Which Linux OS is the best?

[Klemen]

I was looking into Clear OS but there is not a lot of content about others using this OS and i wanna ask what some of you think about it? Do you think it's better than most of other OSs? Would Clear OS be good for general use or it is targeted for specific kind of end users? 

 

I also wanna learn Linux more in depth and have a better job/career option in IT. So far I only heard good things about that OS. 

I am near entering my 20' and wanna learn as much as i can so i can get a better paid job, then i will go my own route, but I need a good/solid start for that. 

Any advice would be much appreciated <3!

[Senzelian]

I'd say that in IT it doesn't matter which Linux distro you use, as long as you can use the CLI.

If any distro matters the most for IT, it'd be Ubuntu of course. But I guess that's a little boring for personal use.

 

I personally don't even use Linux as my prefered OS and instead use Windows and yet I got a good job in IT working with Linux machines. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

clear os is a speica distro for performance, id stay away from it for most uses.

 

Probalby learn ubuntu/ centos, everything else is pretty simmilar.

[svmlegacy]

The easiest entry into Linux is Ubuntu or Mint, in my experience. If you're doing it for the Open-Source aspect, Fedora is a great distro as well.

 

That being said, there's no "best" OS. It depends on what you want. Every flavour comes from a different philosophy.

[Dutch_Master]

Yes, Linux OS is the best

 

As for learning "Linux", you'd be much better off learning programming or networking stuff. Consider CDCP (certified data centre professional) as a stepping stone into the world of IT. CCNA or similar is also a good base for starters. Start with PHP, Python, C++ or Java if you want to be a programmer.

[Kilrah]

There wouldn't be hundreds of distros if one was best for everything. 

 

If you want to get started just get Ubuntu or an Ubuntu-based one simply because that's what you'll find resources and howtos for most easily. 

[Nayr438]

ClearOS appears to be a product of HP for use on their servers, though you could use it for whatever you want.

 

As to what Linux OS is the best, there is no direct answer to that. It all comes down to what you want from a Distro. What works for me, may not work for you.

 

2 minutes ago, Klemen said:

I also wanna learn Linux more in depth and have a better job/career option in IT. So far I only heard good things about that OS.

If you really want to get into Linux more in depth, Id look at Arch. But in all honesty, you could learn enough in any Distro to work in most IT.

 

[SupaKomputa]

if you want to use linux, skip the desktop version and go straight to server where you are forced to use CLI.

i was about to say learn Centos since it's the most popular server os, but it's discontinued, so you probably want to use any RHEL alternative or ubuntu server LTS. Any distro is probably the same, but going for the most popular can help you find jobs easier.

Build something simple like a webserver, NAS server or vpn server that you can actually use at home.

Learn HTML, CSS and Javascript, after that server side scripting like php or python.

[TorC]

I'd suggest starting simple and build.  One of the simplest Linux OS I've (surprisingly) found to be enchantmentOS AKA eos.  It's xubuntu  20.04 LTS simplified.  It also runs ZFS far easier than the ArsTechnica review of Clear OS details.  (Please see all the links to build on this context)

 

You have stated your purpose.  Now, please inform us as to the hardware you will be using.  It, too, has a part in recommendation of a 'best' GNU/Linux distro.   (As does the speed of the connection your ISP provides. )

 

A simple Debian-based distro like antiX, AVL-MXE, MX (all are related distros) will serve a beginner far better than Debian per se.  Such would go a long ways in furthering your knowledge towards your long-term goal. 

 

Also, I suggest downloading Rute, as a reference

[YellowJersey]

Now there's a loaded question!

 

 I like Mint because I'm a bit of a thicky and wanted something that works out-of-the-box without much, if any tinkering.

[Klemen]

2 hours ago, Dutch_Master said:

Start with PHP, Python, C++ or Java if you want to be a programmer.

I'm inclined toward PHP and Java for right now, mostly for building web site:)

[Klemen]

1 hour ago, TorC said:

You have stated your purpose.  Now, please inform us as to the hardware you will be using.  It, too, has a part in recommendation of a 'best' GNU/Linux distro.   (As does the speed of the connection your ISP provides. )

1070GTX, R3600 16GB-3700MHz and speeds are 750/mbps|250/mbps I think thats quite decent :))

 

[Klemen]

49 minutes ago, YellowJersey said:

Now there's a loaded question!

 

 I like Mint because I'm a bit of a thicky and wanted something that works out-of-the-box without much, if any tinkering.

Yea, but isnt the point to know as much as you can? =P It's good to work smarter not harder but then again if you are w/o knowledge in certain situations it can backfire~ kinda~:v

[TorC]

Have you looked into Gentoo, perhaps the most customizable distro; or considered Slackware, the most UNIX-like and perhaps the most stable distro, once set up as a server? 

 

I was at it quite a while before going to Slackware stable.  It was a goal because, originally, I wanted to learn UNIX but solaris and oracle legal bs got in the way.  Which brings me to Clear OS, the Intel-designed distro which, not surprisingly, works the best with Intel hardware.

 

I shy away from Oracle because of its M$-like philosophy when taking oveer Sun (and Sun's ZFS file system).   Also, Clear OS apparently is not out of alfa even though it is claimed to be.  Bottom line it is unproven in extensivity and could therefore be considered a specialty distro, much like Kali. 

 

Maybe keep it in the background as a goal while learning the basics and it may be ready when you are. 

 

Hardware-wise, i THINK YOU HAVE NO LIMITAITONS.  Sabayon could be what you are looking for.

[charlie_root]

Best for learning Linux: Slackware, Gentoo, or Arch

 

Best for out of the box general desktop/laptop usage: MX Linux

 

Most applicable to a sysadmin career: Red Hat, Debian

 

GNU/Linux was originally intended to be a freely licensed clone of Unix, but at this point has sort of morphed into its own category IMHO. Any Linux system with systemd is radically different from Unix in both philosophy, and the overall "feel" of it. For learning, I'd strongly recommend also running a non-Linux, actual Unix-derived system like one of the BSDs or a Solaris derivative like OmniOS. It will put any Linux experience into a better perspective, and you will see why things are done a certain way in various systems and have a reference point for comparison.

[Klemen]

16 hours ago, TorC said:

Thanks! Will look into it!

 

[Klemen]

14 hours ago, charlie_root said:

Best for learning Linux: Slackware, Gentoo, or Arch

 

Best for out of the box general desktop/laptop usage: MX Linux

 

Most applicable to a sysadmin career: Red Hat, Debian

 

GNU/Linux was originally intended to be a freely licensed clone of Unix, but at this point has sort of morphed into its own category IMHO. Any Linux system with systemd is radically different from Unix in both philosophy, and the overall "feel" of it. For learning, I'd strongly recommend also running a non-Linux, actual Unix-derived system like one of the BSDs or a Solaris derivative like OmniOS. It will put any Linux experience into a better perspective, and you will see why things are done a certain way in various systems and have a reference point for comparison.

there are some words related to linux i havent heard yet, but thats whats all about, to put oneself into an environment you are the least comfortable with. So i guess i have some work to do:))

[Klemen]

@charlie_root @TorC Would anyone of you two know what is the biggest difference among those OS you talked about? Can i always jump to any of them if i need to, without them being too different among each other, let's say as something as win7 to win10 ~ ?

[Nayr438]

19 minutes ago, Klemen said:

Would anyone of you two know what is the biggest difference among those OS you talked about? Can i always jump to any of them if i need to, without them being too different among each other, let's say as something as win7 to win10 ~ ?

The biggest differences between Distributions will be the Default Desktop Environment, repositories, package manager (different commands and UI if applicable), age of packages, amount of packages in the repo, and how dependencies are handled. Gentoo itself is a source based distribution, so everything is compiled from source, at least to my knowledge.

In terms of dependencies, most distributions handle this for you, Arch based distros such as Manjaro however do not, it leaves the choice up to you on whether you want them or not.

The big 2 Desktop Environments are KDE Plasma and GNOME ( Most Common, with variations ), however there are several others, you can view a list of the more common choices here https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/desktop_environment Regardless of Distribution, you may find the Arch wiki fairly informative as well.

 

If you decide to distro hop, I would create a separate partition or use a spare drive to store anything you deem important. While you can mount your /home directory to a partition through fstab, If you change desktop environments or even versions of desktop environments, it can cause various issues. So I would expect to start from scratch each time.

[Akolyte]

On 12/24/2020 at 10:14 AM, Klemen said:

I was looking into Clear OS but there is not a lot of content about others using this OS and i wanna ask what some of you think about it? Do you think it's better than most of other OSs? Would Clear OS be good for general use or it is targeted for specific kind of end users? 

 

I also wanna learn Linux more in depth and have a better job/career option in IT. So far I only heard good things about that OS. 

I am near entering my 20' and wanna learn as much as i can so i can get a better paid job, then i will go my own route, but I need a good/solid start for that. 

Any advice would be much appreciated <3!

If you want to get a job working in Linux there are three distros you should get used to (in order from most popular to least popular in the enterprise)

 

1. RHEL (Red Hat / CentOS - rocky linux )
2. Ubuntu
3. OpenSuse

 

I would suggest just learning Linux how you want to learn it, and not focusing on a specific OS because it's used in the enterprise.  All distros are quite similar, and knowing the core of how Linux works is more important than knowing some tools

 

The main thing you should work toward if you want to work in Linux is getting Red Hat certifications.  RHCSA, RHCE.  If you're brand new to Linux, don't worry about Red Hat just focus on learning Linux and having fun. 

 

Getting a cloud certification is useful as well if you want to work in Linux, since nowadays a lot of Linux Jobs are DevOps related.  You'll be developing automation workflows, implementing CI/CD pipelines and working on platforms.  Even if they're on-prem having a cloud certification helps because a lot of the knowledge will carry across environments. 

[Dat Guy]

On 12/23/2020 at 10:14 PM, Klemen said:

I also wanna learn Linux more in depth and have a better job/career option in IT.

Try Gentoo. You'll have to learn a lot to make it even run. (And it is rather good.)

 

On 12/23/2020 at 10:14 PM, Klemen said:

So far I only heard good things about that OS. 

You should have asked me. I, personally, find Linux too incoherent (of course, as the kernel, the userland and the desktop come from different teams, unlike Solaris and the BSDs where everything is a part of the base system), it is relatively unreliable (compared to OpenBSD) and the community can be weird. But it cannot be wrong to try as many systems as you can find. Just make sure that you don't focus too much on a very narrow selection...

 

43 minutes ago, Akolyte said:

All distros are quite similar,

No.

[WhitetailAni]

Linux Mint is the best.

And no, the distros are not similar.

[charlie_root]

2 hours ago, Klemen said:

@charlie_root @TorC Would anyone of you two know what is the biggest difference among those OS you talked about? Can i always jump to any of them if i need to, without them being too different among each other, let's say as something as win7 to win10 ~ ?

I find different Linux systems very foreign to each other. There are different firewalls (iptables, ufw on Debian, firewalld on CentOS for example). There are tons of different ways of managing network connections (NetworkManager, netplan, etc). There are different init systems (systemd, openrc, runit), which means different ways of starting services. There are different package managers (yum, apt, pacman, dnf, snap, and tons of others).

 

There are different graphical environments and window managers too. Most people think of these as differences but they don't matter; you can install any of them anywhere. It's much harder to change the package manager or init system.

[charlie_root]

21 minutes ago, Dat Guy said:

 

 

I, personally, find Linux too incoherent

 

100% agree. The BSDs are so much nicer. I'm so fed up with Linux reinventing how I'm supposed to connect to the network every week and having 19 ways of installing packages on the same system.

[TorC]

6 hours ago, Klemen said:

@charlie_root @TorC Would anyone of you two know what is the biggest difference among those OS you talked about? Can i always jump to any of them if i need to, without them being too different among each other, let's say as something as win7 to win10 ~ ?

@Klemen--

Slackware and Gentoo are source-based distros, meaning the user compiles individual software packages.  See this older 2011 post (tinyTux, post #3) as an explanation of its advantages.  And this even older description of its disadvantages versus binary packages in say, Debian.

 

@Nayr438stated dome differences between the three basic distros mentioned (Gentoo, Slackware and Debian) but to me the single biggest difference bewteen distro families is Package Management or the means by which a distro draws on its repositories and presents a software package for installation by the user.  See Package Managers.

 

With all due respect for BSD (which is worth exploring to better round out your knowledge of UNIX-like OSes), the OP is asking about Linux. 

 

No, one cannot necessarily go back and forth readily between distro families (Redhat is another, albeit an enterprise distro) .  The exception is between Debian and Ubuntu.  The latter was derived from the former and is therefore very similar, but not identical to its parent, Debian.   APT and DPKG are the similarity.  These are favored package mangers used by both. 

 

After giving it some thought (and knowing peer pressure to use the most popular distro) I'd seriously suggest beginning with a non-specialized true Debian distro such as MX.  There are others, of course, but despite a popular misconception commonly in use, Ubutu-based DOES NOT EQUAL Debian-based.

 

Starting with a true Debian will give the background in binaries and allow easy crossover to 'buntu-based distros like Mint, elementary, zorin,  and too many others to list.  And please do not be tempted to get into specialty distros like pop!OS and Kali -- they are not for beginners who want to go in the direction OP has stated.  Debian also arguably  has the largest software selection in its repositories of any GNU/Linux distribution out there.

 

And, DO LEARN the command line usage of APT.

Here is one example of a Linux Command Line Cheat Sheet

 

It is of paramount importance to learn basic commands.  Those who do not do so are lazy and will never be able to  fully take advantage of the innate power of GNU/Linux.

 

NOTE:  Sabayon is a beginner-friendly Gentoo-based distro using the pakage manager portage,  which requires a fast internet connection to facilitate compiling.   And, please DO download the PDF file Rute Linux Tutorial and Exposition listed in the link above, for a completer reference.

 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!