Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Linux Discussion

maflynn

maflynn

macrumors Broadwell
Original poster
I wanted a thread to discuss the pros and cons of the various Linux Distros

Here's a good site to try the distros without needing to download a live usb - https://distrosea.com/

What I've installed/tried:
PopOS 24.04 LTS, based on Ununtu 24.04, it introduces a new Desktop Environment - Cosmic. Previously their Cosmic environment was a heavily customized gnome DE. Complaints of a lot of little and not so little issues. Fair amount of complaints about Cosmic not being ready and is largely a beta. Also being based off of an older LTS, with Ubuntu 25.04 around the corner, its a valid criticism.

Fedora 43. this distro updates every six months, potential of an updte impacting ssystem stability is high, gnome is completly vanilla, the distro is seemingly geared to the more experienced Linux user. I've had personal experience where updates did break the system. I'm also more familiar with apt-get, though I'm sure dnf is not that much different.

I'm installing Ubuntu right now.
The upside of this version (Ubuntu 25.10) is I get a lot of what will be in the up and coming LTS version, so I can upgrade to 26.04 LTS in a few months if I stick with Ubuntu. Downsides, Ubuntu pushes snap, where as others push flatpacks but I can add flatpack support.

For my perspective, I'll be considering Fedora vs. Ubuntu. I think PopOS is out, though I do like the cosmic DE, its just not ready for prime time, plus its on an older code base. I don't think I'll try or consider any other of the Ubuntu derivatives/forks.
 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: y2kpanic, Janichsan, adrianlondon and 1 other person
maflynn said:
I wanted a thread to discuss the pros and cons of the various Linux Distros

Here's a good site to try the distros without needing to download a live usb - https://distrosea.com/

What I've installed/tried:
PopOS 24.04 LTS, based on Ununtu 24.04, it introduces a new Desktop Environment - Cosmic. Previously their Cosmic environment was a heavily customized gnome DE. Complaints of a lot of little and not so little issues. Fair amount of complaints about Cosmic not being ready and is largely a beta. Also being based off of an older LTS, with Ubuntu 25.04 around the corner, its a valid criticism.

Fedora 43. this distro updates every six months, potential of an updte impacting ssystem stability is high, gnome is completly vanilla, the distro is seemingly geared to the more experienced Linux user. I've had personal experience where updates did break the system. I'm also more familiar with apt-get, though I'm sure dnf is not that much different.

I'm installing Ubuntu right now.
The upside of this version (Ubuntu 25.10) is I get a lot of what will be in the up and coming LTS version, so I can upgrade to 26.04 LTS in a few months if I stick with Ubuntu. Downsides, Ubuntu pushes snap, where as others push flatpacks but I can add flatpack support.

For my perspective, I'll be considering Fedora vs. Ubuntu. I think PopOS is out, though I do like the cosmic DE, its just not ready for prime time, plus its on an older code base. I don't think I'll try or consider any other of the Ubuntu derivatives/forks.
Click to expand...

Ubuntu has always been my go-to. They were early in getting a lot of people on board and while they have made UI and other changes over the years, they haven't done it in any really bad ways to screw things up.

I was not able to get Fedora to work but that was very early days. I tried Ubuntu later on and everything just worked. It's not the prettiest, not the most user-friendly, not the best selection of packages but I can install it and not have to worry about it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: adrianlondon and maflynn
pshufd said:
I was not able to get Fedora to work but that was very early days.
Click to expand...
Same, in many respects. Back when I was on a intel Mac, I tried installed Fedora, I had a lots of problems, but I worked through all of them and largely had a stable system. I made the mistake of upgrading during the next release, and that broke everything. I tried re-enabling my changes, all of the conf file edits, etc but this time around those same changes did not restore the features that were working.

pshufd said:
Ubuntu has always been my go-to
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm largely used Ubuntu and its down stream derivatives. PopOS was a success, but a couple of things gave me pause.

First, PopOS is tied to the success/failure of System 76. They go under the distro is largely in trouble.
Secondly. That these down stream distros can be behind the version of what Canonical releases. System 76 released PopOS 24.04 this past December, where as Canonical is getting to release 26.04 shortly. Will it take System 76 two years to get on the 26.04 code base?
 
  • Like
Reactions: rb2112 and pshufd
Oddly enough I'm having issues with Ubuntu. trying to install Steam, I tried various methods, none of them add the steam app to app section (what ever its called when clicking on the ubuntu logo). I didn't have this much of a headache from Popos. I think the problem is flatpak vs. snap, and I wonder if I tried adding flatpak capability, I did something that is making things not work seamlessly.
 
I've only tried Linux Mint (Cinnamon) on a live usb.

This was mid 2024 (before I went Apple with the mini), knowing that MS wouldn't update my Dell from Win 10 to 11. Not ever having done anything Linux, using it over a couple/three days I still was somewhat... underwhelmed tbh.

I did partition the boot drive but never went ahead with a dual boot system. I think I will do that sooner than later, since the current ESU for Win 10 ends in October.

Thanks @maflynn for starting this thread.
 
  • Like
Reactions: maflynn
So in doing my research, reading watching videos, there's two schools of thought.
Rolling releases, vs. point releases.

Rolling releases, continually update portions of the OS, not waiting for a full point release. SteamOS went from debian, which the stable development is every two uses, to that of Arch which is continually updated.

I can see how this makes a lot of sense in many situations, but it does introduce instabilities.

I like the idea of a point release, and even then the LTS version, I value stability over everything else, and if a given distro is dialed, customized and working flawlessly, why mess with success.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Inhalant
lowendlinux said:
I've gotten onto the immutable plus Flatpak train because it makes the most sense for me.
Click to expand...
What do you like about the immutable distros? I agree with flatpaks, I largely think the linux community is using them over snap - one would hope ubuntu embraces this sooner then later
 
maflynn said:
So in doing my research, reading watching videos, there's two schools of thought.
Rolling releases, vs. point releases.

Rolling releases, continually update portions of the OS, not waiting for a full point release. SteamOS went from debian, which the stable development is every two uses, to that of Arch which is continually updated.

I can see how this makes a lot of sense in many situations, but it does introduce instabilities.

I like the idea of a point release, and even then the LTS version, I value stability over everything else, and if a given distro is dialed, customized and working flawlessly, why mess with success.
Click to expand...

My thinking precisely but that's coming from an Enterprise perspective.

Every maintenance update I test the programs I use on a spare system before upgrading my main systems and I create a video stating that it works or doesn't as other people find this helpful. Everyone has to figure out which approach works better for them.

But on the r/mac subreddit, I've seen a ton of questions on how to downgrade from Tahoe to Sequoia. I always recommend testing new operating systems on an external SSD before upgrading the internal drive but a lot of people don't have the skills to do this.

When I go to install Ubuntu after not using it for a few months or a year; it's about 95% the same as the last time I used it.
 
pshufd said:
Every maintenance update I test the programs I use on a spare system before upgrading my main systems and I create a video stating that it works or doesn't as other people find this helpful. Everyone has to figure out which approach works better for them.
Click to expand...
Yeah, and that's why I'm looking forward to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
 
maflynn said:
What do you like about the immutable distros?
Click to expand...

Not the guy you asked but I'm an atomic Linux fan.

I use Aurora on my primary desktop. It's from the uBlue family, a sister distro to Bazzite but without the gamer focus. The short pitch is that it's almost Mac-like in how it just works. Drivers for all kinds of hardware including Nvidia are bundled in, and everything updates automatically in the background completely invisibly.

The deeper reason I appreciate the atomic model is the clean separation between system and user data. The base OS is read-only, so there's nothing to accidentally break. If an update somehow ships broken, you just reboot and select the previous version since the system always keeps its last known working version. Your files and apps are completely independent of the system image, so you're highly unlikely to lose anything.

Speaking of apps - those are flatpaks. Aurora ships with Bazaar for managing them and downloading new ones from Flathub. There's also support for AppImages if you're into that, and homebrew is preinstalled for CLI stuff if you need it.

In practice the read-only thing doesn't matter day-to-day (how often are we actually touching system files?), but the peace of mind is real. I just don't think about the system anymore apart from glazing it online.
 
  • Like
Reactions: turbineseaplane, lowendlinux and maflynn
I've used a lot of distros over the years but Arch became my main distro and daily driver. Having the AUR and a large package manager repo is nice. Arch is great for someone like me who loves to tinker, tweak and use the command line. I preferred using window managers over desktop environments. i3 or xmonad were my favorites.

For servers, I'd either use Debian or Ubuntu. Those are great for reliability and stability.
 
  • Like
Reactions: turbineseaplane, Queen6, ProbablyDylan and 1 other person
I think I'll update my original post to include the info below
S.B.G said:
Arch became my main distro
Click to expand...

On my thinkpad T14s, I installed cachyos - a derivative of Arch and since most of my experience has been debian based, its quite different.

First off, cachyos allows you to use any DE, but it seems to strongly recommend KDE, and I've never really connected with it. I like how gnome and popos's cosmic looks and feels. Still, I went with kde, and while its very similar to windows, still, not my preference. I may look to install gnome shortly.

Applications - the best (only?) way to install applications is via pacman, and cachyos, has its own repository. I needed to install yay to get to the AUR repository. That's what google told me, I could be wrong. 1Password, wasn't found using pacman, but was for yay. It looks like I may have needed to compile 1Password, I gave up when yay was telling me to do stuff like warning me not to use my own password in a file. I'm most likely going to be moving off of 1Password, given their significant price increase.

Terminal/shell. cachyos uses konsole, and fish as its shell. bash is included and I quickly switched it over.

cachyos is markted as a performance build, with side of stability thrown in 🙂 Basically, all of the upsides of the rolling release of Arch but tweaked and modifed for speed and stability.

I installed steam and ran fallout 76, I was getting 10fps more then in other distros. Also, getting the game up and running in full screen was significantly easier. I've tried other games, and things are similar, performance is very good.

I'm not sold on how cachyos/arch works, I'm old and maybe I'm turning into a stick in the mud and prefer a debian based distro, but I'll give cachyos more time.
 
  • Like
Reactions: S.B.G
maflynn said:
Applications - the best (only?) way to install applications is via pacman
Click to expand...
You already pointed out the AUR as another way, which is almost a must really. On a fresh build that is one of the first things I install so I can install other stuff.

There are also flatpak, snap, appimage, you can compile your own and there are containers like Docker too.

I always stick to pacman and the AUR. I only used flatpak or appimage and snap if there was no other way. I just didn't like having all these different ways to install things - a common complaint in the Linux community. I'm never against options, but having too many is a pain, like going to the store to buy toothpaste. The aisle is 50 feet long, 7 feet high and filled with toothpaste. How to choose? lol
 
  • Like
Reactions: maflynn
I have to say, I'm liking cachyos, I've been trying different distros now for a couple of weeks, and overall this one is starting to grow on me.

PopOS, was by and large my favorite, the cosmic DE is excellent, but underbaked. Plus being produced by system 76, I question how support for non-system 76 will be and/or if they go under what happens.

Ubuntu, they seem more focused on the enterprise, their forcing the use of snaps is rubbing some folks the wrong way, especially since all snaps (regardless of the distro), have to go through canonical's back end servers running non-open source software.

Fedora, more of a blank slate, offers a lot of upsides, but ultimately I moved on without investing too much time and effort.

Cachyos, definitely faster then all of the other distros listed, easiest to setup the gaming, just run these two commands
sudo pacman -S cachyos-gaming-meta
sudo pacman -S cachyos-gaming-applications

I'm used to apt-get and so far pacman isn't all that different, though instead of doing sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade you use sudo pacman -Syu. to access the arch repositories you can use yay or paru. I've yet to dig any deeper into those two commands. I also prefer to do my installs via the terminal, so unlike popos and fedora, I don't need to deal with flatpaks, or ubuntu and snaps. I know in all those cases, I can uninstall or not use flatpaks/snaps
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Inhalant and S.B.G
maflynn said:
PopOS, was by and large my favorite, the cosmic DE is excellent, but underbaked. Plus being produced by system 76, I question how support for non-system 76 will be and/or if they go under what happens.
Click to expand...
System76 has been around for roughly 25 years and there's no reason that I know of to think they'll be disappearing any time soon. If they did, Pop!_OS and the COSMIC desktop environment are both open source projects and would almost certainly keep going.
 
  • Like
Reactions: S.B.G
Ubuntu installed very easily on my late-2013 MBP (apart from needing to install the Broadcom Wi-Fi driver manually afterwards).

I first installed 25, but it didn't run PHP 8.5 (which is the whole reason I dusted off my old MBP and put Unix on it in the first place) so installed the 24 LTS version instead.

I also use part of the internal SSD as a Time Machine destination for my current Macbook.
 
  • Like
Reactions: S.B.G and pshufd
Grumpus said:
System76 has been around for roughly 25 years
Click to expand...
I did not know that, I had googled them recently and there's been a fair amount of complaints and problems related customer support, so that got me thinking as the major backer of popos, if something happened to them...
 
  • Like
Reactions: S.B.G
Just for fun, here's my Unix journey from University onwards ...

Honeywell Multics
SCO Unix (on IBM PCs)
SunOS -> Solaris
HP-UX
MacOS (well, it has Terminal 😁)
Ubuntu

I'm not quite as old as one would think, if you google Multics, but I guess my Uni was a bit behind the times!
 
  • Like
Reactions: S.B.G and maflynn
adrianlondon said:
Just for fun, here's my Unix journey from University onwards ...
Click to expand...
Nice

For me, its less of a journey and more of an experience.

SCO Unix, Minix, OS-9, Slackware Linux, Fedora, Ubuntu, with some extremely light interactions with Solaris. Obviously OSX

I recall the real struggle in trying to get slackware going on my PC back in the day.
 
  • Like
Reactions: S.B.G
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back