
Distro Chooser - franzpeterstein
https://distrochooser.de/?l=2
======
Paul_S
1/25 suitable after only 3 questions. I think the selection might be flawed.

Anyway, any reasoning that divides distros between easy to use and hard to use
is nonsense. Just because I'm used to Linux doesn't mean Ubuntu isn't the
right distro for me. The questionnaire logic goes: well, you're capable of
running this distro so you should run this distro.

Reality is if you're a developer you either use RHEL because that's what
corporate chose or you use Ubuntu because that is the platform chosen by
library devs and unless you use it as well you will waste time sorting out
issues.

If you're a user then it doesn't matter what distro you use, they're all fine.
If you want to play games then your best bet is Ubuntu.

~~~
woodandsteel
If you're a user then it doesn't matter what distro you use, they're all fine.

Not at all true. Lots of people prefer Mint, for instance. I'm one, and one
reason is for me the Ubuntu gui is just awful. Or what if you need really high
security?

One of the main things that scares people off of Linux is the hundreds of
distributions. Telling them it doesn't matter which one they pick isn't going
to help with this.

~~~
RaleyField
> Lots of people prefer Mint

They shouldn't, their security story is atrocious.

[http://www.techrepublic.com/article/why-the-linux-mint-
hack-...](http://www.techrepublic.com/article/why-the-linux-mint-hack-is-an-
indicator-of-a-larger-problem/)

~~~
jszymborski
God damnit... Gonna have to switch back to Debian again -_-. And I was so
liking Linux Mint MATE

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bunderbunder
I like all of the questions it's asking, and appreciate the guidance. One
thing that would really polish this off, though, is to put some extra time
into the results page.

The explanations of what distinguishes each distribution are, to me, a wall of
Linux jargon that is all familiar (Slackware was my primary OS for a while in
the late '90s and early '00s), but also largely meaningless. From a user
perspective, I'm interested in a tool like this precisely because I've got no
idea whether I should prefer GNOME or Unity or KDE nowadays, and I don't
really care to take the time to sift through the flamewars to find out. So
when I'm dropped into the results and the top results are five different
flavors of Ubuntu distinguished by what desktop environment they use, and the
explanatory text for each largely boils down to, "Portmanteau-of-Ubuntu-
and-$DesktopEnvironment is Ubuntu with $DesktopEnvironment", I'm left feeling
like the tool has taken me on a short ride around the neighborhood and then
dropped me off exactly where I started.

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blueside
asking for the preferred package manager is a bit too much of a giveaway

~~~
veddox
Yes, it is. Having said that, the package manager is usually associated with a
repository - e.g. most distro's using apt will give the user access to the
Debian and/or Ubuntu repositories. Perhaps repository size/philosophy/etc. is
what the question was really after. If that is the case, it ought to be
reworded though.

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k-mcgrady
Pretty cool. I've dipped my toes in Linux over the years with Ubuntu being the
distro I used longest. I tried it recently and wasn't too impressed with the
UI. This was suggesting Mint to me and after a quick look on the site I may
give it a try. I always liked KDE too and it suggested Kubuntu which might be
worth looking into as well.

As for the site you could make the questions shorter/more easily readable. A
radio button instead of a hyperlink would be much more intuitive for selection
(and possibly auto-advancing to the next question once an option is selected).

~~~
type0
> I always liked KDE too and it suggested Kubuntu which might be worth looking
> into as well.

Try KDE Neon, its Ubuntu based.

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nmstoker
I thought the recommendations are excellent for me.

Plenty of useful feedback from other users here. The one idea I'd develop from
what one other said was improving the results page descriptions. You could
actually use a couple of question responses to mildly tailor the descriptions
- eg, a less experienced user could have text with a lower level of
assumptions made and a more experienced user would get responses more relevant
to where they were.

Finally, I'd have preferred to know it was a probabilistic recommendation up-
front (as was initially concerned that I'd rule out choices with some
responses)

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cuillevel3
Why is everyone suggesting NixOS to me?

~~~
Normal_gaussian
Haha yep.

It put Arch (what I use) first, immediately followed by nixOS for me.

I'm really tempted to install and play with it, the premise sounds awesome,
however time is not infinite

~~~
basvdwollenberg
Same for me, although I currently use Antergos which is (kind of?) based on
Arch, third on the list for me. Was already wondering if I should try plain
Arch Linux or NixOS sometime, will probably give both of them a try soon.

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veddox
Neat tool! Still needs some polish though:

1) The English translation feels a little bumpy (as compared to the German).

2) The presentation of the various distros should be a little more considerate
of newbies (see bunderbunder's earlier comment).

3) A few questions need rethinking, especially the one on the target manager
(see blueside's comment) and the one about the community.

Otherwise: great idea, concisely executed.

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fdomig
I bit odd not to ask for WHAT I care a lot. E.g. security, updates, age of
packages, support, etc.

~~~
cuillevel3
Security is hard to measure. Age of packages is one of the questions. Support
is also the topic of several questions (paid/wiki/community..).

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sebisebi
Are there any Distros that can be installed persistent to a USB on Windows,
that boot UEFI? I formerly used Puppy Linux, but the UEFI installation didn't
work with Rufus.

~~~
UncleSlacky
Unetbootin will create bootable USB drives with persistence for Ubuntu-based
distros. Otherwise, with a big enough drive you could just do a normal install
to it.

~~~
sebisebi
I tried Unetbootin with Linux Mint, but it didtn't work with uefi. The full
installation after the live boot may work.

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edcastro
That directed me to the exact distro I'm using. Nice. :D

~~~
Elvewyn
It seems a bit odd to me to ask whether the user has ever used a Linux system
before, then ask which package manager they'd prefer (without an "I don't
care" option).

I chose pacman, as I'm already using Arch, yet the best match for me was
Debian with 87%.

~~~
wodow
You can signal "I don't care" by pressing the Next Question button without
selecting an answer. Not obvious though.

~~~
basvdwollenberg
It does say "You can leave questions unanswered" at the start, which can be
seen as saying it's an "I don't care" option.

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seanwilson
Looks useful but I found it was too much effort to fill out. I think you could
easily reduce the amount of text per question e.g. the first one could be
rewritten to something like this:

I'm good at fixing computer issues myself 1) Agree 2) Disagree

Also, if you move on to the next question automatically after an answer is
given instead of having to press "next" the process would be a lot quicker.

~~~
ramblenode
> Looks useful but I found it was too much effort to fill out

The primary purpose of this tool is to help someone choose an OS, which is a
significant decision for many people. If a 5-10 minute survey to help answer
this question is too much work, I don't think you are the target audience.

~~~
seanwilson
> The primary purpose of this tool is to help someone choose an OS, which is a
> significant decision for many people. If a 5-10 minute survey to help answer
> this question is too much work, I don't think you are the target audience.

Why make something more effort than it needs to be...? You could use that
argument to justify needlessly laborious processes for lots of things. Keep in
mind also that the user might be skeptical the advice they get at the end is
any good so if it looks like too much work they may give up.

~~~
parent5446
He's arguing it isn't more effort than it needs to be, and that carefully
reading and evaluating questions about your operating system usage are
standard when selection an OS.

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ramblenode
I was a bit skeptical while answering the questions, but the recommendations
were spot-on and I gave them 5 stars. Top result was my current distro, NixOS,
which I wasn't expecting because this is a fairly uncommon distro. I
appreciate how thorough the list of distros seems to be.

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busterarm
It's about right. It picked Slackware, which I used for years. I'm surprised
how far down on the list Arch was, as I'd used that too...

I just wish BSDs were an option here (I know, I know, not the goal here). I'm
bullish on OpenBSD.

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mablap
The proposed distro (Debian) was spot on for me. You could probably split the
questionnaire between people who want to try linux for the first time, and
people who want to try a new distro.

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olp2
It just pinpointed Debian, however I think asking about the package manager
creates too big of a bias for a "chooser".

pick: next button messes with the browser history.

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smkellat
It guessed Xubuntu. I'm using Xubuntu at the moment. How it then jumped from
that to Slackware...damfino.

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steanne
rolling versus non?

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ashitlerferad
Seems to be broken without JavaScript turned on?

