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Linux which Distro?

splifingate said:
having installed Gentoo/Funtoo/et. al. each many hundreds of times, I've come to find that {Gentoo&ilk} are not really that difficult to get installed . . .
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At least a FreeBSD installation is done within one hour, including initial configuration from scratch. Gentoo can't do that. :D

splifingate said:
I've been meaning to do a series of deep-dives into raw BSD, but other things have held my captive.
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Rule number one is: Forget everything you thought you'd know. (Granted, FreeBSD has grown quite GNU'ish these days, so... forget most things you thought you'd know. Still true for the other BSDs though.)
 
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it wasnt me said:
At least a FreeBSD installation is done within one hour, including initial configuration from scratch. Gentoo can't do that. :D
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"notably easier" != less time

I can get to a Gentoo/Funtoo bespoke-compiled desktop in a few hours of interrupted time ;)

That being said, asking Daniel for a dedicated Funtoo Container takes about a week to get a response + about 12min to Base install!

it wasnt me said:
Rule number one is: Forget everything you thought you'd know. (Granted, FreeBSD has grown quite GNU'ish these days, so... forget most things you thought you'd know. Still true for the other BSDs though.)
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Challenge accepted!
 
I would recommend Fedora, it’s cutting edge but not bleeding edge like Arch based distros tend to be. Because it’s a major distro it has a large community ready to assist with any issues you might have plus it has decent documentation.

By default it ships with GNOME desktop environment which I felt really at home with as I find it quite similar to MacOS. It has decent extensions to tweak things up. Fedora 41 just came out too.

I wouldn’t personally recommend it on systems with 4GB of RAM though, I tried it on an old MacBook Air and it was a bit much for it. I went with Linux Mint on that Mac and it ran a lot better.
 
Fedora Linux Workstation is very close to Mac OS, so I'd go that route. I'm running it at the moment and absolutely love the experience and plus you can play games.
 

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Dr McKay said:
I would recommend Fedora, it’s cutting edge but not bleeding edge like Arch based distros tend to be. Because it’s a major distro it has a large community ready to assist with any issues you might have plus it has decent documentation.

By default it ships with GNOME desktop environment which I felt really at home with as I find it quite similar to MacOS. It has decent extensions to tweak things up. Fedora 41 just came out too.

I wouldn’t personally recommend it on systems with 4GB of RAM though, I tried it on an old MacBook Air and it was a bit much for it. I went with Linux Mint on that Mac and it ran a lot better.
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whats special about fedora over OpenSuse, Ubuntu, or just plain debian? other than its "cutting edge"
 
MacBH928 said:
whats special about fedora over OpenSuse, Ubuntu, or just plain debian? other than its "cutting edge"
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OpenSuse I found a lot more complicated to get set up so I would only recommend to users who are more experienced, and I find people asking what distros to try usually aren’t experienced Linux users.

I personally don’t like Ubuntu because of its snap applications, they run so much slower than alternatives, though as an OS it’s probably better for beginners than fedora if you’re using nvidia drivers since it has them preinstalled. Both Ubuntu and Fedora have enormous communities so are generally good first choices. Fedora is “cutting edge” because it receives very regular updates, but they’re tested for longer than arch based distros which I’d describe as “bleeding edge” so you encounter issues with updates far less. Ubuntu is fairly good on updates too but during the 2 years I’ve been on Linux they’ve been slightly behind fedora in updating to newer kernels and such.

Debian is rock steady but at the expense of often being outdated and encountering out of date dependencies. Great if you need a server that never falls over but not if you want to do stuff like gaming, newer kernels have better support for modern hardware.
 
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Dr McKay said:
OpenSuse I found a lot more complicated to get set up so I would only recommend to users who are more experienced, and I find people asking what distros to try usually aren’t experienced Linux users.

I personally don’t like Ubuntu because of its snap applications, they run so much slower than alternatives, though as an OS it’s probably better for beginners than fedora if you’re using nvidia drivers since it has them preinstalled. Both Ubuntu and Fedora have enormous communities so are generally good first choices. Fedora is “cutting edge” because it receives very regular updates, but they’re tested for longer than arch based distros which I’d describe as “bleeding edge” so you encounter issues with updates far less. Ubuntu is fairly good on updates too but during the 2 years I’ve been on Linux they’ve been slightly behind fedora in updating to newer kernels and such.

Debian is rock steady but at the expense of often being outdated and encountering out of date dependencies. Great if you need a server that never falls over but not if you want to do stuff like gaming, newer kernels have better support for modern hardware.
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thanks for clearing that up. I thought one of the targets of Debian is desktop user, but I guess its more towards a work machine which is very understandable. For work I rather have stable+secure over new features updates.
 
For gaming I would try Pop!_OS. From Wikipedia:
Pop OS (stylized as Pop!_OS) is a free and open-source Linux distribution, based on Ubuntu, and featuring a customized GNOME desktop environment known as COSMIC.
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Pop!_OS provides full out-of-the-box support for both AMD and Nvidia GPUs.
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Personally I do not like Gnome but when the goal is gaming one could try standing it (GNOME) :)
For normal desktop use I would recommend Debian. Recently I have bought a Samsung Galaxy Book 4 laptop and Debian 12 Stable did not work fine (driver recognition) on it but Debian Testing and Fedora 40 both worked like a charm - touchpad, WiFi, audio, Bluetooth, keyboard backlight etc, everything worked OOB.
But to install Windows 11 you have to use a USB mouse because before installing the drivers from Windows Update the touchpad does not work.
I use Debian and not my favourite Slackware because I am lazy and apt-get install is sooo easy.
 
popup said:
For gaming I would try Pop!_OS. From Wikipedia:


Personally I do not like Gnome but when the goal is gaming one could try standing it (GNOME) :)
For normal desktop use I would recommend Debian. Recently I have bought a Samsung Galaxy Book 4 laptop and Debian 12 Stable did not work fine (driver recognition) on it but Debian Testing and Fedora 40 both worked like a charm - touchpad, WiFi, audio, Bluetooth, keyboard backlight etc, everything worked OOB.
But to install Windows 11 you have to use a USB mouse because before installing the drivers from Windows Update the touchpad does not work.
I use Debian and not my favourite Slackware because I am lazy and apt-get install is sooo easy.
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I thought Ubuntu is better since Steam/Valve officially support Ubuntu
 
Ubuntu is Debian based, Pop OP is Ubuntu based, Steam OS is Debian based.

Gaming on Pop!_OS​

Steam Deck uses Arch.
I am not a gamer. But if someone is a gamer and wants to use Linux may try different distros and use what suits him.
 
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I have just reinstalled the current 2401 LTS Ubuntu Mate, which I consider perfect in every aspect.
(excepted that the major pay apps are not available, blame on the editors)

It deals with all Mac hardware out of the box, knows the Mac Keyboard, handles Retina screens perfectly.
Everything just works. Beautifully, with an ergonomy, that leaves no whish open.

The installation was a real pleasure: it plays a presentation while it installs. In one single run. In five minutes.

While Apple and Microsoft are f*cking you with endless progress bars, that leave you in the dark with lying "95% ready" for half an hour, "almost ready" and other stupidities accompanying multiple reboots, Ubuntu Mate has a really clever progress bar with sort of raindrops for every partial task performed.
You have a small >_ icon, on which you can click to display/hide the progressing log, to see what happens if you want.
That is just a reference of how user friendly an OS can be.

Apple and Microsoft could learn from that.
 
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