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I would love to tell people about linux for their desktops, but the main issue I have with it is the fact that people who are interested in it ask me one question regarding Linux distributions:

“Which one?”

This is pretty much the cause of a 90% drop off of interest in Linux on the desktop.

I could say use Ubuntu (and I do) to some of the people who I’m close with that are interested in Linux, but they discover Lubuntu, or Linux Mint and Debian, then they get easily confused and give up.

And that is not even getting into the updates and the packaging and heaven forbid anything breaks.

2 comments

There aren't that many to ponder over the idea of recommending someone for a daily use. For beginners, Fedora is the perfect choice. For people with programming background, Arch. Ubuntu was sane sometime ago, not anymore because of the bloat it ships by default

> For beginners, Fedora is the perfect choice.

Last time I tried another round of "let's install the most recent versions of popular distros on random laptops I have", Fedora was the most finicky about hardware. As in literally wouldn't even boot into live CD on one of said laptops, and had troubles with graphics on others.

The thing that worked every time? For the past decade or so, it had consistently been Linux Mint for me.

> And that is not even getting into the updates and the packaging and heaven forbid anything breaks.

How to spot the Ubuntu user...

And lead him to Nix? :)

And then watch his eyes glaze over as he realizes that he's bitten off a lot more than he can chew. :D

I have no experience with Nix but Ubuntu is the distribution that always breaks on major updates...

I can't disagree with that.

I think the safest way is to stay on a LTS as long as possible. Then, when the time comes to upgrade, get a new drive, install new LTS and then transfer data.