Fedora.
this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2023
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Asklemmy
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Fedora crew checking in. Where is the complementary goat cheese?
Really anything free and Debian-based. I've been happy with Pop! for a while but previously used Mint satisfactorily.
Still irritated that Ubuntu has turned into Red Hat and Red Hat has turned into Oracle โ in terms of how they relate to their users, that is.
NixOS. After trying it, I could never go back to a "regular" distro.
What makes NixOS standout?
It's a somewhat immutable distro, that is however fully configurable.
- The configuration is all in one place. No more changing a bunch of files in
/etc, some in/lib, etc, and having to remember all files you've changed. - You can easily recreate your system from your configuration or boot to older configuration.
- You can easily open shells with different programs available. Very useful for development, when you need a reproducible environment with the project's specific dependencies.
- Very hard to learn, but if you have learned it well, a lot of things become easier than in other distros.
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The control and deterministic nature of it is amazing. I have a git repo for all of my machines entire config. I have no fear that installing something will break or make things that would require blowing away and reinstalling. Also blowing away and reinstalling is no big deal, as is building new boxes. It has a high bar for learning to use it effectively, but the view is worth climbing the mountain.
How configurable is the build process for individual applications? I run Gentoo, have all my config files stored in a git repo which includes the defaults supplied to any application'd configure/make/make install steps.
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My config is in a single github repo for all of my machines and my user.
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It's really tightly integrated and just works with the nix package manager, which has a huge repo and builds packages reproducibly, so theoretically what would work on my machine would also work on yours. Also, with nix you can run software without installing it, you can have multiple versions of the same library, and there are way more benefits just from this package manager that I can't list here.
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You can iteratively test your config, apply it on a live system and roll it back. You can also use git to roll back to an older version while keeping the actual source files.
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There's no dependency hell / leftover packages after uninstalling something - what you declare in your config is what is installed, and if an app has unspecified dependencies it won't build. I guess this would also be a part of #2
And there are probably other benefits I can't remember.
Debian.
Based and Debianpilled
Arch, btw
NixOS! Definitely not for beginners, and also definitely not for people who are used to the arch way and want something similar.
It's a declarative OS, versus most Linux distros which are imperative:
- Declarative: You define exactly what is what, such as what packages should be on your system, your configs, etc.
- imperative: you modify those stuff yourself after initialization (installing).
So, instead of having to install KDE and change my display manager to use it, I just add this line to my configuration file:
services.xserver.plasma5.enable = true;
If something wrong happens, I just change the config file to its old version. I can also share this config, and then the other person can run nixos-rebuild to get my exact system configuration.
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Arch Linux is my #1, its package manager is extremely fast. Gentoo would be my #2 because the USE flags are just awesome to customize each package (basically an automated and centralized way of doing what used to be done using ./configure --enable-[...] a long time ago). Both distos' documentations are freaking good and the best there is on the internet right now.
I've been a Gentoo user since it first came out. I always liked the idea of buildings my entire system around my actual use case. For example I didn't own a printer so it made absolutely no sense why I'd ever install CUPS and have that service running. If you install a Debian, Ubuntu or Fedora based distro installing Firefox required CUPS. WTF?!? How does wanting to browse the Internet require printer services installed?
Turns out there is a lot of unnecessary apps installed on your system because all the binary distro aim for maximum support. I am not generic so why install for a generic user?
Why compile while I can let someone else do it for me? (Just to see it from the other side :))
Who compiles the binary in the configuration I want? What distro extract all the options out and allows me to install X11 apps without CUPS or alsa or dbus or anything else my system doesn't actually need? The point of Gentoo is to set a single config file to say "whenever you do a ./configure make sure you disable X features, enable Y features, and uses my specific compiler tunings to target a specific use case or build."
For example I never default building apps with guis. I'd rather be able to SSH in and use everything that way if possible. I then select the very few applications that actually get their GUI interface or configuration tools built. Can't do that on binary distro.
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I love gentoo, but for different reasons:
- incredible flexibility in package versions. I can install multiple versions of a package, or install an old version of a package without incompatibility issues
- can mix between rolling release (arch-like) and fixed / stable releases (fedora-like) on the individual package level
- can very easily create packages not in the repos and treat them as first class
- super easy to add and manage patches
- global management of compile flags and options
- packages in portage are not only programs. You can let portage manage other things, such as users or configurations
- support for less common architectures or setups, like using musl, arm, clang, etc.
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I keep coming back to Pop OS. I also own a System 76 Thelio Mira so I'm a bit biased.
Mint, with cinnamon.
It works for me, on everything I have, with zero issues. The only thing that annoys me is I can't get waydroid working right so far.
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I love gentoo, and here's why:
- incredible flexibility in package versions. I can install multiple versions of a package, or install an old version of a package without incompatibility issues
- can mix between rolling release (arch-like) and fixed / stable releases (fedora-like) on the individual package level
- can very easily create packages not in the repos and treat them as first class
- super easy to add and manage patches
- global management of compile flags and options
- packages in portage are not only programs. You can let portage manage other things, such as users or configurations
- support for less common architectures or setups, like using musl, arm, clang, etc.
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Debian. It's FOSS.
I can have a 100% FOSS system. Everything else includes non-free stuff by default.
The only one I've ever really stuck with is Arch. I tried Pop_OS for a while but it wasn't for me.
My home server runs Debian purelynfor stability but it's a lot more work to get setup than Arch is.
Manjaro KDE. Easier and more stable than Arch, but still able to use Pacman, the AUR, and Arch documentation (obviously, I don't use their support channels, but Manjaro forums are helpful with issues). Been running it for years as main OS on all my PCs here.
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Gentoo. Takes a while to get the point of it, but once there - there's no going back.
Kubuntu
Gentoo is fantastic for me on my home desktop. I love the rolling release nature and customization opportunities. Portage is so powerful.
For all of my work computers I use either ubuntu or kubuntu with sway. I love gentoo but with work devices I don't have time to tinker. There are also many programs I need for work that offer .deb installs that aren't in gentoo repos nor overlays.
For servers I love Debian.
POP!_OS:
- Constant maintnence by System76 (under a solid Ubuntu base)
- Ships latest Mesa, firmware, and Linux kernel only a week or so after latest stable
- flathub built in and the Pop shop is more stable and useful than gnome-software (but nowhere close to Linux Mint unfortunately)
- The COSMIC desktop is really pleasant to use and GNOME 42 still rocks! System76 also have a plan for wayland mapped out with cosmic-epoch (Mint devs far behind on this one)
GNU Guix:
- A transactional package manager that can be installed ontop of POP!_OS.
- Hacking on Guix allows me to get the latest packages of things I'm interested in without compromising my base system. Why distro hop when you can use Guix?
Flatpak/Flathub:
- Get latest stable versions of user applications.
- It's flathub, what more is there to say?
POP!_OS + GNU Guix + Flathub = the most complete GNU/Linux one can get.
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Void Linux. Can't say enough good things about it. Feels like arch but more minimal in the base install and less of a hassle than gentoo.
Fedora workstation for now. Might give silverblue a go as I've found myself using more flatpaks recently, or vanilla OS when the rebase to Debian.
Coming from 2 years of Silverblue and now trying Workstation for the last month, get super comfortable with making tools with distrobox before going to Silverblue. Once you try SB, don't waste any time with the native toolbox system. Layer on distrobox and just use it from the get go. You can't upgrade distros that are used to make toolbox containers, so don't waste time building anything you want to keep or maintain using toolbox. Distrobox is orders of magnitude more capable and even more orders of magnitude better for documentation and features. Using toolbox will leave you frustrated and looking for ways to use podman commands, and that leads to infuriating documentation that is only written for advanced Docker users making the transition to Podman. I ended up layering a lot of stuff on my base build. Like toolbox does not have access to /dev by default so messing with Arduino/embedded stuff is a pain, and there is no documentation or flag options available in SB for how to deal with this issue. Overall SB worked okay for me, but I probably learned less and progressed slower than I would have if I was not using SB and had just used Workstation. That said, I am probably going to wipe my current setup and start over soon. My Workstation build is already an untenable mess.
Arch for my main setup and Fedora if I don't want to spend much time getting something up and running.
I use DietPi for my single-board computers (a Pi3 and an ODROID something). They do a good job of optimising the available software so it doesn't trash your SD card and is as small as possible.
I use them for pi-hole software, navidrome (a SubSonic music server), and various scripts which steal content from the Internet for me.
My favorite Linux distro, bar none, is Arch Linux. I like it because I know (almost) exactly what is going into it during the install. It's a lightweight distro that can be easily turned into a heavy hitter. I also like Slackware but haven't used it in decades. Once I discovered Arch, I stopped hopping.
Kubuntu currently is working really well for me. I'm not a hardcore Linux user (used it lightly for many years, daily driver for only couple), so it's nice to use Ubuntu where there's plenty of online answers. Plus I like KDE. So Kubuntu is a good fit.
I recently tried Fedora for a while, but I just had problem after problem with my hardware. It was good aside from that.
Debian. Stable and works for what I need.
EndeavourOS has been my daily driver for work and play for a while. No regrets ๐
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Pop. Basically ubuntu without snap nonsense, works pretty good for people trying Linux for the first time. I've never had any problem installing Pop to any device I had, so it's always a safe bet to go for.
Windows kek
Fedora easily. It has everything I want out of a Linux distro and more, its what I recommend to people for both beginners and more advanced users, because it just has so much to like about it. I've considered and have been tempted to go down the Arch route, but I just don't think its worth it for me when Fedora is so damn good, and I can easily tweak or configure anything I dislike about it, that's the beauty of Linux.
Alpine Linux. I use it on all my computer and servers. I also maintain a few packages for it.
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Right now, it's a tie between Fedora and Ubuntu.
The desktop experience in Fedora is much smoother than ubuntu (faster, and more things work out of the box, like touchpad gestures in Firefox). I've been with ubuntu since... 05.xx release? So it's a bit of fear of changing habit keeping me back. I'm giving ubuntu another shot at 23.10 release and if it dosen't appeal me, I'll change.
But considering that I like the idea of immutable distros, I should learn NixOS. But considering the potential learning curve, I should go with Silverblue or ubuntu core when it's out.
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