STOP RECOMMENDING DISTROS, recommend DESKTOPS instead!
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Download Safing's Portmaster for FREE, or try their SPN, and take control of your network traffic: https://safing.io/portmaster 150€ off the Slimbook Executive ultrabook with code executive-laptop-nick-friends: https://slimbook.es/en/executive-en 👏 SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: Get access to an exclusive weekly podcast, vote on the next topics I cover, and get your name in the credits: YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5UAwBUum7CPN5buc-_N1Fw/join Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thelinuxexperiment Or, you can donate whatever you want: https://paypal.me/thelinuxexp?locale.x=fr_FR 🏆 FOLLOW ME ELSEWHERE: Linux news in Youtube Shorts format: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtZp0mK9IBrpS2-jNzMZmoA Join us on our Discord server: https://discord.gg/xK7ukavWmQ Twitter : http://twitter.com/thelinuxEXP My Gaming on Linux Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaw_Lz7oifDb-PZCAcZ07kw 📷 GEAR I USE: Sony Alpha A6600 Mirrorless Camera: https://amzn.to/30zKyn7 Sigma 56mm Fixed Prime Lens: https://amzn.to/3aRvK5l Logitech MX Master 3 Mouse: https://amzn.to/3BVI0Od Bluetooth Space Grey Mac Keyboard: https://amzn.to/3jcJETZ Logitech Brio 4K Webcam: https://amzn.to/3jgeTh9 LG Curved Ultrawide Monitor: https://amzn.to/3pcTVDH Logitech White Speakers: https://amzn.to/3n6wSb0 Xbox Controller: https://amzn.to/3BWmIA3 *Amazon Links are affiliate codes and generate small commissions to support the channel* 00:00 Intro 00:37 Sponsor: Monitor and secure your internet access with Safing 01:19 Desktop Environments 02:57 Distros are NOT their desktop 05:01 The DE creates the first impression 06:40 The distro still matters 09:33 Sponsor: 150€ off your Slimbook Executive Ultrabook 10:00 Support the channel Let's begin with a quick refresher: a desktop environment is the compilation of all programs that are going to make your graphical desktop. Linux has plenty of these desktops environments, and the choice of that desktop environment is what is going to make or break your first experience with Linux. Ok, so desktop environments are important. But why are they more important than the distribution? Well, the first thing is most people conflate a distribution and its default desktop environment. This only works for one distro, and that's elementary OS, because their desktop environment and the experience they provide isn't really available in other distros. In some cases, I'd say the changes that have been added are enough to turn these customizations into another desktop entirely. Other changes are really not that important, like what Ubuntu adds on top of GNOME, or the Manjaro GNOME version. So, virtually any desktop implementation from a distro, can be replicated onto any other distro. Which means that the distro itself doesn't really matter for the graphical experience. What makes the experience good, or bad, is the desktop environment. We could argue that the implementation of it, or the stability of the distro's base could play a role, but it's really minor compared to the experience with the desktop, and its default programs. On top of that, you can install almost all desktops on almost all distributions, whatever the default desktop you picked. For someone who's already familiar with Linux, distros DO matter, quite a lot, just as the philosophy of the distro itself, the personal preferences, the experience we had with various other distros... It's all important. For a beginner, these elements do not matter at all. Someone starting with Linux won't care about BTRFS or ext4, about systemd or not systemd, about using flatpaks, snaps, or legacy packaging formats, like RPMs and DEBS. Beginners will rarely, or at least SHOULDN't HAVE TO interact with these elements of their system. They should use graphical solutions that abstract all of these differences for them, and make them basically irrelevant. What we should recommend to beginners is a desktop environment first: do they prefer the look and feel of KDE? GNOME, Pantheon, Cinnamon, or something else? Once they've decided on that, then they can be guided towards a distribution, even though they could pick any that uses that desktop, and they would probably be fine.
  • Ephera@lemmy.ml
    5·
    3 years ago

    I do tend to explain DEs when someone asks for a distro recommendation, because yeah, I also think that it does make the biggest difference for desktop usage.

    However:

    • You can’t download an ISO for a DE. Noobs want to know what to download.
    • Given that you can switch DEs relatively easily, the choice of distro can carry more weight.
    • Depending on what kind of user they are, I do think the distro makes a difference. For example, generally I wouldn’t recommend Debian-based distros to a programmer. Or plain Arch to someone uninterested in technology.
    • Gamerie@feddit.de
      2·
      3 years ago

      Can you elaborate? That doesn’t make sense in my head.

      generally I wouldn’t recommend Debian-based distros to a programmer.

      Or plain Arch to someone uninterested in technology.

      Nevermind, I read that you would recommend it.

    • morrowind@lemmy.ml
      0·
      3 years ago

      I think it should be - any distro decent for beginners -> then choose/recommend DE.

      Given that you can switch DEs relatively easily, the choice of distro can carry more weight.

      For noobs, switching DE’s is switching distros, or at least downloading a different variant of your distro.

  • SudoDnfDashY@lemmy.ml
    2·
    3 years ago

    It forgets that for beginners, the distro and the desktop may be one in the same. A beginner isn’t going to install a distro and manually install a new desktop. It makes more sense to reccomend a distro with the best implementation of whatever desktop would be best for them, like Fedora GNOME, Linux Mint, or Xubuntu.

  • Kookaburra@lemmy.ml
    2·
    3 years ago

    Yes and no. Yes, graphically, you would like to use something that won’t make you despise your experience using a GNU/Linux distro. Some people can smoothly transition from a DE to another, or even use a TWM with no problems, but others are simply used to a single style, and that’s totally understandable.

    But, trying to complement to what @Ephera@lemmy.ml said, each distro will have its way to handle a bunch of other stuff. You can feel amazing using Garuda Linux but somehow despise the AUR experience, or using something like Xubuntu but hating apt. I found myself loving Elementary but despising apt, but now I am using Pantheon on NixOS and I love it.

    Maybe on Nick’s point, as we are talking about people being introduced to GNU/Linux, it is a very valid idea.

  • Korba@lemmy.ml
    1·
    3 years ago

    I agree with that, as a newbie I have tested many popular Debian/Ubuntu based noob friendly distros (PopOS, ZorinOS, Linux Mint, …), I decided to use Xubuntu, and it wasn’t really different from Linux Mint with XFCE or any other XFCE distro at all, maybe some small details, but in general they were pretty much the same, same thing after I installed KDE Plasma 5 on my Xubuntu it was almost the same as Kubuntu or KDE neon, but yeah a distro might be an importance choice I mean you are not gonna give a noob like me arch, or an arch based distro just because I can install KDE or XFCE on it.

  • morrowind@lemmy.ml
    1·
    3 years ago

    On a side note, lemmy really needs a url preview limit, for instances like this in which the youtuber puts the entire video script in the description.