For example, I’m using Debian, and I think we could learn a thing or two from Mint about how to make it “friendlier” for new users. I often see Mint recommended to new users, but rarely Debian, which has a goal to be “the universal operating system”.
I also think we could learn website design from… looks at notes …everyone else.
Gentoo - patience.
But seriously. With theUSEflags, compiler options, you can understand software more from a developer’s point of view.
You can try to optimize software for your hardware.
Fully explore theconfigureoptions. With a binary package you have no control.How are those new binary applications coming along? is it feasible to mix. I don’t want to compile everything.
Quite useful if you don’t mess with the
USE. I can be mixed.
I recently tested the binary option, I set desired profile (eselect profile list) and it just worked™.
Some applications still require manual compilation, e.g.llvm,gcc,systemd.
Arch could use better standard MAC security applied to systemd units like Debian does.
Arch could have an easy few clicks installer, something like a default modern setup.
Live kernel patching.archinstall script worked good for me, i installed arch on 2 kvm yesterday, i just filled blank this script offers and everything was done without me, only one advice, include your users in sudoers file as script doesn’t do that automatically, also there’s gentooinstall script derived from archinstall one
Probably the start menu back to what it should be. Back with distro windows xp.
Wait no nvm wrong community.
I usually use Fedora these days and I have few complaints but I sometimes miss the ArchWiki. Not that Federa isn’t well-documented — it obviously is well documented by nature of being a RedHat product — but people in the Arch community will sometimes make a whole page to document how they fixed a specific laptop model’s relatively unimportant hardware compatibility issue.
I’m on Fedora too and quite often end up on the Arch wiki. A lot of the stuff there applies on other distros too.
Debian used to uphold free software values. I’m not sure what its purpose is now.
Debian is a multipurpose I suppose
Fedora’s installer is abysmal. There’s a number of installers it could learn from. They’re working on one at the moment, so I hope it’s good.
Enabling access to proprietary software should also install audio/video codecs. Or at least have a separate checkbox for it, like (I believe) Ubuntu has.
Fortunately many flatpak browser now comes with codecs, like ungoogled chromium and librewolf.
Why won’t they just use Calamares?
Fedora’s installer is abysmal.
I thought so too. It doesn’t have enough options for power users and too many for newcomers. It caters to a middleground that barely exists.
Enabling access to proprietary software should also install audio/video codecs.
The codecs are also the #1 thing that annoy me in Fedora. Because of shitty US patent laws the rest of the world has to suffer.
The installer is the single one reason I can’t switch to fedora. I have several drives in my machine and I like to separate them, but their installer scares the shit out of me. I can pull it off for sure, but I just don’t want to take the risk
I’m on Fedora Silverblue, which is great now, but when I installed it, I remember thinking that its installer was way less intuitive than Ubuntu’s, and I think it also had fewer features (e.g. discovering existing operating systems and offering to install alongside it, IIRC?). I’ve seen screenshots of a new installer being in development, which looked like an improvement, but still not as smooth an experience as Ubuntu’s.
If you want Debian but user-friendly, just use Mint, Debian is easy enough to install. It’s like asking Gentoo or Arch to drop a easy installer, it would break the point of using it.
Would it detract from Debian if it had an installer which was more intuitive to new users? As long as they don’t remove the options to configure, I see no harm, only benefits. To me, the thing about Debian is that it’s a community. If a distro wants to be elitistic, sure, that’s up to them, but I don’t see Debian having that goal.
There’s already an gui installer on Debian, what do you want ? The system to install himself without asking for your preferences ?
I don’t know. It’s difficult for me to answer because I’m so used to the Debian installer. But, for some reason the general opinion is that it’s difficult for many compared to some other distros.
More difficult because Debian rely more on the terminal than mint. The terminal is not a accessorie like on Windows, it’s part of basics Linux uses. In my opinion it’s important to learn how to be familiar with
I think text based interfaces is a strength of unix-like systems, valuable tools to be used when the situation calls for it. It might be a lot to ask of new users to be familiar with terminals before they have even installed the system though. If Mint can get the same result with a GUI, I see no reason why Debian can’t offer that option too, and let users discover bash and TUI when they have a working system.
You could check out Spiral Linux for an “easier” installer. It has the option to use the Calamares installer from the live USB instead of Debian’s default. Also comes preloaded with back port repositories and, I think, Nvidia drivers.
Gentoo and Arch do have easy installers (Arch via the Arch install script, Gentoo… Well, they provide stage 3 already built, a genkernel option, and even binary distribution now, which greatly simplifies the process)
Arch install is not official and it’s not that stable, and what’s the point of using Gentoo if you don’t use the main reason to use it ?
Honestly, that one had me scratching my head too, I doubt I’d ever use the precompiled binaries on Gentoo myself
The stage 3 tarballs and genkernel, though, make an install that could take a week or more down to a few hours; having successfully built a system from a stage 1 with customized kernel, that’s not an experience I feel a burning desire to go through again
Alpine & OpenBSD with CLI installers, minimalism, lack of bloat and strong KISS philosophies, they remind me of what Arch Linux used to be – I don’t want any crapware if possible (dbus, systemd, polkit, logind etc). Just nice and simple.
The only one I have installed is dbus, unless you want to manually patch it out it’s pretty much everywhere (Gentoo is nice for this).
Maybe you would like Void or Chimera
The Debian website is trash and I’m glad to see it acknowledged. People always take criticism of the website as of folks are saying it looks ugly. No. The layout is just icky.
I love the look of the Debian website.
I don’t have a problem with the look, just the organization.
It’s difficult to find where to even download the thing, particularly if you’re looking for older versions
YES! YES! This is exactly what I’m talking about.
I totally agree with your assessment about Mint and Debian.
I like Debian’s minimal approach, but I think minimal can also be user-friendly.
I still has a nice installer, though.
endeavourOs from arch by being less opinionated and giving away the awful colour theme
Luckily you can deselect the eos specific packages during install.
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I do not recall other distros failing to update due to GPG key issues but it has happened to me on Arch distros many times. It is the biggest pain when converting from something like Manjaro to something like EndeavourOS as well.
I really do not understand why this cannot be fixed.
