LINUX MISINFORMATION

Like everything else on the internet, much of the information posted about Linux is misinformation. When I was looking into the different distros I came across this example:

The 11 Best Debian-Based Linux Distributions

I know that compared to misinformation on the covidhoax or the death jabs for example, this is all pretty trivial, but I've been a bit of a geek  this week and that is what I've been looking at.

 

Linux review sites generally use pictures of the desktops of each of the distros they are featuring. They also tend to rank them in lists such as "Top 10". These are usually based on some sort of objective assessment and reasons are usually given.

 

In this case the "The 11 Best Debian-Based Linux Distributions" seems to be chosen entirely to make Ubuntu look good at #1 and Mint look bad at #11. I'm guessing they were paid some sort of kickback to do this. probably from Ubuntu who have been eclipsed by Mint now.

 

 

On Distrowatch Mint is currently ranked #2 and Ubuntu is at #5. Ubuntu hasn't been number #1 for about five years, and on many other lists Mint is #1.

 

 

In their desperate attempt to make Mint look bad they posted good screenshots of the first 10 distros, and then used a terrible picture for Mint in last place at #11 - very odd!

 

 

They would have actually have had to change a bunch of the default settings to make Mint look this bad, and they have even made Firefox look like Chrome for this screenshot.

 

Grudgingly they admit "Linux Mint is a distro meant to be complete "out of the box", even more than Ubuntu, which it's based on"

 

 

In total contrast, this list is of "The 12 Best Debian-based Linux Distributions" is much better , but from reading the comments it appears it was originally a top 10, with no mention of Mint, that was later changed to a Top 12 with two versions of Mint included. And neither of these lists includes the Debian distro itself. Odder and Odder.

 

 

 

BEST LINUX DISTRO FOR GEEKS

In doing some research into Linux, I could see that that the requirements of a non tech user who just wants a working computer are very different from a geek who wants to tweek things all day.

The best distro for a low tech chump like me looks to be Mint, but if I was a geek I think I would go with Debian.

Debian was founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock, and the name "Debian" was formed from the first name of his then-girlfriend (later ex-wife) Debra Lynn and his own first name.

Debian is the source code language that distros like Mint & Ubuntu are based on, & it's also a distro in itself, aimed at geeks and tech heads

 

RETURNING TO LINUX

 Like many people I'm a reluctant Windows user who hates Microscum, and does not want Kill Gate's evil fist up my rectum. So I have long wanted to escape and move to Linux.

In fact I did try to do that back in 2010, but I'm not very technically advanced and it was all just too difficult, so I gave up and went back to Windows XP. (A modified version called Last XP). At that time the programs I was mainly using were Microsoft Office, and Adobe Photoshop, neither of which work on Linux. I did a blog post my Linux experiment in 2010: https://www.frot.co.nz/design/computing/linux/

Now I've been using Libre Office for years, and all my email is done through Proton Mail rather than Outlook, so a big part of my software problem is already sorted. I'm still using an old version of Photoshop (CS6), but I can see that GIMP 2 can do everything I'm doing in Photoshop. Gimp 3 is due out soon, and that will probably be more advanced than the Photoshop version I'm using. So I'm now more motivated to learn Gimp.

Meanwhile the various Linux systems ("distros") have moved on a lot. So while Windows has been going backwards since Windows 7 (2014), Linux has been continued to slowly develop and improve over the past decade. 

One of the biggest roadblocks to new users switching to Linux is that it's all just too confusing. There are endless options, both for the distros, and the software as well. But nobody seems to want to give a straight answer about what is best. 

The website Distrowatch is probably the best source of Linux information, but the first thing you are confronted with there is that there are 272 distros. And most of them have multiple versions, which are constantly being updated. So there are actually thousands of distros! Here are the top 40:

What I wanted is for someone to tell me which ones are any good. And it turns out if you are a non tech user like me, there are only a handful of suitable choices.

Back in 2010 I tried about 10 distros, and ended up going with Ubuntu. But I never actually liked it or felt at home using it. And this may sound odd, but I also just didn't like the people it seemed to attract. There were lots of angry geeks mouthing off in forums, and it was all just a bad vibe. I later found that most of the other distros were friendly and helpful. 

 In 2010 the other distros I liked were PCLinuxOS, Puppy, and Mint. But with each one I had problems that stopped me using it. At that time Ubuntu seemed more advanced, and it was the number one distro, but it was about to start going backwards.

This time around, I only found two distros I liked enough to seriously consider, Mint and Zorin. I gave both a decent try, and found that although Zorin looks really cool, and is better sorted out of the box, once I started learning a bit more, I could get Mint looking and working how I wanted, while on Zorin I had a few things I couldn't get to work. I came to the conclusion Mint is more stable, has better support, and is fully sorted.

So now I'm gradually shifting over to using Linux Mint. It hasn't been a quick process, because I've been using Windows since the 90's and making changes is difficult. But looking at what Microsoft are up to, I can see there is no future there and I have to find an alternative. This is my Mint desktop so far: