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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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Help me choose a distro, please! (programming.dev)

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

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I'm ditching Windows in favor of Linux on my personal desktop. And so I'm looking for advice on which distro I should start with.

About Me

I use Linux professionally all the time but mostly to build ci/cd pipelines and for software development/operations. I've never been a Linux admin nor have I ever chosen the distro I use. I'm generally comfortable using Linux and digging into configs/issues as needed.

Planned Usage

I use this machine for typical home usage: Firefox, a notes app (currently Notesnook), maybe office style tools like word and excel. I also use this for gaming: Steam, Discord, etc. Lastly and least important, I use this for a small amount of dev work: VSCode, various languages, possibly running containers.

What I'm Looking For

I'd like an OS that's highly configurable but ships with good default settings and requires very little effort to start using. I don't want it to ship with loads of applications; I want to choose and install all of the higher level tools. Shipping with a configured desktop is perfectly fine but not required. Ideally, I can have all of this while still keeping the maintenance low. I think that means a stable OS, a good package manager, stable/automatic updates, etc.

Last bit. Open source is rather important to me. I prefer free and free.

Anyone have good suggestions??

Edit

I'm aware of tools like Distro Chooser. They've recommended Arch Linux and Endeavor OS to me so far. But I'm not ready to trust them yet. I'm looking for human input.

Edit 2: Hardware Info

I'm running on an ASUS ROG Strix GA15DK. It's just over 2 years old. The hardware was shiny but not top-tier at the time. It’s not new at this point but also not old by Linux standards.

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Processor
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070
16GB DDR4 3200 MHz RAM

Edit 3

It's official. I installed EndeavourOS! I got it to work without any issues. Yup, first try. It definitely didn't take me ~10 tries :D

Thanks for all the input all! Wonderful crowd here!!!

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think saying "I'm a newcomer, recommend me a distro" will pretty much always result in everyone saying "Linux Mint",
and saying "I have quite a bit of experience, what's your recommendation?" will result in everyone recommending their own distro of choice.

But, to be honest, distro choice doesn't matter that much anymore. You can get every software package in form of Flatpaks, Nix and in Distrobox anyway.

For example, you can get the newest Gnome or Hyprland with the Arch Distrobox on your stale Debian base, or access the AUR on Tumbleweed. Doesn't matter.

So, what's my recommendation?

Fedora Silverblue (or the "normal" variant). Why?

The normal variants (Workstation and Spins)

Very sanely configured, works out of the box
Extremely wide spread, huge community
Pretty much one of the default choices
Reliable
Good balance between stable and new

Silverblue

The new cool kid on the block
Immutable distro
"Your" stuff is decoupled from the "OS stuff"
Extremely reliable, you can't break it
And if you break it, you can roll back with one single reboot in a few seconds
Very flexible, especially with the uBlue project
Auto updates without intervention (no prompt to reboot), changes get applied when you reboot into the newly created image
Less buggy, since every OS install is the same
Ideal for "just using" your PC and not worrying about anything

But yeah, as I said, there are many other good recommendations here in the comment section. I personally wouldn't use something arch based if you want something simple and low-maintainence, but even that is your choice.

There are pretty much no bad choices.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I agree with you overall, but not your final conclusion. There are some distros with a history of security problems, like Manjaro. And some smaller distros may have a development team with a higher probability of shipping bugs, stability issues, or again security problems. So doing a little research on any distro of interest would be a good idea before installing.

I'd reccomend searching for "(distro) security problems", "(distro) bugs", and " (distro) controversies" before settling on an option.