Discussion on which distro is better should be in General forum

While I agree that in theory it might be nice to put all the "Which distro should I use?" questions into a single super-thread, there are a couple of practical realities to consider, and whenever theory and reality collide, reality will always win. Namely:

1. Even if all "which distro" questions were in a single thread, the overwhelming majority of people who ask this question are ultra-newbies, with typically fewer than 5 or 6 posts to their credit, and therefore everything about LQ is brand new to them. Given their inexperience with LQ, chances are extremely high that they simply won't even notice that the super-thread exists, let alone realize that they should be adding their question to it. Granted, LQ could try to post instructions on the existence and usage of such a "which distro" super-thread, but the reality is that even if the instructions used a blinking, red, +3 font along with a mandatory confirmation checkbox, it's still likely that nothing will really change, because unfortunately some people simply do not pay attention, and they will be the ones who continue to create brand new "which distro" threads. In other words I can't imagine that giving the "which distro" question some sort of special treatment would result in anything being much different than it is today.

2. Creating a super-thread would result in additional maintenance work for the mods, plus, who really wants to have to go back through the last several months (or years) worth of posts to collect all the existing threads? This would be a lot of work, with no real benefit.

Overall, I don't really mind the "which distro" questions all that much, because the people who ask the question are demonstrating a serious interest in Linux, and thus should be encouraged. If they get a warm welcome to their question, along with some good and useful tips, they are much more likely to continue their explorations with Linux than if they got the cold shoulder or if they saw their question just tossed into a pile. While the question may be repetitious to long-time LQ'ers, let's give these ultra-newbies the benefit of the doubt and assume that they genuinely are looking for guidance. If that hypothesis is valid, then it seems like the best thing to do would be to point them in a direction where they can select from numerous popular distros, rather than to engage in a series of one sentence comments suggesting "distro X" or "distro Y" (which I agree are useless, as they typically lack any context and are never backed up with any reasons as to why that distro would be better. But I digress.)

Perhaps it would be possible to set up another standard response for this issue, such as we already have for double posts, advertising, etc. The text could read something like "There is no guaranteed way to determine which distro may be 'best' for someone else. The only way to decide is to try several, then make up your own mind as to which one best fits your needs and preferences." Links to the LQ ISO, Distrowatch, and LinuxISO could also be included. Along those lines, I'd point out that the standard "please don't bump your own post" message has largely been rendered unnecessary with the new 16 and 32 hour auto-bump, so perhaps we could swap it out and replace it with a standard comment for the "which distro" question. Just my 2 cents -- J.W.

hum. nice for the mods, and I definitly would reccomend that you have an auto reply to cut down on work- its a shame that users don't have stock replies.

titanium_geek

Any interest in storing a couple common responses in the LQ Wiki, where they could be continuously refined and tweaked?

--jeremy

Originally posted by jeremy Any interest in storing a couple common responses in the LQ Wiki, where they could be continuously refined and tweaked? --jeremy

I think it should be smth of a sort:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Welcome to LQ Newcomers Hall! In order to save yours and our precious time, we are glad to
present you with ELH. (Electronic Little Helper).

If you are completely new to Open Source - the course of your selections shall be:............

If you feel that you already might possess some knowledge on Linux and Open Source, then your way of choosing must follow this trail:.......

You think that Linux is less than challenge for you, then try those:.....................

Additionally, ELH presents you with set of directions on Internet in order to increase your knowledge and widen your choice:
Link Link
Link Link
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

slacker- hehehe.

jeremy- yeah, that would be good, however there doesn't seem to be an LQ section, nor a logical place to start one, as we can't edit the front page. (which is a good thing) so yeah, requesting and "LQ specific" wiki place/section

groan- work tommorow..
titanium_geek

Well, I wouldn't think a page like that would in any way need to be linked from the homepage. You can create any arbitrary page in the wiki (that's one of the great things about it). In this case, I'd say the page should go in the LQWiki namespace.

--jeremy

http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/...orum_Responses

--jeremy

oooh. jeremy, you broke one of the cardinal rules of wikiing- if the page doesn't link from anywhere, how are people going to find it? and if people can't find it, how is it going to be useful? and if it isn't useful, then what's the use?

need and LQ section please!

titanium_geek

Originally posted by titanium_geek [B need and LQ section please! [/B]

Now, seriously, people need this type of chewed up guidance. Besides, it's going to increase the global rating of LQ!

It can be linked from wherever it makes sense, but my point was, that's definitely not the homepage.

--jeremy

Still want to know what other people think of it.

I think that there are so many people here that are veterans that there has become no tolerance for the newbie common questions. People could come here and search through the forums and most likely find an answer to there question and if they did not find it they could google it and find it. This is a forum, it is a place where people of like mind, new ideas, old ideas, and all things linux are supposed to be able to be discussed without prejudice. We could send everyone on a search trip, then there would be nothing on the forums. This would make the place not so much fun. We should all be happy people are choosing linux and want to become a percentage of the people who don't spread viruses and ad aware. This place was fun when I joined here and now it has become this or that has been discussed to death and some smart *ss member rather then passing it up has to stop and say how upset they are that it was brought up ounce again. As people come to join linux, this opens new ideas and new personalities that might not pertain to the answers given at a prior time. Sorry to rant, just tired of the "I have been here since whenever and this is asked way to much" attitude.

Originally posted by anti_microsoft This place was fun when I joined here and now it has become this or that has been discussed to death and some smart *ss member rather then passing it up has to stop and say how upset they are that it was brought up ounce again. Sorry to rant, just tired of the "I have been here since whenever and this is asked way to much" attitude.

I don't think that we've got snobs here. Not too many
The point is while answering to these questions some of us use copy & paste from pattern, prepared on some text file. For this reason exactly exist automatic answers.
Thank you for feedback!

well, I feel that stupid issues like "which distro" without giving any specs except "I'm a complete n00b" and yep.. We're sick of them. Windows is better than linux (aka I've tried but linux sux) - you guessed it, we're sick of them.

We're not going to not help genuine problems- we are quite newbie friendly- not idiot tolerant that much though.

Are we preventing newer members from flaming fun? Maybe, but, showing the board is maturing and growing, General no longer counts to post count. Flaming is immature and frankly, is a waste of jeremy's valuable cash.

So, in short, LQ is one of the most helpful and friendly places on the web. Flaming takes away from that.

Ok, so, this is a harsh message. Sorry. I just want to say: pointless repeated threads need to be shut down.
Though I agree, issues can be discussed by new viewpoints, but it should be done in the existing threads.


titanium_geek

Originally posted by anti_microsoft I think that there are so many people here that are veterans that there has become no tolerance for the newbie common questions. People could come here and search through the forums and most likely find an answer to there question and if they did not find it they could google it and find it.

I think I may have said this already in another thread, but I used to be a teacher not too long ago, and there's a fine line between helping someone write a paper and actually writing the paper for her. I think what "veterans" (hey, I'm here only a few months, and I'm already tired of lazy users who can't do a simple Google search) tire of is new users who show absolutely no initiative. I wouldn't help students who didn't bring an outline, textual evidence, any kind of thesis, or any ideas for a thesis--and I was paid to help these students. Why should volunteers help new Linux users who don't do their "homework"?

What I tire of (I can't speak for "veterans" out there) are users who:

1. Can't do at least one Google search
2. Think this is a help desk (i.e., paid support) instead of a bunch of good-willed volunteers
3. Mention almost no details about their situation/problem and need to have the people helping them ask all the questions
4. Do not even follow links that people post to very helpful sites. This is the ultimate laziness. Sure, some people can't do a Google search. But if someone else does the search for you, the least you can do is follow the link.

Meet me half-way, and I'll meet you more than half way. I think a lot of "veterans" would agree with me on this. There aren't two extremes (not helpful and do-it-for-you). There's a good middle ground which is called "you do it yourself, and we'll help you."
But you have to do it yourself.