this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

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Ubuntu's popularity often makes it the default choice for new Linux users. But there are tons of other Linux operating systems that deserve your attention. As such, I've highlighted some Ubuntu alternatives so you can choose based on your needs and requirements—because conformity is boring.

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 46 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I don't think that's particularly wrong, tbh.

The key words being targeted at regular desktop users.

Obviously far from being one of the first distros, or distros with a GUI. But targeted at regular desktop users - i.e. "normies"? Absolutely.

People need to remember how crappy and janky the desktop was before Canonical spearheaded a lot of usability improvements.

If only they had continued along that path :/

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

There were lots of distros that tried to target regular users before it. Mandrake/Conectiva/Mandriva, Corel, Mepis, Lindows, Linspire etc. just off the top of my head.

Hell, Lindows came preinstalled on Walmart PCs at some point.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Mandrake/Conectiva/Mandriva

That's two.

(And hey, thank suse for killing Conectiva)

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

Slackware is a garbage distro purely because it doesn't have a functional package manager supporting dependency resolution

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

targeted at regular desktop users

While Slackware and Debian are the oldest still-maintained Linux distros, I don't think either had a desktop-first approach.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I considered putting logos of some of the many more user-friendly pre-ubuntu distros in the meme but was lazy.

Debian was intended to be for regular desktop users back then too, though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

…Except Debian wasn't even user-friendly when I used it two years after Ubuntu's release. Red Hat Linux (not RHEL, which came later) was the only distro I'm aware of before Ubuntu that was more UX-focused.

Edit: I forgot about a few others — SUSE, Corel Linux, Lindows/Linspire, and others. Buuuuuuut most of those distros don't exist anymore. I still stand by that Debian didn't used to be as noob-friendly as it is these days.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

I forgot about Corel Linux and Lindows as well now that I think on it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Mandrake is another

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

there were dozens of others in the 11 years between the first and ubuntu

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

“Targeted at regular desktop users”

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I really feel like you’re missing the idea of that sentence deliberately.

What Linux distribution came before Ubuntu that was specifically designed to be user friendly for a non-technical user?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

What Linux distribution came before Ubuntu that was specifically designed to be user friendly for a non-technical user?

There were a bunch of distros advertising ease of use; several were even sold in physical boxes (which was the style at the time) and marketed to consumers at retail stores like BestBuy years before Ubuntu started.

Here are four pictures of the physical packaging for three of those pre-ubuntu desktop distros designed to be user friendly and marketed to the general public:

Photo of the cardboard packaging for Caldera OpenLinux Another Caldera box Packaging of SuSE 8.1 Mandrake 7.2 packaging

Ubuntu was better than what came before it in many ways, and it deserves credit for advancing desktop Linux adoption both then and now, but it was not "one of the first" by any stretch.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, no.

It was one of the first that didn’t make you to want to tear your hair out, I’ll give them that.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

That's what I interpreted from the "targeted at regular desktop users" part.

Certainly not one of the first distros. But one of the first that almost any normal person would actually be able to install and use? Absolutely.

There were multiple before it that claimed to be easy for anybody to use, but most of them still weren't by a long stretch.