Ready for What?

Why "Kiddie" Linux Distros are Awesome

In another Diaspora post, a user shared this #Linux #humor post, which I "liked" and am re-sharing - with a little twist:

There's an assumption in the comic that the "kids" will "grow up" to become super-duper master geeky techno-wizards with "mad programming skillz" and create a master race of sentient androids or something.

I say, in reply to this assumption, "until you are ready:"

Ready for what? Some of us are just ordinary users who surf the 'net, write letters and term papers, share e-mail, watch videos, and play games. It’s all we did on Windows or Mac, and it’s all we care to do on any OS. We run applications, not the operating system.

Ready? To do what, exactly, besides customize / personalize the #desktop, and install peripherals like printers, speakers, joysticks and stuff? The most inexperienced #novice can do all those and keep everything updated effortlessly in the “kiddie distros” as they have been called. And you can add #LinuxLite to that list - and you see what all the “kiddie” distros have in common? They are #Ubuntu-based. More than anyone else, #Canonical (Ubuntu) has brought Linux to us ordinary, non-geeky mortals and kept thousands if not millions of computers out of landfills. Others are doing similar work! #Salix, for example, is doing for #Slackware what #Ubuntu did for #Debian. And it’s crazy simple to use even though Slackware is certainly not (I just wish Gnome stuff was available in Slackware!). Even #Arch has a derivative or two that are made for simplicity and “friendliness.”

I have installed and used at least a dozen distros, from Debian and Ubuntu (and derivatives including #Mint, #ElementaryOS, #LXLE, and #LinuxLite) to Salix and even the newcomer, VoidLinux. I’m not a novice, but in the end I’m really “just a computer user” and I really only want to get my school work done, surf a little bit, blog a little bit, play a little bit, and listen to a little music. Why make it complicated?

The funny thing is, a whole lot of very gifted geeks worked very long and hard to make Linux available and useable by us "ordinary desktop users." And many of us ordinary mortals are grateful, supporting our favorite projects with translation help, monetary donations, and getting the word out.

And a whole lot of very gifted geeks use the same "kiddie distros" as we mere mortals do, either to help develop them further or just because they want to run applications instead of the OS for ordinary tasks.

-- An unashamed #kiddie-distro user