What kind of user are you?

[hazel]

I read an interesting article in the current Linux Format about the perennial question "Which distribution should I use?". The author agreed with me that the traditional answer ("The one you like best") isn't very informative. There are over a hundred distros out there and no-one can try them all, so people are likely to end up with something sub-optimal.

He suggested that you start by asking yourself "What kind of user am I?". Then he suggested a distro for each type. Here are a few of them:

For the newbie thinking of moving over from Windows: Ubuntu.
For the teenage geek who wants a cool desktop plus all the media codecs: Mint.
For a family with children: Quimo (now that's one I hadn't heard of).
For the power user: Arch.
For the programmer: Mandriva.
For the office sysadmin: OpenSUSE.

He didn't mention silver surfers, but I like Debian and I'd recommend it to others in my age group.

[techieMoe]

I read an interesting article in the current Linux Format about the perennial question "Which distribution should I use?". The author agreed with me that the traditional answer ("The one you like best") isn't very informative.

It may not be informative, but it's the best answer you can give, really. Everyone is different and pigeonholing users into pre-defined groups is never a good idea. If someone is truly curious about Linux they won't mind trying a few different distributions. Sure, they might not find the precise one they're looking for but if they stick to the top 10 that most people use they should find one that's close enough.

He suggested that you start by asking yourself "What kind of user am I?". Then he suggested a distro for each type. Here are a few of them:

For the newbie thinking of moving over from Windows: Ubuntu.
For the teenage geek who wants a cool desktop plus all the media codecs: Mint.
For a family with children: Quimo (now that's one I hadn't heard of).
For the power user: Arch.
For the programmer: Mandriva.
For the office sysadmin: OpenSUSE.

See, I already disagree with some of his suggestions. What makes Mandriva so special for programmers that Ubuntu or OpenSuSE (or even Arch) don't offer? If users blindly follow his suggestions they're no better off than picking one of the more popular distributions at random. No one fits perfectly into any one category, and there's simply no one other than the user themselves that can tell what's going to work best for them. The question of which Linux, like life, has no simple black-and-white answer.

He didn't mention silver surfers, but I like Debian and I'd recommend it to others in my age group.

Wait, all this time you were a herald of Galactus and I didn't know it? Man, I need to find another planet if you're here already.

Silver Surfer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[oz]

Personally, I see no reason to limit users right from the start by telling them they should use any certain distribution.

Nobody expects anyone to try all of the available distros, but it won't hurt any of them to try a few of them and then pick the one they like best. If they stop there, that's fine and dandy, but at least they've limited themselves at that point, and not allowed someone else to limit their choices and options.

[reed9]

It's true. I love Arch and I am emphatically not a power user. I actually think it gives me less troubles and is easier to maintain than the *buntus, and, to me at least, far far simpler than Fedora or OpenSuse. Ironically, the distro quiz that is often recommended around here says Suse and Fedora are my best fit distros, yet they are my least favorites.

[elija]

I read that article and mostly disagreed with the author.

I am in no way a teenage geek (well not any more) and I love Mint which is on my main desktop. My main laptop is currently on Debian 5 (XFCE 4.6) and my second lappy is running whatever distro has caught my eye most recently. That would be Sabayon and it's looking likely that Arch is going to get a go.

[alpha-X-geek]

No mention of Debian? What a numpty! After the DPL gave them a remastered Debian 5 DVD image to give away this month, plus the fact that Debian is at least one of the best distros out there.

[rokytnji]

He suggested that you start by asking yourself "What kind of user am I?".

Biker. I guess that means I can use what ever the hell I want to use.

[b2bwild]

For the newbie thinking of moving over from Windows: Ubuntu.
For the teenage geek who wants a cool desktop plus all the media codecs: Mint.
For a family with children: Quimo (now that's one I hadn't heard of).
For the power user: Arch.
For the programmer: Mandriva.
For the office sysadmin: OpenSUSE.

I wont say its a perfect list..cause I use multiple distros and OS

I will change this list a little bit.

For the person, who just follow others : Windows XP

For the person, who wants to follow others but have IQ below 80 : Windows Vista.

For the person, Who thinks old is gold and Vista sux : Windows 3.1

For the newbie thinking to migrate to Linux without any problems: Ubuntu

For the newbie thinking to migrate to Linux having lots of problems: Fedora

For a teenager, who wants to play with themes and compiz on live..: Sabayon

For a rich system admin : SLES / RHEL

For poor system admin : CentOS

For oversmart system admin : Windows Server 200*

For minimalist : DSL / Puppy

For the person, who can make anything from given resources : Debian

For the power user : Arch

For the complicated power user : Slackware

For the desktop users, wanting something real easy : Mandriva

For the person, who needs a desktop OS flexible for most of the roles : Linux Mint.

For children : Edubuntu

For evil children : Linux from Scratch

[reed9]

For the power user : Arch

For the complicated power user : Slackware

I still say arch isn't just for power users, but this is so true.

[cousinlucky]

Is Mandriva real easy??