zdnet[.]com/article/you-can-test-all-the-best-linux-distros-right-in-your-web-browser-with-this-site/
Win10's approaching the end of support, while the number, severity, and frequency of Windows problems only seem to be increasing. If you can live with it -- not all Windows software can be run, or has a Linux substitute -- Linux is an increasingly viable solution. But for most people Linux is just something we read about. It's different, maybe even a little bit scary, and so we usually try & stay away. A web site called DistroSea is trying to break the ice. distrosea[.]com
Linux is open source, so anybody can change it -- as a result there are a Huge number of varieties or flavors, each a bit different from the others, though the underlying OS is always the same. DistroSea lets you take many of these distributions [distros] for a test run in the browser window to test it out, see what it's like.
How it worksDistroSea uses a distribution ISO and a script from the Quickemu project to boot the OS. Once started, it uses a web-based VNC client to connect to the distribution so you can interact with the operating system from within your browser as if the OS was installed locally.
You don't actually see any of this happening, nor do you have to do anything besides select the distribution you want to try, select the version of the distribution (such as GNOME or KDE). Once you've selected your distribution and version, you will be informed if there's a wait time (I was in position 8 when I started with a 1-minute wait time. You can click Start at any time, but your distribution won't open until the wait time has passed.
When the wait time expires, you can click Continue to be taken to the setup wizard for your distro of choice. The setup wizard requires you to select a language, accept the license, choose a timezone and date/clock/time zone settings, and a keyboard layout. When that is complete, the OS will boot, and you'll be ready to go.
I noticed that wait times were longer as the morning continued, and performance waned a bit. This is obviously a result of the service getting busier by the minute. That means when you try Distrosea will determine how well it performs. After a failed attempt at running Ubuntu 24.04, I tried again (knowing the service was busier than when I first started at around 7 AM EST). I had set the quality to below the halfway mark to see if that would help this time. Fortunately, Ubuntu 24.04 ran much better during the second attempt. There was still quite a bit of lag, but it was good enough that I could imagine someone new to Linux would get a good idea of what it was all about.The one caveat is that I wasn't able to get a network connection. My guess is that the lack of networking is by design. I'm certain the owner of Distrosea doesn't want people abusing the service. One could easily start a distro, do bad things, and close it out, getting away with whatever shenanigans they pulled off.