Posted February 6, 2018 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted February 6, 2018 linux mint. Sudo make me a sandwich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted February 6, 2018 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted February 6, 2018 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. Want to know which mobo to get? Spoiler Choose whatever you need. Any more, you're wasting your money. Any less, and you don't get the features you need. Only you know what you need to do with your computer, so nobody's really qualified to answer this question except for you. chEcK iNsidE sPoilEr fOr a tREat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted February 7, 2018 Author 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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted February 7, 2018 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. System specs: 4790k GTX 1050 16GB DDR3 Samsung evo SSD a few HDD's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted February 7, 2018 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. Sudo make me a sandwich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted February 7, 2018 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted February 9, 2018 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. Computer users fall into two groups: those that do backups those that have never had a hard drive fail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted February 10, 2018 (edited) 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted February 10, 2018 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 . http://pcpartpicker.com/p/8LqXcf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted February 11, 2018 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. Desktop Y4M1-II: AMD Ryzen 9-5900X | Asrock RX 6900XT Phantom Gaming D | Gigabyte RTX 4060 low profile | 64GB G.Skill Ripjaws V | 2TB Samsung 980 Pro + 4TB 870 EVO + 4TB SanDisk Ultra 3D + 8TB WD Black + 4TB WD Black HDD | Lian Li O11 Dynamic XL-X | Antec ST1000 1000W 80+ Titanium | MSI Optix MAG342CQR | BenQ EW3270U | Kubuntu ------------------------------- Mobile devices Kuroneko: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga 4th (Intel i7-10510U | 16GB RAM | 1TB SSD) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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