Favorite Linux Distributions

Discussion in 'Geek Cave: Computers, Tablets, HT, Phones, Games' started by IndySpeed, Jan 8, 2016.

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What is your favorite Linux distribution?

  1. Ubuntu

    21 vote(s)
    29.2%
  2. Mint

    11 vote(s)
    15.3%
  3. Elementary

    2 vote(s)
    2.8%
  4. Debian

    9 vote(s)
    12.5%
  5. openSUSE

    3 vote(s)
    4.2%
  6. Fedora

    1 vote(s)
    1.4%
  7. Centos

    3 vote(s)
    4.2%
  8. Arch

    12 vote(s)
    16.7%
  9. SteamOS

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  10. PCLinuxOS

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  11. Puppy

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  12. Other (too many to list really)

    10 vote(s)
    13.9%
  1. jowls

    jowls Never shitposts (please) - Friend

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    I tried a number of distros (although I have just realised I never got around to Debian). My new system is built on coffeelake so hardware support was a little hit and miss.

    Elementary is super impressive, but my wifi was borked and I couldn’t seem to get it figured out. It feels like a genuine OS replacement though, assuming you don’t need specific apps for work or something (eg Adobe suite).

    With this final build I just installed Ubuntu Server, hooked in KDE Plasma, updated the kernel and BAM! Everything works.

    I would love to try something Arch, but that seems a little ‘next level’ at the moment.

    Any suggestions for audio apart from Deadbeef?
     
  2. Riotvan

    Riotvan Snoofer in the Woofer

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    Yeah you need a new kernel for eos as well. Did you install it with backports? I did the same for a while but updating is a bit annoying that way, you have to manually check the ftp if there is a new version of the kernel your using or a new kernel in general. After a while you have to clean up the old kernels or it starts to whine at you about running out of space.

    Kind of a hassle really and one i cba to deal with anymore, i make sure my hw is old enough for the version of eos i want to run. But from what i read you have to wait for 18.04 for native coffee lake support.

    As for eos i like that it’s fully ubuntu under the hood, their shell is based on gtk so gnome apps run natively. And it is super stable they take a long time on the dev process.

    For audio i always used mpd or audacious. They should be able to talk to the hw directly and skip pulse. Basically wasapi or asio like. Pulse might be a bitch though, just select an onboard soundcard which is probably hw:0,0 in pulse and then select hw:1,0 for your usb device. Otherwise there is some pulse suspend thingy i think.

    Arch is not so hard their documentation is excellent, you will learn allot :)
     
  3. Cellist88

    Cellist88 Friend

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    Gotta go Gentoo lol be hardcore!
     
  4. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    Ó.Ò

    Used to maintain a few packages for that, when I was younger and a whole lot dumber :(
     
  5. Riotvan

    Riotvan Snoofer in the Woofer

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    Cba with Gentoo, i have no patience for compiling...
     
  6. Deep Funk

    Deep Funk Deep thoughts - Friend

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    I have yet to put Ubuntu/Lubuntu on my T420. The W10 Fall Update crashed the T420 and I want the T420 to become my desktop machine.

    I like the latest Lubuntu. There are two things I need to solve though:
    • Installing from USB-stick while the T420 is still in crashed OS-limbo. (I can still get to the BIOS!)
    • Drivers for multi-media: I need my desktop machine to be able handle media.
    In case multi-media is too much of an issue I have two options:
    1. Accept the compromise and use the Surface Pro for multi-media.
    2. Install W10 Pro from USB (Fall update is imbedded!) and severely customise the Windows system settings.
    What do you recommend? I prefer to avoid dealing with W10 again because the Fall update fiasco was too aggravating to forget. I want my OS to be stable. When an OS gives me the Vista-feels again I want out...
     
  7. Riotvan

    Riotvan Snoofer in the Woofer

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    Can't you just make a Linux usb stick of your preferred flavor on a windows machine? Most are a live now so you can get any files from your laptop if the hdd is still accessible.

    Multi media should be no problem.
     
  8. fishski13

    fishski13 Friend

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    Did you actually install Lubuntu? If so, what Lubuntu .iso version did you use? There have been some issues recently with a few laptops, including Lenovo, with recent 17.10 .iso that were fixed last week. I don't believe there were issues with the T420 though.

    Or, is your W10 install just borked? If so, I would try reinstalling and try dual booting Lubuntu. Getting needed drivers for multi-media shouldn't be an issue.
     
  9. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    Since I use the Raspberry Pi a lot the distro I use the most is Raspbian, which is basically Fedora Debian. I would like to play around with Minix 3 though.
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2018
  10. murray

    murray Friend

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    Raspian is based on Debian, the name should give a bit of a hint. (I use both)
     
  11. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    I knew that. I was thinking one thing and wrote something else
     
  12. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    Still with Linix Mint, now 17.3. Thinking of installing 18.whatever in another partition next time I feel like having a techie day.

    It's Linux Mint, but absolutely vital are the basic audio components of KXStudio.
     
  13. Ardacer

    Ardacer Friend

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    Ubuntu, very well supported (very important with linux), simple.

    I tried compiling Gentoo once.

    Tried
     
  14. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    I still have PTSD from installing Gentoo and Slackware.
     
  15. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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  16. nithhoggr

    nithhoggr Author of the best selling novel Digital Jesus

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    I installed Linux From Scratch once, and that gave me well enough compiling to last a lifetime. Even in college, when a lot of my friends were deep into Gentoo, I was a Debian sort of guy. Nowadays, a lot of those former Gentoo users use Windows or Mac because they just don't have the spare time or energy to maintain a Gentoo install, whereas I just moved to Ubuntu.
     
  17. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    I still compile Vim on Windows, but that's because the python/ruby versions it links against are hardcoded on compile, and I don't want to have to track whatever Bram decides to build with.

    And I'm on Windows because I can always spin up a xubuntu image if I need something that can't be done on Windows - doesn't happen much with the new winbuntu subsystem thingamajig - but I can't spin up a Windows VM if I want to game, and dual boot is for masochists.

    I'll say this for gentoo, working around bad build scripts was helpful experience when I had to set up LAMP stacks on shucked servers for contracts, back when people were worried about the mayan apocalypse ...
     
  18. TeskR

    TeskR New

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    Until recently my desktop machine was dual-booted Arch and Windows and my Laptop is Manjaro (Arch with an installer and some default packages).

    Though, because I do 99% of my work on my laptop, I wiped my vanilla Arch install so I could use the 1 TB SSD to install more games. :)

    The AUR for arch-based distros is so gooood, I am not sure I can ever go back. Though sometimes the programs I need for work need some massaging to get running correctly on Arch over Ubuntu-based distros.
     
  19. JewBear

    JewBear Almost "Made"

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    Fedora is by far the best distro these days if you want up to date software. It's also arguably the most secure linux distro these days due to selinux policies that are shipped with each package.

    I run it at home and work with Gnome 3 or i3 depending on my mood.
     
  20. Deep Funk

    Deep Funk Deep thoughts - Friend

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    On a small laptop I have Lubuntu/Ubuntu 16.10. Smooth and easy to work with.

    The T420 crashed during the W10 Fall update. It is in update-limbo so I need to enter the BIOS, check the settings and either manually reinstall W10 Pro or dump everything Microsoft for Linux. Linux has my preference.

    I expect to fix the T420 next week.
     

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