What's Your Favorite Linux Distro?

[JSixpack]

I used to prefer Ubuntu, but I am currently lost to Linux for desktop use due to multiple simultaneous attempts to reinvent something that just wasn't broken: The Traditional Desktop Environment.

IMHO the current generation of Linux desktops is embarrassingly bad - especially if you are running older hardware and/or a VM, and I'm not just bagging Unity here (which is an indescribable abomination). They aren't just ugly, they are slow as a starving hairless dog, even with the tricks turned off.

Server or headless no problem, but for desktop use...I want to shoot a whole bunch of so called designers. It's a crime what they have done. They have set the mainstream adoption of Linux back *years*.

I disagree. I think LXDE and Xfce can look great, are quite fast (certainly faster than Windows), and do all that's really needed.

Edited October 16, 2012 by JSixpack

[jpinx]

A lot of distros are based on debian - so I run debian and it does everything I want. lxde for desktop is light and fast. I'm still trying to get the native oem xp to run in a vm and that will make me the perfectly happy penguin

[gpdjohn]

I've been using JoliOS for 3 weeks now. It's like a iPhone desktop using "apps". Seems "lighter" and faster than any distro I have tried as of late. Bet it would be nice on a notebook.

[manarak]

debian - almost all the other popular distros are based on it

I second that as well.

I use it on servers.

Debian is well maintained, updates are easy, upgrades are easy, there is tons of docs and it's easy to find help in forums.

Edited October 25, 2012 by manarak

[jpinx]

debian - almost all the other popular distros are based on it

I second that as well.

I use it on servers.

Debian is well maintained, updates are easy, upgrades are easy, there is tons of docs and it's easy to find help in forums.

and irc

[ITGabs]

I changed my mind about ubuntu, I recently installed in my new laptop ubuntu 12.04, my old laptop had a lot of driver problems wifi/ati but 10.04 worked perfect gnome2 with compiz fusion and some short cut configuration was so efective to work with many screens and aplications.

My surprise was unity and the ubuntu store, a closed box like in mac. I hate it.

now I am testing mint 13 and everything is ok, easy to install from usb, intalling things take me short time, I have only a problem with the power consumption, my battery go uncharged very fast, probably take me a bit of time more. I tried with debian but from usb have some bugs, the same with arch, I will test with backtrack too. I really want something smooth and secure for work, I don't want lose time finding drivers or fixing stupid bugs

I was reading about what happend with Ubuntu it's sad that they are moving into a mac clone, making agreement with retailers, intrusive marketing, spam, less security, more a closed box... money corrupt everything, looks like microsoft intelligence turn the competence into the rival.

[JSixpack]

Recently installed Bodhi on an old laptop and was impressed. Great eye candy and the Enlightenment DE is very fast! Comes w/ few apps, doesn't offer to encrypt the home directory--so you must download what apps you want and do some post-installation encryption if wanted.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/20/ten_linux_apps_you_must_instal/

[JSixpack]

I installed Kubuntu to a new SDD and came to think why Kubuntu instead of Ubuntu.

The conclusion was that it's not KDE / GNOME preference. I simply like the Kubuntu's blue color more than Ubuntu's brown.

I'll promise never to laugh at the people who are buying their cars based of the colors...

http://www.linuxtoday.com/upload/the-perfect-desktop-kubuntu-12.10-121118032513.html

[dave_boo]

I changed my mind about ubuntu, I recently installed in my new laptop ubuntu 12.04, my old laptop had a lot of driver problems wifi/ati but 10.04 worked perfect gnome2 with compiz fusion and some short cut configuration was so efective to work with many screens and aplications.

My surprise was unity and the ubuntu store, a closed box like in mac. I hate it.

now I am testing mint 13 and everything is ok, easy to install from usb, intalling things take me short time, I have only a problem with the power consumption, my battery go uncharged very fast, probably take me a bit of time more. I tried with debian but from usb have some bugs, the same with arch, I will test with backtrack too. I really want something smooth and secure for work, I don't want lose time finding drivers or fixing stupid bugs

I was reading about what happend with Ubuntu it's sad that they are moving into a mac clone, making agreement with retailers, intrusive marketing, spam, less security, more a closed box... money corrupt everything, looks like microsoft intelligence turn the competence into the rival.

sudo apt-get powertop && sudo powertop

Arrow key over to the "Tuneable" and start change from "Bad" to "Good".

Also reduce the backlight...one of the biggest consumers of power.

[jpinx]

Sad to read of people who reject xxxx distro because they can't fix usb booting or don't like the desktop or whatever. Linux is for people with enough curiosity to fix these problems, not to throw thow baby out with the bathwater.

[dave_boo]

ummh...mistake in my last post...that should read 'sudo apt-get install'

[Horatio Poke]

I'm a Windows refugee, and have been so on and off for 4 years or more.

I like Puppy, particularly Slacko Puppy - easy to use out of the box, comprehensive, and can back up everything and reload the flashdrive from start in case of any glitches (and there aren't many). But Thai language support is very poor.

Love Mint 11, but it tends to make my netbook overheat - too bad cos otherwise excellent.

Currently having a bash with Lubuntu 12.10 - really like it, easy to use out of the box, comprehensive, and good language support. Hoping to stick with it.

I've tried loads of Linux distributions and found they vary from excellent to not very good at all. However in the 5 years or more that Linux has interested me I've noticed a huge improvement in the 'usability' and 'connectability' of Linux. I see the only way forward as up.

Fan of Linux as I am I find that I still need Windows for some operations. Some programs are just not supported or available in Linux. Even so I use Linux as my default system.

[ITGabs]

sudo apt-get powertop && sudo powertop

Arrow key over to the "Tuneable" and start change from "Bad" to "Good".

Also reduce the backlight...one of the biggest consumers of power.

Yes thanks, I already did that.

Actually the power problems that I have are two, the CPU frequency is fixed on 1,5Ghz when is powered from the battery I tried to reduce with some packages on mint 13 but it's seems my kernel not support the manual change. I have a core i7 that can run from 0,8 to 2,2Ghz with turbo around 3,2.

The second problems it's a equivalent to optimus (windows) I think... I have the graphic card intel 3000 or 4000 and the nvidia 525, so I am not sure how Linux is controlling the power of these GC and when it's use it the intel or the Nvidia, probably both are powered.

Sad to read of people who reject xxxx distro because they can't fix usb booting or don't like the desktop or whatever. Linux is for people with enough curiosity to fix these problems, not to throw thow baby out with the bathwater.

Don't be sad for such a stupid thing, I am a simple customer, if the application not work in the demo what I can expect in production, I know that there are many bugs, and many patches, hacks or workarounds, the problem it's I don't have enough time or I don't want to loose my time or energy compiling drivers or deep hunting... but I did, the problem was with the usb3 port and initramfs-tools bellow 0.98, initramfs-tools 0.99 still have some annoyance, I found the solution trying to install arch. now all the distros work from USB except Minix that probably have another similar problem.

I found a problem with Mint too, have so much branded and re-branded stuff most of the time when I install or remove packages the dependencies trigger branded packages install or uninstall more things, I don't like that branded layer, looks like a hard coded design integration.

Keep testing for some days more.

[jpinx]

RedHat will take your money and support you then - and probably better and cheaper than Windows.

[manarak]

RedHat will take your money and support you then - and probably better and cheaper than Windows.

I'm using windows on desktop - nothing comes close, except if one has very limited or very specialised needs.

[dave_boo]

sudo apt-get powertop && sudo powertop

Arrow key over to the "Tuneable" and start change from "Bad" to "Good".

Also reduce the backlight...one of the biggest consumers of power.

Yes thanks, I already did that.

Actually the power problems that I have are two, the CPU frequency is fixed on 1,5Ghz when is powered from the battery I tried to reduce with some packages on mint 13 but it's seems my kernel not support the manual change. I have a core i7 that can run from 0,8 to 2,2Ghz with turbo around 3,2.

The second problems it's a equivalent to optimus (windows) I think... I have the graphic card intel 3000 or 4000 and the nvidia 525, so I am not sure how Linux is controlling the power of these GC and when it's use it the intel or the Nvidia, probably both are powered.

Sad to read of people who reject xxxx distro because they can't fix usb booting or don't like the desktop or whatever. Linux is for people with enough curiosity to fix these problems, not to throw thow baby out with the bathwater.

Don't be sad for such a stupid thing, I am a simple customer, if the application not work in the demo what I can expect in production, I know that there are many bugs, and many patches, hacks or workarounds, the problem it's I don't have enough time or I don't want to loose my time or energy compiling drivers or deep hunting... but I did, the problem was with the usb3 port and initramfs-tools bellow 0.98, initramfs-tools 0.99 still have some annoyance, I found the solution trying to install arch. now all the distros work from USB except Minix that probably have another similar problem.

I found a problem with Mint too, have so much branded and re-branded stuff most of the time when I install or remove packages the dependencies trigger branded packages install or uninstall more things, I don't like that branded layer, looks like a hard coded design integration.

Keep testing for some days more.

You need to install bumblebee. There's a good write up on Ubuntu's Wiki on getting it going. I have it installed on my UL80-VT and it cuts the power consumption by at least 1/2.

The only issue I had using the Ubuntu guide was that I had to edit "/etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf" and under the "bumblebeed" section put the "Driver=nvidia". I also did the following to ensure my account was authorised and it was off to the races.

sudo usermod -a -G bumblebee $USER

You can always change any desktop icons' launch paths to utilise the 'optirun whatever_programme_you_want_to_run'. A big issue is lack of HDMI port usage on my laptop; seems that most optimus laptops run that off the nVidia card. I still have the VGA out though.

Edited November 24, 2012 by dave_boo

[dave_boo]

RedHat will take your money and support you then - and probably better and cheaper than Windows.

I'm using windows on desktop - nothing comes close, except if one has very limited or very specialised needs.

Nothing comes close to the downtime?

Sorry, couldn't resist. Most F/OSS people are happy with choice; if Windows works for you more power to you.

I do not support it for the same reason I do not support Apple. A closed propitiatory system is not good for the world at large. Being locked in to one vendor and then them deciding that you have to do it their way is not my idea of owning a computer system. For instance, once the Vista and 7 support dry up, are you going to enjoy your Win8? While you'll still be able to run the previous versions, what about Security Updates? What about device drivers? I look at the holy mess that Ubuntu brought about using Gnome 3 and see Microsoft committing the same folly. And for what?

[manarak]

RedHat will take your money and support you then - and probably better and cheaper than Windows.

I'm using windows on desktop - nothing comes close, except if one has very limited or very specialised needs.

Nothing comes close to the downtime?

Sorry, couldn't resist. Most F/OSS people are happy with choice; if Windows works for you more power to you.

I do not support it for the same reason I do not support Apple. A closed propitiatory system is not good for the world at large. Being locked in to one vendor and then them deciding that you have to do it their way is not my idea of owning a computer system. For instance, once the Vista and 7 support dry up, are you going to enjoy your Win8? While you'll still be able to run the previous versions, what about Security Updates? What about device drivers? I look at the holy mess that Ubuntu brought about using Gnome 3 and see Microsoft committing the same folly. And for what?

I like to work & play on the same machine.

I use the office suite (I know there are alternatives) - I use a sync'ed smartphone (now it gets trickier...) and tons of software to design/publish websites, convert videos, work on graphic design, etc.

And I'm already unhappy when I read good reviews about a game that is available on consoles and not on windows... can't imagine the frustration if I switch to linux!

At the moment, everything I need and everything I want is available on windows (except those pesky console only games) and only very partially on linux.

I wouldn't worry too much about updates and device drivers.

OEM manufacturers usually make new drivers when a new OS comes out - the same cannot be said about "brands" such as dell, sony or acer who don't bother. As long as one stays away from brands, there will likely be no problem with upgrading to the next OS generation.

And why keep old OS versions running?

(this question comes from a guy who has been running Win XP until last year!!)

In 4-5 years time, the computer will be outdated anyway.

I will gladly switch to linux when the following criteria are met:

- linux systems will be similar enough so software and support will be found easily on the net

- strong interoperability with "branded" non-computer devices, such as smartphones, on software level (i.e. synchronisation of contacts, calendar and emails)

- 90% of games will run on linux

- 90% of software will have a linux version

Today, we are not there.

While I use exclusively Debian on my webservers, I feel the desktop remains the realm of windows.

And I think it will remain that way, because PC sellers have nothing to gain from selling linux, and PC illiterate people need something that works out of the box. And it is also this "wide public" that buys the games and other non-pro software.

P.S.

While XP was tiresome sometimes and Vista frustrating (because of me using Sony laptops), I am so far impressed with Windows 7 which had strictly no downtime!

Edited November 24, 2012 by manarak

[JSixpack]

RedHat will take your money and support you then - and probably better and cheaper than Windows.

I'm using windows on desktop - nothing comes close, except if one has very limited or very specialised needs.

Actually the opposite is true. Linux is fine if one has general needs. For most of the population, that's merely surfing, emailing, creating fairly basic docs and spreadsheets, and messing with photos. It also can handle many specialized needs as well, including "software to design/publish websites, convert videos, work on graphic design, etc." You need Windows for some specialized needs that Linux can't yet meet. If there's some game that absolutely doesn't run with Linux you can use a Windows VM.

[manarak]

RedHat will take your money and support you then - and probably better and cheaper than Windows.

I'm using windows on desktop - nothing comes close, except if one has very limited or very specialised needs.

Actually the opposite is true. Linux is fine if one has general needs. For most of the population, that's merely surfing, emailing, creating fairly basic docs and spreadsheets, and messing with photos.

Well, that's what I called limited use!

:-)

[JSixpack]

RedHat will take your money and support you then - and probably better and cheaper than Windows.

I'm using windows on desktop - nothing comes close, except if one has very limited or very specialised needs.

Actually the opposite is true. Linux is fine if one has general needs. For most of the population, that's merely surfing, emailing, creating fairly basic docs and spreadsheets, and messing with photos.

Well, that's what I called limited use!

:-)

And so I pointed out that it's actually general use.

Next.

[OldChinaHam]

Favorite.

SUSE/opensuse

Since Suse 8.1

[lapd]

I used to prefer Ubuntu, but I am currently lost to Linux for desktop use due to multiple simultaneous attempts to reinvent something that just wasn't broken: The Traditional Desktop Environment.

IMHO the current generation of Linux desktops is embarrassingly bad - especially if you are running older hardware and/or a VM, and I'm not just bagging Unity here (which is an indescribable abomination). They aren't just ugly, they are slow as a starving hairless dog, even with the tricks turned off.

Server or headless no problem, but for desktop use...I want to shoot a whole bunch of so called designers. It's a crime what they have done. They have set the mainstream adoption of Linux back *years*.

What you are describing is the fact the Desktops (Gnome, KDE) are separate projects from the kernel which is a separate project from the GNU packages which are each separate projects on their own.

That and the fact Gnome, KDE is designed to work on all different flavours of Linux are why you don't get that tight integration responsive feel. WinBloz is one project designed from the ground up to run in a gui environment.

I sort of agree that they could probably do a better job on giving Gnome/KDE a more polished look but that's just asthetics.

Edited June 2, 2013 by lapd

[ttwitt]

I like Puppy, particularly Slacko Puppy - easy to use out of the box, comprehensive, and can back up everything and reload the flashdrive from start in case of any glitches (and there aren't many). But Thai language support is very poor.

there is only one puppy that displays thai flawlessly

and that is openbox in lupu528.005 with lang_pack_all-09.sfs installed

Edited July 2, 2013 by ttwitt

[urandom]

flawlessly? not trying to be harsh but the font in the tab looks ugly and the page rendering seems broken.

http://i.imgur.com/qSYHzcr.png

[ttwitt]

flawlessly? not trying to be harsh but the font in the tab looks ugly and the page rendering seems broken.

http://i.imgur.com/qSYHzcr.png

simple matter to remove the thai fonts you dont like to look at. they will be replaced with what is available.

image shown is rendering a saved page as you can see in the address bar. so ads and stuff are missing messing up the display. if you prefer, chromium can be installed into any puppys quite simply. the opera shown is just one of a few browsers available to be installed.

notice also that the title bar in your image is having problems getting the vowels and tone marks in the right place..

Edited July 2, 2013 by ttwitt

[ttwitt]

here are two fullscreen shots of online sanook with different zoom (note the slider in opera for zoom bottom right)

my screen is only ten inch and lupu528.005 gives 800x600 ( later puppies eg upupraring give me 1024x600)

http://i.imgur.com/pI8Z5PL.png

http://i.imgur.com/Tq2h3f5.png

as you can see there is no problem with page rendering/

Edited July 2, 2013 by ttwitt

[jpinx]

Debian stable with Windows and Android in virtual machines all running at the same time. Who needs to choose ?

[TwentyBaht]

As to Thai script, we have used Puppy for several years now at the guesthouse. Latest is Puppy 5.20. With a separate font file, absolute linked to Puppy.

Thai students say the superscript/subscript rendering is correct.

Cheers

[ttwitt]

As to Thai script, we have used Puppy for several years now at the guesthouse. Latest is Puppy 5.20. With a separate font file, absolute linked to Puppy.

Thai students say the superscript/subscript rendering is correct.

Cheers

yes when i said lupu528.005 i mean the lucid/lupu branch which go from 5.0 up to 528.005.

this is the direct link to the latest in that series http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/puppy-5.2.8/lupu-528.005.iso

other puppy branches are mostly ok for thai language display but each has a small often different glitch or two that is not present in lupu/lucid