You should do a thing where you answer a few questions click go and tada: you get the distro best for you!

Neat idea?
Joe

Sorta like this site http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php? Except every time I take the test, it tells me to use something I've tried and didn't like. The two distros I do like and use are never recommended.

Tells me what I already have. Seems to lean a little toward kde, even when selecting I don't care which desktop manager. I tried 4 out of 5 distro's it gave me, including ubuntu, which I am currently using.

Of course, take it with a grain of salt. I got my favourite distro, but others may not. (perhaps they are a bit depreciating of themselves when answering the questions? I dunno.)

It's a good tool for someone who has absolutely NO idea what distro they should use (and there is a lot to choose from!) And it's built with newbies in mind.

I guess if you're experienced, you can make your own informed decisions easier.

I really like the zegenie quiz. I don't think we need one at LQ.

titanium_geek

Personally, I'm convinced that the one and only way to decide which distro is best for you is to try several, then make up your own mind as to which one best suits your needs and preferences. The quarrel I have with these kinds of these quizzes is that the answers are pretty much subjectively pre-determined purely by whoever put the quiz together - I would actively question how objective or reliable they are, and my concern would be that newbies might consider them to be authoritative, and thus be discouraged from trying other, possibly better suited distros. What makes Linux great is having the ability to choose what you want to use, and I would hate to think that anyone might decide against using Linux because the top distro recommendation from a quiz turned out to be unsuitable for their purposes, and that person subsequently concluded "Ehhh... this Linux thing isn't for me"

To be fair, I have no objection to using a quiz to get some potentially useful suggestions as to which distros may be of interest, but exactly like Arow's comment, the two distros I use nearly all the time are never presented as answers whenever I try one of these quizzes, and the answers that I do get are for distros that I (usually) have played around with but have decided against using for one reason or another.

In any case, I realize that not everyone either has the interest or time to install and work with multiple different distros in their quest to find out if Linux is for them, but at the same time, I figure if people have enough interest in Linux to actually seek it out, they'd be willing to try a couple of different distros on their own just to see what they're like. Overall, I think linking to something like the LQ ISO or distrowatch is far more helpful and valuable than is "which distro" quiz. Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing these kinds of quizzes, but I think pointing a newbie to a group of distros is better than narrowing his/her focus to just one or two distros.

Strictly my 2 cents, as usual.

So a good response would be:

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It's great you want to get into Linux. There really are a lot of distros/flavours to choose from, and the best way to find out which one is best for you is to try them out and choose one that you like.

If you are a bit overwhelmed by all the choices, try this quiz.

Changing distros because something doesn't work isn't wise, either. You should change if you don't like the distro for some reason, but try and fix your problems.
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heh! It's a mine field of personal preference!

titanium_geek

I'm not opposed to quizzes and such, but I think that if LQ.org provides a link to the quiz or a quiz of our own, a newcomer could misconstrue that as implicit endorsement of the quiz and the results. In addition to the excellent response titanium_geek provided, LQ would need to point out that no automated method can be 100% accurate. E.g., according to this thread, the quiz has a 50/50 chance of getting it right.