Which Distro Should I Choose?

[Ethameshep]

I am looking for an alternative to Windows because I need an OS that just works.  Debian seems to be my best option at the moment, but I don't have the time to test multiple distros.

 

My main criteria are:

• Lightweight
• Stable
• Well supported
• Usability similar to Windows

Also, if someone could give a TL;DR on package compatibility between Debian and its derivatives, it would be much appreciated.

[wasab]

linux mint. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

How lightweight? What hardware?

 

Id probably go debian stable or ubuntu.

 

debian packages and ubuntu packages will work witheach other normally but normally all the software you need is on the repos and you should basically always install software from there.

[NoRomanBatmansAllowed]

I second mint.

 

Meets all your requirements beautifully, and has this amazing "Windows theme" thing you can install. It basically makes the window's top mimizing/closing bar seem extremely like windows. Add a default Win10 background and at first glance it looks like stock Win10.

 

Also it has a nice app library which is a nice feature to have.

[Ethameshep]

By lightweight I mean it runs without a bunch of unnecessary background processes.  I plan to install it on an XPS 13, so I'm probably good, but the lighter the better. 

 

Mint looks great for my needs.  I think I'm down to Ubuntu or Mint now.  Thanks for the suggestions!

[Terryv]

9 hours ago, Ethameshep said:

By lightweight I mean it runs without a bunch of unnecessary background processes.  I plan to install it on an XPS 13, so I'm probably good, but the lighter the better. 

 

Mint looks great for my needs.  I think I'm down to Ubuntu or Mint now.  Thanks for the suggestions!

I'll recommend mint as well. I've set it up for my parents years ago, and it's still going without issue.

 

It's not necessarily mint you want for the layout, it's the Cinnamon desktop that mint uses. You can have that in Debian as well.

 

Please note: mint uses the Debian testing branch, so does Ubuntu. If you want the stable branch there's the Linux Mint Debian edition or Debian with the Cinnamon desktop.

[wasab]

15 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

How lightweight? What hardware?

 

Id probably go debian stable or ubuntu.

 

debian packages and ubuntu packages will work witheach other normally but normally all the software you need is on the repos and you should basically always install software from there.

I prefer official sources if there is one. Reason is that many softwares on so many repos haven’t been updated in years. Eg Eclipse IDE. Do you know how outdated it is on the repo? Nvidia driver can also be outdated. For these proprietary softwares, I would go on their website or use third party PPA to get and update them.

[005grn]

17 hours ago, Ethameshep said:

I am looking for an alternative to Windows because I need an OS that just works.  Debian seems to be my best option at the moment, but I don't have the time to test multiple distros.

 

My main criteria are:

• Lightweight
• Stable
• Well supported
• Usability similar to Windows

Also, if someone could give a TL;DR on package compatibility between Debian and its derivatives, it would be much appreciated.

Ubuntu MATE is the best based on your criteria

[Linus_torvalds]

I recommend manjaro Linux. It's based on arch Linux. It's lightweight, fast, secure and it's much more easy to install then arch Linux. Just try it with KDE and you'll be fine.

[SilverSoul]

Uh-mm maybe Xubuntu if you like windows and want a similar experience. Xfce is a good lightweight desktop environment that is used in Xubuntu, it is also well supported since it's basically just ubuntu with a different UI. 

 

TLDR on package management

Two different major packaging system families

-Debian style (.deb) usually used in debian and ubuntu.

-Red Hat style (.rpm) used in Fedora and openSUSE.

a package file is a collection of files that make up a software, package files are made by package maintainers who may choose to distribute the packages themselves or through a certain distributions repository such as canonical's. For debian style distributions you would use dpkg to install .deb files and apt-get or aptitude to install something from a repository. For Red hat you would use rpm and yum to do the same things.

eg: (debian style) sudo apt-get install vlc and dpkg --install /pathToFile

 

I would recommend any ubuntu based distro.

Edited February 10, 2018 by SilverSoul
I can't spell for shit

[Tarzan]

I use Debian with the Cinnamon Desktop Environment, works great. Mint is nice but in the end it's IMO better to go directly with Debian and add any DE you want .

 

[YamiYukiSenpai]

I suggest Kubuntu, which is what I use on my laptop, because it looks like a more traditional Windows desktop by default, but it is super customizable, very stable and isn't a resource-hog. I switched to Kubuntu around the time Canonical announced the death of Unity (around April last year because I remember thinking it was some late April Fools joke at first), and I made mine look like Unity.   One of my friends is using Kubuntu right now and he loves it.

 

Another option is Ubuntu MATE, which is what I'm using as a 2nd OS on my desktop.  If I remember correctly, the MATE desktop also doesn't use a lot of resources.