Mindovermaster Global Moderator Posted December 24, 2023 Global Moderator Share Posted December 24, 2023 This needs a major update. I took the liberty of rejuvenating it. So, which distro do you use? Arch? Mint? Other? Let us know! Please don't select them all.. Be nice about it. Nick H's old thread: https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1378162-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/ Edit: If you want me to add anything, do ask! Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1436816-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
xrobwx71 Posted December 24, 2023 Share Posted December 24, 2023 Currently, I'm using Parrot on a laptop. Garuda on a Desktop, both standalone. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1436816-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/#findComment-598871453 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Norris Posted December 24, 2023 Share Posted December 24, 2023 (edited) Been working with EndeavourOS for a few months now. I'm a fan of Arch but not a fan of having to go through the motions of setting the thing up. It's not 100% after the install, some "side things" are still DIY, for example printing, Dolphin's thumbnailers aren't installed, stuff like that, not exactly hard though as you're still using the excellent Arch wiki. The Yay package manager is very good too, no issues with the Aur, and no breakage or held packages like you get with Manjaro. Pretty solid overall. Most of my machines are running it now minus my full-time gaming rig (Win10), but that one has Debian via WSL2. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1436816-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/#findComment-598871457 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Global Moderator Posted December 24, 2023 Author Global Moderator Share Posted December 24, 2023 On 24/12/2023 at 11:22, Max Norris said: Been working with EndeavourOS for a few months now. I'm a fan of Arch but not a fan of having to go through the motions of setting the thing up. It's not 100% after the install, some "side things" are still DIY, for example printing, Dolphin's thumbnailers aren't installed, stuff like that, not exactly hard though as you're still using the excellent Arch wiki. The Yay package manager is very good too, no issues with the Aur, and no breakage or held packages like you get with Manjaro. Pretty solid overall. Most of my machines are running it now minus my full-time gaming rig (Win10), but that one has Debian via WSL2. I knew someone would choose Endeavour. As it's pretty popular. That's why I added it. Seems I was right Max Norris 1 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1436816-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/#findComment-598871459 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick H. Supervisor Posted December 24, 2023 Supervisor Share Posted December 24, 2023 In preparation for my new laptop coming at the start of next year I've gone with Kubuntu instead of Mint. I've got no problems with Mint, but Kubuntu seems to offer more customisation for the overall look. And as I pointed out here, I can be a bit fickle when it comes to how I want my desktop to look. 300z and Mindovermaster 2 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1436816-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/#findComment-598871460 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Good Bot, Bad Bot Posted December 24, 2023 Share Posted December 24, 2023 (edited) Myself I have been going back and forth between Ubuntu and Fedora. The same with my DE between GNOME and KDE. How is Fedora not on the list but Slackware is? LOL I prefer a more professional and well supported Linux distro these days. 300z, devHead and Mindovermaster 2 1 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1436816-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/#findComment-598871462 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Global Moderator Posted December 24, 2023 Author Global Moderator Share Posted December 24, 2023 Fedora isn't on there? I swear I put that in. I'll go and edit that.. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1436816-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/#findComment-598871465 Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Matthew S. Subscriber² Posted December 25, 2023 Subscriber² Share Posted December 25, 2023 I usually go with Ubuntu as my distro of choice but have been known to dabble in Fedora, Gentoo, and Linux From Scratch (This is really not for the faint of heart) from time to time. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1436816-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/#findComment-598871514 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Global Moderator Posted December 25, 2023 Author Global Moderator Share Posted December 25, 2023 On 25/12/2023 at 00:10, Matthew S. said: I usually go with Ubuntu as my distro of choice but have been known to dabble in Fedora, Gentoo, and Linux From Scratch (This is really not for the faint of heart) from time to time. Totally, Linux From Scratch is just like Arch/Gentoo in a way. You need to install everything. No strings attached. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1436816-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/#findComment-598871516 Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThaCrip Posted December 25, 2023 Share Posted December 25, 2023 Mint ; currently 21.2-Xfce. I prefer Xfce over Mint's flagship Cinnamon (as it fixed a issue I had with GPU accelerated playback on at least 2 out of 3 computers I have). it's using 5.15 kernel which is basically from Oct/Nov 2021 (you can use newer kernels if needed, but the Mint team generally recommends sticking with the default kernel unless you need to use a newer kernel). I am of the mindset that 'if' there is a standard in the Linux world it's probably one with a Debian/Ubuntu base and I feel Mint is one of the all-around reliable choices among those Debian/Ubuntu variations (as things tend to just work and are probably less likely to break vs other random Linux distros from what I heard). basically if your hardware is supported it's hard to go wrong with Mint as it's one of the better choices for Windows users coming into the Linux world for sure and it's supported for nearly 5 years on each major release, which each major release is released 2 years apart and each release gets three point releases (i.e. 21.0, 21.1, 21.2, 21.3 (21.3 should be released VERY soon as it's in BETA testing at the moment)) which are 6 months apart... Mint 20 (Ubuntu 20.04 LTS base) was released mid-2020 and supported until April 2025. Mint 21 (Ubuntu 22.04 LTS base) was released about mid-2022 and supported until April 2027. which basically means when Mint 22 (should be Ubuntu 24.04 LTS) is released, which will probably be about mid-2024, it will be supported until April 2029. ill have been on Linux (Mint) 5 years (on my main PC etc exclusively (i5-3550 CPU/NVIDIA 1050 Ti 4GB GPU etc)) in Jan 2024. it's nice to get away from Windows junk/bloat and thankfully the limited amount of Windows software I do use (Foobar2000/ImgBurn etc) works on Linux through Wine etc (I generally set it up through PlayOnLinux). even the limited amount of games I replay all work on Mint to through Lutris etc. for the record... my current system uptime is 124 days and counting which is my all-time record uptime ; NOTE: at the 80 day mark I had to issue 'pulseaudio -k' (from terminal) which basically restarts sound server as I was experiencing sound crackling issues on the HDMI output to TV even though my standard PC speakers connected to 3.5mm jack were still fine. but after doing that it went back to normal on the HDMI connection and so far so good. my previous record uptime was 105 days (and prior to that 99 days). ill see how far I can push it at this point as my guess is it will probably hold until a power outage. there have been eight kernel updates since I last rebooted. p.s. Merry CHRISTmas everyone and have a happy new year Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1436816-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/#findComment-598871524 Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Raphaël G. MVC Posted December 25, 2023 MVC Share Posted December 25, 2023 I've been on Arch since the beginning of the year I think. Before that, Manjaro for a long time. Arch is not as difficult to install as I expected. Their archinstall script is rather straight forward. And there are good Youtube videos explaining the process. I was on Ubuntu before, but my old laptop struggled with its 8 GB of RAM 😝. devHead 1 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1436816-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/#findComment-598871525 Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Matthew S. Subscriber² Posted December 25, 2023 Subscriber² Share Posted December 25, 2023 On 25/12/2023 at 01:18, Mindovermaster said: Totally, Linux From Scratch is just like Arch/Gentoo in a way. You need to install everything. No strings attached. Not sure about Mint, but LFS you're compiling from RAW packages, grabbing the sources yourself, no package manager lol. Haven't used Gentoo in a long time but I remember they at least used to have it where you compile it specifically for your system, think they called them stages and it determined how difficult it was to get a system up and running. Mindovermaster 1 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1436816-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/#findComment-598871543 Share on other sites More sharing options...
C:Amie Posted December 25, 2023 Share Posted December 25, 2023 Debian for servers, PopOS currently for client. I had a lot of problems with Ubuntu that I just do not have with PopOS - not all of which were Wayland related. It remains to be seen if I stay with them now that they are drifting away from Gnome in favour of rolling their own shell, but it will be interesting to see what they come out with in Rust and whether it catches on. I've tried Mint recently, but have never been able to get on with KDE - and still couldn't a couple of months ago, so on Gnome I stay. andy_3_913 1 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1436816-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/#findComment-598871585 Share on other sites More sharing options...
+InsaneNutter MVC Posted December 28, 2023 MVC Share Posted December 28, 2023 I use Linux more on servers / single purpose devices. Servers - Ubuntu Server. The documentation out there is good, which is handy as I've been able to achieve my desired result for some personal projects and learn more about Linux in the process. Any problems I've run in to someone else has already had, so its usually possible to resolve them easily enough. HTPC - LibreELEC. A fantastic distro for HTPC's. Boots very quickly directly in to Kodi, complete with mappings for popular remote controls, allowing the remote to wake / sleep the HTPC out the box. In addition Tvheadend is available as an additional package which made the transition from Windows Media Center very straightforward. NAS - Unraid. A NAS distro aimed at the enthusiast / home user. Add your drives and it will pool them together, allowing up to two drives to be used for parity, to recover any of your failed data drives. I also run various Docker containers on this which run services on my home network, such as Pi-Hole. Some reasons I chose Unraid over TrueNAS is the ability easily add drives as you go and only spin up the drive which actually has the data on been accessed. An important consideration with energy costs these days. (TrueNAS is clearly better for the enterprise for anyone wondering why I didn't use that, however its really of no benefit to me for 8 drives to be spun up all at once to access some media, the read / write speeds of a single drive are fine for my home network.) Laptop - PopOS. I see this as a more refined Ubuntu, I really like how full disk encryption is enabled by default with no messing about. As PopOS is based on Ubuntu theirs a lot a good relevant documentation and tutorials out there. I also like the way the GNOME desktop environment works compared to KDE, so seemed a great choice to keep my old Macbook Air going which is no longer supported, however still perfectly fine for my needs. 300z 1 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1436816-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/#findComment-598871927 Share on other sites More sharing options...
devHead Posted December 28, 2023 Share Posted December 28, 2023 I have distro-hopped quite a bit, but I keep coming back to Fedora Workstation. Currently running Fedora 39 and it's super stable and good. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1436816-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/#findComment-598871943 Share on other sites More sharing options...
1for-matik Posted December 28, 2023 Share Posted December 28, 2023 I have tested many distribution too. My preference are Fedora (for an updated fixed release) and OpenSUSE Tumbleweed for a very stable rolling release. For an easy immutable distro, I prefer Fedora Silverblue over MicroOS. devHead 1 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1436816-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/#findComment-598871986 Share on other sites More sharing options...
pearlharbor49 Posted December 28, 2023 Share Posted December 28, 2023 (edited) Mint Xfce is my 2021 HPAIO AMD Ryzen 5 desktop first choice thanks to its speed, dependability, and sound support. Currently, I use the 21.3 beta -- stable as 21.2 -- and it is far faster to boot, load apps, and shut down compared to Windows 11 23H2V2. I also use MX 23 AHS and LMDE 6 on the same desktop for the same reasons. I recently installed Lubuntu 23.1 on one of my laptops, a 2019 ASUS Zenbook 13. Finding elementaryOS 7.1 too buggy and GhostBSD not supporting sound "out of the box," Lubuntu was a pleasant surprise. Like the desktop above, I dual boot it and Windows 11 23H2. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1436816-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/#findComment-598872007 Share on other sites More sharing options...
FateTrap Posted December 29, 2023 Share Posted December 29, 2023 Although I have certain preferences I use all different systems depending on the hardware and hardware use-case. Usually it is one of the following systems. Easy difficulty PCLinuxOS -- https://pclosusers.com/communityiso/LXQt/community-pclinuxos64-lxqt-2023.11.iso ROSA Fresh Desktop -- https://mirror.rosalinux.ru/rosa/rosa2021.1/iso/ROSA.FRESH.12/lxqt/ROSA.FRESH.LXQT.12.4.x86_64.uefi.iso mageia -- https://www.mageia.org/fr/downloads/ OpenMandriva -- https://www.openmandriva.org GhostBSD -- https://www.ghostbsd.org Clear Linux -- https://www.clearlinux.org/downloads.html Mint -- https://linuxmint.com/download.php EndeavourOS -- https://endeavouros.com ALT Linux -- http://nightly.altlinux.org/sisyphus/tested/regular-lxqt-latest-x86_64.iso nobara -- https://nobaraproject.org Intermediate difficulty openSUSE -- https://www.opensuse.org Void Linux -- https://repo-default.voidlinux.org/live/current/void-live-x86_64-20230628-xfce.iso Alpine Linux -- https://www.alpinelinux.org/ OpenBSD -- https://www.openbsd.org Artix Linux -- https://artixlinux.org/download.php Devuan -- https://devuan.org Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1436816-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/#findComment-598872091 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Global Moderator Posted December 29, 2023 Author Global Moderator Share Posted December 29, 2023 On 29/12/2023 at 05:59, FateTrap said: Although I have certain preferences I use all different systems depending on the hardware and hardware use-case. Usually it is one of the following systems. Easy difficulty PCLinuxOS -- https://pclosusers.com/communityiso/LXQt/community-pclinuxos64-lxqt-2023.11.iso ROSA Fresh Desktop -- https://mirror.rosalinux.ru/rosa/rosa2021.1/iso/ROSA.FRESH.12/lxqt/ROSA.FRESH.LXQT.12.4.x86_64.uefi.iso mageia -- https://www.mageia.org/fr/downloads/ OpenMandriva -- https://www.openmandriva.org GhostBSD -- https://www.ghostbsd.org Clear Linux -- https://www.clearlinux.org/downloads.html Mint -- https://linuxmint.com/download.php EndeavourOS -- https://endeavouros.com ALT Linux -- http://nightly.altlinux.org/sisyphus/tested/regular-lxqt-latest-x86_64.iso nobara -- https://nobaraproject.org Intermediate difficulty openSUSE -- https://www.opensuse.org Void Linux -- https://repo-default.voidlinux.org/live/current/void-live-x86_64-20230628-xfce.iso Alpine Linux -- https://www.alpinelinux.org/ OpenBSD -- https://www.openbsd.org Artix Linux -- https://artixlinux.org/download.php Devuan -- https://devuan.org You can't be using 16 different distros.. Unless you have that many PCs. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1436816-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/#findComment-598872124 Share on other sites More sharing options...
MuffinMullet09 Posted May 11 Share Posted May 11 Currently using Ubuntu on my gaming laptop, runs sweet as and I prefer to use KDE Desktop. Runs pretty well. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1436816-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/#findComment-598901421 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Global Moderator Posted May 11 Author Global Moderator Share Posted May 11 On 11/05/2024 at 09:32, Mullet2990 said: Currently using Ubuntu on my gaming laptop, runs sweet as and I prefer to use KDE Desktop. Runs pretty well. That Kubuntu then? And what version? Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1436816-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/#findComment-598901443 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick H. Supervisor Posted May 11 Supervisor Share Posted May 11 On 11/05/2024 at 15:32, Mullet2990 said: Currently using Ubuntu on my gaming laptop, runs sweet as and I prefer to use KDE Desktop. Runs pretty well. On 11/05/2024 at 16:45, Mindovermaster said: That Kubuntu then? And what version? It might just be Ubuntu, but he installed KDE after installing. Although in that case I would think it makes more sense to go with Kubuntu. My new laptop (Framework 16) came in last month and I've installed Kubuntu. Still on 23.10 at the moment. The only issue I'm having with it is VLC. I'm not quite sure what causes it, but occasionally when trying to go to the next video it'll freeze up and crash. I've changed the video output to force X11 and I'm not sure that it has happened since, but it's a bit weird. Newer hardware, I guess... Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1436816-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/#findComment-598901446 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Global Moderator Posted May 11 Author Global Moderator Share Posted May 11 On 11/05/2024 at 10:55, Nick H. said: It might just be Ubuntu, but he installed KDE after installing. Although in that case I would think it makes more sense to go with Kubuntu. My new laptop (Framework 16) came in last month and I've installed Kubuntu. Still on 23.10 at the moment. The only issue I'm having with it is VLC. I'm not quite sure what causes it, but occasionally when trying to go to the next video it'll freeze up and crash. I've changed the video output to force X11 and I'm not sure that it has happened since, but it's a bit weird. Newer hardware, I guess... Yeah, I had problems like you said with VLC. I use SMPlayer now, and had no trouble. Shrug. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1436816-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/#findComment-598901455 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick H. Supervisor Posted May 11 Supervisor Share Posted May 11 On 11/05/2024 at 17:36, Mindovermaster said: Yeah, I had problems like you said with VLC. I use SMPlayer now, and had no trouble. Shrug. Hmm... I'm getting old and stuck in my ways. The idea of switching to a different player is tough. Max Norris and Mindovermaster 1 1 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1436816-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/#findComment-598901456 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Norris Posted May 11 Share Posted May 11 (edited) On 11/05/2024 at 11:55, Nick H. said: It might just be Ubuntu, but he installed KDE after installing. Although in that case I would think it makes more sense to go with Kubuntu. Got a laptop running Kubuntu 24.04 specifically because it's running Plasma 5 and not 6. 6, at least for me, is still quirky (some buttons I have to click multiple times before it "sees" it for example), some extensions and such that I regularly use aren't available yet, etc. Pretty much the only option if you want to stay with Plasma 5 for a while. It's been very stable and reliable, except on my one PC. Install and update, bam black screen on boot. For whatever reason Plymouth hard-locks on boot, need to disable the "splash" kernel option. Other systems, no problem. Been brilliantly solid otherwise. I usually go for a bleeding edge rolling release, but because of my fondness for Plasma 5, I think I'll stick around with Kubuntu for a while. On 11/05/2024 at 12:50, Nick H. said: Hmm... I'm getting old and stuck in my ways. The idea of switching to a different player is tough. Got a little emotional when I saw that Amarok finally released a new version after what, 6 years? Like finding a long lost relative. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1436816-which-linux-distribution-do-you-prefer/#findComment-598901464 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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