[PLUG] Brief rundown of Linux distros?

Richard Owlett rowlett at access.net
Fri Dec 20 12:50:46 UTC 2024


On 12/20/24 4:43 AM, Nathan Petrangelo wrote:
> Hey all,
> 
> My girlfriend gifted me a new PC for xmas and now I want to go Linux shopping.
> I’m aware of Ubuntu, Arch, Fedora, and NixOS; are there others worth exploring?

Consider what you are used to and why you are investigating Linux.
A dozen years ago I abandoned MS Windows because they were(are?) in the 
habit of telling users what they should want to do with their computer.
In a USENET group, a PLUG member pointed me to Ubuntu. It looked good 
but I couldn't discover how to use it with a dial-up modem. But I easily 
found the required documentation in its predecessor, Debian. I stayed 
with Debian primarily because I found it more comfortable. I believe the 
major difference was that one Ubuntu goal was being accessible to 
computer newbies - I had purchased my first computer ~1977 and had been 
introduced to computers as an E.E. student in the 60's.

> What are their features and tradeoffs? While I’m at it, what desktop environments
> worth looking at, after Gnome, KDE, and Wayland?

Again the relevant questions are:
   "What are you used to?"
   "What do you want to do?".

My initial Debian desktop was Gnome 2. I tried Gnome 3 when it became 
popular. It removed features I used regularly and I reverted until MATE 
became available.
[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNOME#Criticism is interesting ]

> 
> Thanks,
> Nathan Petrangelo
> 




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