As I’m moving more to use open source software I would like to start using Linux as my daily. I’ve used Ubuntu and Debian for work but nothing more. Do you have some good distro to recommend?

EDIT: Thanks everyone for the suggestions, they helped a lot

    • andycuccaro
      4·
      5 years ago

      Nice writeup! As someone who doesn’t work in IT nor is some kind of sysadmin, I’ve been using Fedora Xfce for the last 2 (or maybe 3?) years and I’m loving it. I don’t think I’ll ever change, but if I do, it’d probably be for Pop_OS!, since I tried it recently and I really liked it too.

    • AgreeableLandscapeM
      3·
      5 years ago

      First of all, this is an amazing write up!

      Anaconda, literally the worst installer for Linux IMO. despite the Fedora developers being very competent, i have no idea why they are using this shitty installer

      At least it lets you set up multiple independent encrypted partitions (like separate partitions or drives for root and /home), unlike the Ubuntu installer. I actually find the Ubuntu installer to be the simplest among the popular distros, in a bad way.

      openSUSE is REALLY different compared to other distros, so it will take a while for you to get used to it

      In what ways? I used openSUSE Tumbleweed with KDE and it didn’t feel too different from Debian or Fedora with the same desktop environment.

      similar to Fedora, instead of using SELinux, it uses AppArmor instead

      Seeing how SELinux is made by the NSA (I’m not joking), AppArmor is a welcome alternative that I want to see succeed.

    • DessalinesA
      2·
      5 years ago

      I’ve been wanting to try out pop os, it looks really interesting. Thx, this is a really good writeup.

  • AgreeableLandscapeM
    4·
    5 years ago

    Ubuntu actually has a lot of privacy issues and non-FOSS components, including telemetry and the snap store (whose back end is proprietary). Simply searching up these issues will give you plenty of reading material if you want to learn more.

    Debian is amazing, if you’re okay with having older versions of software since the flagship stable version updates packages pretty infrequently (security updates generally are pushed fairly quickly through backports though). It might be just what you’re looking for, it might not, it depends on what your preferences are.

    I’m currently using Fedora as my daily driver as I find that it has a good balance between stability and package update frequency. I also liked openSUSE Tumbleweed (a rolling release distro), but I found that packages associated with my Nvidia graphics card broke it on a semi regular basis, so your mileage may vary. openSUSE Leap is the standard release version, whose packages don’t updates as often as Fedora, but is a good choice for stability and reliability. I would consider both Fedora and openSUSE to be reasonably easy for someone new to Linux to use.

    Last comes the elephant in the room, Arch Linux. Honestly, not many Linux users would recommend Arch to someone just starting out with Linux as it is kind of difficult and does break often due to its rolling release model. You could try Manjaro, but it also had issues with using non-FOSS software (not sure if it still does), see my other comment, and again, you’re going to have to figure out how to fix the system if arch updates break it.

    • Micalet
      1·
      5 years ago

      Re visit Manjaro or articles about it. You can choose freeoffice - take that as an ad - I never had problems upgrading And with debian based ones better reinstall than upgrade the version in my experience. And you always can have Trisquel as pure FOSS.

  • Micalet
    41·
    5 years ago

    I love Manjaro, it is arch for human beings.

    I can use arch, but as I do like to “spread the word” Manjaro can be installed in non-techie friends & family computers.

    But whatever you will use you will love it (comparing with your MS WOS experience GNU is heaven).

    My recommendation is to have 2 or more distribution installed in the main computer (I use 100 Gb for each one sharing data partitions), one deb like LMDE linux Mint Debian Edition or UOS / Deepin and other with any Manjaro spin

    Your second one may work as fail-safe, to make some tricky software work, to experiment Desktops Environments and Windows Managers, to change it to distro hop having the main one free of tests to work, and sometimes to switch to that distro that you think is better than yours.

    But I am rare.

      • Micalet
        3·
        5 years ago

        That is not true, last edition ask you to choose, and you can install LibreOffice.

        It is a non-mandatory advertisement if you want, being able to install non FOSS software or even put it as default as Steam is not being against FOSS.

        And of course you always would have Trisquel and pure FSF distributions that do not allow even Nvidia blobs as Debian and derivatives do.

        And being purist there are 2 options or Trisquel and similars or the other ones.

      • Micalet
        2·
        5 years ago

        That is not true, last edition ask you to choose, and you can install LibreOffice.

        It is a non-mandatory advertisement if you want, being able to install non FOSS software or even put it as default as Steam is not being against FOSS.

        And of course you always would have Trisquel and pure FSF distributions that do not allow even Nvidia blobs as Debian and derivatives do.

        And being purist there are 2 options or Trisquel and similars or the other ones.

    • Micalet
      2·
      5 years ago

      Re visit Manjaro or articles about it. You can choose freeoffice - take that as an ad - I never had problems upgrading With debian based ones better reinstall than upgrade the version in my experience. You always can install Trisquel if you want pure FOSS, and unfortunately the others work better, and we choose them more.

      • Micalet
        3·
        5 years ago

        Default configurations are not distros. It seems that Manjaro now support full confinement snaps. This requires apparmor.

        AppArmor is maintained by Canonical, and present in all debian based distros, plus snap compliant ones.

        Critical security patches are not delayed If 2 weeks delay is a security a risk you can choose the testing repository, but you cannot be at the same time a risk for being too bleeding edge and a risk for 2 weeks

        Only arch based distros (or Manajro testing repo) would pass the always up to date barrier.

        So no Ubuntu Debian Fedora or SUSE baed distribution would pass that bar

        AppArmor is newer than SElinux and now is needed to use snaps

        What is unacceptable is to trash talk a distribution, that is doing things so well that others hate it so much because of that with half trues and lies.

        After Ubuntu is the one with more market share, and as Ubuntu has much more share than Debian, Manjaro has more market share than arch. Being both, Debian and Arch wonderful distros, but I do prefer Arch and Manjaro as I love AUR more than PPAs.