Is there a Linux distro that isn't a steaming pile of crap?

[DarkEnergy]

Anything relative easy to use that isn't Ubuntu, related to Ubuntu, or even Mint? I ALWAYS have issues when it comes to updating. Usually I tell it to update and nothing happens. It works again if I change the server it downloads from but after a week or so it stops again. (Ubuntu and mint) Right now I can't get Ubuntu 16.04 updated. I told it to update after I haven't used the laptop for a couple of weeks and it puts the CPU at 100% and nothing happens. Same thing after a reinstall and a re-download of 16.04. So what's good that isn't this crap? Not arch, I don't want to spend most of my time spending weeks setting things up and another week when I have to fix something that breaks. 

[thatguyyouknow75]

The Linux based server operation systems are solid 

[CeremonialSnips]

I thought that this was the fun of linux

[MrBucket101]

PEBCAK error most likely

 

but I digress...

 

where are you located? my buddy in Australia has the same issues, his ISP blocks access to the ubuntu servers. I have no clue why, but they do. I ended up giving him VPN access to my network and now he'll connect when he needs to fetch updates.

 

[AMICLG]

Debian 8.X

 

1 minute ago, CeremonialSnips said:

I thought that this was the fun of linux

The troll is strong with this one.  

[DarkEnergy]

5 minutes ago, MrBucket101 said:

PEBCAK error most likely

 

but I digress...

 

where are you located? my buddy in Australia has the same issues, his ISP blocks access to the ubuntu servers. I have no clue why, but they do. I ended up giving him VPN access to my network and now he'll connect when he needs to fetch updates.

 

U.S. Comcast. They wouldn't block it.

[MrBucket101]

Just now, DarkEnergy said:

U.S. Comcast. They wouldn't block it.

Because Comcast is known for their utmost respect of net neutrality 

PEBCAK error it is

[steezemageeze]

I'm a big fan of Manjaro (technically it's Arch, but it's not), and Fedora is a good option as well. I can't imagine Comcast would blacklist the servers.... it's possible I guess, but it seems like a stretch.

[flowalex]

It's not Comcast's fault, they are what we have and I have no issues downloading updates or ISOs (other than the  throttling that goes on) 

[vorticalbox]

they all have their problems, my computer wouldn't connect to the a network or usb 2.0 ports but usb 3 worked. unless i turned on IOMMU option in the bios which made network and 2.0 work but not 3.0. found a fix by editing grub CMD and that got everything working. not my card reader though that has a bug report for it dating 2009

[DarkEnergy]

1 hour ago, vorticalbox said:

they all have their problems, my computer wouldn't connect to the a network or usb 2.0 ports but usb 3 worked. unless i turned on IOMMU option in the bios which made network and 2.0 work but not 3.0. found a fix by editing grub CMD and that got everything working. not my card reader though that has a bug report for it dating 2009

I found out that the Ubuntu problem I was having yesturday was a bug that happened yesturday as well. Figures. They fixed it now and updates can be downloaded. 

[Hamako]

Ubuntu is filled with bugs, especially when it comes to new releases, so don't expect too much from it. Personally, I like using Fedora. It has been much more stable than my Ubuntu installations so far.

 

As previously mentioned, Arch is a solid choice as well, with Manjaro being a good first address if you don't want to spend too much time setting up your system.

[Mayaa]

I've been using Elementary OS Freya on my laptop for the last week or so, mostly doing light work such as browsing and lighter gaming, mostly playing stellaris, and its been surprisingly headache free.

[vorticalbox]

1 hour ago, DarkEnergy said:

I found out that the Ubuntu problem I was having yesturday was a bug that happened yesturday as well. Figures. They fixed it now and updates can be downloaded. 

after 7 years of this hug being reported and still no fox im not hopeful. Im probably just gonna get a usb adapter to use.

[Ethann_AKA_CPU1]

Have you tried Ubuntu MATE

[Mira Yurizaki]

Lubuntu and Elemental OS came to my mind... though the latter is just someone trying too hard to make Mac OS out of Linux.

[Dat Guy]

Try BSD, get rid of the broken Linux kernel with its horrible ecosystem. 

[iBurley]

If you don't want to try anything related to Ubuntu, I think probably openSUSE or Fedora would be your natural next steps.

 

I find openSUSE to be a better out-of-the-box experience, they do some really fantastic things to make getting it up and running very easy. Multi-monitor support is great out of the box, if you run it in a virtual machine it will automatically have the drivers for resizing or fullscreening the window, stuff like that, really makes a difference. That said, it's biggest selling point is it's YaST management tool (consider it your Windows control panel) and personally I'm not a big fan of it. A lot of the options in there are built into modern desktop environments anyways and I think the last time I tried it I could only do software updates through YaST or command line, not the build in system updater in GNOME. It was a while ago, but I just remember YaST being more of a burden than an advantage.

 

Fedora, on the other hand, will take a bit more work out of the box, but I think once you've done the work you'll end up with a much nicer system. They pride themselves on their freedom, so they don't include any non-open source software in their base repositories. The first thing I suggest doing is enable the RPM Fusion repositories, both 'free' and 'non-free'. It only takes a few clicks and you'll gain access to a ton more software that you're probably used to using. There's also a tool called Fedy that I recommend installing, it takes some of the things that used to be difficult in Fedora and gives you one-click installers or helpers for them. It'll have things like Google Chrome, Steam, Sublime Text or Atom if you're a developer, your multimedia codecs and archive formats, Microsoft TrueType fonts, stuff like that, all available for a one-click install. Under Tweaks it's also got a one-click helper for fixing font rendering (by default it's pretty shit, after running it's one of the best, here's a before and after from like Fedora 22), changing your disk i/o system for faster drive speeds, even remaking your GRUB configuration if you end up dual-booting in the future. As you can see, it takes a bit of work, but when you're done, Fedora Linux is easily my current favorite way to use Linux. It's incredibly up-to-date without being on that 'bleeding edge' where stability can be problematic.

 

All of that said, if you are willing to try some other Ubuntu derivatives, I agree with a few others that elementaryOS or Ubuntu MATE are worth a try. elementaryOS is based on Ubuntu 14.04 still, so hardware compatibility if you've got a very new system may come into issue, Ubuntu MATE is on 16.04 which is the latest, so you shouldn't have issue there. It's a very lightweight desktop and has a lot of features to make Linux very friendly to new user and experienced Linux gurus alike. When I've got to use Ubuntu, the MATE flavor is one I strongly consider, especially if the hardware is a bit too limited for the GNOME desktop.

 

Good luck and I'm here if you've got any questions.

[Sauron]

Arch Linux. Once you use it for a bit it's hard to go back.

 

Opensuse is also very nice and if you get the rolling version you should have less issues of the sort you describe.