Ask Linux

I think your example of Mint as someone coming from Windows is a good example how distros differ and why people switch because Mint isn’t necessarily the best for everyone coming from Windows in every case. ZorinOS looks and feels more like Windows 10. So for someone who wants that same feel but maybe they don’t want the Microsoft telemetry, ZorinOS is a good fit for them. Whereas Mint is better for someone who doesn’t want any of it and wants a new OS but wants the simplicity of a UI. Then you have AuduinOS made by a former Microsoft dev that looks even more like Windows 11, like almost an exact copy in a lot of ways. With ZorinOS being more like Windows 10.

And then you have the others like Pop_OS!, Bazzite, SteamOS, CachyOS, and Nobara that are gaming focused and include things like Steam installed or given the option to install Steam when you install your OS.

And then you have others like Arch that give more choices but can feel intimidating. Some people want their hand held during installation whereas others want to be given X Y and Z as options they get to set up all on their own.

And then you have some like immutable distros like Bazzite and SteamOS that give you the freedom of Linux but with a more stable experience. You can’t change too too much, but you can change more than Windows.

Some people want GNOME, some want KDE Plasma, some want Cinnamon, some want X11 and some want Wayland, some want GRUB and some want…so many layers of options to choose from and different distros offer different combinations to choose from. I’ve hopped around on distros and gotten used to these just by checking them out. In some cases, I hopped to a distro just to see what the fuss was about like with VanillaOS which had tons of features, but ultimately wasn’t my thing since it didn’t come with something I wanted out of the box and I didn’t feel like configuring it on my own.