Linux

I do tend to explain DEs when someone asks for a distro recommendation, because yeah, I also think that it does make the biggest difference for desktop usage.

However:

• You can't download an ISO for a DE. Noobs want to know what to download.
• Given that you can switch DEs relatively easily, the choice of distro can carry more weight.
• Depending on what kind of user they are, I do think the distro makes a difference. For example, generally I wouldn't recommend Debian-based distros to a programmer. Or plain Arch to someone uninterested in technology.

Yes and no. Yes, graphically, you would like to use something that won't make you despise your experience using a GNU/Linux distro. Some people can smoothly transition from a DE to another, or even use a TWM with no problems, but others are simply used to a single style, and that's totally understandable.

But, trying to complement to what @[email protected] said, each distro will have its way to handle a bunch of other stuff. You can feel amazing using Garuda Linux but somehow despise the AUR experience, or using something like Xubuntu but hating apt. I found myself loving Elementary but despising apt, but now I am using Pantheon on NixOS and I love it.

Maybe on Nick's point, as we are talking about people being introduced to GNU/Linux, it is a very valid idea.

It forgets that for beginners, the distro and the desktop may be one in the same. A beginner isn't going to install a distro and manually install a new desktop. It makes more sense to reccomend a distro with the best implementation of whatever desktop would be best for them, like Fedora GNOME, Linux Mint, or Xubuntu.

I agree with that, as a newbie I have tested many popular Debian/Ubuntu based noob friendly distros (PopOS, ZorinOS, Linux Mint, .....), I decided to use Xubuntu, and it wasn't really different from Linux Mint with XFCE or any other XFCE distro at all, maybe some small details, but in general they were pretty much the same, same thing after I installed KDE Plasma 5 on my Xubuntu it was almost the same as Kubuntu or KDE neon, but yeah a distro might be an importance choice I mean you are not gonna give a noob like me arch, or an arch based distro just because I can install KDE or XFCE on it.

Too much yelling.

On a side note, lemmy really needs a url preview limit, for instances like this in which the youtuber puts the entire video script in the description.