Where to turn for support with other distros?

[borg101]

So, in the past year or so since I completely ditched Windows I've played with a ton of different distrobutions. Regardless of popularity, I seem to have trouble getting any help on their respective forums. Is there a subforum here where I may post questions regarding other distrobutions? You folks are the only ones that seem to have a regular and active community. I'd say a solid 90% of my questions get answered within a few hours or maybe after a day or two. Even with similar large distros like Ubuntu, I think maybe 75% of my questions go unanswered/unviewed.

[Moem]

Have you tried https://www.linuxquestions.org/ ? It seems plenty active.

Here on the Mint forum, we don't have a subforum for support with other distros. You could post in 'Chat about Linux' and we'd probably let your postings stand, provided it doesn't get out of hand, but how many useful answers you would get is anybody's guess.

[xenopeek]

Moved here as this isn't about Linux Mint.

While it's fine to discuss general Linux things in our Chat about Linux forum and occasionally discussion about another distro is fine, and we appreciate the vote of confidence, this board is for Linux Mint support. Other distros have their own support channels.

If you can't get the support you need on the forums of other distros, check that you are asking your questions the way they expect (we have guidelines for that viewtopic.php?f=17&t=83444). The linuxquestions is a good suggestion for a forum that caters to multi-distro support.

[Pierre]

some of the smaller / less known Linux Systems,
- often don't have any Support Forum, or their Support Forum is basically inactive.
But, there are more generic Support Forums like Linux Questions OR Just Linux OR Linux Forums
that often will support these smaller / less known Linux Systems.

[Hoser Rob]

If it's a Ubuntu based distro, they have a section for other distros. BTW Ubuntu has the BEST user support, period, esp. for newbies where nothing else is even close (I'm an ex ubuntu user at the moment btw). But the Other Distros section support isn't as good as the regular section.

It's so good that it's not unusual for users of other distros to ask questions there and modify the system info/reports they give to try and make it look like it's really Ubuntu. I've seen Mint users that were recognizable from this forum doing it because they couldn't get an answer here.

I'm not suggesting you do that ... for one thing, the experts there can tell that you're doing it.

If that doesn't apply you'll have to use the distro's own support site. It may be non existent or very poor. Too many to mention there. Or sometimes they have actually have excellent support but their focus is expert users and they won't hold noob hands. Arch and Debian come to mind ... if you ask the typical noob question as in here or ubunutforums they'll just suggest you install ubuntu or mint.

If you want to try some distro hopping (I used to but you get tired of that), the best advice I know of is to look at their support sites first and if that doesn't look promising don't install it. Actually I think that'd be good practise for all complex software.

[borg101]

If it's a Ubuntu based distro, they have a section for other distros. BTW Ubuntu has the BEST user support, period, esp. for newbies where nothing else is even close (I'm an ex ubuntu user at the moment btw). But the Other Distros section support isn't as good as the regular section.

It's so good that it's not unusual for users of other distros to ask questions there and modify the system info/reports they give to try and make it look like it's really Ubuntu. I've seen Mint users that were recognizable from this forum doing it because they couldn't get an answer here.

I'm not suggesting you do that ... for one thing, the experts there can tell that you're doing it.

If that doesn't apply you'll have to use the distro's own support site. It may be non existent or very poor. Too many to mention there. Or sometimes they have actually have excellent support but their focus is expert users and they won't hold noob hands. Arch and Debian come to mind ... if you ask the typical noob question as in here or ubunutforums they'll just suggest you install ubuntu or mint.

If you want to try some distro hopping (I used to but you get tired of that), the best advice I know of is to look at their support sites first and if that doesn't look promising don't install it. Actually I think that'd be good practise for all complex software.

Our experiences are very different then. I have probably 25-30 posts on Ubuntu forums and I'd say a solid 15 of them have between 0 and 5 views and maybe 5 of have been answered. Here I have over a hundred posts, each with 50 to well over 100 views and almost every one has been answered or, at the very least, directed me to a resource that could. I use Mint on my laptop as my daily driver, but on my HTPC I'm constantly switching because I find flaws or problems that I am unable to correct.

[lmuserx4849]

So, in the past year or so since I completely ditched Windows I've played with a ton of different distrobutions. Regardless of popularity, I seem to have trouble getting any help on their respective forums. Is there a subforum here where I may post questions regarding other distrobutions? You folks are the only ones that seem to have a regular and active community. I'd say a solid 90% of my questions get answered within a few hours or maybe after a day or two. Even with similar large distros like Ubuntu, I think maybe 75% of my questions go unanswered/unviewed.

Stick with the popular distros or the distro they are based on. Community is one of those things that differentiates distros.

Besides info already presented, try one of the stack sites: Stack Exchange (Ubuntu, Unix/Linux, Super User).

[sammiev]

If it's a Ubuntu based distro, they have a section for other distros. BTW Ubuntu has the BEST user support, period, esp. for newbies where nothing else is even close (I'm an ex ubuntu user at the moment btw). But the Other Distros section support isn't as good as the regular section.

It's so good that it's not unusual for users of other distros to ask questions there and modify the system info/reports they give to try and make it look like it's really Ubuntu. I've seen Mint users that were recognizable from this forum doing it because they couldn't get an answer here.

I'm not suggesting you do that ... for one thing, the experts there can tell that you're doing it.

If that doesn't apply you'll have to use the distro's own support site. It may be non existent or very poor. Too many to mention there. Or sometimes they have actually have excellent support but their focus is expert users and they won't hold noob hands. Arch and Debian come to mind ... if you ask the typical noob question as in here or ubunutforums they'll just suggest you install ubuntu or mint.

If you want to try some distro hopping (I used to but you get tired of that), the best advice I know of is to look at their support sites first and if that doesn't look promising don't install it. Actually I think that'd be good practise for all complex software.

Our experiences are very different then. I have probably 25-30 posts on Ubuntu forums and I'd say a solid 15 of them have between 0 and 5 views and maybe 5 of have been answered. Here I have over a hundred posts, each with 50 to well over 100 views and almost every one has been answered or, at the very least, directed me to a resource that could. I use Mint on my laptop as my daily driver, but on my HTPC I'm constantly switching because I find flaws or problems that I am unable to correct.

The view count at Ubuntu dosn't work and hasn't in a very long time. There is post there with 1 view and 10 or 20 post. lol

[sevendogs]

So, in the past year or so since I completely ditched Windows I've played with a ton of different distrobutions. Regardless of popularity, I seem to have trouble getting any help on their respective forums. Is there a subforum here where I may post questions regarding other distrobutions? You folks are the only ones that seem to have a regular and active community. I'd say a solid 90% of my questions get answered within a few hours or maybe after a day or two. Even with similar large distros like Ubuntu, I think maybe 75% of my questions go unanswered/unviewed.

It depends on the distro. Some small, "unheard of" distros have a vibrant community, others do not. My favorite distro besides Mint is Void Linux. It is not a "just works" distro and requires a bit of manual intervention but has a great community and questions get answered in hours, or seconds if you are on IRC. Gentoo is similar: active community. Before switching, if that is what you are doing, I would check out the communities first, or at least include them in whatever criteria you have for what constitutes (to you) a good Linux distro.

[Hoser Rob]

... You folks are the only ones that seem to have a regular and active community. ...

That's not true, but this is one of the better ones, and Ubuntu and Mint are the only decent ones for beginners.

... Even with similar large distros like Ubuntu, I think maybe 75% of my questions go unanswered/unviewed.

Ubuntuforums is the best, period, but you do have to learn how to ask questions. Once you do they get answered, and they have a ton of real experts. More so than a lot of distros like RHEL that you pay for. But you have to know how to ask, and show you're done some research on your own first.

The truth bis that on Linux forums you have people who have the patience to read posts by people who can't explain the problem but don't have the knowledge to answer them. And you have those who do have the expertise but haven't the patience to read gibberish.

[sevendogs]

Hoser Rob hit the nail on the head: you have to know how to ask questions. Not saying the OP doesn't but I see question after question from folks who just don't know how to ask something so the folks reading can effectively answer.