8 ms·

Distro Chooser

72 points by franzpeterstein 10y ago

edcastro 10y ago
That directed me to the exact distro I'm using. Nice. :D
- Elvewyn 10y ago
  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 10y ago
    You can signal "I don't care" by pressing the Next Question button without selecting an answer. Not obvious though.
    - basvdwollenberg 10y ago
      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.
- qznc 10y ago
  It directed me to the distro I switched to two days ago. Good job. Well, I switched the desktop environment from Unity to Mate, because my laptop can now be considered old.
fdomig 10y ago
I bit odd not to ask for WHAT I care a lot. E.g. security, updates, age of packages, support, etc.
- cuillevel3 10y ago
  Security is hard to measure. Age of packages is one of the questions. Support is also the topic of several questions (paid/wiki/community..).
steanne 10y ago
rolling versus non?
cuillevel3 10y ago
Why is everyone suggesting NixOS to me?
- Normal_gaussian 10y ago
  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 10y ago
    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.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
blueside 10y ago
asking for the preferred package manager is a bit too much of a giveaway
- butz 10y ago
  Agreed, this question should be more generic, either GUI or console.
- veddox 10y ago
  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.
busterarm 10y ago
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.
bunderbunder 10y ago
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.
smkellat 10y ago
It guessed Xubuntu. I'm using Xubuntu at the moment. How it then jumped from that to Slackware...damfino.
sebisebi 10y ago
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 10y ago
  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 10y ago
    I tried Unetbootin with Linux Mint, but it didtn't work with uefi. The full installation after the live boot may work.
seanwilson 10y ago
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 10y ago
  > 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 10y ago
    > 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 10y ago
      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.
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
k-mcgrady 10y ago
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 10y ago
  > I always liked KDE too and it suggested Kubuntu which might be worth looking into as well. Try KDE Neon, its Ubuntu based.
ramblenode 10y ago
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.
veddox 10y ago
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.
Paul_S 10y ago
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.
- rubber_duck 10y ago
  >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. My experience is completely opposite, I like to prototype and test stuff and both distros are shipping heavily outdated libraries and tools, even if I need to compile on some old compiler to deploy why would I miss out on compiler perf/usability improvements, run outdated debugger, etc.? The CI can let me know if I broke anything in the target environment, but I prefer to have my tools up-to-date, and updating on Ubuntu/RHEL is a PITA
  - Paul_S 10y ago
    I'm sorry to say you're in a minority. At least for the past 5 years commercial libraries assume you are running RHEL (usually one major release behind) or Ubuntu (LTS). It used to be Debian before that. If you're not you are going to have a bad time. Of course if you're determined with a lot of work you can recreate the environment by compiling the exact versions of tools and libraries required (if you're lucky the library will specify that, otherwise you'll have to divine it through magic). But when you're doing this for a living you probably have better things to do. It's a lot easier to use the distro that already has the correct deps and just get a newer version of a tool that you want to use if you really think that the one in the distro repo is too stable for you. So much less work.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
nmstoker 10y ago
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)
mablap 10y ago
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.
ashitlerferad 10y ago
Seems to be broken without JavaScript turned on?
olp2 10y ago
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.
aboonaboo 10y ago
The correct answer is arch either way

Distro Chooser

edcastro 10y ago

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

Elvewyn 10y ago
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 10y ago
  You can signal "I don't care" by pressing the Next Question button without selecting an answer. Not obvious though.
  - basvdwollenberg 10y ago
    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.
qznc 10y ago
It directed me to the distro I switched to two days ago. Good job. Well, I switched the desktop environment from Unity to Mate, because my laptop can now be considered old.

fdomig 10y ago

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

cuillevel3 10y ago
Security is hard to measure. Age of packages is one of the questions. Support is also the topic of several questions (paid/wiki/community..).

steanne 10y ago

rolling versus non?

cuillevel3 10y ago

Why is everyone suggesting NixOS to me?

Normal_gaussian 10y ago
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 10y ago
  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.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

blueside 10y ago

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

butz 10y ago
Agreed, this question should be more generic, either GUI or console.
veddox 10y ago
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.

busterarm 10y ago

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.

bunderbunder 10y ago

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.

smkellat 10y ago

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

sebisebi 10y ago

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 10y ago
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 10y ago
  I tried Unetbootin with Linux Mint, but it didtn't work with uefi. The full installation after the live boot may work.

seanwilson 10y ago

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 10y ago
> 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 10y ago
  > 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 10y ago
    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.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]

k-mcgrady 10y ago

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 10y ago
> I always liked KDE too and it suggested Kubuntu which might be worth looking into as well. Try KDE Neon, its Ubuntu based.

ramblenode 10y ago

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.

veddox 10y ago

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.

Paul_S 10y ago

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.

rubber_duck 10y ago
>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. My experience is completely opposite, I like to prototype and test stuff and both distros are shipping heavily outdated libraries and tools, even if I need to compile on some old compiler to deploy why would I miss out on compiler perf/usability improvements, run outdated debugger, etc.? The CI can let me know if I broke anything in the target environment, but I prefer to have my tools up-to-date, and updating on Ubuntu/RHEL is a PITA
- Paul_S 10y ago
  I'm sorry to say you're in a minority. At least for the past 5 years commercial libraries assume you are running RHEL (usually one major release behind) or Ubuntu (LTS). It used to be Debian before that. If you're not you are going to have a bad time. Of course if you're determined with a lot of work you can recreate the environment by compiling the exact versions of tools and libraries required (if you're lucky the library will specify that, otherwise you'll have to divine it through magic). But when you're doing this for a living you probably have better things to do. It's a lot easier to use the distro that already has the correct deps and just get a newer version of a tool that you want to use if you really think that the one in the distro repo is too stable for you. So much less work.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

nmstoker 10y ago

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)

mablap 10y ago

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.

ashitlerferad 10y ago

Seems to be broken without JavaScript turned on?

olp2 10y ago

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.

aboonaboo 10y ago

The correct answer is arch either way