Favorite Linux Distro and Why?

[Den15]

On 5/2/2019 at 7:12 AM, Dat Guy said:

I wonder if those who voted Linux have ever tried anything else.

At least windows for sure... I guess... maybe...

[wasab]

I tried Windows. 

 

I tried a Android too although that is technically Linux as well. 

 

Also tried out chromeOS in a few demos at bestbuy and again, that thing is also technically Linux. 

 

Also tried out iOS for a few months when my parents gave me an iPhone X. I return it after a month or two cuz iOS suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks 

 

Also tried out macs which is offer by my school library and computer lab. The key board immediately deter me away. I mean where is the control key and function key? Bloody hell. Im not even gonna try to use the operating system when hardware is missing so many universal stuffs. 

 

[Dat Guy]

7 hours ago, wasab said:

I return it after a month or two cuz iOS suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks 

I disagree. iOS is surprisingly good when compared to Android.

[nox_]

4 hours ago, Dat Guy said:

I disagree. iOS is surprisingly good when compared to Android.

So what's your favorite OS? Not any of linux distros I assume?

[Dat Guy]

There is no "the favorite OS" for me. I know of no single can-do-all operating system that fits my needs sufficiently well. I currently maintain a variety of systems for very different purposes:

• Most of the servers which I manage for other people are running FreeBSD because it is reliable and still relatively user- and root-friendly, so even if I die tomorrow, someone else could keep them up and running without having to read more than a one-page tutorial. Two of my own general-purpose servers run FreeBSD as well (but their load is declining for several reasons).
• I use OpenBSD for quickly setting up a new website (its built-in httpd is awesome and secure) and as a (rock-solid) file server. I had an OpenBSD desktop once and I plan to have one again, but I have no need for one right now.
• There is also OmniOS (basically, a distribution of the last free version of the enterprise-grade Solaris) which is gradually replacing FreeBSD on my own servers: Its maintenance tools are amazingly fast and stable and its heritage has left a very mature codebase.
• One of my laptops - the one I use for writing non-Windows software - runs Gentoo, one of the three acceptable Linux distributions (which are Void, Gentoo and Slackware). The reason for that is that it supports the ath10k WiFi chipset and neither BSD nor "Solaris" have that just yet.
• My main desktop operating system is Windows 10. Some of the reasons for that are that I grew up with Windows and I have a whole lot of Windows-only software, I write Windows software both for a living and for fun, there are a few Windows applications which have no good alternative unless I want to switch to macOS (which I really don't want to use, I don't like its visuals, its file system and its software politics), I know how to get things done without having to adopt a completely new workflow for everything, etc. etc.
• My Raspberry Pi and at least one virtual machine on one of my Windowses both run (a version of) Plan 9 because I am interested in its built-in networking capabilities and its rather useful backup/file system combination.
• After more than 8 years of Android, I moved on to iOS smartphones this year. Enough annoyances for a lifetime.

This list will probably change again. Ask me again next year.

[elsandosgrande]

On 5/7/2019 at 4:18 PM, Dat Guy said:

There is no "the favorite OS" for me. I know of no single can-do-all operating system that fits my needs sufficiently well. I currently maintain a variety of systems for very different purposes:

• Most of the servers which I manage for other people are running FreeBSD because it is reliable and still relatively user- and root-friendly, so even if I die tomorrow, someone else could keep them up and running without having to read more than a one-page tutorial. Two of my own general-purpose servers run FreeBSD as well (but their load is declining for several reasons).
• I use OpenBSD for quickly setting up a new website (its built-in httpd is awesome and secure) and as a (rock-solid) file server. I had an OpenBSD desktop once and I plan to have one again, but I have no need for one right now.
• There is also OmniOS (basically, a distribution of the last free version of the enterprise-grade Solaris) which is gradually replacing FreeBSD on my own servers: Its maintenance tools are amazingly fast and stable and its heritage has left a very mature codebase.
• One of my laptops - the one I use for writing non-Windows software - runs Gentoo, one of the three acceptable Linux distributions (which are Void, Gentoo and Slackware). The reason for that is that it supports the ath10k WiFi chipset and neither BSD nor "Solaris" have that just yet.
• My main desktop operating system is Windows 10. Some of the reasons for that are that I grew up with Windows and I have a whole lot of Windows-only software, I write Windows software both for a living and for fun, there are a few Windows applications which have no good alternative unless I want to switch to macOS (which I really don't want to use, I don't like its visuals, its file system and its software politics), I know how to get things done without having to adopt a completely new workflow for everything, etc. etc.
• My Raspberry Pi and at least one virtual machine on one of my Windowses both run (a version of) Plan 9 because I am interested in its built-in networking capabilities and its rather useful backup/file system combination.
• After more than 8 years of Android, I moved on to iOS smartphones this year. Enough annoyances for a lifetime.

This list will probably change again. Ask me again next year.

Well, that's a colorful list! I'll probably have to make a Wikipedia reading list now.

 

One question though. Is it really that hard to get that module working under Ubuntu (or any distro for that matter) to where you have to resort to Gentoo and similar distros (I mean, I found an article on askubuntu within two minutes of me reading your post: https://askubuntu.com/questions/607707/ath10k-installation )?

[Dat Guy]

No, but I don't want to deal with systemd.

[pixldemon]

Definitely Arch.

1. Pacman is by far the best package manager out of any distro in my opinion and the AUR is awesome as well, especially compared to the absolute mess of PPAs you'll eventually end up with on ubuntu based distros.

 

2. by far my favorite thing about arch is the control over your system that comes from how little it does for you. Yes, the install is one of the hardest, second only to Gentoo in my opinion, but it gets really easy once you've done it once or twice and after the install, it is not hard to use at all, at least not in my opinion.

 

3. The arch wiki is a great resource, even for non-arch-users.

 

4. Last i checked, Ubuntu shipped with almost 1600 packages. Arch only ships with around 300 i believe. Everything else is there because you put it there. On my fully set-up, gaming and programming equipped main rig, i have only a total of 1117 packages installed as of now.

5. That also means that arch is a lot faster and less resource hungry. Ubuntu booting from an nvme drive in my laptop can't keep up with arch booting from a fairly old hard drive in my desktop, and both have otherwise similar specs, except for the gpu. Program startup times are also a lot quicker on arch.

 

6. Rolling release. Self-explanatory

Also, arch only breaks if you break it. Yeah, sometimes smaller things stay broken for some time, but i've never experienced any major or system breaking bugs that i didn't cause myself.

That Arch is my favorite doesn't mean i'd recommend it to everyone though. Manjaro is a lot more suitable for people new to linux and still has a lot of archs benefits

 

Cheers.

[The King of the Undead]

pop! cause its based off ubuntu and capable of playing games.

[wasab]

9 hours ago, will1432 said:

pop! cause its based off ubuntu and capable of playing games.

So is mint, so is xubuntu, kubuntu, and many more buntus out there. 

[The King of the Undead]

36 minutes ago, wasab said:

So is mint, so is xubuntu, kubuntu, and many more buntus out there. 

never really tried them. Just kinda only tried pop and ubuntu so guess its just not wanting to learn another one.

[Nettly_]

1 hour ago, wasab said:

So is mint, so is xubuntu, kubuntu, and many more buntus out there. 

Because Pop!_OS looks nicer and has better default backgrounds. The themes are great.

[wasab]

2 hours ago, SafyreLyons-5LT said:

Because Pop!_OS looks nicer and has better default backgrounds. The themes are great.

You can install pop os theme on Ubuntu and personally I find the flat remix theme to be much nicer looking than popos. 

[Nettly_]

Just now, wasab said:

You can install pop os theme on Ubuntu and personally I find the flat remix theme to be much nicer looking than popos. 

The thing about Linux which makes it awesome is personal preference. I like Ubuntus flat theme but I feel Pop!_OS just looks better and has better software center than Ubuntu's so yeah. I just like regular Gnome better and for my laptop Pop!_OS is just better all together. I am also biased to things made/HQ'ed in Colorado (System76 is in Denver lol) which is why I also love FreeBSD so much (Boulder) because Colorado is better than everyone lol. System76 is also a pretty cool company and they treat their customers with up-most respect. I actually was able to get in contact with a developer just to get info on an error for someone on this forum.

I can go on for hours about this but TL:DR:
System76 is nice and treats people well. Colorado is better.

[wasab]

30 minutes ago, SafyreLyons-5LT said:

The thing about Linux which makes it awesome is personal preference. I like Ubuntus flat theme but I feel Pop!_OS just looks better and has better software center than Ubuntu's so yeah. I just like regular Gnome better and for my laptop Pop!_OS is just better all together. I am also biased to things made/HQ'ed in Colorado (System76 is in Denver lol) which is why I also love FreeBSD so much (Boulder) because Colorado is better than everyone lol. System76 is also a pretty cool company and they treat their customers with up-most respect. I actually was able to get in contact with a developer just to get info on an error for someone on this forum.

I can go on for hours about this but TL:DR:
System76 is nice and treats people well. Colorado is better.

System76 sells overpriced laptop in my opinion. I mean I can get a better specs Windows machine for less and then wipe off winblows and install Linux on it. Interestingly it says on Microsoft terms and agreement, If I don't accept the terms and conditions, I can return the windows oem license for a refund. 

[Nettly_]

1 minute ago, wasab said:

System76 sells overpriced laptop in my opinion. I mean I can get a better specs Windows machine for less and then wipe off winblows and install Linux on it. Interestingly it says on Microsoft terms and agreement, If I don't accept the terms and conditions, I can return the windows oem license for a refund. 

Okay yeah System76 is more expensive than it really should be but it is the Apple of the Linux world. Just of course more nice and the specs are not THAT shitty. I like their customer service tho.

[Nettly_]

2 minutes ago, SafyreLyons-5LT said:

Okay yeah System76 is more expensive than it really should be but it is the Apple of the Linux world. Just of course more nice and the specs are not THAT shitty. I like their customer service tho.

I do 100% agree that the Darter pro is probably not worth $1000 but hey whatever. Thelio aint BAD just also over priced a little. Then again they are paying for a lot so it makes some sense

[Den15]

7 hours ago, wasab said:

System76 sells overpriced laptop in my opinion. I mean I can get a better specs Windows machine for less and then wipe off winblows and install Linux on it. Interestingly it says on Microsoft terms and agreement, If I don't accept the terms and conditions, I can return the windows oem license for a refund. 

Wait what? We can return the oem license? Are you serious? How in the hell we do that?

 

Most of laptops here in brazil comes with this piece of bloatware they call windows except from some rarities... that means I could get a freakin refund???

[wasab]

7 hours ago, Den15 said:

Wait what? We can return the oem license? Are you serious? How in the hell we do that?

 

Most of laptops here in brazil comes with this piece of bloatware they call windows except from some rarities... that means I could get a freakin refund???

It is in the end user license agreement, you know, that thing you have to read and lock on agree/accept when windows set you up for the first time. Inside, it states you can get a refund. 

[Den15]

9 minutes ago, wasab said:

It is in the end user license agreement, you know, that thing you have to read and lock on agree/accept when windows set you up for the first time. Inside, it states you can get a refund. 

I haven't bought a laptop with windows from a loooong time. I guess I just did once, but back then it wasn't a problem. Young stupid me didn't know about the penguin master race.

[moriel5]

I originally come from the Windows, since that's what I grew up with (starting from Windows 95).

The first Linux distro I had seen was Fedora, on a friend's desktop, running GNOME 3.

 

I personally started with Lubuntu (to make things easier on the family, this was an old desktop where Windows XP was failing on (hardware was/is perfectly functional), but later moved to Arch, with (a heavily modified by me) GNOME 3.

 

Nowadays my favorite (and main) distro is Solus, due to it's simplicity and stability, without going over the top to either direction (meaning too simple or "too" secure, nor the opposite, while requiring sanity with package management, as in reproducibility and simplicity (without overengineering, and without forgetting to deal with anything that needs to be dealt with).

Plus, it is great for me, as a rolling release that is stable (yes, you heard that right, and I do not mean outdated, nor LTS (though you can install LTS versions for some things, such as the kernel, and older NVidia drivers, meant for older GPUs), but also curated, which helps me concentrate on what I actually need to do, rather than experimenting and managing the system 98% of the time (Arch is stable, and does not get in the way, but I kept experimenting, especially compiling via the AUR all the time).

[Fatih19]

I like Solus because it's more bleeding edge than Ubuntu or Linux Mint but still very much stable. But one of the things I liked most is not about the distro itself but the very helpful community and their forum is very easy to use, it doesn't look archaic at all, and it's very enjoyable to talk to people there. As someone who have just switched to Linux since mid-December because of that linux gaming video that Linus made in mid 2018, I have really enjoyed the experience. It's really eye opening in my personal experience moving to Linux.