What's your favorite Distro?

AllForIt · 25-07-2020 7:46pm

I haven't used Linux for over 10 years but I wanted to compile a custom kernel to fix an issue with my android phone. It was something I always wanted to learn how to do but I never really had a reason to do it until I had this issue to with my phone. Which I manged to do - on Linux Mint.

I can't compare it to any other distro because I didn't have to try any other. I am astounded that everything just worked. My past experience of Linux is multiple issues with hardware compatibility especially, wifi cutting out or wouldn't work at all for example. But I haven't had a single issue Mint whatsoever. What an improvement since last time I used it.

Worztron · 26-07-2020 10:12am

AllForIt wrote: »

I haven't used Linux for over 10 years but I wanted to compile a custom kernel to fix an issue with my android phone. It was something I always wanted to learn how to do but I never really had a reason to do it until I had this issue to with my phone. Which I manged to do - on Linux Mint.

I can't compare it to any other distro because I didn't have to try any other. I am astounded that everything just worked. My past experience of Linux is multiple issues with hardware compatibility especially, wifi cutting out or wouldn't work at all for example. But I haven't had a single issue Mint whatsoever. What an improvement since last time I used it.

There's a world of difference between 2010 GNU/Linux and 2020 GNU/Linux. I recall back then, my buggest gripe was getting wireless to work - now it usually works with ease.

rayzercork · 26-07-2020 1:09pm

was messing with mageia 7 xfce the other day, it pulled the wifi drivers right off the iso even without an internet connection. somehow installed dkms and the broadcom dkms while i was offline then ran the network setup wizard and it it recognized the driver and setup a connection with no hassle. think the new version will also have 32bit version so it might be a distro to keep an eye on.

AllForIt · 26-07-2020 1:36pm

Worztron wrote: »

There's a world of difference between 2010 GNU/Linux and 2020 GNU/Linux. I recall back then, my buggest gripe was getting wireless to work - now it usually works with ease.

I recall hooking up a linux desktop to a laptop with working internet - via an ether net cable - in an attempt to get internet working that way. Don't recall having much success with that either.

Till recently I'm been more into dual booting windows with android rather than linux. The state of that is rather like how linux used to be, again issues with wifi and graphics and general stability. Getting better though, slowly.

Worztron · 26-07-2020 3:04pm

AllForIt wrote: »

I recall hooking up a linux desktop to a laptop with working internet - via an ether net cable - in an attempt to get internet working that way. Don't recall having much success with that either

...

Hi AllForIt. I'd say you needed to connect the desktop directly to the wifi router via an ethernet cable to get that to connect.

Worztron · 26-07-2020 3:05pm

rayzercork wrote: »

was messing with mageia 7 xfce the other day, it pulled the wifi drivers right off the iso even without an internet connection. somehow installed dkms and the broadcom dkms while i was offline then ran the network setup wizard and it it recognized the driver and setup a connection with no hassle. think the new version will also have 32bit version so it might be a distro to keep an eye on.

Hi rayzercork. I haven't seen Mageia mentioned around for a long while. Good to see it's still around.

26-07-2020 4:50pm

Worztron wrote: »

Hi denartha. Debian is awesome alright. That's unfortunate regarding UF - I got started in GNU/Linux with Ubuntu and the UF were my savior as I had so many questions to ask. I never could get into KDE - MATE & Xfce are my faves - then LXDE. Do you not find Debian Stable + KDE to be very outdated given how quickly KDE is being developed?

Ive been using KDE for approximately 18 years and love it, but the cutting edge releases are often buggy as hell. The forced move from 3.5 to 4 nearly made me leave because for a while it was almost unusable. I only recently made the switch from 4 to 5, and was pleasantly surprised. Last time I tried 5 it was full of bugs and unusable for every day use.

When it comes to stability and usability I suppose the clue is in the name.

If i need a specific package or version not available in the repos, i can always compile it myself.

Worztron · 26-07-2020 4:58pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Ive been using KDE for approximately 18 years and love it, but the cutting edge releases are often buggy as hell. The forced move from 3.5 to 4 nearly made me leave because for a while it was almost unusable. I only recently made the switch from 4 to 5, and was pleasantly surprised. Last time I tried 5 it was full of bugs and unusable for every day use.

When it comes to stability and usability I suppose the clue is in the name.

If i need a specific package or version not available in the repos, i can always compile it myself.

Fair enough. :-) Or a flatpak/snap could fit the bill for certain programs.

PropJoe10 · 26-07-2020 10:17pm

Running Fedora 32 on my Thinkpad at the moment and it's pretty nifty. The GNOME desktop environment has come along way in terms of speed and responsiveness.

L.Jenkins · 26-07-2020 10:25pm

PropJoe10 wrote: »

Running Fedora 32 on my Thinkpad at the moment and it's pretty nifty. The GNOME desktop environment has come along way in terms of speed and responsiveness.

I'm back using Fedora 32 now after a stint on Mint for a few days. It's great, but no matter the OS, I prefer Cinnamon.

27-07-2020 6:50pm

Linux Mint for me. Whee to get a DVD image..

PropJoe10 · 27-07-2020 10:38pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Linux Mint for me. Whee to get a DVD image..

Installed Mint 20 Cinnamon on my main PC. It's pretty great.

27-07-2020 11:40pm

PropJoe10 wrote: »

Running Fedora 32 on my Thinkpad at the moment and it's pretty nifty. The GNOME desktop environment has come along way in terms of speed and responsiveness.

It helps that Red Hat QA staff use Thinkpads

limnam · 28-07-2020 10:27am

Deleted User wrote: »

It helps that Red Hat QA staff use Thinkpads

But most Fedora QA are not in RH

28-07-2020 11:38am

limnam wrote: »

But most Fedora QA are not in RH

A lot of them are. Plus most employees use the latest Fedora release.

L.Jenkins · 28-07-2020 10:48pm

Deleted User wrote: »

A lot of them are. Plus most employees use the latest Fedora release.

In RH? Using Fedora?

limnam · 29-07-2020 12:03am

L.Jenkins wrote: »

In RH? Using Fedora?

Sure, why not?

limnam · 29-07-2020 12:05am

Deleted User wrote: »

A lot of them are. Plus most employees use the latest Fedora release.

I'd say the minority.

The vast majority of Fedora QA is carried out by people all over the world.

A small few are on the books in RH, like adamw.

29-07-2020 12:45am

L.Jenkins wrote: »

In RH? Using Fedora?

Yes. RHEL 6 is based on Fedora 12 and 13 with a few modifications. More information here: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/quick-docs/fedora-and-red-hat-enterprise-linux/

The vast majority of Fedora QA is carried out by people all over the world.

A small few are on the books in RH, like adamw.

I wasn't denying that most QA for Fedora is done by contributors from all over the world. I was saying that Red Hat QA staff use thinkspads and before a new Fedora release is published for download on the site, RH QA do smoke tests on it. It's then published internally for RH staff to test. If no shoiwstoppers are found, its status changes from Release Candidate to RTM and gets published for global consumption.

DeconSheridan · 30-08-2020 2:29pm

Ubuntu has everything I need looks great in Dark mode..

Hodors Appletart · 31-08-2020 6:57pm

Mint

I've rescued countless laptops with it for both myself and wider friends and family

it's very intuitive for a person migrating fresh from Windows and no real learning curve for people who just want to browse or watch streaming content etc

PropJoe10 · 31-08-2020 7:05pm

Hodors Appletart wrote: »

Mint

I've rescued countless laptops with it for both myself and wider friends and family

it's very intuitive for a person migrating fresh from Windows and no real learning curve for people who just want to browse or watch streaming content etc

Mint is a fantastic project. I'm running that on my main PC. Running Elementary on the device I'm using right now (MacBook Pro from 2012) and it's pretty great. I've always ignored this distro but when you put a bit of extra work into it (add the third party Tweaks tool for example) it's really nice and extremely stable.

human 19 · 06-09-2020 9:59pm

Arch and manjaro (arch-based) . Loaded Manjaro for the integrated team client some years back. Havent had any issues with either once updates are performed regularly

PropJoe10 · 10-09-2020 5:09pm

Now moved to Fedora on my main PC/gaming rig. It seems that the open source AMD graphics drivers are fairly solid now - getting good performance across my games, including the likes of World of Warcraft (running through Lutris) using an RX 580. Fedora is such a solid distro.

rayzercork · 10-09-2020 8:39pm

switched the main pc from peppermint to xubuntu because of some recurring update issues i had, its working really nice and changed the desktop layout a bit.

theological · 01-12-2020 10:24am

Worztron wrote: »

Hi.

I'll start: Debian Stable.

Despite the packages becoming somewhat outdated - this isn't too much of an issue anymore with the availability of AppImages, Flatpak, & Snaps. The Debian Backports are also great for getting a more recent kernel, etc.
I was on Ubuntu/Linux Mint for years, then jumped to Debian a few years ago.

��

I'm using Debian Sid (unstable) which is pretty nice. It means that I get the latest packages without having to wait, and my system still remains pretty stable.

I really like the XFCE desktop also with a bit of customisation it is pretty nice.

PropJoe10 · 01-12-2020 3:14pm

LMDE is a nice option for people that like Debian Stable with an updated desktop environment. It's the brand of Linux Mint based on Debian. I used it for a bit and it was really nice.

Johnboy1951 · 01-12-2020 3:38pm

Still using PCLinuxOS ........ continues to roll on.

I mostly use KDE but have the option on log in to use MATE or other DEs (depending on what I have installed) as well as several WMs.

That provides UI versatility for my mood changes

01-12-2020 6:05pm

I use Debian stable on all my systems at home. All are on stable.

PropJoe10 · 01-12-2020 8:48pm

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Still using PCLinuxOS ........ continues to roll on.

I mostly use KDE but have the option on log in to use MATE or other DEs (depending on what I have installed) as well as several WMs.

That provides UI versatility for my mood changes

Big fan of that project

Worztron · 06-12-2020 4:28pm

Deleted User wrote: »

I use Debian stable on all my systems at home. All are on stable.

Same here!

klr87 · 28-05-2021 9:19pm

Long-time Mint Mate user here, currently using 20.1, which is based on Ubuntu 20.4 LTS.

I've recently been testing a range of "lightweight" distros, with a view to making some of my older systems* more usable. Ventoy (https://www.ventoy.net/) is the best utility I've seen yet for being able to boot from a menu of ISO files on a USB pen drive.

*If that makes it sound like I have quite a few PCs of various shapes and sizes, well, it's because I do. Why throw out old hardware when you can run an up-to-date and secure version of Linux on it? My oldest PC is a 2008 Acer laptop.

Most of the other distros I've tested are also based on Ubuntu/Debian: LXLE, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Mint Xfce, MX (standard Xfce spin) and MX (KDE version), These are all fit for purpose, some using less resources than others. By far the most lightweight and responsive distro I tested was AntiX, on which MX is partly based.

Worztron · 29-05-2021 6:59am

klr87 wrote: »

Long-time Mint Mate user here, currently using 20.1, which is based on Ubuntu 20.4 LTS.

I've recently been testing a range of "lightweight" distros, with a view to making some of my older systems* more usable. Ventoy (https://www.ventoy.net/) is the best utility I've seen yet for being able to boot from a menu of ISO files on a USB pen drive.

*If that makes it sound like I have quite a few PCs of various shapes and sizes, well, it's because I do. Why throw out old hardware when you can run an up-to-date and secure version of Linux on it? My oldest PC is a 2008 Acer laptop.

Most of the other distros I've tested are also based on Ubuntu/Debian: LXLE, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Mint Xfce, MX (standard Xfce spin) and MX (KDE version), These are all fit for purpose, some using less resources than others. By far the most lightweight and responsive distro I tested was AntiX, on which MX is partly based.

Hi klr87.

I too am a fan on the MATE desktop environment. I was on Linux Mint (MATE) for a number of years but moved to Debian a few years ago - still with MATE on my main PC. I too have a 2008 Acer laptop - works fine with Debian+LXDE. My oldest PC is a 2003 Desktop.

zom · 31-05-2021 10:08pm

theological wrote: »

I really like the XFCE desktop also with a bit of customisation it is pretty nice.

xfce helped me stay on Linux years ago with gnome tweaking makes even older computers workable.

PropJoe10 · 01-06-2021 12:58am

Been using Solus on my main PC for the last couple of weeks with the Budgie desktop that they develop themselves, after being on Fedora for the past year. Really solid, fast distro. Enjoying it a lot!

L.Jenkins · 02-06-2021 4:37pm

PropJoe10 wrote: »

Been using Solus on my main PC for the last couple of weeks with the Budgie desktop that they develop themselves, after being on Fedora for the past year. Really solid, fast distro. Enjoying it a lot!

I love Fedora. Maybe it's just the machines I've hosted it on in a VM, but it's a bit resource hungry. On it's own, it's great.

I tried MX Linux in a VM and it's great.

What's your favorite Distro?

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