Suggest a "Which Distro?" Sticky

[Can O' Beans]

With the ever abundant ;) "Which Distro?..." threads in General that pop up every few hours, I think it might be good to have a SINGLE thread stickied to cover this.

First post could list some distros, simple descriptions, then let users ask their specific questions in that thread. After a few pages, most people would have all the info they need and hopefully wouldn't have to ask anything. If they do, just add to the end of that thread.

Same idea might apply to the "which window manager" and other very commonly asked questions.

Personally, I would look something up using the little known ;) Search feature and if most of it is available in single threads, that would be better. A few other forums I frequent use stickies to much success.

[JockVSJock]

I think that the 'Sticky' idea is a great idea. I know that after you visit this website after awhile, you tend to get annoyed seeing the same questions posted over and over again.

Wouldn't it be great to have those questions right at the start that way it would cut down on duplication?

I believe that Anti-Online (http://www.antionline.com/index.php)
does this to cut down and organize the newbie questions in their forums.

thanks

-Chris

[2damncommon]

You are missing the reason there are so many threads.
There is always a post in any long thread that says, I haven't got time to read this, just tell ME the answer.
Each new "which distro" poster thinks his question is somwhow different from all the others.
The answer is in them deciding on and trying a distro. The question cannot be answered, only argued.

[X_console]

Unfortunately most people don't want to read. I make that comment based on experience. I have a sign posted on my office door that says "I am not Tech Support" and the sign on the office right beside my office reads "Tech Support Office". Guess which door they knock on first? Then there's a sign on the fire exit door that reads "Do not open. Alarm will sound". Someone opens it at least three times a week.

I've stopped posting in the "What distro is best" threads. Why? Simple. My distro is best. Although I'm certain everyone else will say that their distro is best. So whose is the best then? No one's. And so the poster is back at square one. So in the end my contribution was of no use.

We already have an NHF on this. Personally I think if the person doesn't want to make an effort to read it, then they're on their own. After all, if 20 people posted their thoughts on what distro was best, wouldn't that involve reading it as well? Why not just read the NHF in the first place? It's certainly more well organized than a number of randomly chaotic posts.

[pauper]

I have a post in this forum which is exactly along these lines. Perhaps no-one has read it, or perhaps they took my dry humour at the end of it too seriously *grin*

Anyway, we all agree, people aren't going to RTFM unless they absolutely have to. That is why I suggested a polls forum where everyone could vote for their favourite distro/file manager/whatever.

Make it a forum so the moderator can add a choice to the list of options when a new one comes out (or take one off if it disappears), but it will be somewhere the newbies (yep, me too) can go to see what everyone else is using.

Sure, it won't stop the questions, but it will sure make them easier to answer!

On the other hand. look at the poll question in my post (http://linuxnewbie.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=79245) - lots of views but not a single response to date! Maybe Florida was just an indiaction of the way the world is heading! (for the non-US users, that refers to the last US presidential elections)

Have a good one peoples!