Best Linux OS?

[RandomUser]

I have used Xandros Linux in the past, it behaves much like Windows did back in the day. However no longer being supported. It was given as a gift, so I didn't buy it.

 

[Nightwish]

They wouldn't investigate me anyways unless I've been flagged as a suspicious individual which I might've been because naive and gullible people on the Internet who think they're so terribly interesting that the government spies on them infuriate me so much that I just want to blow up with the force of a billion atom bombs. There isn't a hard drive large enough to store the entire Internet, guys - it's just not happening.

Remove videos and yes, there is and it's in Utah.
You're not paying attention, it's irrelevant if you're interesting or not, you're there because they can. Hope you don't piss off off anyone who works there by chance, either. Or anyone who works in the FBI or the police for that matter, it's not like there are controls in any of this.
EDIT: And we're only a few years away from information being mined much more effectively for much more interesting data and "somehow" leaking to your insurance company, your bank and your potential employers. I don't think you have any idea about what data mining can do.

 

[Foxi4]

Remove videos and yes, there is and it's in Utah.
You're not paying attention, it's irrelevant if you're interesting or not, you're there because they can. Hope you don't piss off off anyone who works there by chance, either. Or anyone who works in the FBI or the police for that matter, it's not like there are controls in any of this.

Fearmongering and poppycock. Let's get back on-topic instead of derailing this thread with conspiracy theories.

 

[jurassicplayer]

...government spies...I just want to blow up with the force of a billion atom bombs...

Congrats, welcome to their watchlist.

There still isn't a best Linux distro. It's Linux. Pick your distro according to how lazy you are and how up-to-date you want it to be (optionally, consider what package manager you like).
If you are lazy and want rolling release: Antergos, Manjaro, Sabayon, Debian Sid, etc.
If you are less lazy and want rolling release: Archlinux, Gentoo, Slackware, etc.
If you are a prick that wants to start from the beginning: Linux From Scratch

If you are lazy and want stable release: Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Elementary OS, Solus, etc.
If you are less lazy and want stable release: Any of the minimal installs.

 

[Nightwish]

Fearmongering and poppycock. Let's get back on-topic instead of derailing this thread with conspiracy theories.

It's not like evidence for any of this is hard to find

Alright, back on topic, ArchLinux is a pain to administer, you better be on top of what changes are coming if you don't want to someday find an unbootable and unfixable mess.

 

[jurassicplayer]

...ArchLinux is a pain to administer, you better be on top of what changes are coming if you don't want to someday find an unbootable and unfixable mess.

It's really just...check Archlinux.org for all really important changes, check said packages to make sure they are fixed to match what those changes are, and update everything.

 

[Foxi4]

Congrats, welcome to their watchlist.

Hey, if there's some attractive agents out there interested then they can be on my list too! I'm a fun guy, a real blast on parties! *wink*

Seriously though, if we're talking casual desktop use then despite the apparent multitude of Linux and Unix-based systems there really isn't a lot to choose from for the casual user. Unless you're a power user and you don't mind compiling stuff 24/7, living in the command line/console and administrating everything all the time you can only choose from a handful, the most popular being Ubuntu which is bloated and Mint which seems to be the preferred alternative. There's others like Fedora or Debian, but they seem to be outshone by the former two.

It's really just...check Archlinux.org for all really important changes, check said packages to make sure they are fixed to match what those changes are, and update everything.

See, that's just busy work - something a casual user shouldn't have to do. That's already diverting precious time to something other than the work you want to do, so it automatically interrupts your workflow.

 

[jurassicplayer]

See, that's just busy work - something a casual user shouldn't have to do. That's already diverting precious time to something other than the work you want to do, so it automatically interrupts your workflow.

I can't see how it's really any different from other distros. If the package has a change, it has a change. It's not like the distro is going to bin your config because they have a newer one. Some distros might still have an older version, but eventually they will update their shit too.

 

[Foxi4]

I can't see how it's really any different from other distros. If the package has a change, it has a change. It's not like the distro is going to bin your config because they have a newer one. Some distros might still have an older version, but eventually they will update their shit too.

Pretty sure that both Ubuntu and Mint have this kind of stuff automated, but I wouldn't know, I don't use Linux much. I like muh Windows - lets me spend less time getting my computer to work and more time on actually working.

 

[Nightwish]

It's really just...check Archlinux.org for all really important changes, check said packages to make sure they are fixed to match what those changes are, and update everything.

That's what I said, you have to be on top of it. And it's not always trivial either, and you can't wait to update when you have the time, because other updates will be posted and after a while an update has no chance of working anyway.
Ok, so maybe that only happened once, but now I have an internet connected plug computer that I don't have the patience to update but has a really vulnerable ssh version (that I usually don't use, so whatever for now. And hey, my ISP's router is probably full of holes and running a Chinese botnet anyway).

I should really get around to replacing it with a Pi...

 

[grossaffe]

Personally, I use Xubuntu. Used to use Ubuntu back in the Gnome 2.0 days, but then came the Unity Desktop Environment. Xubuntu is nice, though, XFCE is a nice lightweight desktop environment and easy to work with and customize.

 

[jurassicplayer]

...have this kind of stuff automated... I like muh Windows - lets me spend less time getting my computer to work and more time on actually working.

My windows partition is shit. Fairly fresh install with no irregular programs or stuff that next to nobody uses and yet it still wants to BSOD on me with "Bad Pool Caller" every so often. Thankfully they have a solution which consists of "that problem actually has a variety of possible reasons, so you would probably have to hand off the dumped files to someone who can understand it" aka, I'm not fixing shit. Between Windows and Linux, for me it's more like do all of your computer setup shit once, and if you break something with the shit you went out and got yourself, it's your own retarded shit that is broken VS setup your computer shit once, and if IT breaks, then it could be your retarded shit, or it could be something else, and it may be easy to solve, or you might have to hand off file dumps to your nearest computer wiz.


Linux distros don't normally automate changing stuff like your configurations with brand new ones (they have a separate place for all package defaults and then your custom configs are usually in your own home directory), and when major shit happens (ex: migrating to systemd), they tell you about it and what you should do.

...you have to be on top of it...not always trivial either...can't wait to update when you have the time, because other updates will be posted and after a while an update has no chance of working anyway...but now I have an internet connected plug computer that I don't have the patience to update but has a really vulnerable ssh version...

Updating for any Linux box is kind of like that. Windows just kind of hides the part you have to be on top of. I once had an "update" that broke a doujin game's video player before and so I wrote a note to myself to remember to never install that update.

 

[Foxi4]

My windows partition is shit. Fairly fresh install with no irregular programs or stuff that next to nobody uses and yet it still wants to BSOD on me with "Bad Pool Caller" every so often. Thankfully they have a solution which consists of "that problem actually has a variety of possible reasons, so you would probably have to hand off the dumped files to someone who can understand it" aka, I'm not fixing shit. Between Windows and Linux, for me it's more like do all of your computer setup shit once, and if you break something with the shit you went out and got yourself, it's your own retarded shit that is broken VS setup your computer shit once, and if IT breaks, then it could be your retarded shit, or it could be something else, and it may be easy to solve, or you might have to hand off file dumps to your nearest computer wiz.

Ah, it's been a while since I've seen a BSOD... Then again, most of my PC maintenance is automated and whenever I setup someone's PC (I'm that wiz you were talking about) I set it up the same way, so I suppose I'm not in the risk group for this sort of thing.

 

[Flame]

Ubuntu or Mint.

This people who says it doesn't work, have never used Linux distro in they life.

 

[The Catboy]

I can't believe I missed this thread! It's my time to shine! I've have used more Linux Distros and OS's than most people know existed and can safely say I know of the of the best of the best.
Personally some of the ones I enjoyed the most would be Linux Mint, OpenSUSE, Fedora, Sabayon Linux, Bodhi Linux, Mageia, Manjaro, PCLinuxOS, and finally Xubuntu.
But the one I say is the best in my opinion is Chakra GNU/Linux.
Chakra OS is an independent half-rolling release Linux distro inspired/split from Arch Linux.
Chakra is up to date, without sacrificing stability and usability. Chakra uses a half-rolling release system, which means the application layer is always rolling, well the core stays stable, but it also means that you never have to re-install your OS. Chakra is community driven and actively listens to their community (no really, I had a problem, figured out how to fix it, and they added it to the core.) Compared to Ubuntu, which takes some advice, but for the most part is mostly driven by Canonical Ltd. Which Canonical Ltd. also added apps like Amazon and online search, that monitor your computer for targeted ads.Crystal the Glaceon
Chakra OS is a lot faster than Ubuntu. On my Acer C7 Chromebook (Running SeaBios, 1.1Ghz Dual-Core Intel CPU, and 4GB DDR3 RAM,) it only takes 5 seconds to boot up and about 20 seconds to boot to desktop. Compared to Ubuntu, which takes about 40 seconds to boot and almost a complete minute to boot Unity. Sure there's ways to speed it up, but that requires more work, compared to just working right out of the box.
Chakra also has proper hardware detection, compared to Ubuntu, so it's easier to set up and get running.
What do you loose? Chakra is newer with a smaller community, so they don't have all the apps as Ubuntu, but it's growing thanks to the CCR (Chakra Community Repo.) You can also install AUR apps with an app called AUR2CCR to expand the App selection.
It's core focus is being GTK-free and 64-Bit focused but they still provide popular apps like GIMP, Steam, Skype, ect.
It does require some knowledge of Linux because of the size of the community, so if something breaks and you can't find it in the forums, you might be on your own or hope another can help figure out the problem.
But outside of those problems, I've never run into stability problems, which is actually something I did have with Ubuntu. And most common fixes work just fine, so any problems I did run into were easily fixed.
Seriously Chakra Linux is worth a look at if you just want something that is KDE-Focused, Desktop focused, and actually truly transparent. It's a small distro, but it's slowly growing every day!

 

[lampdemon]

I'm lazy and don't like crapware, Ubuntu with Xfce is perfect for me. As for the best, probably Gentoo, you can build it how you please.

Still use windows for games though.