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. IndySpeed

    IndySpeed Friend

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    What is your favorite Linux distribution and why? I have used embedded Linux for years in products such as firewalls, load balancers, and etc. This is in addition to my experience with Unix systems dating back to the mid 80s. Nonetheless, many of my preferred tools in their own distributions such as GParted and Clonezilla are based on Debian due to great stability. Unfortunately, I had various hardware incompatibilities attempting to run Debian on my systems although that was probably over a decade ago now. For the last several years, I was running Ubuntu, but there started being things I really didn't like about it such as security issues (by default sending my data to Amazon), retirements of various apps/services without a replacement (Ubuntu Cloud, Ubuntu Software Center, and etc.), and spending too much time developing software specifically for their phone including with them probably moving away from the Debian based package system to Snappy in the future. In addition, their fork of Gnome to develop Unity has become slow in comparison to standard Gnome, and developing GUI based applications requires a different and incompatible programming from standard Gnome which can already be difficult to program. Although, it is still a great distribution for people looking for an easy to install and maintain distribution. Nonetheless, I still prefer stability to having the latest and greatest software, so although I considered Arch and Fedora they were just a little too bleeding edge for my taste. Also, many of the software packages that I preferred were available as Deb based without having to recompile everything. So, I am currently running Debian 8 with the Gnome UI with great success. Oddly enough, I have installed fonts and Gnome extensions to provide an UI that is largely similar to Ubuntu's Unity.
     
    Last edited: Jan 8, 2016
  2. OJneg

    OJneg The Most Insufferable

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    Ubuntu has come a long way. It's basically Windows Lite at this point (in all the good ways, without the system bloat). I'm sure hardcore Linux/programmer people would thumb their noses at me but it's a fine OS for people who don't want to build one from scratch like I know some people will do. Just wish certain DACs had driver support......
     
  3. SpaceLaser

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    I tend to stick to Fedora/Redhat/CentOS. Gives me enough flexibility of cutting edge vs stability.
     
  4. IndySpeed

    IndySpeed Friend

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    I should have probably stated there is no "wrong" answer... I guess since I do programming on Linux still you could call me "hardcore." Nonetheless, I noticed a lot of people using Linux here, and I was quite surprised. Although, I should say pleasantly surprised because it does probably take more than many are willing to do to install and maintain their own OS. Ubuntu, Mint, and etc. are excellent for the users looking for an easier install and more plug and play capabilities without some of the headaches that come with many of the more geeky distributions... In general, I do find that using Linux is easier to attain good USB audio quality versus Windows no matter which distribution you choose. They are all good! Go Linux for audio!!
     
    Last edited: Jan 8, 2016
  5. IndySpeed

    IndySpeed Friend

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    I have heard/read in particular that Fedora has become quite excellent, and I came really close to using that one for sure. There are so many good choices. Almost too many... I just had a few packages that were only available in Deb versus RPM; otherwise, I would maybe have made the jump. Part of my goal for this thread is to show how many people are actually using Linux for their audio, and perhaps assist them in selecting one that might work for them. Typically, I see people using Fedora if they have Redhat or CentOS experience. Come from a commercial support background? Perhaps a server team supporting Redhat or CentOS web servers?
     
  6. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    Mint, with MATE desktop.

    There is a distribution called KXStudio, which is an audio-biased distro. As the name suggests, it is aimed at the studio/music-making side, and comes with a great array of relevant tools. It's components, however, are available without taking the whole shopfull. All that stuff is fun to play with, but, in the end, hey... I'm just not a musician! However, the basic audio config tweaks and the JACK management tools are what I like about it.

    MATE desktop? Well, my dislike of Microsoft must be obvious to anyone who has read any of my recent computer-related posts, but there is one area in which I think they hit the spot,and that is the basic paradigm of the WinXP (or was it W2K? I forget: not much of a historian) user interface.

    Yep: I want a menu in the bottom left hand corner! From WinXP to Ubuntu 10.4 [? I don't remember numbers well either] to what I am sitting in front of now, that interface has developed and refined, according to my comfort. The open-windows panel of MS days has disappeared. The bottom panel is not even visible until the mouse goes there, and has the menu at one end, and shutdown at the other. All my regular programs are on another hidden panel to the right. With no open windows, all I see is wall paper, and an information panel at the top. There are no programs/icons on the desktop. For stuff not on my every-day panel, I use the menu.

    Oh, I forgot: the aesthetics of the actual windows is down to Compiz and Emerald.

    It was indeed a fair amount of tweaking to make it look the way it does, but when I get something I like, I don't like to change it, so it stays that way. Even the wallpaper.

    Change is good? What you like is good! :pirate07:
     
  7. ulikmadik

    ulikmadik New

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    How often does an update break something in Ubuntu? Haven't used it in years
     
  8. IndySpeed

    IndySpeed Friend

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    Mint is another excellent choice for those in particular moving from Windows to Linux because it does have a much more familiar UI than Ubuntu's standard Unity interface or Gnome. I heard some really like KDE because it is more Windows like than Gnome. Oddly, I have seen and worked on Widows based systems from 3.1, 95, 98, 98SE, ME, XP, Vista, and 7. I also worked on DOS systems too. Oh boy, I'm dating myself now... I haven't done anything with Windows 10, but my son is just starting to use it. He is a bit of a hardcore gamer, so he prefers Windows because of that. Nonetheless, of all of these, I really liked XP the best with probably Windows 7 secondly.
     
  9. IndySpeed

    IndySpeed Friend

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    I have used Ubuntu up through the latest LTS 14.04, and I would say you get a lot of updates under Ubuntu. Nonetheless, I had a couple of times over the last few years where an update caused a problem. One was a display issue with Compiz, their window manager, and I would have to open a terminal session and restart it from time to time. That problem was back in 12.04, and I had no such issue with 14.04. Although Ubuntu pulls most of its base code from Debian testing versus stable, I thought Ubuntu was rock solid. If you are primarily interested in stability and looking at Ubuntu specifically, I would recommend you stay with their long term support (LTS) releases. They are released every two years, and they are supported for five years.
     
    Last edited: Jan 9, 2016
  10. sorrodje

    sorrodje Carla Bruni's other lover - Friend

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    I'm living with Ubuntu as my sole OS at home since the 8.04 . I never encoutered any serious problem except with Wifi with 8.04 and 8.10 but I learned to choose my hardware accordingly ... intel GPU , no shitty wifi chips from atheros or Broadcom. I avoid low end computer like the pleague and I use only professional laptop.

    I spent most of the 3 last years with the Dev branch of Ubuntu . Currently I'm running the 16.04. I tried and loved Debian as well but it's too much work and tweaks for a personal computer. Ubuntu is much easier to live with. For serves , I love to spend to time to optimize and administrate carefully my System but for my daily use , I just want something fancy and usable without Issue. Moreover I'm perfectly habituated to Unity and I'd never change for something else ( I tried Kubuntu/OpenSUSE those last month and I still have some XFCE based machines here or there for old laptops I pull off the dustbin of my work)
     
  11. IndySpeed

    IndySpeed Friend

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    Just within the last couple of years for me I have been Linux only... I do like the Unity interface too. So much so that I configured my Debian Gnome to work like it. I do agree that Debian requires more tweaking and etc. than Ubuntu for sure. What can I say? I'm a geek... I still program applications for the CLI and GUI...
     
  12. sorrodje

    sorrodje Carla Bruni's other lover - Friend

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    I've more a kind of admin sys mentality. "if it works , don't touch it" :p
     
  13. Stapsy

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    I have been messing around with Arch for the last couple weeks. My goal was to learn more about how to set up a computer and the Arch Wiki is a great tool for that. I am slowly working my way through setting up the machine and it has been very rewarding. I was surprised how easy it was for me to set up given that I have no experience outside of a couple months with Ubuntu. It has made me appreciate the level of complexity involved when I try to do something that I used to take for granted and it doesn't work (like plugging in a usb drive).

    The simplicity and customizability is really the coolest part about it. I can add in what I want and set it up in a million different ways. Right now I am only using i3 wm, xterm, vim, and firefox, which is pretty much all I use when I am at home. If part of my work wasn't so dependent on garbage microsoft office suite programs I would totally switch my work machine over to Arch or Ubuntu w/ i3. Now that I have experienced tiling window managers and workspaces it is hard to go back to Windows.
     
  14. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    Ubuntu is super usable and a good starting place for most, but I was using gentoo myself until daphile hit. My desktop spends more time in gentoo than Windows.
     
  15. Xen

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    Code:
    $ uname -a
    Linux Kimagure 4.3.0-trunk-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.3-1~exp1 (2015-11-04) x86_64 GNU/Linux
    Been running Debian since 2000 with IceWM. Still running Debian and run in the experimental/unstable branch with XFCE for my desktop environment. Old Debian was slow at updating drivers so newer computers could not even run the setup and required bootstrapping to build a custom install discs. Since my computer is 5 years old now, every driver for my computer is mature and stable except for maybe the HD3000 on-chip GPU.
     
  16. IndySpeed

    IndySpeed Friend

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    I have had similar experiences in the past too. Particularly with Nvidia based video. At present, I have just stuck with Intel's integrated graphics, and that seems to be the most compatible with Linux. I know there are a lot of people that use Nvidia cards with Linux with no issue, but that one has always been difficult to get up and running for me. In addition, older laptops did have a lot of problems with WiFi. I still have a 9 year old laptop that I use where I pulled the internal wireless card and use an USB 802.1n WiFi dongle like device instead which works really well. Over the last few years that I have bought laptops with integrated WiFi, I have had no issues getting them to work. I think integrated WiFi has gotten a lot better on Linux, and it is pretty solid now.
     
  17. IndySpeed

    IndySpeed Friend

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    Arch does have a lot of great documentation. So much so that I think a lot of other people using other distributions use their documentation too. I know I do... Have you tried Libreoffice? It is compatible with Microsoft word, excel, and powerpoint but runs on Linux, Windows, or Mac. I have been using that exclusively at home for years. The only snag would be macros. Its macro support is probably not as good as the standard MS Office Suite.
     
    Last edited: Jan 8, 2016
  18. drfindley

    drfindley Secretly lives in the Analog Room - Friend

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    After having used most of these (Mint early stages, Elementary maybe?) Arch is head and shoulders the best of them all. It's like Gentoo, but without all the compiling. And it has a really well thought out set of config files, much better than the scatterbrained Ubuntu/Debian and Redhat/Centos setup.
     
  19. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    Ubuntu. But currently using Quiznos 7 (driver support).
     
  20. IndySpeed

    IndySpeed Friend

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    Cool, I hadn't heard of Daphile before. Will need to look into that one!
     

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