Post #3745445

2026-07-11 19:06 UTC

I’d say picking a desktop environment is the most important question you should make. Then, after that, pick a rolling release or something with a short release schedule (Fedora for example), because for most people, LTS doesn’t matter, and you’ll have a worse experience having old packages. distrofighter.com A dumb but fun way to pick both

Replies (3)

@chgxvjh@hexbear.net 2026-07-11 20:33

LTS doesn’t matter, and you’ll have a worse experience having old packages I’d say the opposite it true. Up to date packages doesn’t matter for most people but having to upgrade to a new release can be a hurdle for people.

Open ##3746870
@BartyDeCanter@piefed.social 2026-07-11 22:44

This is it exactly. For a typical new user the things that make them bounce are, in order: The difficulty of writing a bootable USB stick and partitioning their drive for installation. Hardware support, mouse/keyboard, video, wifi, audio, and webcam being most important for most people. A familiar feeling desktop environment. An easy to use package installer GUI The whole discussion of things like immutable, deb, rpm, systemd, Wayland vs x11, etc are somewhere between meaningless and a scary sounding distraction for normal people who are fed up with MS/Apple and thinkng about trying something else.

Open ##3749068
@pastermil@sh.itjust.works 2026-07-12 04:53

While old packages do ruin experiences, stuff changing too rapidly can as well. Arch as well as OpenSUSE Tumbleweed a good example at this.

Open ##3753974