was a table representing collective experience of forum members regarding Linux distros which are easy or difficult for beginners. @Tech_JA suggested that we place the final table in a fresh topic where it is not buried among 130 replies. Thanks Jorge.
In future our table will be updated here.
Last revision 17/5/25
Difficulty
Systemd distros
Non-systemd distros
Beginner
Mint
LMDE
MX/Systemd
MX/sysVinit
Peppermint/Debian
Peppermint/Devuan
Easy
Solus
Lite
Pop!OS
Elementary
Good second try
Ubuntu & variants
Antix
Zorin
Ubuntu with PPA
Some experience
Debian
Devuan
Fedora
Alpine
OpenSUSE leap
Artix
OpenSUSE tumbleweed
Difficult or experimental
NixOS
Void
Arch without AUR
Chimera
Manjaro
Hyperbola
Garuda
GUIX
Arch with AUR
OpenSUSE slowroll
More difficult
Slackware
Requires dedication
Gentoo/Systemd
Gentoo/OpenRC
Very difficult
LFS
The scale from Beginner to Pro is an attempt to group distros in a way that may help users choose their next Linux distro appropriately.
The non-systemd distros are listed separately so that difficulty of the init system does not enter into the rankings.
The markdown file that generates this table is available here https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nevillejackson/Unix/refs/heads/main/distros/hardtable.md
There may be a case to rank the BSD distros in a similar way.
What I mean is, a lot of beginners are used to Windows and have never, or seldom used a terminal, and some distributions are more likely to require terminal activity. Advanced users are very comfortable with terminal work. So I would think looking at a certain distribution, one might say "This one is pretty advanced because for installation, or setup, or operation, it expects the user to be well accustomed to operating from the terminal, and some familiarity with Linux configuration files, etc. whereas this other one is OK for beginners because you can install it, customize it, and connect your peripherals, and so on, and do that all with a GUI interface. Forgive me if I have a misconception, because I have never used an “advanced” distribution.
OK , I get it.
I think the way we have ranked distros largely reflects that… the ones that are easy tend to provide GUI tools for common admin operations so the user can avoid CLI. Mint and MX are obvious examples of distros loaded with tools. Void and Gentoo are the opposite… no GUI tools at all.
CLI is not the only aspect of difficulty… some package systems are more diffucult than apt, and some distro communities are more helpful than others. Install procedures also vary in difficulty..
There is a challenge.
If you take it up, try a moderate one like Antix first.
That is what the table is about… choosing a next step up.( or down depending on your viewpoint)
Mint
LMDE
MX/Systemd
Peppermint/Debian
.....
Solus
Pop!_OS
Elementary
......
Ubuntu (and variants)
Ubuntu with PPA
......
Fedora
Debian
OpenSUSE (tumbleweed or leap)
.....
NixOS
Arch without AUR
Manjaro
Arch with AUR
.......
Gentoo/Systemd
and it seems to have been lost. Will fix. … all updates are in first reply.
Seem to have lost Elementary too.
I am keeping DE’s out of it for now.
Regards
Neville
Update: its done… look at reply#1. I moved Solus too…not quite beginner grade.
I thought someone had mentioned Sparky, but do not see it on the list. There are others not listed here. Are we going for all Linux or just mainstream?
What about Bodhi & Q4OS? I know those are rare in general online community forums, but I have both installed on multi-boot machines. They are nice and great for old hardware.
I just installed Nitrux on a learning machine. Haven’t really gotten into it yet, but I would put it up there with NixOS as far as difficulty; it is an immutable distro with a different package manager (sudo nuts update) so not sure how those play into difficulty. VanillaOS 2, another immutable one?
Just throwing out some I see missing. There are others, but they have not been mentioned, as far as I know.
I had a go at Nitrux in a VM. Have not done anything with it yet.
We cant do everything.
One limitation is I wanted distros that members have had experience with…it is supposed to be our collective assessment.
Will include something if someone says they have used it and can rate it.
Decent list. I have tried Mint about 8 years ago and currently use POP-os since 2021. It has been good to me and I have no reason to change or explore anything else. I can use the terminal if I have to and have been able to overcome any problems. Thanks.
Thanks, I had a look.
Quite a range of opinions were expressed… that is OK, we cant expect everyone to concur because people’s experiences vary.
At least we documented our consensus.
I was surprised at the standard of comment on Linux.org. I think our standard is better but that may be a biased view.