an nvidia driver update. There’s just so much stuff that a user-focused distro can make easy that most distros don’t make easy!
I can’t understand why there’s so many people suggesting newbies something really complicated distro, when all they need is to start with a something really user friendly, like Linux Mint. User can then move on to other distros if they want to when their skills improve. I use Arch BTW.
Yeah, I totally agree. The only thing I can guess, aside from people just being assholes, is that someone with many years of experience is only thinking of what they liked after gaining that experience.
For example, if someone learned with Debian and then moved on to Arch, they think Arch is “better” and I think they are telling others to not waste their time on Debian. They are totally ignoring the fact that they spent quite a bit of time learning before they moved on and they are advising that a newcomer skip to what they perceive as “the end.”
because it’s pretty hard to recommend anything you don’t use. Seeking advice on a distribution in geek forums, therefore, is a losing plan right from the start. It’s smarter to install whatever you want and then come to the forums with your problems.
“I heard distro xyz is really beginner friendly, i didn’t use it though so i can’t give you much advice on that.” is pretty simple.
Maybe adding “…i’m using distro C btw” at the end if you truly want to feels important.
What’s the value of this advice? You can google the same thing in about 2 minutes. People usually expect real-world experience.
How about “I personally use this distro but it’s probably a bit much for you to handle. I hear Mint is beginner friendly so maybe consider checking their forum for advice.”
It gives people place to start with, and since you’re in that comminity you would very likely heard some recommendation. There were a time Google will recommend people PopOS where they’re undergoing changes that makes the OS so buggy to use and not user friendly at all, as a human person that participated or heard discussion about it, you will most likely tell new comer to steer clear from it. Google won’t do that.
“Just google this” is definitely the worst way to treat people who just want an easy recommendation in a sea of choices.
That’s alright, I’ve used them all. Don’t ask me about Fedora cause I will shit on Red Hat for the rest of my life. This also includes stuff like Bazzite by extension.
But distro C isn’t actually easy you should use distro F for a really good new user experience!
Lol
Cachy btw
Nah, adding “I use Arch BTW” is something you’re seeing in Reddit all the time. I found it hilarious, didn’t realize how literally it was taken here. I would add that actually I have used Mint for ages, but I don’t want to make you think that I want to feel important.
That was mainly a joke, but i see it’s hard to tell from that tone, my bad.
Because most Linux users online are posers who only use their computers to run update commands.
Nah, poser was my teenage self installing it on my first gen iPod nano despite not knowing so much as what cat or mv does.
Played lots of Tik-Tac-Toe. Ai played nearly perfect games everytime.
because some people are assholes
LFS, Slackware, and Gentoo are the only complicated distros in 2026 and no one recommends those.
I think you overestimate skills of the average computer user. Most of them don’t even know how to install operating system, even that Windows which came with their own computer. That’s why you shouldn’t recommend them any distro which is easy for average Linux user. They need something very simple and easy for the start up.
Even Debian is a lot harder to use than Mint if you want things like the login page recognising your external monitor and realising that it should be your primary monitor before logging in, especially if a KVM means that it wasn’t attached when you first booted. Or wanting that setup to persist after an nvidia driver update. There’s just so much stuff that a user-focused distro can make easy that most distros don’t make easy!