I ran Ubuntu for like 15 years and was especially recently getting frustrated by how far behind the packages always were. I’m full in on Arch - everything about it has been a much better experience.
That’s one of the beauties of Linux, if you need something else than want you can probably get another distro that suits your needs.
OP was asking about newbies.
I set up Mint for my mom. I can guarantee that she won’t change.
The good thing about distro hopping is refining your setup to the point that “burning down the desktop” becomes a relative non-event, your important personal files are elsewhere - nothing of value gets lost if your desktop SSD goes Ollie North: “I’m sorry, sir, I don’t recall…”
After 15 years, aren’t you questioning: how far out on the bleeding edge do I need to be?
I mean, if the absolute most advanced bleeding edge is “where it was at” five years ago - isn’t a stable system that’s up to speed with where the good things were five years ago even better?
Running up-to-date software gives me far less problems than running software full of bugs that were fixed 5 years ago, personally. If you find a new bug, you can at least report it and hope to see it fixed in the next update. You find bugs that were fixed years ago, but the fixed version isn’t in your repo, and then you have to start building things yourself.
I ran Ubuntu for like 15 years and was especially recently getting frustrated by how far behind the packages always were. I’m full in on Arch - everything about it has been a much better experience.
What’s made Arch better for you?
For me it’s been the availability of packages, and how up-to-date things are. The AUR is a gamechanger.
That’s one of the beauties of Linux, if you need something else than want you can probably get another distro that suits your needs. OP was asking about newbies. I set up Mint for my mom. I can guarantee that she won’t change.
My son on the other hand distro hops.
The good thing about distro hopping is refining your setup to the point that “burning down the desktop” becomes a relative non-event, your important personal files are elsewhere - nothing of value gets lost if your desktop SSD goes Ollie North: “I’m sorry, sir, I don’t recall…”
After 15 years, aren’t you questioning: how far out on the bleeding edge do I need to be?
I mean, if the absolute most advanced bleeding edge is “where it was at” five years ago - isn’t a stable system that’s up to speed with where the good things were five years ago even better?
Running up-to-date software gives me far less problems than running software full of bugs that were fixed 5 years ago, personally. If you find a new bug, you can at least report it and hope to see it fixed in the next update. You find bugs that were fixed years ago, but the fixed version isn’t in your repo, and then you have to start building things yourself.