I think GNOME looks very visually appealing with it’s consistency. The Libadwaita library has a nice aesthetic and looks very clean with nice spacing for elements to “breathe”.

I still prefer KDE since I can tailor the look to my needs and I prefer to have clutter over extra clicks. (I have top bar with “Opened programs”, Launcher, System tray, Time and a global menu and KWin script for managing Activities)

I feel like modern era of design has gone a bit overboard with the “clean” direction. It can be contrasted with Windows XP where you click “All programs” and you literally get all programs in the start menu with options of how to run or open them. I prefer to do “Menu” - > “Submenu” - > “Thing I want”.

Come to think of it I should probably make a launcher for KDE.

I think in that case they would say they accept paper.

People have jinxed it 20 years in a row

THE YEAR OF THE LINUX DESKTOP

No, we have to post these when it’s the year of the Linux desktop

Yeah, you’re overthinking it. Installing a single program is a “use sparingly” situation.

Yeah, exactly. If a person asks for a recommendation they don’t trust their own skills enough to make their own decision or distrohop.

I feel like a website is needed to recommend a distro to people based on a very varied set of criteria that doesn’t just ask “Do you like stability over all? Debian”

Anybody that already has had a computer for 2 years and is coming from Windows will have almost no problems with Mint. Stability is top priority for first time Linux users and you need some visual guide with screenshots. Mint also has a great default look and setup for people coming from Windows. Mint is probably the best distro to put on your mom’s old laptop that is “getting slow” because of viruses.

I’d recommend KDE Neon or Ubuntu also depending on the situation but if I don’t know anything about the person and computer I’d say Mint.

Because most self hosted things are free already. It doesn’t apply to FOSS.