Does it really matter which distro you start with?

[hazel]

One of the commonest questions on the newbie forum is "Which distribution should I use?". The moderators invariably lock the thread and point to a sticky which says, more or less "No-one can tell you that; it depends which one you like best." But the writer can't know that yet because he doesn't know anything about Linux. And he can't learn Linux except by putting up some distro or other on his box. So he's caught in a loop and may well give up the project altogether.

I think a more practical answer is that, for a Windows user just starting out, it really doesn't matter all that much. The difference between Linux and Windows is much bigger than the differences between one distro and another. Apart from one or two that are definitely for experts only, any distribution that is easy to get hold of and installs successfully on your machine is ok for learning Linux.

Deciding which distribution you like best should be seen as an exercise for people who have been using Linux long enough to feel at home with it as an OS.

[devils casper]

we always direct new users asking which distro? question to this thread. if you check the first post, everything has been explained pretty well.
techieMoe and ozar have posted some useful links and Polls in that thread.

[oz]

Yes, they need to grab at least one distro and then give it a try. If they don't like it, simply try another, but they do have to get started somewhere to make a decision.

Still, nobody here or on any other forum can say for sure which distro that person will truly like the best.

I like vanilla ice cream and highly recommend it to others, but someone else will invariably recommend chocolate as being the best. You really have to try them both, then make up your own mind.

[Zelmo]

May I make a comment about that thread?
The first recommended step is to search the forums, but I don't think that's particularly fruitful because it's going to bring up a whole lot of locked threads that just point back to the "Look here before posting" thread. It just doesn't give a very good first impression. I think the distro quiz should be the first recommendation, followed either by the link to DistroWatch or the polls that Ozar linked in his post. Those are the three steps that I think will be most inviting/informative to new users, and thus should be the first recommendations.

[bigtomrodney]

I guess if someone wanted to know everything about Linux distros, they have to install a Debian based, an RPM based, a source based (gentoo, or potentially Slackware) and ultimately the meta-distro LinuxFromScratch. These families differ in more ways than just their package systems though in fact this is where they originally differed.

As for the which distro question there are many 'first distros' and of course that list would change if the person starting out was fully enterprise oriented. My final answer is almost universally Ubuntu. The reason being not that I favour it personally rather that it 'just works', it has huge software repositories, probably the largest community (and moreso the largest community of new 'converts') and finally it is intended as a system for new users.

[devils casper]

The first recommended step is to search the forums, but I don't think that's particularly fruitful because it's going to bring up a whole lot of locked threads that just point back to the "Look here before posting" thread. It just doesn't give a very good first impression. I think the distro quiz should be the first recommendation, followed either by the link to DistroWatch or the polls that Ozar linked in his post. Those are the three steps that I think will be most inviting/informative to new users, and thus should be the first recommendations.

edited that thread.
i will review that thread again. keep posting suggestions here.

[fingal]

I tend to agree with Hazel that anything which installs easily is useful for learning. Speaking personally, my first forays into using Linux were very messy (I chose aLinux, which is dreadful!) and Mandrake wouldn't install at all in earlier releases.

I think that's why Ubuntu has done so well recently, but even experienced users can find themselves wanting to move on and try different things. I'm quite resistant to booting more than 1 distro these days: I don't have the time to explore them all, and I want to minimise possible loss of files / hardware expenses.

My point is that even when you find your 'perfect' distro, your perception of it will probably change over time, and it's not fixed in stone ... A few upgrades later you might want to change it.

[bigtomrodney]

I'm quite resistant to booting more than 1 distro these days: I don't have the time to explore them all...

For me that's when Linux became real for me. Up until that point it was a hobby or an interest. Around the time of Mandriva 2005/SUSE 9.3 I found myself scrapping Windows and using Linux as my 'getting things done' system.

That's when I really learned. Because I had to do things in Linux. I had to make things work. I would recommend that for someone on day 1 but there is a time when if you want to use it you have to at least try to move over even if it is just for a month. I don't distro hop anymore. I have Ubuntu on my laptop and SUSE on my desktop. They both just work and they both work well.

But on the other hand my desktop is running LVM, Apache, VMware and a few applications and utilities which you could call unstable. Plus I seem to accept all updates through all of the Smart repos. Still learning there every time I kill X (which hasn't been in a while to be fair).

[fingal]

For me that's when Linux became real for me. Up until that point it was a hobby or an interest.

Yes I know what you're saying there. Once Linux becomes your major resource for 'getting stuff done' the distro hopping kind of stops or slows down.

As a home user I find I've become more cautious about data loss (mostly music files) ... but also worried about stagnating and not trying more things out. I don't like disturbing my distro too much!

[budman7]

The thread hazel is talking about points to all of the recent polls that were setup right?
budman7 goes to look.


I still like to distro hop, but I keep Sabayon on the desktop. But with a 300 GB hard drive, I have a couple extra partitions to play with.