Linux users, what distro do you use and why?

[Deleted member 397813]

I want to find a good distro to use, what do you recommend?

 

[Lacius]

For slow or old computers: antiX
For everything else: MX Linux, Manjaro, or Linux Mint probably

I personally like Linux Mint when I'm not using Windows.

 

[Kioku]

Manjaro. Just something I've stuck with over the past few years. I've used Mint, Ubuntu and Elementary. Just stuck with Manjaro. Don't really have a specific reason.

 

[FAST6191]

Rarely will I deviate from https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major unless I need a specialist distro, which I normally don't or all the packages I can happily install anyway.

On there. I installed arch once to say I did, though http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/ is a better learning experience.
More generally something in the debian side of things, though will occasionally do a centos just to keep somewhat current on the server things they do and opensuse because why not.

Mostly was mint, including as a primary OS, but these days I thought I would jump to mx linux for a giggle -- blindly grabbed and did a "upgrade" (read saved my fonts, browser setup and all my docs are on another partition anyway).

As far as speedy or not then I tend not to find much between the OSes themselves as much as what desktop environment you use and my preferred is probably going to be XFCE. For the really old stuff then I would probably go with puppy linux http://puppylinux.com/

 

[saygi]

try ubuntu it's really nice. you can run most linux distro's without installing them.

 

[Deleted User]

I like Mint the most. It protects your privacy, has automatic updates, is easy to use and supports drive encryption.

 

[Physix]

If you're looking for a Windows alternative for just browsing and email, I can recommend Linux Mint, simply because it's very user friendly. For gaming and stuff, you should try out Manjaro Linux.
On the server side, I'm still using Debian to this day.

 

[Jayro]

I dual-boot Windows 10 with Linux Mint 20. It's fast, it's very Windows-like, it's a well-rounded OS, it's got like 98% Ubuntu support backing it, and it's reliable. If my Windows takes a dump, I can boot into Linux Mint and move my files if I need to before and after a Windows reinstall.

 

[Flame]

I dual-boot Windows 10 with Linux Mint 20. It's fast, it's very Windows-like, it's a well-rounded OS, it's got like 98% Ubuntu support backing it, and it's reliable. If my Windows takes a dump, I can boot into Linux Mint and move my files if I need to before and after a Windows reinstall.

We get this thread every few months and i say same story as Jayro.


its like we stuck in a boot loop.

 

[matpower]

I've been using Fedora with Plasma since forever as my desktop, I don't even have a physical Windows install anymore. IMO Fedora is one of the most underrated gems out there.

It has great stuff like:

• Cutting edge packages and technologies: Kernel/Mesa gets updates, apps are usually updated, flatpak over snapd, etc.
  
• Secure out of the box: SELinux is enabled, and so is the firewall (Ubuntu used to keep it off, not sure now)
• Works with upstream: No weird patches changing behavior, you can report straight to upstream most of the time.
  
• Great development tooling: Pretty much all of my devtools are packaged and updated. Debug packages are available so I can report bugs to upstream too (unlike Arch)
  
• It just works™: I don't need to worry about updates breaking. For casual users, Fedora Workstation has a working GNOME Software for flatpak, UEFI updates and RPM packages, decent OOTB packages and NVIDIA support is just a click away.

Minimal install and non-GNOME desktops environments are available too, if you want a more fine-tuned experience.
I also really like Debian, mostly for the opposite reasons, and run it in my server.

• Stable packages: Behavior stays the same, it doesn't download MBs of patches. Backports are available if I need something newer.
• Multiple branches: If I do need something newer, swapping to testing is a breeze and usually stable. Perfect for desktops.
  
• Great integration: It patches packages to provide a cohesive ecosystem. It is specially great when upstream has weird defaults.
• Runs everywhere: x86, x86_64, ARMv7, AARCH64, MIPS, PowerPC, you name it. There is even some non-Linux kernel ports available.
  
• It just works™: I never had a single issue updating a Debian system from a version to another, the changes are well documented too.

Maybe some day I'll migrate to CentOS, but for my server, I don't think I need 10 years of support lmao. Those two are the quintessential Linux experience IMO, covering pretty much all usecases.

As for other distros:

• Most "lightweight" distros (AntiX/MX Linux/etc) are usually Debian/Ubuntu based anyway, might as well get the real deal and just config it a bit to look nice. Debian XFCE looks ugly OOTB but it is just an "apt install arc-theme papirus-icon-theme" of looking modern.
• Manjaro is a mess of a distro with major mismanagement issues, and their "hold back packages" policy is nonsense. I had more issues with Manjaro than plain Arch (which just works except for "manual intervention" updates which gets posted here). Do yourself a favor and use an Arch installer, or learn to read, as the install guide is pretty easy to follow.
• Ubuntu is still nice, but I dislike snapd and prefer a more vanilla experience, so I don't use it anymore. Mint is a decent fork, as they do build some significant stuff in-house. So is PopOS, if you like GNOME.

 

[m3inard]

ubuntu very user friendly

 

[Deleted User]

I've been using Fedora with Plasma since forever as my desktop, I don't even have a physical Windows install anymore. IMO Fedora is one of the most underrated gems out there.

It has great stuff like:

• Cutting edge packages and technologies: Kernel/Mesa gets updates, apps are usually updated, flatpak over snapd, etc.
  
• Secure out of the box: SELinux is enabled, and so is the firewall (Ubuntu used to keep it off, not sure now)
• Works with upstream: No weird patches changing behavior, you can report straight to upstream most of the time.
  
• Great development tooling: Pretty much all of my devtools are packaged and updated. Debug packages are available so I can report bugs to upstream too (unlike Arch)
  
• It just works™: I don't need to worry about updates breaking. For casual users, Fedora Workstation has a working GNOME Software for flatpak, UEFI updates and RPM packages, decent OOTB packages and NVIDIA support is just a click away.

Minimal install and non-GNOME desktops environments are available too, if you want a more fine-tuned experience.
I also really like Debian, mostly for the opposite reasons, and run it in my server.

• Stable packages: Behavior stays the same, it doesn't download MBs of patches. Backports are available if I need something newer.
• Multiple branches: If I do need something newer, swapping to testing is a breeze and usually stable. Perfect for desktops.
  
• Great integration: It patches packages to provide a cohesive ecosystem. It is specially great when upstream has weird defaults.
• Runs everywhere: x86, x86_64, ARMv7, AARCH64, MIPS, PowerPC, you name it. There is even some non-Linux kernel ports available.
  
• It just works™: I never had a single issue updating a Debian system from a version to another, the changes are well documented too.

Maybe some day I'll migrate to CentOS, but for my server, I don't think I need 10 years of support lmao. Those two are the quintessential Linux experience IMO, covering pretty much all usecases.

As for other distros:

• Most "lightweight" distros (AntiX/MX Linux/etc) are usually Debian/Ubuntu based anyway, might as well get the real deal and just config it a bit to look nice. Debian XFCE looks ugly OOTB but it is just an "apt install arc-theme papirus-icon-theme" of looking modern.
• Manjaro is a mess of a distro with major mismanagement issues, and their "hold back packages" policy is nonsense. I had more issues with Manjaro than plain Arch (which just works except for "manual intervention" updates which gets posted here). Do yourself a favor and use an Arch installer, or learn to read, as the install guide is pretty easy to follow.
• Ubuntu is still nice, but I dislike snapd and prefer a more vanilla experience, so I don't use it anymore. Mint is a decent fork, as they do build some significant stuff in-house. So is PopOS, if you like GNOME.

Fedora always turned me off because of it's name. Now after using Arch for a couple of months, I distrohopped to Fedora and never looked back since. It's like a stable rolling-release distro; I love it.

 

[Joom]

Fedora always turned me off because of it's name. Now after using Arch for a couple of months, I distrohopped to Fedora and never looked back since. It's like a stable rolling-release distro; I love it.

A lot of people are salty with RHEL and those based on it (Fedora, CentOS) for the standardization of systemd. It's very antithetical to the Linux philosophy of freedom, but thanks to RHEL, it's the packaged init system in everything now as well as the bootloader in some distributions. Replacing it with something like init.d or RC scripts is a nightmare, too. Linus Torvalds even threw a public tantrum when RHEL took it upon themselves to standardize systemd. Maybe it's better now, but it's one of the big reasons why I stopped using Linux as a desktop OS a few years ago because it caused entirely too many headaches for a practical and productive environment.

 

[Deleted User]

A lot of people are salty with RHEL and those based on it (Fedora, CentOS) for the standardization of systemd. It's very antithetical to the Linux philosophy of freedom, but thanks to RHEL, it's the packaged init system in everything now as well as the bootloader in some distributions. Replacing it with something like init.d or RC scripts is a nightmare, too. Linus Torvalds even threw a public tantrum when RHEL took it upon themselves to standardize systemd. Maybe it's better now, but it's one of the big reasons why I stopped using Linux as a desktop OS a few years ago because it caused entirely too many headaches for a practical and productive environment.

Honestly, I don't have a problem with systemd. I can see why others have a problem with it because it is a product that takes up a large majority of the Linux system. I've used Gentoo (OpenRC) and Void (runit) in the past, and I quite enjoy their simplicity. The problem is that most of these init programs now require elogind to run Xorg without root privileges, so there's no escape from systemd's grasp. It's not a perfect init system, but if Linux gets rebranded to Linuxd someday and it's entirely systemd based, I'd still rather use it as a desktop than Windows. I do agree though that Red Hat has some evolvement with generalizing Linux with systemd, and that systemd has some useless programs (like a program dedicated to changing the system hostname)

 

[Taleweaver]

Linux mint user here as well. Okay, my system dual boots, but the windows partition is collecting virtual dust for months now.

 

[ScarletDreamz]

For slow or old computers: antiX
For everything else: MX Linux, Manjaro, or Linux Mint probably

I personally like Linux Mint when I'm not using Windows.

Used mint, until the catastrophe with the backdoor on the ISO, so stopped with Mint.

 

[The Catboy]

Mostly Solus for my main, Linux Mint if I can’t get Solus working. Fedora and openSUSE are also two that I use if I want to play around with RPM packages. I’ve used Arch before but really never used it as my main for more than a few weeks. I am going to be testing NixOS in my free time.

 

[Urbanshadow]

I use Debian. It's like ubuntu but making sense. Suits very well with low resource hardware, heck my retro PC with DDR2 and an AMD Athlon 64 X2 flies with it, we even use it as a file/game server sometimes.

 

[KokoseiJ]

Seems like you guys are mostly going with debian-like distros, but I choose fedora. Most of the packages are really up to date so You can easily experience cutting edge features, It's kinda safe, dnf is more comfortable and easy to use in my opinion, also SELinux and firewalld will serve you well.

I also use fedora server on my home server too- first of all I'm already used to redhat distros. SELinux is applied very well, firewalld is still going strong, but since It's Fedora and not Enterprise Linux most of the packages are up to date. not usually ideal for server, but It's a home server to mess up with so why not? I've been loving it so far.

About DE- I use cinnamon. KDE was kinda too complicated for me when I first moved to Linux, and GNOME is just ain't my kind. but people seem to love KDE. I'd say it's up to your preference.

 

[SaberLilly]

i use Manjaro, i like the control it gives me over everything, and its idiot proof just enough so i don't seriously break anything.