What linux distribution do you prefer and why?

I use Arch Linux as well because it’s so stable and well-documented. While you have to do more work than other distros for the initial setup, I’ve found the Arch Wiki to be a phenomenal resource with really high-quality documentation and answers to all your common questions/problems

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I’ve been using primarily Ubuntu LTS versions for quite a few years, basically because it has been reliable and maintainable, and I have liked their Gnome setup. I find apt to be a good package manager. They almost lost me when they changed to the Unity desktop for a while (thankfully they came to their senses).

Recent events are making me think hard about switching. Ubuntu is accelerating its use of snap packages, which so far have an annoying update process separate from apt, and snap maintenance is a but of a forced march. 24.04 LTS has been problematic so far.

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Mint has default no use of snap.

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What I forgot to mention:
I used mint some years ago and what I really disliked was the fact, that they needed months to update installed software - e.g. RawTherapee and other software packages. I don’t know if they are now faster with it. Manjaro delivers fast - without tweaking and building apps. Give it a chance with Cinnamon.

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Have to agree with that. I’m a fedora user at home and ALMA 9 at work but I often refer to the Arch documentation. It’s the best out there.

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I believe Mint relies on the Debian and Ubuntu repositories, so you may have to wait a bit before getting the latest version of any given program.

If you want your system to stay fresh, the main choices would be Arch (or its derivatives), Gentoo, openSuse Tumbleweed (or Aeon) and Fedora. Arch and Gentoo are for those that don’t mind tinkering, while openSuse and Fedora are more “just works”. Fedora is all-in on Wayland, though, so if you want working color management, it’s not a great choice currently.

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I’ve been using the current LTS of Ubuntu for 14 years and have been generally happy with it. Recently a kernel update and Nvidia conflict caused an unhappy reinstall that has lead me to be very careful of updates. I am not happy with Snap and removed it entirely. I am thinking of switching to another Linux os and I’m reading this thread with interest.

All those are valid criticisms of snap, but what stopped me from ever installing Ubuntu again is its proprietary base. The whole reason I use Linux and FLOSS in general is to avoid getting locked into proprietary silos. That’s exactly what snap is.

I still have chocolate linux on my work Dell laptop, since it was pre-installed, but I’m going to wipe it and install Fedora some day soon.

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The mean difference is Windows <> Linux, because it will strongly influence the software available and how freely your operating system can be set up and configured.

Yes, Linux gives you the freedom to choose from various distributions and desktop environments but many differences are only on the surface. Btw. Archlinux is the only good choice :wink:.

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Currently I am on Kubuntu (23.10) , previously 22.04, 22.10, 23.04, after a few happy years on Linux Mint.

However I’m not entirely happy about how Ubuntu (and thus Ubuntu Based Distros) are increasingly pushing Snap packages.

So I am unsure where to go now, as as I find other Desktop Environments somewhat lacking after being used to KDE Plasma.

Fedora sounds interesting, but as an Nvidia user, I’m not entirely certain about Wayland yet.

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I believe (but don’t quote me on it) that Wayland works fine on Nvidia now. The real problem is the lack of functional color management in Wayland.

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All the more reason to stick with X11 for now!

Wayland on Fedora is not mandatory. I use Fedora with XFCE with X11 just fine. Even Gnome works with X11.

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I used to run Fedora with NVidia cards on 2 workstations. This setup required an additional step - enable RPMFusion repo and install NVidia drivers from there. After that everything worked well. And I never used Wayland since it is slightly broken for me. Only X11 and it works fine on Fedora.

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On Plasma 6 there is colour management in Wayland.

You can load an ICC profile but can’t rum calibration software, so the color management is not complete.

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Ahh Ok didn’t knew that. I have Plasma 6 with Wayland running on my Laptop (Manjaro). But that’s more or less for travelling and not my main computer for photo stuff. So I just loaded the already existing profile from a DsiplayCal run last year. Siduction on my main machine is still on Plasma 5 and I have some things on this workstation, where I anyway doubt, that they will run well under Wayland. But I will give it a try when the time has come. There is still X and will be there for quite a time I think.

I’ve been using Artix Linux for a few years, an Arch derivative without systemd (you can choose openrc, runit, etc). It has globally the advantages of Arch Linux but with a better boot process.

I used to be the geek++ doing all the config from scratch and could spend days having the window manager, wifi/network, etc working :melting_face: While it is interesting to know how everything work it is too time-consuming, sometimes one updates breaks everything and you spend hours to fix it.

I now use the Plasma/KDE install of Artix, so that most thing work out of the box, with a well integrated desktop. I still have issues with some updates which breaks thing regularly, as well as GPU (Nvidia) issues with Wayland I don’t have time to fix.

In the future I’m looking for a very stable and compatible OS. I installed a dual boot Windows for LR and Gaming, and it was so frustrating to see everything work so well : GPU is directly recognized and the computer is very quiet even on heavy workloads (Linux OS lacks default fan control soft, you need manual install and setup…) I might consider openSUSE Aeon as suggested by @flannelhead

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I am kind of constantly switching as I also write distro reviews, but my favorites are Debian/Ubuntu and Arch/derivatives, especially Garuda. From time to time I also have a look at Fedora, Fedora and Red Hat are important in the Linux world, but I don’t like Red Hat’s political inflictions, and I also think that Gnome is a disaster.
If you like to try new technologies, bleeding edge and are a curious kind of person, you cannot avoid Arch.
At the moment I am annoyed that Plasma 6 is not in Debian Sid/Testing yet.

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You’re correct. There may still be some flickering in wayland with nvidia, but explicit sync has started to be merged everywhere, and the beta drivers that fully support it are already in beta. In a few months it should give as good of an experience as intel/amd for everyone.

I’m currently testing the beta drivers in arch and so far so good :slight_smile: No flicker and so far everything works properly.

I’m afraid people with distros on slower release schedules will have to endure a worse experience for a longer time and worsen its reputation even more unfortunately…