this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2023
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

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I found this site a while back - basically it will ask you a bunch of questions on your usage of your PC, and will came out with a list of recommended distros, and a list of reasons why YOU could like or not like it.

https://distrochooser.de/

There are some similar sites to this one, but since I'm not familiar with them, I won't post them. They are simply DuckDuckGo-able though.

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[–] Psythik@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Which distro has the best HDR and GSync support? The questionnaire didn't even ask about it... :/

[–] lud@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Well it can't ask everything.

[–] nydas@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Well at least at the end of the questions the distro I use (Void) was somewhere near the top of the list (4th).

[–] Durotar@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I always point users to howtopicklinuxdistro.com - they're always satisfied.

[–] yum13241@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] jon@lemdro.id 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] yum13241@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah I know. EndeavorOS is actually good though.

[–] iortega@lemmy.eus 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I have lately experienced a problem with my family. We have good computers, kind of bad computers and really bad and old computers. I can install a really cool distro on good computers, but not on the bad ones. I need a lighter DE on bad computers and a distro ready for old computers. But my family can't afford to learn how to use the 3 of them. So what is the solution here?

I'm thinking about installing the same distribution on all of them so that they don't have to get used to a new one every time they jump from one to another computer. I think that will be antiX.

[–] stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I always had great luck with Linux mint and LXDE personally.

Did you use the link in this post yet?

[–] Shrexios@mastodon.social 1 points 1 year ago

@stevedidWHAT @iortega Your best bet is to use a distro that allows you to choose everything you install (at least your desktop experiences) so that you can install the lightest DE/WM you can. I would suggest something like CachyOS or Reborn, that have choosers and then choose something like openbox. Archcraft is also quite nice and light. I run it on an old machine and it runs beautifully.

[–] SnailMagnitude@mander.xyz 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How bad is really bad?

AntiX is a good choice. Other option is a usb3 drive for each family member so everyone has their own portable AntiX on a stick.

MX is the related project with a more standard install and could be worth a look, the Fluxbox option should be quite light.

Each user could have a personal AntiX system on persistent usb3 and each system could have a bare metal MX Linux install. Just see what wins out via natural selection over time.

LXQT is another option for a full desktop environment that will run on a potato. If family members are mainly just users and you are admin, the base OS may not matter much. They could switch between a potato running Alpine and a good system running Fedora and if they are just logging into LXQT to launch browser, office, email etc the internal system plumbing is not gonna concern them.

[–] iortega@lemmy.eus 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I like your solution! Thank you.

About my computers: I have 2 1GB RAM laptops. One has 20-25 years the other one 10-15. I have tried Puppy and antiX in these. And I personally prefer antix on them. Another 4GB laptop that might be around 8 but is pretty trash as it was a gift from our bank (it was able to run Elementary OS, it was fine). A kind of old computer but with 4GB RAM (Think I have XFCE or Cinnamon Mint on it). And a big boy with 16GB and a pretty good CPU. And the oldest computers are used the least often (maybe once a year) while the middle computer might be used 20 times a year and the last one maybe once every week.

So I believe something like antix would work, but I'm not sure if the USB way would. Seems like they would lose their pendrives the second day.

[–] SnailMagnitude@mander.xyz 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'd put the 1gb ram laptops to server/kodi/retroarch/something mode and focus on the three decent machines for anything that requires a modern web browser, or add some ram. Porteus might be worth a shot if you've not tried it and want to push the Firefox on a potato idea.

I don't think this is a one OS fits all situation, unless maybe Gentoo.

[–] SIGSEGV@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

If you just want it to work, and you're coming from Windows or Mac, use Ubuntu. It's a nice intro, and the hardware support is excellent.

[–] Promethilaus@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Funnily i tried this as i was curious and it pointed me to the distro i was already using - Opensuse lmfao

[–] bruzie@lemmy.nz 1 points 1 year ago

No Linux From Scratch? Absolutely worthless.

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