And just like that, my attempt at Linux on the desktop (take #4123), which was going to be Fedora, is back in flux. I don’t want to start investing time into a learning project in major transition and an uncertain future.
Ironically, I’m looking again at OpenSUSE, which I had left back during the SuSE-> OpenSUSE period. (You can tell I’m OG because I’m one of the few that uses the correct capitalization! haha)
IMO Ubuntu has been the best bet for linux on the desktop since about 2006.
They occasionally do things people dislike, but it’s always easy to pick a different flavour (Xubuntu and Ubuntu-mate are great examples IMO), and the underlying distro is reliable and stable.
I’m also a big fan of LTS releases, and supported upgrade paths between them.
Mint is very easy to transition to from Windows and pretty stable. I’ve probably used that the most in the last 5 years and my only gripe is that it’s a little out of date (but that adds to the stability) and configuring sound has been a bit annoying.
I was considering it, but I’ve done little auditions of Ubuntu over the last 10 years and something doesn’t feel right. It was awesome in the late '00s, but it hasn’t clicked with me since. Maybe it was the 1-2 pow of trying to make a phone OS and then the phone-looking launcher.
Thanks for the tip, though. I’ll give it a go if my next candidate gets too messy. (Yes, it’s definitely the distros’ fault, not mine. Okay, maybe 20% mine. Or 95%. Something like that.)
I’ve been using Arch, and very happy with it. Very low maintenance except updating once every one or two weeks.
I just installed Fedora. I think it’s good for a laptop which you plan to seldom open or update. I’ll continue using it.
I’ll stay far from Ubuntu, because I do not like snap - and it reminds me of Windows on how I have to tinker to avoid something the OS wants to push on me.
If you were considering Ubuntu then you’d like Debian - and wouldn’t go wrong with it.
Yeah, I assume I’ll be wrestling with package managers regardless (I remember YAST having it’s own thing that didn’t always play nice with others), and supposedly Ubuntu was looking to move away from snaps, so another major factor that will be changing soon.
But Arch? I dunno, man. Younger me used to update shit daily and read changelogs, but current me lets stuff go a few months. I;m not sure that attitude or my level of comfort are quite at Arch levels. I’ll give it another look, though. Or maybe I’ll just go FreeBSD to spite everyone and embrace my masochism!
I’m primary an Ubuntu user, but I have to use SLES for work, and I just can’t stand zypper. There always seems to be some issue with whatever I need to install being incompatible with something else. Or upgrading some software requires a downgrade of some other software. I have never seen compatibility issues with apt. Things always just seem to work.
And just like that, my attempt at Linux on the desktop (take #4123), which was going to be Fedora, is back in flux. I don’t want to start investing time into a learning project in major transition and an uncertain future.
Ironically, I’m looking again at OpenSUSE, which I had left back during the SuSE-> OpenSUSE period. (You can tell I’m OG because I’m one of the few that uses the correct capitalization! haha)
IMO Ubuntu has been the best bet for linux on the desktop since about 2006.
They occasionally do things people dislike, but it’s always easy to pick a different flavour (Xubuntu and Ubuntu-mate are great examples IMO), and the underlying distro is reliable and stable.
I’m also a big fan of LTS releases, and supported upgrade paths between them.
/2c
I thought Mint was the big thing now. (I’m not big on Linuxnews, just what I heard.)
Mint is very easy to transition to from Windows and pretty stable. I’ve probably used that the most in the last 5 years and my only gripe is that it’s a little out of date (but that adds to the stability) and configuring sound has been a bit annoying.
I was considering it, but I’ve done little auditions of Ubuntu over the last 10 years and something doesn’t feel right. It was awesome in the late '00s, but it hasn’t clicked with me since. Maybe it was the 1-2 pow of trying to make a phone OS and then the phone-looking launcher.
Thanks for the tip, though. I’ll give it a go if my next candidate gets too messy. (Yes, it’s definitely the distros’ fault, not mine. Okay, maybe 20% mine. Or 95%. Something like that.)
I’ve been using Ubuntu 22.04 as my daily driver for a few weeks now and I have no complaints (other than some minor Nvidia GPU related issues).
I’ve been using it for work, gaming etc and it’s gone marvelously
Testing (sorry)
I’ve been using Arch, and very happy with it. Very low maintenance except updating once every one or two weeks.
I just installed Fedora. I think it’s good for a laptop which you plan to seldom open or update. I’ll continue using it.
I’ll stay far from Ubuntu, because I do not like snap - and it reminds me of Windows on how I have to tinker to avoid something the OS wants to push on me.
If you were considering Ubuntu then you’d like Debian - and wouldn’t go wrong with it.
Honestly the news seems to be about RHEL. Fedora should still be good.
Yeah, I assume I’ll be wrestling with package managers regardless (I remember YAST having it’s own thing that didn’t always play nice with others), and supposedly Ubuntu was looking to move away from snaps, so another major factor that will be changing soon.
But Arch? I dunno, man. Younger me used to update shit daily and read changelogs, but current me lets stuff go a few months. I;m not sure that attitude or my level of comfort are quite at Arch levels. I’ll give it another look, though. Or maybe I’ll just go FreeBSD to spite everyone and embrace my masochism!
Back when it shipped on no less than 8 CDs
Not gonna lie, that did make me feel like a badass. Plus, there was the added surprise challenge of finding half the online help was in German.
I’m primary an Ubuntu user, but I have to use SLES for work, and I just can’t stand zypper. There always seems to be some issue with whatever I need to install being incompatible with something else. Or upgrading some software requires a downgrade of some other software. I have never seen compatibility issues with apt. Things always just seem to work.