Consider making secureblue the recommended beginner Linux distro

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Currently, PG just recommends Fedora Workstation for beginners to Linux. Especially once Windows 10 goes EoL, this will likely sway people to start recommending this distro to friends and family. I would personally want the non-techies around me to have a bit more threat protection by default.

Secureblue is also arguably more usable than Workstation, as it recommends easy-to-install Flatpaks, has convenient ujust commands, and comes with a Chromium browser which leads to increased website compatibility. Its immutability and rollback features mitigate breakage

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I wouldn’t describe Secure Blue as more user friendly in its current state but I think it has potential to be for sure. One day we’ll probably change that but I just don’t think the usability is there yet.

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There are too many quirks to recommend it for beginners, a lot of common software still requires troubleshooting and using the terminal.

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As a beginner, I can say with complete confidence that immutable distros are not for noobs. I gave Silverblue a try, what a mistake that was.

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I understand, and I guess it’ll have to be some months until it’s accessible, but isn’t troubleshooting and terminal usage a thing with every Linux distro?

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Somewhat yes, however with secureblue some apps that function perfectly on Fedora Silverblue/Workstation don’t work correctly requiring additional troubleshooting.

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I think there’s significantly more troubleshooting needed for Secureblue compared to Silverblue and Workstation. I have secureblue as a guest os and I never use it because most of my apps do not open. I would consider myself a less-than-average Linux user, so to even suggest newcomers use this OS is not a good idea FWIW.

I do not know why you think Secureblue is more usable than Workstation on the basis that it provides Flatpaks, since Workstation also has Flatpaks too.. I would also think many of them break, but this is only from personal experience from my guest OS. I also do not understand the argument for greater website compatibility. I think other OS default Firefoxes work fine for most websites?

Other than these things, I agree with you that “non-techies” should have more “threat protection” by default. Sadly, Linux is not a great solution for non-techies to get default threat protection. If their goals are for threat protection, then this OS belongs where it is, in the “security-focused” distros. If their goals are “default threat protections”, this is not good for them.

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Their docs explicitly recommend Flatpaks, while on Workstation the recommendation is unclear.

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I do not think documentation regarding advice counts towards usability. Unless you mean something else? I was thinking of the tech that the OS provides and how useable that is.

In any case, Silverblue also recommends using Flatpaks, and it is much more useable. So I still do not agree that usability is a point towards Secureblue.

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I don’t see flatpaks as any easier to install than other package formats. If anything they are slightly less straightforward. But realistically this doesn’t matter much to non-technical people and beginners since they’ll most likely just use a GUI that abstracts away most of the differences (“search > click > click > done”).

  • Fedora:dnf install <package>
  • Debian/Ubuntu:apt install <package>
  • OpenSUSE: zypper install <package>
  • Snap:snap install <package>

versus

  • Flatpak: flatpak install <tld.domain.app>

Tbf, Flatpak has automatic search capabilities these days, so if you don’t know the full tld.domain.app you can use a common name and most likely find what you are looking for. But I don’t really understand why it would be considered easier to install a flatpak than an rpm or debian package from official repos. But maybe I’m misunderstanding the context in which you meant that it is ‘easier’ or possibly you are making a comparison to a distro/package format you don’t have personal experience with?

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Same. I have yet to find a distro where I don’t have to play settings for 30 minutes or look up some reddit thread from 6 years ago to just get mundane things to work. Its why I always sadly end up back on Windows, at some point I want to use my computer not just configure it.

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One quick look at the FAQ section and GitHub Issues reveals much of the problems with this approach.

Even if flatpaks are not that difficult, most beginner Linux users will be confused at why an online Linux tutorial or their favorite app cannot work on their SecureBlue installation.

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I don’t like the idea of recommend SecureBlue as beginner friendly. You can’t really use it as universal distro for all, there are too many user restrictions.

It isn’t like GrapheneOS where it more a universal win for all. GrapheneOS don’t really restrict the user on how to use the phone.

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