I have been distro hopping for about 2 weeks now, there’s always something that doesn’t work. I thought I would stick with Debian and now I haven’t been able to make my printer work in it, I think I tried in another distro and it just worked out of the box, but there’s always something that’s broken in every distro....
Inform us on which distros you’ve tried. If possible, for each one of them list the following:
What exactly didn’t work?
Did you try any troubleshooting?
On a more general note, you shouldn’t feel the need to switch distros even if other distros might offer more convenient solutions.
Story timeWhen I was new to Linux, I wanted to rely on the Chromium browser for cloud gaming through Nvidia GeForce NOW’s web platform. For some reason, I just wasn’t able to get this to work on Fedora. Somehow, while still being mostly a newbie, I stumbled upon Distrobox and decided to give it a go in hopes of allowing me to overcome the earlier challenge by benefiting of the ArchWiki and the AUR through an Arch distrobox. And voila; -without too much effort- it just worked. More recently, after I’ve become slightly more knowledgeable on Linux, I just rely on a flatpak to get the same work done.
Moral of the story would be that there are a lot of different ways that enable one to overcome challenges like these. And unless you feel the need to go with a system that’s (mostly) managed for you (à la uBlue)^[1]^, you will face issues every now and then. And the only way to deal with them would be to either setup^[2]^ (GRUB-)Btrfs+Timeshift/Snapper (or similar solutions) such that it automatically snapshots a working state that you might rollback to whenever something unfortunate befalls your system or to simply become ever so better equipped in troubleshooting them yourself.
But therefore demands from you to engage with the system in a specific (mostly unique) way.
Honestly, I don’t know if that’s the case; I always got scared whenever I saw the prerequisites for Heads in combination with the strict list of supported hardware. FWIW, the NV41 that’s used for enabling Heads on NovaCustom’s device is included in the short list of supported hardware for Heads, while -unfortunately- the same doesn’t apply to the StarBook. I would love to be proven wrong though!
Oh wow! This is excellent news! I hope they’ll also provide other privacy/security related features like Heads, the removal of the camera and/or microphone modules, pre-installed privacy screen, tamper-evident screws and packaging.
My two cents; if you want to use Linux on it, then do yourself a favor and pick a laptop from a Linux-first vendor. So the likes of NovaCustom, Star Labs, System76, Tuxedo and others found on the link over here come to mind. Besides that, it’s important that the device in question either has a dedicated GPU (or at least supports eGPUs). Furthermore, choose a device with relatively high battery capacity; they go up to ~99 Wh, so pick something that’s at least relatively close to that number.
Thank you for your response. But our conversation seems so far somewhat inefficient. And I fear it might be due to reasons related to the XY problem. Therefore, before I reply to the points made in the above comment, I would like to ask you if you could state the following:
Ultimately, what are you trying to achieve (and why); what is the problem even?
What is your solution to this problem? And where does adding Distrochooser to the sidebar come into plan? Have you perhaps thought of other possible solutions and why they might be inferior to the suggested one?
I got bored 😅. So here is my second response. But please, before reading this one, consider reading my other reply first. It’s a lot shorter anyways 😅.
So fundamentally, I think we’re misunderstanding one another. In your defense, I can understand it; as I’m just one of the many responders and you might simply not have been able to take the time to understand what it is that I’m trying to convey and why. In my case, I think it might be related to the XY problem; i.e. you’re proposing a solution (adding Distrochooser to the sidebar) for which hope will resolve an issue that remains to be stated. For all we know, you actually try to solve something else and you perceive Distrochooser in being capable of playing a vital role in that without being aware of how else the actual problem should be tackled instead.
In this reply I will try to bridge the gap that might have made you misunderstand what I tried to say in my first comment under your original post.
IMO you’re thinking too much as an advanced user for a simple user.
I think you might be absolutely right. The thing is, though, that I have never been one of those users that post a question like “Which distro?” without providing anything beyond the most basic specifics.
Some insights from my personal Linux journey(FWIW, this is me. And this was more of a last-ditch effort in hopes of finding something to dual boot into. By contrast, for my first distro I had spent a week of my free time digging through (video-)guides and Reddit threads until I had dismissed everything besides the distro I landed on. It seems that I did a good enough job as I’m still confidently using it. And while I’ve used and experimented with other distros since (mostly as a dual boot), my first distro is the only one I refer to as home. And the interesting part is that I’m fully aware that chances are very slim that a random bystander would ever have suggested me (as a newbie) the use of Fedora Atomic. So by doing the research myself, I’ve actually enabled myself to start with my ideal distro from the get-go. And yes; that means I’ve revisited my choice a couple of times by now, but every revisit just made me more confident in my choice.
The only point I agree on is the NVIDIA GPU.
I therefore assume you disagree not with the entire post (as you seem to be taking a liking to DistroSea), but instead refer to the parts in which I go over some more fundamental questions. I think you’ve missed what I tried to say with that and have also missed the hint^[1]^ to make more clear why I even said those things.
Alright, let’s dismiss for a moment that the Distrochooser’s questions themselves need a lot of work done and proceed right to a ‘results-screen’. This is probably how I would fill it in on an average day*. In the very first sentence, we’re confronted with the word stable without giving any useful information on what this means and why this is even mentioned here. Similarly, the word unstable is used without ensuring that the (potential) newbie actually has a proper understanding of what it stands for. According to your logic^[2]^ these things shouldn’t even matter! So why does Distrochooser even bother to spend a sentence on this for every one of their entries? And that’s why I actually agree with you! But if Distrochooser chooses to include it, then they at least have to be precise and elaborate on what they mean with this and why the new user should care. So, to be clear, my two bullet points weren’t meant as “Distrochooser should definitely somehow include these as they’re vital to their choice.”, but instead it was meant as “Alright, if this format for Distrochooser is chosen (with all of its faults), then the least Distrochooser should do is provide information on what the points (and used terms/words/phrases) in the ‘results-screen’ actually mean for the newbie user. And if it’s not addressed, then this automatically discredits Distrochooser as a reliable introduction/orientation to distros for new users.”. Because as it stands, a lot of the small niche distros that happen to be derivatives of Debian/Ubuntu are regarded as somehow “stable” while something like Fedora isn’t. And thus the newbie that just wants a stable system will be fooled/misled into using any of those fringe distros over Fedora. Which is just straight up BS.
I’ve never heard of nor used Garuda. As I said, feel free to contribute.
Don’t worry, others already took care of that. The fact that it hasn’t been implemented yet just shows that this is not a productive endeavor. On that note, I didn’t even notice how Garuda’s more popular sibling EndeavourOS is also absent in Distrochooser’s results…
Never heard of DistroSea. It seem like a good complement to DistroChooser anything that narrows down choice
Fixed that for you. Especially considering the fact that Distrochooser is (perhaps) more misleading than anything else. This point is a dead horse by now (at least under this post of yours), but I will be more elaborate at a later point.
DistroWatch as useful as statista.com for suggesting your next travel destination. If you had to travel somewhere and had a list of criteria, but didn’t want to spend all day researching, would you go to a travel agent or open an encyclopedia?
The response on this depends on the XY problem, therefore I will refrain from commenting on this for now.
I think many in the community, like yourself, have forgotten what it’s like to give just enough of a fuck to change something but not to want to be too invested. A beginner isn’t going to want to understand why a system is stable or not: they just want a stable system. You don’t have to explain to them “Yeah, so the configuration is a file, you see? Only you edit that file. Then you run this command that interprets the file and build a dependency tree, downloads everything necessary, to a partition that’s temporarily mounted as read-write, symlinks to…”. Nobody cares. The average user DGAF.
Imagine if you just wanted to get a vacuum cleaner at the store with 3 criteria. Imagine you don’t give a rat’s ass about vacuum cleaner. You just want to point the thing at the ground, let it succ all the bits, but as quietly as possible, and not break down in 2 years to force you back out here. But the sales person you get harps on about the genius of the person who invented some internal component you’ve never heard of, goes on to explain why, ideologically, getting a certain brand is the only way because blablablabla. Maybe you’d buy a vacuum cleaner just to shut them up or walk out of the store.
These two paragraphs are at best you misunderstanding/misinterpreting what I said and why I said those things and that’s where I’ll leave it (for now).
My optimal experience would be the sales person listening to me, lining up the best candidates, and explaining, in bullet points, why they are there. Then finally, ask me if I have a favorite and to give me a test environment. If I don’t understand something, I can ask more questions.
Generally-speaking, I agree with this. But I hope you’re not (even remotely) insinuating that this is even remotely close to the Distrochooser experience.
Hint: “I’m honestly not even sure if the one(s) responsible for writing the parts of Distrochooser even know(s) themselves” from my first reply.
“A beginner isn’t going to want to understand why a system is stable or not: they just want a stable system.” and “Nobody cares. The average user DGAF.”
Alright, let's get to the elephant in the room (Distrochooser's questions).I’ll go over every single question and offer my feedback. 1. Software: Use case: This is one of the better questions. But, unfortunately, not without its faults. For one, it somehow thinks that “I want to use Linux for anonymous web browsing.” and “I prefer a distribution which is supported by game publishers.” is somehow mutually exclusive. The only way this would make any sense at all is if somehow “anonymous web browsing” implies strict adherence to Tails or QubesOS and their guidelines. But since when is it not possible to boot up a Whonix VM on any ordinary distro for anonymous browsing, while Valve’s Proton handles everything on the gaming side of things. Furthermore, the inclusion of both “I want to execute all programs in an isolated environments.” and “I want to use Linux for anonymous web browsing.” on the very first question seems as if the audience that has watched Mr. Robot are somehow treated like first-class citizens, while I thought this intended to be useful for the more general newbie. This also somehow implies that Linux is for the h4ck0rs or something. It would make a lot more sense to pose a question like that after the security sensibility has been measured first. Why is this even the first question? Wouldn’t it make more sense to know what hardware is targeted in the first place? Verdict: Fine question, but needs work. 2. Computer knowledge: This question somehow implies that knowing your ways around a computer is better or something for when you want to use Linux. Why? Is it even important to know if one is adept with Windows or macOS before they use Linux? Aren’t most people more accustomed to mobiles OSes anyways? If anything, I would argue that preconceived notions on how other desktop OSes work might be detrimental. Verdict: Pointless. 3. Linux and you: This should be useful, right? Well…, didn’t we already settle on the fact that we wanted this for new users? So then what does it add if we know they’re complete strangers to Linux or (instead) have used it once like 5 years ago? Verdict: Pointless. 4. Installation: Presets: Assuming that “I want to choose the settings by myself” and “I want to configure as much as possible using graphical applications” are the same except for how the former is more akin to an archinstall while the latter is basically the same but with a GUI, then for the new user we would always want the GUI-based, right? Alright, as for the choice that remains… I actually don’t know why either one would be necessarily preferred over the other. Being able to choose sounds good, but what actually do we get to choose? This question is honestly too vague for me without grabbing any installer with it. I wonder if you think the same… Verdict: I, personally, don’t understand the use (case) or what it tries to achieve. Pointless. 5. Hardware support: The single best question on the list. I would argue the possibility should be explored in which something akin to a hardware probe should be implored in order to dismiss a huge bulk of the distros simply for not being well-optimized for the hardware. Verdict: MVP, while it’s already useful in its current iteration, I do think it deserves more work before it can be actually useful for most people. 6. Source for help: I guess this question tries to take into account the dynamic between how user interactions happen with on one hand well-documented projects with a small and non-vocal user base, while on the other hand we have projects that aren’t well-documented but depend on user participation to bridge the gap. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is yet another artifact from the times in which the “RTFM”-reply was to be expected for asking a stupid question. The ‘meta’ has changed so much since that this question simply seems outdated and doesn’t deserve to be on the list. For beginners, we should always encourage the use of distros with both an excellent (or at least sub-par) documentation and a lively, vocal, active and helpful community. Verdict: Pointless. 7. User experience: At best, it’s an artifact of when ElementaryOS actually was a thing and rightfully deserved to be mentioned in recommendation lists. However, at the other end of the spectrum this is a false and misleading dichotomy between GNOME (and GNOME-like DEs) and KDE Plasma (and KDE-like DEs). Honestly, it’s an insult to both GNOME and KDE Plasma (and most DEs for that matter) to be compared to macOS and Windows respectively. And I haven’t even gone over how it affects oversimplification and the resulting false expectations. Don’t get me wrong, I think that -conceptually- asking for how one would like to interact with their system is very important. And if anything, exploring DEs like GNOME, KDE Plasma, Cinnamon and Xfce (etc) is one of the most important steps a new user can take in deciding which distro they should pick. But instead of asking a question like that, we should instead put our efforts into making a test distro of sorts in which one can easily explore different DEs. I’m sure something like that already exists or can simply be achieved through using a bunch of ISOs and Ventoy. But I digress… FWIW, I even saw in your post history that you made the same analogy, which just shows how misleading it is if even a veteran user for 15 years can be misled. Verdict: Pointless. But, conceptually, deserves a lot more love. 8. Distributions: Price: Why is this even included? Yes, I’m aware that Zorin OS Pro exists. But this, by itself, doesn’t justify the inclusion of this question. Verdict: Pointless. 9. Distributions: Scope: Does it even make sense to ask a newbie if they would like to choose their own basic programs? I think this question has potential, but requires a precursory question in order for it to be unlocked after it has been determined the user is in fact a ‘tweaker’. Otherwise, this question doesn’t hold any value. Furthermore, Distrochooser isn’t even ‘smart’ enough to know that minimal installers for Fedora and openSUSE exist for those that seek more freedom in what is installed on their systems… Verdict: Pointless, unless newbie also (somehow) happens to be a ‘tweaker’. 10. Distributions: Ideology: For the Libre distros; sure, let’s overwhelm the new user with this as well /s. Verdict: Pointless. 11. Distributions: Privacy: I think this question is fine. I think it needs a couple of gentle touches to be actually useful, but there’s potential and it deserves its place. Especially considering the amount of people that actually gravitate towards Linux for privacy concerns. Verdict: Fine question, but deserves some gentle touches. 12. Administration: Any new user should be able to install software from something that looks like a storefront AND needs to educate themselves on how the terminal could be used to that effect. sudo apt/dnf/zipper install name-software shouldn’t be too much to ask. Verdict: Pointless. 13. Software: Updates: Good question. The conclusions Distrochooser takes from this are laughable, but it doesn’t undermine that it’s a good question. Verdict: Fine question, needs work. Alright, so let’s make up the score: - Deserve to be on the list: 3 - Pointless: 8 - The hardware probe should be explored to take over the function of hardware specifics (or anything that’s similarly effective) - Finally, the question about User experience should be reworked to implore the user to try a bunch of different Desktop Environments. As you should be aware, I wasn’t as fire-y in the second half as I was in the first. This might be related to tiredness etc. Regardless, as it stands Distrochooser asks 8 questions too many that are not only pointless, but for their presence they also are misleading; thus they’re ultimately bad. Two questions deserve a lot more love for what they’re capable to bring to the table and one might argue that their current presence is nothing but a disservice to them. Finally, the remaining 3 questions… Surely, we should be able to ask those through a bot/template, right? Wouldn’t that be a lot better and more efficient? And we haven’t even touched upon the myriad of questions that should be asked instead. Security vs Convenience? Which software they intend to use and if they’ve been able to actually find alternatives for those that simply aren’t supported on Linux? Automatic upgrades in the background vs deliberate updates?^[3]^ Etc…
Of course if the user even intends to use a distro that’s not ‘stable’ like how Debian Stable is ‘stable’.
There have been complaints in posts about people asking for advice on which disto to use, that there are too many such posts.
This is a legit concern.Thank you for trying to tackle this!
Provide users the tools to possibly answer the question themselves before creating a post.
Noble. And in its essence, it makes a lot of sense.
DistroChooser is a self-help tool for that purpose.
As a self-help tool it’s very bad. Sorry*. I actually hoped that you would mention how it might be used as a basic requirement for anyone that asks which distro to use. The enforcement could be done with a bot which simply scans if any link to distrochooser is present in a post that remotely resembles one that asks for advice on which distro to use. I would actually even argue against this, but I think we might be able to reach an agreement on which questions are actually worth keeping around for further use…
keep answering posts --> more complaints, possibly silent quitting of community
Honestly, this is better than to limit newbies to strictly stick to Distrochooser for asking which distro they should use 🤣.
write bot --> I ain’t got the time, maybe somebody has, dunno what the bot would do
I haven’t got any experience with building a bot, but I suppose it works by scanning for words in posts. In that case, simply ‘flagging’ everything that contains the words “which” or “what” in combination with “distro(s)” or “distribution(s)” and ask them to refer their questions to a dedicated Lemmy community in which they can ask would already solve a lot.
find alternative website --> I ain’t got the time
You don’t have to find an alternative website. Nor write one yourself. As it stands, as far as I’m aware, there’s simply nothing that satisfies the basic needs for this.
So what do I propose? Relegating these questions to their own dedicated Lemmy community is probably a great and easy solution. If something like a test/algorithm/flowchart/quiz/whatever has to be created, then that one might need substantial effort to get off the ground. However, perhaps comments like these might be helpful as a blueprint.
Alright, let’s first deal with unfinished business.
DistroWatch as useful as statista.com for suggesting your next travel destination. If you had to travel somewhere and had a list of criteria, but didn’t want to spend all day researching, would you go to a travel agent or open an encyclopedia?
I agree that DistroWatch is very useful as a more general resource rather than whatever you think Distrochooser is capable of. However, similar to DistroSea, it provides excellent information for anyone that is more interested in a specific distribution. Especially the reviews (by both the site maintainer(s) and visitors) are especially very valuable and the closest thing we have to an aggregated user reviews for distros. For good measure, I’m talking about the content of the reviews not the numerical representation.
but I disagree with a lot of things you said.
I’m so stoked to read these. I genuinely mean this btw*; every time someone informs me on why they disagree with me is an opportunity for me to learn new stuff.
I could quote everything I disagree with and write a paragraph
Please do. I mean it.
however it would be a meaningless endeavor as a moderator looking at the post would probably decide against adding distrochooser to the sidebar - regardless of my opinions.
This is very defeatist of you, though. And FWIW something which I didn’t expect from you. If you can even make (just) one person (in this case, perhaps me) learn something new, then that should be worth the effort. As you should be aware by now, I’m a lot more active on Lemmy than I should 😅, but this also means that having me (or anyone for that matter) be on your side might just be the thing you need to have this succeed eventually.
While I get why distrochooser.de is romanticized, in its current iteration it’s simply not very good and anyone that is somewhat well-versed in how different distros operate and how Distrochooser works, will tell you the same. At best, it provides some orientation into what some of the more common distros are. But it fails to answer some fundamental questions in the process; like:
What is the relation between a distro and its derivative and (more importantly) how does that matter to a user?
How exactly does a distribution’s chosen release model affect software and updates? And while we’re into that, what’s even the difference between the “stable” used when talking about point release distros that opt to freeze packages over longer periods of time vs the “stable” that’s brought up in conversations regarding update concerns and how they might break software (I’m honestly not even sure if the one(s) responsible for writing the parts of Distrochooser even know(s) themselves)^[1]^.
There are a lot of other fundamental questions that are involved in the decision for picking a distro that would have made a lot more sense than the ones found on Distrochooser. E.g. Do you use an Nvidia GPU and want this to cause no issues in the process of installation and is this your biggest concern? If yes: then just use Pop!_OS. Otherwise, move on to the other questions etc. I think the fact that a flowchart isn’t used for some uses and that ultimately priorities aren’t brought up to finalize the decision are the two biggest issues that Distrochooser has in its current iteration.
And we haven’t even gone over the many distros that despite having little to no user base are still included in the results, while (more recent) are clearly left out for reasons most likely related to the maintainers not being able to keep up with the Linux landscape. Which, to be fair, is quite hard; so I don’t blame them. I, in fact, applaud them for their continued contributions and hope that some day it will become something that we can proudly present to others for their first orientation.
Disclaimer: I’m not affiliated in any way to any of the parties involved in this review. I just enjoy reading Solène’s writings in general and found myself to be especially in fond of this specific article. I share this in the hopes that others might somehow benefit from this as well!...
Just in case*, I’m just the middle-man that connects this specific article by Solène to the audience on Lemmy 😅. I’m sure you’re aware of this, but I just wanted to make sure.
But yes, Solène has done an excellent work with her review! Which is precisely why I felt the need that it needed some more exposure 😜.
It is a little sad that OpenBSD can’t optimize by P/E cores, I have been wanting to switch to OpenBSD but obviously Linux supports the most hardware, so I stay with Linux.
Could you elaborate on your willingness to switch to OpenBSD?
It is nice that the makers NovaCustom seem to have done a good job creating a mostly open, standards compliance x86_64 computing platform.
Definitely! I feel as if they might be somewhat underappreciated currently, but I hope their efforts to open source will receive similar mainstream reach like what we’ve seem for System76 etc.
Just in case*, I’m just the middle-man that connects this specific article by Solène to the audience on Lemmy 😅. I’m sure you’re aware of this, but I just wanted to make sure.
because it of its security-oriented features, especially things like ZFS
Does OpenBSD’s implementation of ZFS offer security features as well?
I would like to switch my daily driver, a Linux laptop, to OpenBSD so I can get used to using it as an administrator, but I worry about OpenBSD being able to support the laptop hardware, especially things like WiFi, BlueTooth, and managing the battery, screen dimming, laptop lid, and so on.
Do you think that using OpenBSD inside of a qube (from QubesOS) is perhaps something worth considering? Or don’t you think there’s any merit of doing this over the use of any virtualization software found on any other system?
I have another Linux computer with a Radeon graphics card which connects to my TV that my children use for video games, and watching streaming video, and I would like to switch this to OpenBSD as well but I worry that it will not be able to run Steam games very well.
From what I’ve read, running games on OpenBSD is a lot less mature compared to running games on Linux. Though, perhaps it’s worth noting that cloud gaming solutions (like Google Stadia in the past) are known to work great on OpenBSD. Not sure if you would want that, though.
(On a more general note) I definitely agree that OpenBSD works wonderfully on the server side of things. But I’ve gotten skeptical over time to its feasibility as a desktop OS. Note that I’m well aware that OpenBSD’s developers use it as their daily drivers, so I definitely recognize the possibility. However, when it’s lacking features like Secure Boot (or any form of Trusted and/or Measured Boot for that matter), I just find it hard to justify putting it on something like a laptop that I carry around all the time. I hope that you can prove to me that my logic/understanding is flawed and that I should reconsider the use of OpenBSD as a desktop OS.
Probably a longshot, but hoping anyone here might have working instructions on getting OpenRazer running under Fedora Silverblue. I recently picked up some Huntsman V2s and while OpenRGB works for basic control, I’d like to see what other options are available....
It seems as if the uBlue images ship the required OpenRazer kmod by default. Therefore, I would suggest you to take a look at those. You still need to follow some additional steps though 😅. Which might not be very intuitive… Thus, I propose the following: if you’ll rebase to uBlue, you might as well rebase to Bazzite. After the rebase has been completed, the (post-)installation software should already give you the option (it’s just a simple toggle) to install OpenRazer. The toggle is clearly visible in this frame.
If you perceive Bazzite as too opinionated for your taste, then perhaps you might opt to the following instead:
Hello everyone, I’ve been using linux on my main system for the past few years and am very happy with the results. From repurposing old family laptops to give them new life, to being able to play triple A games with little to no issues, Linux has turned into my OS of choice....
With the amount of different distros you’ve tried (though mostly derivatives of Arch/Debian), I’m actually surprised to see that you haven’t used any derivative of Fedora. Is there any reason in particular?
Honestly, I don’t know. Though, I’d reckon there would be any significant difference between distros.
stability
Depends on what you mean with stability. If you meant it like how “stable” is used in “Debian stable”, then it would be any distro with a release cycle that chooses to not continuously deliver packages; but instead chooses to freeze packages and hold off updates (besides those related to security) for the sake of offering a relatively polished experience in which the behavior of the distro is relatively predictable. Some distros that score good on this would be Debian stable and openSUSE Leap. It’s worth noting that Distrobox, Flatpak and Nix allow one to have newer packages on these systems if desired.
If, instead, you meant that the distro is less likely to break upon an update, then it’s important to note the following:
While you shouldn’t expect breakage to happen in the first place, unfortunately it’s realistic to expect it every so often (read: 0-2 times a year on non-stable distros).
If you have a lot of packages, then it’s more likely that at least one of them causes some breakage.
Technically, every update is a potential ‘breakage-moment’.
Packages that haven’t been installed through the official/native repos are more likely to cause breakage.
Relying on Distrobox, Flatpak and Nix for (at least some of) your packages should benefit the stability of your base system.
(GRUB-)Btrfs+Timeshift/Snapper allows one to create snapshots one can easily rollback to in case of breakage. Therefore it’s worth seeking out a distro that configures this by default or set it up yourself on whichever distro you end up using (if it isn’t included by default).
So-called ‘atomic’^[1]^ distros are (generally speaking) more resistant to breakage, but (arguably) they’re less straightforward compared to traditional distros. It’s still worth considering if you’re adventurous or if your setup is relatively simple and you don’t really feel the need to tinker a lot. Don’t get me wrong; these atomic distros should be able to satiate ones customization needs, it’s just that it might not be as straightforward to accomplish this. Which, at times, might merely be blamed on lackluster documentation more than anything else.^[2]^
As for recommendations you shouldn’t look beyond unadulterated distros like (Arch^[3]^), Debian, Fedora, openSUSE (and Ubuntu^[4]^). These are (in almost all cases^[5]^) more polished than their respective derivatives.
speed
Most of the distros mentioned in this comment should perform close enough to one another that it shouldn’t matter in most cases.
If you’re still lost, then just pick Linux Mint and call it a day.
More commonly referred to as ‘immutable’. Atomic, however, is in most cases a better name.
If you’re still interested, I’d recommend Fedora Silverblue for newcomers and NixOS for those that actually know what they’re getting into.
I believe that one should be able to engage with Arch as long as they educate themselves on the excellent ArchWiki. It might not be for everyone, though. Furthermore, its installation (even with archinstall) might be too much for a complete newbie if they haven’t seen a video guide on it.
Ubuntu is interesting. It has some strange quirks due to its over-reliance on Snap. But it’s worth mentioning, if you don’t feel like tinkering.
With Linux Mint (and Pop!_OS) being the clear exception(s).
My two cents; install uBlue’s Microsoft Surface Images. Here you can find the (WIP) documentation on how it differs from other uBlue images. I’m sure the following lines should pique your interest:
“Replaces the stock Fedora kernel with the Surface kernel
My personal take on what uBlue is, would be that it’s how Fedora would love to ship their Atomic variants if they could ship everything without worrying about those things they can’t (like hardware acceleration, codecs etc). Furthermore, uBlue even has device-specific images; which is just fantastic if you happen to own such a device.
Last, but definitely not least; it’s the best platform in which the transition to Ostree Native Container has been realized. As such, this allows some very unique ways to maintain a distro. For example; if something broke (for whatever reason) on vanilla Fedora Atomic, then… well, you (the uBlue-user) wouldn’t even have noticed it. Because that breakage simply never hit your device. Instead, uBlue’s maintainers noticed the issue -> somehow applied changes to the image so that the image doesn’t ship the issue (by either not shipping the breakage inducing update of the specific package or by shipping the workaround/fix with the image) -> the very next time you update your system (which happens automatically in the background by default) you just go on with your life as if nothing had happened in the first place 😅. So, in a sense, your system is managed such that breaking changes/updates don’t hit you; while they do hit non-uBlue users.
And I haven’t even touched upon how uBlue enhances tinkering or how it allows one to manage (a fleet of) self-customized images etc.
Your hardware is supported; consider to check driver support over at linux-hardware.org. Honestly, most hardware should be well-supported, unless it has been released very recently or is hardware from known troublemakers (i.e. Nvidia GPUs or Broadcom etc).
Your ‘computer-literacy’ is at least (slightly) higher than average.
You’ve primarily used Windows in the past.
You prefer asking others instead of finding it out for yourself; the existence of this post supports that. (It’s either that or you like to have a second opinion in all cases; but I would have expected more input from you if that was the case 😅.)
Your hardware is somewhat modern.
You will mostly stick to defaults (at least initially).
You’re aware that while hundreds of actively maintained distros exist, most of them are either niche or not worth your time in the first place. If, from the remaining ones, the less impactful derivatives are surgically removed, followed by the removal of newbie-unfriendly distros, then only 10-20 distros would remain; most of which have been named in this thread already. And your needs dictate which one out of these would suit you best.
You will educate yourself regarding desktop environments like GNOME, KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, Xfce etc. Perhaps you will even boot into a live environment to check them out for yourself; loading a bunch of distros on your USB through Ventoy is excellent for that. This is important as they’re arguably the biggest contributor to how you perceive your Linux system. You should also be aware that in almost all cases a second (or heck; even third, fourth etc) desktop environment can be installed on your system and you should be able to switch between them relatively easily. However, in most cases, the one provided on first installation works close to flawless while others that have been tacked on later on are generally less polished.
You will educate yourself (eventually) regarding universal package managers (read: AppImage, Flatpak, Nix and Snap) and Distrobox as collectively they’ve (mostly) ridden the Linux ecosystem of problems related to software not being packaged in the native repos. Don’t feel the need to indulge into all of them simultaneously from the get-go. But be aware that they exist and that they enable one to install (almost) any package that has been made available to Linux regardless of their chosen distro.
Any distro I should use?
Typically, distros like Arch, Debian, Fedora, Linux Mint, openSUSE, Pop!_OS and Ubuntu (or their derivatives) will be mentioned in these kinds of queries. And it becomes mostly a popularity poll that measures what the community thinks is the preferred distro for beginners. And honestly, I don’t blame them as you haven’t really given us a lot to work with. My entry to that popularity poll would be Linux Mint. If you prefer to use GNOME or KDE Plasma instead, then consider either Fedora or openSUSE Tumbleweed. Additionally, Pop!_OS should be considered if Nvidia causes problems on all the others.
Feel free to inquire if you so desire!
EDIT: I just noticed how you mentioned to someone that your use case will be primarily gaming. First of all, gaming is somewhat equal on most distros; especially with the likes of Bazzite-Arch and Conty providing excellent environments for gaming regardless of installed distro. Though, these containers do still rely on the hosts kernel, therefore any perceived difference on same hardware but different kernels might be attributed to said kernels. Newer kernels generally come with improved performance; at least for newer hardware*. Though, perhaps more performance could be gained through other means as well. I will spare you the details, however, as this is potentially another rabbit hole within the initial rabbit hole. Therefore, instead, I will name a couple of distros known for being excellent for gaming purposes: Bazzite, Garuda Linux, Nobara Linux, PikaOS and RegataOS. If you want a no-nonsense system, just go for Bazzite; while initial setup might seem slightly more involved, it’s by far the most robust system out of these. This does come at the cost of being ‘unique’ amongst the others, but I believe it’s a great fit for your use case.
I'm so frustrated rn.
I have been distro hopping for about 2 weeks now, there’s always something that doesn’t work. I thought I would stick with Debian and now I haven’t been able to make my printer work in it, I think I tried in another distro and it just worked out of the box, but there’s always something that’s broken in every distro....
The Star Labs StarBook is Qubes-Certified! (www.qubes-os.org)
New laptop
Hi everyone!...
Could we add "Distrochooser" to the sidebar? (distrochooser.de)
Quite a few posts about selecting a distro to use. Maybe it’s time to make that link a little more prominent?
Solene'% : NovaCustom NV41 laptop review (dataswamp.org)
Disclaimer: I’m not affiliated in any way to any of the parties involved in this review. I just enjoy reading Solène’s writings in general and found myself to be especially in fond of this specific article. I share this in the hopes that others might somehow benefit from this as well!...
Working instructions for OpenRazer on Fedora Silverblue?
Probably a longshot, but hoping anyone here might have working instructions on getting OpenRazer running under Fedora Silverblue. I recently picked up some Huntsman V2s and while OpenRGB works for basic control, I’d like to see what other options are available....
My Linux Journey
Hello everyone, I’ve been using linux on my main system for the past few years and am very happy with the results. From repurposing old family laptops to give them new life, to being able to play triple A games with little to no issues, Linux has turned into my OS of choice....
Which distro in your opinion is the best for virtualization (Windows 10 on either KVM or VMware), stability, and speed?
Bluetooth problems on my Surface Go 1 running Fedora 39
Hey everyone!...
Looking for input regarding finding an IDE (spoilers: involves Emacs and Vim)
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/9648279...
deleted_by_moderator
Looking to switch to Linux in the somewhat distant future
Any distro I should use?