Comment by grue@lemmy.world on There be 🐇🐰

Complete agree: always mainstream distribution for new users - Fedora, opensuse tumbleweed, Ubuntu are all great choices.

There are a lot of distros that are great (for beginners and in general), but I recommended Ubuntu and only Ubuntu for two reasons:

It’s the only distro other than SteamOS that Valve officially supports (and there’s a reasonably decent chance folks wanting to try Linux are also gamers).
Even merely presenting choices incurs a cost in terms of increasing cognitive load, and I think it’s important to avoid inflicting more than is absolutely necessary on newbies. I think it’s very likely that analysis paralysis on distro choice is one if the biggest barriers to entry for Linux, and saying “X, Y, and Z are good options” when the person has no clue what the differences between them are or why they should care, instead of just straight-up saying “use X,” may be doing them a disservice.

Hint: :q!

Sister communities:

Community rules (click to expand)

1. Follow the site-wide rules

2. Be civil

Understand the difference between a joke and an insult.
Do not harrass or attack members of the community for any reason.
Leave remarks of “peasantry” to the PCMR community. If you dislike an OS/service/application, attack the thing you dislike, not the individuals who use it. Some people may not have a choice.
Bigotry will not be tolerated.
These rules are somewhat loosened when the subject is a public figure. Still, do not attack their person or incite harrassment.

3. Post Linux-related content

Including Unix and BSD.
Non-Linux content is acceptable as long as it makes a reference to Linux. For example, the poorly made mockery of sudo in Windows.
No porn. Even if you watch it on a Linux machine.

4. No recent reposts

Everybody uses Arch btw, can’t quit Vim, and wants to interject for a moment. You can stop now.

Please report posts and comments that break these rules!

There be 🐇🐰(lemmy.world)