I’d second that in general. Recently I switched from Kubuntu to Garuda Linux.
Nevertheless: when Windows 7 ran out of support I told my father (in his mid 80s) that switching to Windows 10 means changes in the UI and staying on Windows 7 isn’t an option due to security issues. So I installed Kubuntu on his 2011 Thinkpad and the software he was used to use (Firefox, Libre Office, darktable) and convinced him to update the system when Kubuntu shows it. That was his first Linux experience and in the three and a half years he hadn’t had any actual problem with that configuration where Linux was the culprit. I did the upgrade from Kubuntu 20.04 to 22.04, changed the Firefox installation method from snap to ppa and helped him to install his printer. That were the three most effortful tasks for me.
But I wouldn’t change that to a rolling release distribution.
For Kubuntu I’ve good experiences with the SuSE Open Build Service (OBS), so I recommend that for getting recent builds of more frequently updated software like darktable.
Conclusion: get the distribution which suits your overall needs best. There are more or less simple ways to work around the minor caveats every distribution has.
Another point to keep in mind is that a distro that is perfect for dt now, may not be all that good with the next release: for various reasons distro’s don’t always upgrade to the latest versions of a library, nor do most of them have 2 versions per year…
Anything from the OBS support list will have recent packages. For practical purposes, I would recommend the latest stable version of Ubuntu (because it has a nice installer, and keeps up with fairly recent packages).
It puzzles me why people recommend niche distros and/or compiling from source in this topic. It is very clear that this is a beginner question. NixOS etc are all fine tools, but to suggest them to a Linux beginner is not really helpful.
If your main priority is to have access to the latest version of any software, including DT, via the distro’s native repos(s), it may be worth considering either an Arch-based distro (my weapon of choice is Manjaro, but there are quite a few others in the mix) or even Arch itself. Arch (and Arch based distros) are based on a rolling release model, so they aim to adopt cutting edge releases as quickly as possible.
Many Arch-based distros (including Manjaro) are easy to set up and use, even if you’re completely new to Linux. Arch itself is likely better suited to more advanced users.
I also use Manjaro/Arch. … Manjaro, because with the XFCE desktop it is so easy to install. This also provides me with the Arch repositories which provide the latest dt distribution without the need to be involved in the compiling process.
I generally update dt every day or two … it is a 3 minute ‘no-brain’ process that allows me to keep abreast of the development in a safe and stable way.
Well, not anymore. For various reasons I switched to debian, but the short version is I need “stable” way more than “latest”. Rolling release models are really hard when you work with multiple machines and some of them headless if the test suite is lacking.
The opensuse repo works great.
Which reminds me to kick up a VM for testing the new repo-list entries and see what darktable 4.4 breaks in my workflow before actually switching over.
PS: I still miss my Arch + i3 setup … sexiest OS ever.
But in the end bunsenlabs isn’t that far behind.
I don’t understand the need to start a Linux distribution just to get a specific window manager, and a couple of themes and utilities.
You can do this in pretty much any Linux distribution. If you want “out of the box”, just make a metapackage that installs everything you want to include.
But of course, most of these attempts are usually Ubuntu or Debian with a couple of extra packages tagged on.
For uniformity there is Windows and iOS.
Linux embraces diversity.
D’oh, that is the idea of having a Lego-like OS system like Linux.
It’s not about the window manager - if it’s i3 or openbox or whatever.
They all just open and close windows to run apps in them.
It’s the same with cars - they all have four wheels and with a little tooling you can change any car into any other car. Is it worth the effort? Nope. You pick a reasonable compromise from the offers and go with it.
The overall experience is much more important.
For example bunsenlabs has derived from crunchbang. And due to that heritage it still runs on limited hardware - which even Mint struggles with. In my case, since I run some headless machines on mixed hardware (x64, 32bit, ARM), having a base OS that is mostly unmodified across architectures was a key requirement. So you throw out Arch, x/ubuntu, anything KDE or modern GNOME. No time to work with or learn Gentoo, NixOS, etc. That leaves good old debian. Then you look at the hassle of installing your own DE from scratch or even worse modding an existing one. So you pick one of the nicer distros where stuff just works. For me that was bunsenlabs.
bunsenlabs has a rather well tuned desktop experience without jumping through hoops. Uses minimal RAM and everything under the hood works exactly the same on my other devices. Then I can run my default Ansible playbook for the desktops and go from blank SSD to a running production system with all graphical and backend tools in less than an hour.
And here comes the “but” … I don’t need that playbook to just have a machine for my wife or fire up a test VM or resurrect an old machine or boot from USB into a customer machine for trouble shooting. I can use the default image as is. So yes, having multiple distros that cater to different use-cases is what makes Linux the better choice.
Any distro that has a headless (“server”) installer runs on pretty much anything (1GB RAM, some HD space, CPU from the past 10 years). Then you can install the window manager you like.
That does without saying, I just don’t understand why people need a separate distribution for that.
My concern is that a distribution requires a certain amount of dedicated person-hours to run smoothly and securely, so there is a minimum scale below which they are viable. Of course this should not discourage tinkering, but given the short lifespan of these projects I wonder if making a distribution is the right level of granularity.
In general, I’d suggest using one of the well known distributions that has security updates; many of the smaller ones aren’t updated as timely. Specifically for darktable, I’d suggest something that makes it really easy to install OpenCL for your videocard.
For example: I use Fedora 38 on my desktop that has an AMD GPU, and setting up OpenCL support for darktable to have GPU acceleration is as easy as adding the rocm-opencl package. When I was using Fedora on a laptop with an Intel GPU, I think it was the intel-opencl instead. Since Fedora also ships darktable in the default repos, it’s just a matter of adding that too. (Altogether, for AMD, it’s: sudo dnf install rocm-opencl darktable)
Addendum re ArcoLinux: I’ve never came across a distro before having that many video tutorials — presently, they have published their 3,609th one: https://www.youtube.com/@ErikDubois/videos
Maybe out of nostalgia (I used SuSE about 20 years ago), I tried opensuse tumbleweed.
Some problems with dual boot (Win10 didn’t start), no issue with darktable, digikam, cloud storage clients, … but too complicated to install nVidia drivers: I gave up.
I switched to Manjaro: what a surprise !
It has an easy (form my knowledge) setup, fresh applications (like other Arc based distros), a lot of online docs, articles, … and nVidia drivers already installed, with xcfe is super fast (xcfe is not the best with an hidpi monitor, but can be used with some settings changes).
I’ve just installed opencl library: DT recognized my graphic card.
Right now I would suggest Manjaro.
I’ve used Manjaro for years; it just ticks all the right boxes for me, so I’ve never needed to use anything else. From experience, I’d say it’s a great fit for your requirements.
Those using Manjaro should be aware of the issues with the distrubution.
They include letting the SSL expire five times, vulnerabilities, bad handling of updates within their separate repo, and so on.
manjarno.snorlax.sh had more (with details on the 5th SSL expiry — the above page only lists 4 times, which is still a lot), but is currently down; so, here’s an archive:
If you do like Manjaro, the authors of the above two pages suggest using EndeavorOS or Arch directly (as it has an installer now called archinstall).
If you still want to use Manjaro, that’s up to you, but you should be aware of the issues and might want to consider a different distribution with fewer issues.
Excellent choices for a desktop Linux distro are (and are not limited to): Arch, EndeavorOS, Fedora, openSUSE Tumbleweed, Debian, Ubuntu, ElementaryOS, EndlessOS, Mint, VanillaOS.
and all the suggestions.