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EnglishWhat Is Distrodle and What Can You Do on the Site?
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Distrodle is a browser-based Linux distribution guessing game with a terminal look, inspired by Pokedle and Loldle. You pick a difficulty, type a distro name, and each guess is graded across 12 attributes until every cell turns green. The same site also hosts Distrodex, a searchable catalog and family tree of the Linux and BSD distros used in the game, so it works as both a game and a reference lookup. You play in the browser with no account or download mentioned on the page.
How a Round Works
- Choose a difficulty in the filters panel. The default is Hard.
- Type a distribution name into the guess field and submit it.
- Read the color-coded result for each of the 12 attributes.
- Repeat until all cells are green, or use New Game to skip and reveal the answer.
The 12 graded attributes are: Distro name, Paid, Init system, Release model, Parent distro, Package manager, Difficulty, Year released, Desktop, Popularity, Architecture, and Category.
Reading the Feedback
| Color | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Green | Exact match |
| Yellow | Partial match — values overlap, such as a shared category or family |
| Red | No match |
The Year column works differently from the rest. The number is followed by an arrow: ↑ means the target distro was released later than your guess, ↓ means it was released earlier. Use it to narrow down the era rather than expecting a plain match.
Difficulty Levels and Toggles
Difficulty controls how deep the pool goes, based on minimum popularity:
| Level | Pool |
|---|---|
| Very Easy | High and Very High popularity only — a handful of the most famous distros |
| Easy | Adds Medium popularity |
| Medium | Adds Low popularity — a noticeably bigger pool |
| Hard | Also includes Low popularity, weighted toward less common distros (default) |
| Extreme | The complete Linux catalog, including Very Low popularity, router OSes, and obscure distros |
Two separate toggles sit on top of difficulty:
- Beyond Linux adds BSD and UNIX distributions to the pool, such as FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, Illumos, and AIX.
- Discontinued adds retired distros to whichever pool you selected.
Hints and Skipping
Every 5 wrong guesses, the game reveals one attribute of the target distro as a toast notification. These are useful when you are stuck between a few similar candidates.
New Game skips the current round and shows the previous answer. Skipping after you have already guessed counts as a loss, so treat it as a reset rather than a free pass.
Distrodex: The Reference Side
Distrodex, found in the options panel, is a searchable family tree of every distro in the game. It offers a tree view and a card view, plus filters by category. The categories listed include Desktop, Server, Gaming, Security / Forensics, Enterprise, Router / Firewall, Minimal / Embedded, Privacy, Container, Source-based, Mobile, and Live / Recovery.
This is the part of the site to use when you want to look up a distro's parent, package manager, or release model outside of a round — for example, when you need to confirm whether a distro belongs to the Debian family before your next guess.
Who It Suits
- Linux newcomers can start at Very Easy and use Distrodex to learn families and package managers as they play.
- Experienced users can pick Extreme with Beyond Linux and Discontinued enabled for a much wider pool.
- Anyone needing a quick lookup can skip the game and search Distrodex directly.
The page does not state pricing or login requirements, so treat access details as unconfirmed beyond what is described here.