4 ms·
Defaults matter way more than many think. More often than not, defaults are what inspire distro hopping. Why? Because the path to the desired result from a big
by cosmic_cheese 9mo ago
Defaults matter way more than many think. More often than not, defaults are what inspire distro hopping.
Why? Because the path to the desired result from a big-name distro is frequently non-intuitive, often to the point that the user may not even realize it's possible. When something doesn't work as expected, the response isn't "I need to figure out which packages to install and what config files to change," it's "oh I guess this distro isn't what I'm looking for".
I think it would do an immense amount of good if the big distros did more to address this. If they made it such that a fresh install could be made to fit any remotely common use case and hardware combination with no more than 1-3 clicks that would make tiny distros much less appealing.
A handful of distros have the right idea by offering an install ISO with preconfigured proprietary Nvidia drivers for example, but even that could be improved upon by just rolling some heuristics into the stock install ISO to figure out if the user needs Nvidia drivers or not.
- bsimpson 9mo agoAdd the gaming distros to the list too. People generally want something that works, without tinkering - particularly on an entertainement device. I'll happily let Valve etc. pick the kernel and driver versions, set up the compositors, make the controllers work, etc.