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colesantiago

This has always been an issue for Linux adoption.

Somebody I know (not in tech) wanted to switch from Windows to Linux and I said:

"Which one?"

It's the same as Mastodon.

"Which instance?"

The answer is usually the biggest / most popular instance or distro, but not many applications the masses use are on Linux, the same as there is not many interesting people on Mastodon for people to switch over to it.

Applications are the barrier to mass adoption here for Linux unfortunately, and the paralysis of choice is the double edged sword for the massive amount of Linux distros.

Thousands of years of effort spread across many distributions that not many people would use.

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The Linux ecosystem isn't as splintered as people think it is. Yes, there are technically lot's of distros but most of them are really just derivatives that don't add much.

The vast majority of Desktop users just use Debian or Debian-based distros like Ubuntu, Linux Mint and so on.

So in the end, it is just a matter of whatever pre-installed software you get. It used to be that vanilla Debian was a bit hard to use but I don't think that is true anymore. (Though I still recommend Linux Mint for the absolute "just works" experience.)

For 90% of users, they are not going wrong using Debian or one of the popular Debian-based distros. After that is is basically just a matter of specialized needs.

Want to make administering your system a hobby and part of your personality? Have some Arch.

Need professional support? OpenSuse.

Need reproducible builds? Nix/Guix.

Need a minimalist distro that runts on potatoes? Puppy Linux and whatever else.

Wayland vs X11? Systemd? If you know these words, you are already way too deep in the rabbit hole.

This is true for the user, but not good enough for developers, who unfortunately need to stay on top of all of this to build functioning software. If users report bugs you can’t repro, you may have to dive into all of these.

And that’s the point of the article really, to try and get more app developers onboard.

Developers don't need to test in every distro, or even all the most popular distros. All they need to do is test in one distro. It will probably work in most of the rest and linux users expect that if something breaks they'll be the one tweaking things to make it work. Sometimes you'll get bug reports from those users saying "I had to do X on distro Y for reason Z" and you can act on those reports, or not. It doesn't matter.

Honestly, linux users don't expect more. There's tons of proprietary software out there supporting linux in this manner and it works out fine. Linux users are easy to please. The hardest people to please are the developers with Windows/Mac backgrounds who mistakenly believe they're expected to test on every distro and rightly balk at that.

Just say Download Ubuntu and sign up at Mastodon.world.

If they push back that's not a problem. If they're actually noob, they got the info they wanted out of you, which was where to start.

Why would people push back at that?

I'd personally say "use mastodon.social", but your advise is just as good. Simply because it is a solid advise, offers a single option and points people at where to start.

Ubuntu is good to start¹, and if people say "but it's bad at thingy foo" or "it has default bazoombas! default! on!": no-one said it's where you must now commit yourself to forever. Distro's aren't religions (and even religions can be switched), they are just stuff that sits on your computer. Your next re-install or next machine might be anything else.

¹edit: to be clear: it's also good for experienced people or grumpy bearded linux-veterans like myself (24 years in and counting). I use Ubuntu. It's hardly configured even, just the defaults (well, my shell and vim have some 20+ years of config tweaks).

> Why would people push back at that?

Because they already have an opinion on which Linux or Fediverse thing to use.

Pay it no mind. People are allowed to be wishy-washy with their opinions. Maybe its just a conversation starter, or maybe they enjoy debate / feeling things out through words and discussion.

What do you think we'll gain by putting every idea into the same cookie jar?

This drive to create One True Linux is commercial behavior. People that want One True Linux want to put products on there to sell.

These people need to read the GNU Manifesto and realize they are not in the correct social structures to push for centralization.

> Thousands of years of effort spread across many distributions that not many people would use.

That's a lot more effort towards improving the commons than we'd have gotten if doing it your own way were discouraged. Effort is not fungible, when you squash somebody's creativity it stays squashed for a while.

Unfortunately it still takes a lot of effort to actually switch and not just poke around to see what's what. Most things do work these days but inevitably you will have to open the dreaded terminal (or be forced into runlevel 3 because 4 now fails as your new TV doesn't play well with your gpu)

It’s because the answer is “just pick one”. Many people have already made the decision before you and unless you have special requirements. You’ll probably be fine.

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