this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2023

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Share Your Favorite Linux Distros and Why You Love Them (lemmy.fmhy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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So we can clearly see the most popular distros and the reasons why people use them, please follow this format:

Write the name of the Linux distro as a first-level comment.
Reply to that comment with each reason you like the distro as a separate answer.

For example:

Distro (first-level comment)
- Reason (one answer)
- Other reason (a different answer)

Please avoid duplicating options. This will help us better understand the most popular distros and the reasons why people use them.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Arch
Debian
- My favorite overall, they're community-run, stable, well-maintained, have a rich history of being awesome, and they're just top quality general-purpose distros. I tend to use Arch for more recent desktop systems and Debian for server systems or older desktops.

NixOS
- What I'm dabbling with currently, the concepts here are amazing but it's a bit of work at first to truly get value out of it. Still, seems to be a good option for my next notebook OS.

Fedora Silverblue (respectively the immutable variants)
- Also cool, as is Fedora in general, although with the recent Red Hat fiasco and Fedora's plan to introduce opt-out telemetry I'm more hesitant now. Some time ago I'd have listed Fedora at the top but now it's slid down a bit.

Mint
Kubuntu
- Easy recommendations for new users coming from Windows

VanillaOS
- I like the idea of making it possible to install packages from all distros (they will then run in a distro-specific container). I wouldn't use it, but it's cool

Kali
Tails
Alpine
- From the more specific distros

Slackware
- Honorable mention, because it introduced me to Linux back in the day (yes, I liked starting the ~~hard~~ Unix way). I wouldn't recommend it these days but it's kind of like the granddaddy of all Linux distros, and it was awesome in its prime. I'm sure it can still be used today but it's gotten quite niche.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Mint. Easy to setup, fast to run, and very reliable.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Mint

Generally works in cases where Ubuntu would and you don't have to deal with Canonical's choices.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Pop!_OS

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I agree, it's great!

image with baked in nvidia drivers which work out of the box without too much fuss
if you encounter problems, you can refer to the system76 website or use a solution provided by the community, since it's based on Ubuntu
installation with full disk encryption enabled by default
right now it uses a slightly customized version of GNOME as DE (with "normal"/traditional windows and optionally a tiling wm), but system76 is working on a Rust-based DE, named Cosmic DE

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’ve been using Pop for about 2 years. I have yet to run into an issue that I couldn’t fix. It’s the first distro that made ditching windows easy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I feel the same coming from Mac. Things seem to just work. I'm not a Linux wiz so minimal headaches while learning to tinker make it perfect for me.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (7 children)

NixOS

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Easy and fearless updates

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

declarative configuration

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Rollbacks

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Dependency Hell, begone

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Arch, BTW

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Great wiki

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

PKGBUILDs

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

The AUR

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

openSUSE Tumbleweed

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The big advantage IMHO, is the out of the box BTRFS set up that lets you simply roll back to a non-broken state, right from the grub menu, should an update break your system. I haven't had to use it yet, but it is a huge source of comfort knowing it is there.

Also, many people coming to opensuse remark how much snappier it is than other distros.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Garuda uses this feature on an Arch base, it's saved me a couple of times. Props to openSUSE for developing the way to make that happen!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

BTRFS has saved my life a bunch, I'm the kind that enjoys experimenting and changing stuff just to see what happens

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (4 children)

NixOS, I have a fetish for configuration files

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

dupe

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Nixos Void Arch

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Debian

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Very stable, and can run the bleeding edge through Snap/Flatpack/Appimages, Distrobox, or VMs/Containers

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

NixOS. Reproducible, Wide Package selection, Hard to fuck up + Not yet another Arch based distro

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Arch. I can't live without the AUR at this point.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

We cannot forget about the wiki, which is a great resource for not only the Arch distro, but for any Linux install.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

EndeavourOS

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Easy to set up, very helpful community. If you liked Manjaro or think Manjaro is sketchy but like the idea of a slightly pre-configured arch, check it out.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

It's arch. It just happened to be the composition i had my previous arch setup as. Yay for AUR stuff, KDE Plasma for DE. Includes a couple of useful tools and makes for a very solid OS.

Anyone who has been in the Ubuntu sphere of things with Linux, should take a moment to try arch. EndeavourOS is perfect for these people.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Fedora

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Cutting edge application releases so I get the newest toys after they’ve been decently tested

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Only FOSS software and repositories unless otherwise enabled

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Gentoo

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Arch (BTW)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm currently happy with it

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (3 children)

EndeavourOS

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Arch Linux

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Packages are kept up to date so it's often the first distro to support new hardware, APIs, etc.
AUR provides a huge library of software that isn't often in package manager repos.
Rolling release so you don't have to deal with repository upgrades every 6 months to 2 years.
btw

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