From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Mint (MATE). It's preconfigured closest to what I want, with just a couple tweeks I can do whatever I need with utilities and a GUI I'm familiar with.
If Its a headless machine Ubuntu or Debian. Again familiar with both can do whatever on both without having to relearn low to build a wheel.
Primarily a windows user but I do use Linux for some applications.
Tumbleweed. I've used Linux since the nineties so I know my way around but I appreciate a sane default desktop install so I don't have to waste time fiddling too much.
People always talk about lean/fast/customizing, in reality most distros are performant and fairly lean/bloat free, it's just how Linux is. TW is no exception and like all the others it's easy to customize. I don't use YAST.
I can get comfortable almost any distro, though I prefer those with systemD+Wayland and Nvidia drivers in a repo so they update with the rest. I like rolling release, also considering the pace of Wayland and KDE development.
For new users I always recommend Mint.
Nobara bc my first year of using Linux had some rough patches, and I just wanna turn my brain off and game for a while with minimal troubleshooting.
I'll start distro hopping again soon tho
Debian because the swirl looks cool and the installer makes me feel old and sophisticated without having to be old and sophisticated.
Fedora over Ubuntu. Ubuntu nowdays seems lost it's soul...
Fedora and Gnome workstation is the best ootb Distro I ever hold.
Also Fedora Xfce spins ovrr Linuxmint or Xubuntu. They are first class, stable, and bleeding edge.
Debain on servers because it just works.
Arch on desktops because you got basically every software package you'd ever need in the AUR and it's somewhat stable.
Arch, I love the AUR
I have Arch (KDE) installed on my desktop at home. I have been using it for 6 years and I love it, especially the AUR! This month I have been mostly using my laptop and I am using MX Linux 23 KDE which is great! I really find it's tools very useful when I need them (which is not often, but I am glad they are there).
I use Arch (btw). It's not that I prefer ir over others for anything in particular, i'm just used to it by now.
(that's my personal laptop, the computers in my offices are either Debian or Ubuntu)
It's funny, I switched off Arch.. probably 8 or 9 years ago now, and went to Fedora. At that point I just kind of became a Linux user, instead of a Linux enthusiast. I moved to the Apple ecosystem about two years ago, getting sick of Google's shit and deciding to go all in.
Now I'm coming back to the fold, and getting back to AOSP since I still don't want to deal with Google's bullshit. As I get deeper into ROMs, I'm realizing just how uncomfortable I am in Fedora. It's easy, it works, but there's a certain lack of control that really makes me uneasy. As I start messing around with Arch again in a VM getting ready to install on my Thinkpad, and in WSL on my work laptop, it's like I never left. Sure, I have to learn a bunch of new stuff because a lot has changed in almost a decade. But it's less about Arch, and more about changes in the Linux landscape. I feel so much more comfortable, like coming home after a long time away.
I'm a Linux noob so I don't have a distro preference yet but I'm currently using Fedora KDE spin. It's pretty nice.
This has been beaten to the ground.
I started with LinuxFT from a magazine coverdisk. I also installed it on an old 486 at the office. It became the "internet box". The company director at the time believed Bill Gates that the internet would be a fad and wasn't worth investing in and would not put any money into the company internet connection. So, it was an old 486, running LinuxFT, with a modem calling out on demand, squid proxy, email boxes etc. But it worked.
After that I moved to Redhat (before it was paid for). I remember for sure installing RH5. It was definitely a smoother experience.
Server wise, I went through various distros. Once I got to debian, for servers I never really left the "apt" world. Management wise, it's just too easy to work with. Hopping between Ubuntu and Debian even now.
For firewalls I've been through ipfwadm (Kernel 2.0.x), ipchains (Kernel 2.2.x) and iptables (Kernel 2.4.x). Now, there is some newer stuff now. Nftables, but there hasn't been a "you must change" situation like the other two and as such, I've generally stuck with iptables, mainly because when I did try nftables I had a real problem getting it to play nice with qos. Probably all fixed now, but I'm too lazy to change.
Desktop wise. I dual boot windows/linux. Linux is Manjaro, and I like Manjaro, for the fact that gaming generally just worked. However, I feel like every major upgrade I am chasing broken dependencies for far too long. But, when it works, Manjaro is great. However, I have had several failed desktop experiments. I ran Gentoo way way way back, I think I had an AMD Athlon at the time. I thought it was great, I mean building stuff for my specific setup, nice idea and all. But upgrades were so damn slow compiling everything! I tried Ubuntu, but I never found the desktop to be any good. I did also have Redhat way back in the late 90s. But the desktop was just poor back then.
Debian Unstable. Because I know my way around Debian more than any other distro, but I need the newest Gnome for proper support of tablet mode on my convertible and that's something you can't install via flatpak or backports.
Downside is that it pushes package updates that weren't tested for compatibility with each other, so you need to know if what apt suggests makes sense before you hit "Y".
I've tried Arch and OpenSUSE Tumbleweed in the past, but both rely too much on packages built by users without proper integration with the main repo.
Fine, let's have it your way.
🇬 🇪 🇳 🇹 🇴 🇴 , obviously 😀 It's flexible to no end, enables trimming off the most cruft and, because of that, can be the most secure. That last bit depends on how trigger happy you are to installing packages from outside 🇬 🇪 🇳 🇹 🇴 🇴 repos.
Would highly recommend giving 🇬 🇪 🇳 🇹 🇴 🇴 a try ;)
Arch because I'm too lazy for a non-rolling distro. I should really set up snapshots and my dotfiles repo on my new laptop though (:
Servers I run Debian, I do not want flashy I just want stable and tested security fixes.
I could not hack being that far behind for my desktop OS however (which I run on three different devices), so I run Ubuntu, which I remove as much Ubuntu and Gnome baggage as possible such as snaps and by running Sway.
I should really swap to a different distro that also has Debian as its root but without the stuff I don't want and Sway by default. However I also want stuff to be simple and up to date, as I make my money on my desktop PCs, I cannot afford for it to be a PITA every time I try to install patches.
I do have one PC running arch, but its mostly for the memes (and for PIKVM)
I did used to be Red Hat through and through. I started with Linux back in 98 using Red Hat CD ROMs, but I left for Debian over some previous controversy that I do not remember now, years before the Centos stuff.
Debian for me and Linux Mint Debian Edition for anyone I help with computers, because I don't want to configure a system more than once and to investigate why some stuff doesn't work.
NixOS. There are lots of great things about it (like atomic upgrades, easy rollbacks, no dependency hell, safely mixing stable and unstable packages, and more) but it's killer feature is that (almost) everything about the system is specified in a single config file
I still have yet to see someone mention Hanna Montana Linux.
Arch. It has pretty great documentation and I like having the safety of knowing what's on my computer. Other than those two things, I just like arch I guess. There isn't anything wrong with other distros.
Arch, becaus AUR and rolling. Alpine, because lightweight. opensuse tumbleweed, because rolling and SUSE does cool stuff. NixOS because declarative. Guix, because declarative and bootstrapping.
Those are just the distros I use, I'm sure others are nice too.
been rockin kde neon for the last little while, but also really like mint
OpenSuse Slowroll (rolling release with constant updates plus an update burst every two months)
Kubuntu. The support and stability of Ubuntu but with KDE Plasma 5 (not a huge fan of gnome), and probably one of the more straightforward distros to use in my experience alongside Linux Mint or Pop!_OS
EndeavourOS. I like having a relatively bloat-free setup. It's also been nice because it's been easy to manage so far.
Gentoo because it's what I know, and I know enough to make it do what I want.
Artix with OpenRC, Arch with alternative init systems.
I just distro hopped to nixos. I was unaware of it until I came to the fediverse. The declarative system, once you get over the small learning curve, I feel is very easy to understand and configure. Creating and being able to roll back system configurations is a great feature too.
Previously I was using void. I quite enjoy it too and am sure I'll revisit it. It's a light (no systemd) rolling release distro with an emphasis on stable packages.
Use whatever distro you feel comfortable with. That being said, there are definitely good ones and bad ones. I use Arch btw. That's the beauty of Linux tho. You can try a distro and if you dont like it you can literally install a new distro over the old one by blowing away everything but the /home partition. Did I mention yet I use Arch? I use Arch btw. The package managers are such a great tool to get a system up and running in a short time, but you can always compile everything from scratch if you want. You can config your programs with the default settings and let the OS do it for you, or you can micromanage every single config option and take a little more time to personalize your machine. I've told you I use Arch? I use Arch btw.
Yeah, Linux is great! And in case you were wondering I use a distro called Arch Linux.
Arch because the packages are recent. Arch has no shiny innovation and even the performance is not that fast, but I always find a way to make everything working. It is the only distro like that for me.
Artix. I went Void -> Arch -> Artix. I can't help but feel that Artix is what Arch should be. Perfect blend between the Arch and Void experience.