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1<!DOCTYPE html> 2<html lang="en"> 3<head> 4<meta charset="UTF-8"> 5<title> 6There are no beginner GNU/Linux distributions 7</title> 8<link rel="stylesheet" href="/static/style.css"> 9<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> 10</head> 11<body> 12<header> 13<a href="#main" id="skip-link">Skip navigation</a> 14<nav> 15<ul> 16<li><a href="/">Home</a></li> 17<li><a href="/projects">Projects</a></li> 18<li><a href="/index">Index</a></li> 19<li><a href="/about">About</a></li> 20<li><a href="https://roundabout-host.com/roundabout">Roundabout-host</a></li> 21</ul> 22<ul> 23<li><a href="mailto:root@roundabout-host.com" id="mail-link">root@roundabout-host.com</a></li> 24</ul> 25</nav> 26</header> 27<main id="main"> 28 29<h1>There are no beginner GNU/Linux distributions</h1> 30<div id="article-date">2024-11-10</div> 31<p class="tags"> 32 33<a href="/index/gnu/linux.html" class="tag">gnu/linux</a> 34 35<a href="/index/linux.html" class="tag">linux</a> 36 37<a href="/index/free software.html" class="tag">free software</a> 38 39<a href="/index/opinion.html" class="tag">opinion</a> 40 41</p> 42 43<article class="content-area"> 44<p>I see this so often and it's so wrong. That if you know GNU/Linux, you must 45switch to Arch, Gentoo, Fedora, OpenSUSE or at least Debian. That if you use 46Mint or Ubuntu, you're not a real GNU/Linux user. 47</p><p>These distributions happen to be perfect for someone who hasn't used GNU/Linux 48before: everything can be done graphically, they have lots of apps in the 49repository and a large community. But this isn't Android; you aren't forced to 50not use the terminal, add your own repositories, modify the kernel, or compile 51your own software. 52</p><p>I use Linux Mint, but not because I can't use Debian or Arch. I use it because, 53besides being user-friendly and having introduced me to GNU/Linux, it is very 54stable, Cinnamon is a good desktop (not perfect, but good), it has a good 55community, supports most hardware, is very customisable, and most importantly, 56the developers are really nice, and not doing stupid things for profit. 57</p><p>Distribution 'difficulty' is not about how smart you have to be to use it, but 58about how much time you're willing to spend in order for it to work. You can 59still customise any (regular) distribution to your liking; the 'beginner' ones 60are just easier to get started with. But there's no reason why one should be 61ashamed of using a 'beginner-friendly' distribution, if they like it. 62</p> 63</article> 64 65</main> 66<footer> 67<p>Page generated on Sunday, 4 May 2025 at 15:06:42</p> 68<p xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" >This work is marked with <a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/?ref=chooser-v1" target="_blank" rel="license noopener noreferrer" style="display:inline-block;">CC0 1.0 Universal</a> (🄍). No rights reserved.</p> 69<p>Hosted at <a href="https://roundabout-host.com/roundabout">Roundabout-host</a> using the static site service, and generated with <a href="/projects/ampoule.html">Ampoule</a>.</p> 70<a href="#">Back to top</a> 71</footer> 72</body> 73</html>