A question that is repeated a lot in user groups is that of Which distribution to start with or which one to switch to. At the home user level, the only thing that is achieved are responses based on personal preferences (or more frequently on personal antipathies)
The reality is that today, most distributions aim to make things easier for the user, so When choosing one, what will matter are the needs and characteristics of who is going to install them
Therefore, it is you yourself who has to find your own answer.
Having said that, we are going to propose as a guide a 5-step method to find the ideal Linux distribution.
How to choose a Linux distribution
Step One: Get Information
The first thing you need to do is get all the information you can about the different Linux distributions. A good starting point is Distrowatch. Your search engine is an excellent source of information on available Linux distributions. Yes indeed. Ignore its ranking because it tends to be quite biased.
Another good alternative is Linuxtracker, in which you can also find a list of available options.
Once you have compiled a list of distributions, start researching each of their features and comments on them.
Step Two: Organize the Information
The information you collected can be divided into two classes; facts and opinions.
Facts include technical information such as hardware requirements, known bugs, graphical interface, or percentage of answered user inquiries. Opinions are that, opinions. You should be able to differentiate between ideological ones (such a distribution is not free software) those motivated by rancor and those grounded.
With the subject of the answers to the questions, it usually varies by site. On AskUbuntu, a question and answer site about Ubuntu They seem more interested in compliance with the label than helping. But, it is very rare that you get a question that Google is not able to answer.
Step Three: Find Common Factors
To say that all Linux distributions are the same is an exaggeration. But, if we talk about those that are aimed at the home user, they are very similar.
In several of them you can find the same desktop and program selection but, with a different package manager
At this point what you can do is investigate the programs to see which ones might be most useful for you or look for screenshots of the different desktops to see which one you would feel most comfortable with.
The KDE desktop uses the QT graphics libraries, while GNOME, Mate, Budgie and XFCE use the GTK libraries. Although applications that use one of the libraries can be installed on a desktop that uses the other without a noticeable difference in performance, you may want to use this as a criterion for choosing a desktop.
The package format is an important point. Nowadays, most distributions support the Flatpak format (preferred by the developer community) and Snap (Preferred by companies that have versions of programs for Linux) They also have their own repositories that use some of the traditional formats but that they are not interchangeable. Arch Linux-based distributions usually have a fairly active community that keep repositories up to date, while Ubuntu-derived ones get the same in DEB format through adding custom repositories.
Step Four: Test
Once you narrowed down the list of distributions, it was time to do a field test. Fortunately, this can be done without modifying your equipment.
There are three ways to do this.
- Live mode: It is a feature of Linux distributions that allows you to test its characteristics using the RAM memory as if it were a hard disk.
- Installing on a removable disk: Linux supports installation on a USB stick as long as it has sufficient capacity
- Virtual machine: This is software that simulates being a computer on which you can install the distribution. Windows brings its own virtual machine client called Hiper-V. Another option is Virtualbox
Fifth step: Installation on the hard drive.
If you have already chosen the distribution, the next step is to install it on the disk alongside or instead of Windows. Remember to have backup of important data and a Windows installation media. Do not forget to take into account these recommendations.
Almost the most important thing is the last step and it is not just about "installing", but about verifying that (all) your hardware is compatible and that you have the applications you need.
Again: no, the distros aimed at the home user are very different if you are guided by Distrowatch. Ubuntu and Mint are distributions with a short and long update cycle (LTS), while Manjaro is continuous update and does not need reinstallation or update to a major version. And MX Linux is a lightweight distro with a rare installation, at least the last time I tried it.
And the most important thing is the localization: that the support is available in your language, because at some point you will need help after a failed update or an application that fails. And the more popular the distro, the better the support, because it is community, free and free.
Greetings.
For those who start I see it easy, Mint combines simplicity of installation, use and appearance similar to Windows, that the new one usually comes from there and is not to traumatize you. Now, here the facilities end, once being inside it is almost impossible to stay in one, every two by three another brings out a new version and there is no one who resists the temptation, how they tempt !.
I would include an intermediate step between 2 and 3 incorporating a query to the site https://distrochooser.de/es/ , which (could) help in the selection of the correct distro. It is in Spanish, and it can be answered easily, without much technical knowledge. The strange thing is that every time I test it, it recommends different distros: D I don't know if it makes him dizzy with the questionnaire or if it is a random thing on the page. Very good article.
Good date