Linux Distros

[SilkSkull]

What distros do you guys use? Do you use different ones for debugging, browsing and coding? Have you abonndoned windows altogether? (More people should)


Personally I use Arch on my main machine (yes I always mention this) for coding and general work related stuff. As for debugging and browsing I generally use my live USB of Puppy Linux or TailsOS, I love how lightweight and simple they are while not just being a terminal.

[TheFrugalGamer]

I've got a laptop that I've been running Linux Mint on, and I've been really happy with it. I still have Windows on my desktop, but I've been considering switching to Linux once my Windows 10 installation becomes unusable. I'm not really interested in switching to 11 yet, but I'm keeping an eye on where it goes.

The only thing that makes me hesitate is that there may be some games I can't play on Windows. I'd be willing to let a few go, but I need to do a review of my favorites and make sure they'd still work.

[Sinclair-Speccy]

Personally, we use Linux Mint as it is the easiest to use, but we mainly use it for Linux stuff that Windows can't do

[SilkSkull]

The only thing that makes me hesitate is that there may be some games I can't play on Windows. I'd be willing to let a few go, but I need to do a review of my favorites and make sure they'd still work.

The major issue with switching to linux is always compatibility, the tech and gaming world is built for windows. There is definitely ways to get most games running on Linux but I gotta agree that it is a process and usually very annoying.

Also a trend of mint users, maybe I'll give it a shot for desktop stuff

[TheFrugalGamer]

The major issue with switching to linux is always compatibility, the tech and gaming world is built for windows. There is definitely ways to get most games running on Linux but I gotta agree that it is a process and usually very annoying.

Also a trend of mint users, maybe I'll give it a shot for desktop stuff

Yeah, I feel like Mint is pretty beginner-friendly, and in my experience it's been one of those things that "just works." I'm slightly curious about other distros, but Mint does everything I need it to do so well, that I haven't really been interested in branching out yet! I'd definitely point newbies towards it over other flavors.

Edit: Oh, I did forget to mention that it's based on Ubuntu, which reeeeeally helps with compatibility. There aren't many tailor-made solutions for Mint, but you can always grab the Ubuntu ones and they'll work mostly without issues.

[shevek]

I used to use elementaryOS in a dualboot with Windows, but I couldn't get it to consistently work. Something would always break for Linux while Windows was fine. I am looking to switch completely some time in the near future though and Mint looks good. What holds me back are some performance aspects with drivers etc. and switching software. I'm worried that some stuff I can't get anymore won't work or it will be a hassle to find and make it work again. But thanks to the SteamDeck, gaming for Linux has gotten a lot better and continues to get even better.

[Guest]

I mostly use Linux Mint on my main computer and antiX 19.5 Core on my laptop, both with IceWM. Sometimes I tend to feel very uncomfortable using Linux and that's why I don't use it much.

[Nullcasting]

debian was the only linux distro that cooperated with me while learning how to self-host, so it is my favorite forever

[CyberCat2000]

As of this writing, Garuda is kind of my personal first choice. It's based on Arch, but there's a lot cool tools to make it user-friendly! (I also recommend EndeavourOS and Arco for those that want something a bit more technical. I even have the latter on my old Core 2 desktop!)

Another distro I quite like is the Debian Unstable-based Siduction. Checks a lot of the right boxes, though it is more technical than your average Debaim-based distro. (Speaking of, on the more stable side, MX and Q4OS are good, but being Debian Stable-based means package updates are slow, which is why I don't use those as much)

I admit, I use both Windows and Linux quite a bit since both have their own strengths and weakness. Some tasks might be better suited for one OS or the other, and I know there's a lot of Windows-only stuff (especially at work)

[teatime]

honestly i'm considering dual booting windows and a linux distribution but i would need to seriously clean up my computer first. linux mint seems to be a very popular option here but i'd also like to try pop os since it seems to be presenting itself as a gaming/developer distro and is also fairly beginner friendly. do you guys have any advice?

[Mayflower]

Ive been toying with switching to Linux for a while, and at work I do have a Laptop with Linux Mint thats serving me quite well, however on my Main Desktop I think Ill stay on windows for at least another few years, mainly because I just do not have the energy to deal with migrating from one set-up to another, even if its just in software
plus as everyone mentioned the compatibility is a bit of a pain point, even if its been improving lately

[drakonic]

I have been using my Kubuntu laptop as my daily driver for quite some time, a solid 6 months at least, and I have a 2nd laptop I mostly use for school that runs EndeavourOS.

The 2nd laptop which came with Window 10 Home. I really disliked Windows 10 (I have been using Mac OS and Win7 most of my life), but I hate HATE HATE the Home edition. Windows already does a lot of stuff without your knowledge or consent, but the Home editions especially so.
The final straw was when each boot up Windows would try to trick me into installing Windows 11 by accidentally clicking the big button instead of the tiny, hidden "keep Windows 10" one. I immediately backed up my personal stuff, wiped the disk, and installed EndeavourOS (I have been hearing great things about Arch's pacman and the Arch User Repository. And indeed they are awesome). I haven't been really missing anything, because I'd been already using Ubuntu most of the time and I'd gotten used to linux and my beloved desktop environment, KDE Plasma.

Now, I've gotta say: Some things don't work. If you have a laptop with features like a fingerprint reader or a gyroscope (My EndeavourOS laptop is a 2-in-1, so on Windows it could also act as a tablet. On linux the touchscreen works perfectly fine, but not auto-rotation, this is an issue for my model specifically) or a touchscreen that can be used with an active stylus (happy to report the microsoft pen protocol works on Linux!) or some other gadget, you should probably look into if it works on your laptop model specifically on linux, and if you can't find a conclusive answer decide on whether you need it to work or not. In my case luckily the stuff that doesn't work is the stuff I don't use at all.

As for recommendations... If you're a newbie, Ubuntu or just Debian are great options, I think. Debian may be a little intimidating to a total newbie, as it offers a bit more choice in the installation.
An important part of the choice is your desktop environment! It's going to decide how your system looks and feels, and how much you can change about that. In the case of Ubuntu, you can install "flavours" of it with the environment you want. If you do not care for customization, you can go with GNOME. If you want something highly customizable that already looks nice (and kind of resembles win10) out of the box, there's KDE Plasma.

So far I mostly just have experience with Ubuntu and Debian, but as I've said I've been trying out EndeavourOS, and I must say it is really awesome!! It's not something I'd recommend as a first Linux distro though, I've already had to reinstall it because I broke it 😅


Addendum: About compatibility, I have not really run into that many issues, but then again the only non-opensource software I really use now are video games, and windows games for the most part work on Linux, and thanks to the Steam Deck that compatibility is getting better. I did have to do some terminal stuff for some of them to work though, and that can be scary.

[j]

i run a bunch of different stuff on a bunch of different machines

at home, on a computer where i need stuff to just work because of meetings and whatnot, i use PopOS (the first distro i ever tried ;)) because everything just works - including the majority of my games. saying that, PopOS isn't my favourite distro because of how large (some would say bloated, i disagree) it is.

so, on my servers i run debian (because it's super cool and again, /just works/

but my favourite distro ever would have to be tinycore (which i'm using to write this post!), which is one of the smallest distros out there, and runs on practically anything. doesn't come with much, but tinycoreplus comes with a graphical environment (something i dont really use - i just like running tmux in the terminal and doing stuff there), which lets folks do things that they need to do. honestly, since using tinycore i haven't really looked back for 90% of what i do on PopOS on my work machine, so it just suits me really well! :D

[Guest]

but my favourite distro ever would have to be tinycore (which i'm using to write this post!), which is one of the smallest distros out there, and runs on practically anything. doesn't come with much, but tinycoreplus comes with a graphical environment (something i dont really use - i just like running tmux in the terminal and doing stuff there), which lets folks do things that they need to do. honestly, since using tinycore i haven't really looked back for 90% of what i do on PopOS on my work machine, so it just suits me really well! :D

By any chance can you tell me what hardware you are using for Tiny Core? It's a desktop or a laptop/notebook?

[j]

By any chance can you tell me what hardware you are using for Tiny Core? It's a desktop or a laptop/notebook?

sure thing!

i'm using an Acer Aspire 5336 with 2GB DDR3 RAM, an Intel Celeron T3500 and a 250GB HDD, with a non-graphical (i.e. terminal TTY) tinycore interface