folkrav, 1 year ago (edited 1 year ago)

The main differences between distros boil down to:

• init system
• default configurations and applications
• release cycle
• package manager

Most end users don’t mess around too much with their init system and software configuration. With the rise of mainstream distros and application developers opting to ship desktop applications as snaps/flatpak/appimages, the last two points have less importance than ever.

IMHO, considering this, most of the discussions surrounding distros is relatively silly. After using Linux for almost 20 years at this point, I think I can safely say I could be productive on most popular distributions, with minor adjustments to my workflow.

For a new user? Just pick one of the main distros, that supports the software you need, and roll with it for a while. It won’t make much of a difference. Distro hopping doesn’t make one learn much outside using a different package manager.