I’ve been having a big think over Linux distros. See, I’ve been looking back at my still-new Linux experience of nine months, and wondering how my own journey can help other people get started with FOSS operating systems. Whenever the topic of a Windows refugee-friendly OS came up, I would recommend Linux Mint because, first, it’s the one everyone says, and second, it was the Linux OS that I started with, fresh off Windows.
I always follow that up with a comment about how you don’t have to stick with Linux Mint if you don’t want to. You can do what I did, which is to dip your toe into the Linux distro water and find something that suits you better. But if I’m setting up Linux Mint as “my first Linux distro,” why not just skip the middleman and get right into the distros that have a bit more meat on them?
I always hate it when people seem to try making the decisions for others based on what they use.
It was bad enough when Ubuntu was losing faith with people because of its poor decision making, now we got you here saying Linux Mint is not the answer?
Confusing people on an already confusing mess on which distro to choose when leaving windows is not how you win favorability with linux. Mint is the choice because it is not pitching freshly disgruntled Windows users into steep learning curves from the get-go. If you push them into something like Arch, you’re going to have people both pissed at Arch and at you for making their experience miserable.