If we want to get normies into FOSS and Linux, we’d be much better off supporting something like Mint. It doesn’t have the same name recognition (yet), but it’s even more beginner friendly and operates more like a typical distro. Sure Ubuntu is fine, but it’ll teach newbies stuff the Canonical Way.
So my answer to this is: fine, recommend Mint, and then when Mint goes away, recommend something else instead which is even better. And then watch as normies keep using Windows instead because at least Windows doesn’t change its name every 3 months like this crazy Linux thing.
Canonical’s corporate shenanigans is also Ubuntu’s strength, because Canonical is a business that won’t go away overnight. Same for Fedora and Red Hat. I agree that the rest is not ideal but that’s the real world.
Fragmentation is the achilles heel of Linux. To have a hope of competing with the corporate OSs, we must begin by having an ounce of their stability.
I guess the ideal-world solution is to put all our effort and resources into Debian, which is the FOSSiest FOSS distro on paper. But to me that world looks too ideal to be true.
Normal people seem to be able to deal with their being a million different computers, cars, and breakfast cereals without throwing up their hands and all driving pintos, using HP laptops, and eating dirt.
Which one of the popular distros has been changing its name every 3 months? Mint sure didn’t. Less popular ones maybe did. But those are generally not widely recommended.
I agree about the segmentation as a major issue, and that’s exactly why I brought it up in my original comment how it’s not okay that Canonical keeps re-inventing the wheel instead of improving an existing project.
Which one of the popular distros has been changing its name every 3 months? Mint sure didn’t. Less popular ones maybe did. But those are generally not widely recommended.
My point is that to quite a lot of normies, Linux=Ubuntu. If now Linux=Mint, that is functionally a change of name.
To almost everyone in the world, even the word “distro” means nothing. We have to make this simpler. Personally I would prefer that more people recognized Ubuntu’s name recognition for the huge asset it is.
When I posted my original comment, I had the assumption that someone who uses Linux (or about to use Linux) knows at least the basic terms.
But to be honest, OP didn’t even specify for what purpose they were looking for the worst distro. Maybe they meant for a docker image for their k8s cluster. Who knows. 🤷🏻♂️
If we want to get normies into FOSS and Linux, we’d be much better off supporting something like Mint. It doesn’t have the same name recognition (yet), but it’s even more beginner friendly and operates more like a typical distro. Sure Ubuntu is fine, but it’ll teach newbies stuff the Canonical Way.
So my answer to this is: fine, recommend Mint, and then when Mint goes away, recommend something else instead which is even better. And then watch as normies keep using Windows instead because at least Windows doesn’t change its name every 3 months like this crazy Linux thing.
Canonical’s corporate shenanigans is also Ubuntu’s strength, because Canonical is a business that won’t go away overnight. Same for Fedora and Red Hat. I agree that the rest is not ideal but that’s the real world.
Fragmentation is the achilles heel of Linux. To have a hope of competing with the corporate OSs, we must begin by having an ounce of their stability.
I guess the ideal-world solution is to put all our effort and resources into Debian, which is the FOSSiest FOSS distro on paper. But to me that world looks too ideal to be true.
Normal people seem to be able to deal with their being a million different computers, cars, and breakfast cereals without throwing up their hands and all driving pintos, using HP laptops, and eating dirt.
Which one of the popular distros has been changing its name every 3 months? Mint sure didn’t. Less popular ones maybe did. But those are generally not widely recommended.
I agree about the segmentation as a major issue, and that’s exactly why I brought it up in my original comment how it’s not okay that Canonical keeps re-inventing the wheel instead of improving an existing project.
My point is that to quite a lot of normies, Linux=Ubuntu. If now Linux=Mint, that is functionally a change of name.
To almost everyone in the world, even the word “distro” means nothing. We have to make this simpler. Personally I would prefer that more people recognized Ubuntu’s name recognition for the huge asset it is.
Okay, fair enough.
When I posted my original comment, I had the assumption that someone who uses Linux (or about to use Linux) knows at least the basic terms.
But to be honest, OP didn’t even specify for what purpose they were looking for the worst distro. Maybe they meant for a docker image for their k8s cluster. Who knows. 🤷🏻♂️