What Are the 12 Attributes Distrodle Compares in Each Guess?

Updated

Distrodle grades every guess across 12 attributes, and you solve a round by turning all 12 cells green — meaning your guess matches the hidden distro on every one. The attributes are: distro name, paid status, init system, release model, parent distro, package manager, difficulty, year released, desktop, popularity, architecture, and category. Each cell is colored green (exact match), yellow (partial match), or red (no match), so the grid works as a process of elimination rather than a single yes/no answer.

The 12 attributes at a glance

Attribute What it describes How to read a partial (yellow) match
Distro name The distribution itself Exact identity only — green or red
Paid Whether the distro is commercial/paid Overlapping commercial status
Init system e.g. systemd vs. alternatives Shared init family
Release model Fixed vs. rolling-style release Overlapping model
Parent distro The upstream it derives from Shared family/lineage
Package manager e.g. apt, pacman, rpm-based Overlapping package tooling
Difficulty The game's own difficulty tier Adjacent tiers
Year released When the target first appeared Shown with an arrow, not a color alone
Desktop Default desktop environment Shared desktop family
Popularity How well-known the distro is Neighboring popularity bands
Architecture Supported CPU architectures Overlapping architecture sets
Category e.g. desktop, server, router, security Shared category

How the comparison actually works

Each row compares your guess to the hidden target attribute by attribute. Green means the values are identical. Red means they don't match at all. Yellow is the interesting case: it signals that the two values overlap rather than being equal — for example, a shared category or a shared family/lineage. The site's own help text gives "a shared category or family" as the example, so treat yellow as "you're in the right neighborhood, narrow it down."

The Year column is different

Year released doesn't just go green or red. The number is followed by an arrow: ↑ means the target was released later than your guess, and ↓ means it was released earlier. Use the arrow to bracket the era before you worry about the exact year.

Hints fill in attributes for you

Every 5 wrong guesses, the game reveals one attribute of the target as a toast. That revealed attribute is effectively a free green cell — spend hints when a particular column (often parent distro or package manager) is stalling you.

A quick worked example

Suppose your guess shows green on Category: Desktop and Package manager, yellow on Parent distro, and a ↓ on Year. Read it as: you're in the right desktop/package family, the lineage is close but not exact, and the target is older than what you typed. Your next guess should keep the green columns fixed and pick an older distro from the same family — not a random new one.

Practical tips for reading the grid

  • Lock in greens first. Once a column is green, only guess distros that preserve it.
  • Use yellow as a family signal. A yellow parent distro or category tells you the answer shares lineage or purpose with your guess.
  • Bracket the year early. The ↑/↓ arrows are the fastest way to shrink the pool before you burn guesses.
  • Check the Distrodex. The searchable family tree in the options panel lists every distro in the game, so you can look up parents, categories, and release years instead of guessing blind.
  • Remember the pool depends on your settings. Difficulty and the Discontinued / Beyond Linux toggles change which distros can be the target, so the same clue can point to different answers across modes.