What's Your Favorite Linux Distro?

[JSixpack]

About the apps you like, why don't you create a command line to install all of them at once ? Then no issue at all. Sudo apt-get install xxx yyy zzz. You take time to write this line only once on your short life ... Then you can switch distros easily. I use Mint because of the proprietary drivers.

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Definitely could do that and should, just never seem to get around to it--though I always say, "Work smarter, not harder."

But I did amaze myself by bothering with Backup Tool to create a list of installed apps on my current Mint. It may come in handy someday.

At this point, though, I've invested a lot in getting this Mint configured exactly right, so I hope I don't feel any itch to switch any time soon.

[Khunmanoun]

Ha ha the whole story is to have a configuration such as it takes you a short time to switch. Same with my smart phones and tablets. All under CyanogenMod, all with the same screens.

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[Guest]

Khunmanoun: How do you manage the configurations?

I have my own preferences for directory structures, which is also backed up to my NAS as well as parts to the cloud. I don't which to change it, unless there is some real good reason to change it.

Some of the applications, for example chromium and gpodder offer their individual backup options to the web services, which is great. That's the style I wish to have for all of the application, in one central location.

I'm really keen and happy to read the experiences which, maybe younger, users have tried out and reported. I have been there myself for years. Now I'm just too lazy to try out everything new. I rather pick up the best practices which the more enthusiastic users make perfect by trial and error

Whenever I need to do a fresh installation, I pretty much install the same softwares. There will be some softwares which is not installed, simply because those softwares were installed for some specific purposes and was not needed anymore.

It's so easy and fast to install applications, that at least for me, it's pretty much ok to start from the scratch when it comes to the applications itselves.

[Khunmanoun]

First I use portable applications. Firefox Thunderbird etc. No Kmail for example. Then I have my FTP server to backup all of my home directory regularly, including hidden files of course. For the look and feel, I avoid very fine tuning (widgets etc). When I set up a new PC I don't care too much about the interface, KDE, gnome or cinnamon etc. Just copy back my home files, install the apps with my command line. And it works. Before I was using Gentoo, I learned a lot thanks to it, and then I got bored. Now I am too lazy ...

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[Guest]

What do you mean by portable applications? Generic ones, which work with any distribution?

I used to take backups of the .directories as well, but not anymore. The decision was based on feeling, not real facts. I just had a feeling that it would far more time and effort trying to restore the files from backup, rather than for example downloading few GB of email data from the mail servers. At least that way I could assure that there is no major problems in the future if I do a re-installation.

Nowdays upgrading is the way for me to go. This also brings some problems, and therefore full re-installation with matured release every couple of years wors for me.

Data (documents, pictures, music etc) is the important part, which has always to be up to date and backed up.

[Khunmanoun]

Some applications like kmail are superb but only work with KDE libraries. Now I avoid them. Porting Thunderbird is easy. I mostly avoid webmail because I don't want my private emails sitting on external mail servers. I say mostly because I use IMAP when I travel.

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[Phil Conners]

Actually unless you encrypt your emails using something like PGP, there is no such thing as private email. Email is by design like an open postcard.

Ob topic: Favorite distro is Fedora with the Cinnamon desktop environment.

[Phil Conners]

Just fell over The Korora Project. This is basically Fedora + Cinnamon + some pre-configured repositories and better default apps than in the standard Fedora distro. Not a huge difference from installing the parts individually, but easier to get started and install, particularly for newbies.

[gpdjohn]

I've been using SolydK for the past two weeks. Debian stable spin.. "replacement" for the Mint Debian ( LMDE ) sort of..

Feels like Mint.

Also in a XFCE version, named SolydX, of course.

So far...nice and sweet.

[MikeThaiEvo]

In server, hosting and VPS solutions I preffer to have deployed CentOS or RH release. Showed like the most stable and most easy to configure (security, services, migration...) and all my servers are under CentOS (Currently 6.3)

In home use (Personal) i use Slackware distro for more then 10 years, because its the most native, and stable distro in Linux. Comes with Vanilla kernel, and no tweaks from other idiots.

In testing environment i use BackTrack Linux as the best penetration-testing tool.

[Gumballl]

I tried Mint as well, but like all 'buntu's found it too constricting. Unity is dangerous, IMHO. Low-level graphics code is so fundamental that it should never be allowed into proprietary hands; those who remember the shenanigans with XFree86 will know what I'm talking about.

At the risk of being banned from this forum for a heinous sin, I'll say that the main reason I find many of the latest distros too constricting is that i run as root. Yes, yes, I know, it's a major security risk, I'll damage my machine, the NSA will arrest me, yadda, yadda, yadda ... I've been doing so for more than a dozen years without a single problem, and will continue doing so. It's MY machine, so I do with it as I like.

All Linux distros have a root account, however not all (e.g. Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Mint) enable the ability to log directly into the root account.

You could easily thwart this setting (on any of the example distros listed above) by first becoming 'root' (using 'sudo -i'), and then setting the root password using 'passwd'.

$ sudo -i
# passwd

I'm surprised that after 12 years of using Linux that you were not aware of this. Anyhow, for a person to hack into your system, they need an open port (say, port 22 for sshd) or direct access to your system, and then two pieces of information: a user id and a password. If you want to enable your 'root' account, then that person then only needs one piece of information (the password). Any hacking s/w knows to try the root account.

My $0.02 of advice... running day-in/day-out operations on a system using the 'root' account is foolish, and well, unnecessary.

P.S. My favorite distro is Kubuntu 12.04 LTS, although I do use CentOS 6.4 at my work-site.

Edited January 30, 2014 by Gumballl

[dave_boo]

In case the forum missed it, Phoronix did a comparison between Manjaro 0,8,8, Ubuntu 13,10 (and 14,04 'preview'), OpenSUSE 13,1, and Fedora Linux 20 (and also 20 with updates). Since that site is so rascally with splitting the review up, it played out like this.

Dbench had a +12,5% difference between the lowest (Fedora 20) and the highest performing (Ubuntu 14,04). As there has been progress in the recent kernels regarding filesystems, and the results line up with that, I suppose that's the reason behind the spread although Manjaro's ranking belies that. Perhaps the combo of kernel and CFQ has something to do with it?

Postmark had a +21% difference between the lowest (Ubuntu 14,04) and the highest performing (Manjaro). Not quite sure why the regressions with newer kernels here.

The graphics benchmarks were as expected, OpenSUSE and Ubuntu 13,10 were at the back and Ubuntu 14,04 was at the front. Running the newest Mesa and Intel driver made it +40,8% faster.

There was only +3,6% difference between the slowest (Manjaro) and quickest (Ubuntu 13,10) in x264 encoding.

There was only +3,8% difference between the slowest (Ubuntu 13,10) and the quickest (a tie between Manjaro, Fedora 20 and Fedora 20+) in GraphicsMagick.

There was only +4,8% difference between the slowest (Fedora 20+) and the quickest (Ubuntu 13,0) in Himeno. Another interesting case in regressions for the newer kernels.

Timed kernel compilation took -10% time between the fastest (Fedora 20) and slowest (OpenSUSE). Newer kernel has the credit?

Hierarchical INTegration revealed statistically insignificant deltas.

As Postmark is irrelevant to most of the forum members, and simply updating the graphics stack will knock the gaming benchmarks down to a reasonable spread, it seems that performance-wise there is little reason to recommend one distro over another.

Having said that people really should look at OpenSUSE running LXDE.

[schondie]

I used to swear by Mint on my three computers but after too many niggles I switched to xubuntu (XFCE) on my laptop as I was having problems with bumblebee (dual Intel and Nvidia graphics cards).

Not only is it far more stable but all the problems I had disappeared. So impressed that I also formatted my main PC to xubuntu. Once Whisker menu was installed and some other tinkering was done I could never go back to Cinnamon or KDE desktops.

During the summer holidays I'll also format my netbook to xubuntu.

PS. XFCE looks terrible to start with but after playing around it can look great without losing functionality.

[BugJackBaron]

I used to hate it but after a year of problems with win 7 on my ASUS (eventually leading to an only boot in safe mode condition) I

decided to give Kubuntu another try.
This is not the Kubuntu of 5 years ago full of crashes and instability. Kubuntu !4.04 Beta "Trusty Thar "is my choice now.

It is also one of the few that have kernel 3.13 or 3.12 in the live/install DVD . which is needed if wifi out of the box s required,

I tried Mint KDE but the 3.11 kernel lost my wifi signal (real tek chipset) in 5 minutes.

Edited March 18, 2014 by BugJackBaron

[Razer64]

Puppy Linux Precise Puppy 5.7.1

My second choice is openSUSE.

Third choice is Linux MINT.

I run Puppy off a 4 gig USB stick with my old DELL Latitude D531. It's all I need.

Not long ago, I thought I needed to get on the ball and up into the 21st century and buy a newer, 64-bit machine to compute with. But I have learned as of late that that is all a load of hogwash. What do I need a new computer to write and look at Web pages for? I don't. I have everything I need right here, at a nominal cost, and hassle free. I love it.

[Nikitos]

Lubuntu with LXDE (analog of XFCE, more lightweight) on slow laptop and Kubuntu on PC.

[ding]

I've been using SolydK for the past two weeks. Debian stable spin.. "replacement" for the Mint Debian ( LMDE ) sort of..

Feels like Mint.

Also in a XFCE version, named SolydX, of course.

So far...nice and sweet.

SolydK seems user friendly to this linux noob. Windows 8 sucks. The hot corners are where they added the mouse-over pop-up tiles. Then- to wait for them to 'maybe' pop up gives it a very lunky feel. We now call the Windows corners 'retard corners' at our house. Not polite but the Windows made me do it.

Windows 8 will chase many others to linux, I bet. Learning commands is a price I'm now willing to pay. Especially with the security issues that Explorer has now.

Does Wine play MMRPG's like WoW well?

[dave_boo]

I've been using SolydK for the past two weeks. Debian stable spin.. "replacement" for the Mint Debian ( LMDE ) sort of..

Feels like Mint.

Also in a XFCE version, named SolydX, of course.

So far...nice and sweet.

SolydK seems user friendly to this linux noob. Windows 8 sucks. The hot corners are where they added the mouse-over pop-up tiles. Then- to wait for them to 'maybe' pop up gives it a very lunky feel. We now call the Windows corners 'retard corners' at our house. Not polite but the Windows made me do it.

Windows 8 will chase many others to linux, I bet. Learning commands is a price I'm now willing to pay. Especially with the security issues that Explorer has now.

Does Wine play MMRPG's like WoW well?

Check out WineHQ and search through their database for all your gaming needs, but it looks like "World of Warcraft" is rated Platinum for version 4.0.x and the below expansions are also rated platinum. Cataclysm is only rated Gold however.

Hour of Twilight

Mists of Pandaria

Landfall

The Thunder King

Escalation

Siege of Orgrimmar

[beammeup]

I have been using Ubuntu classic with Gnome desktop. I have been having problems with my internet modem for a very long time. the work around is easy but a pain. Is there another distro that is similat to gnome?

[Gumballl]

I have been using Ubuntu classic with Gnome desktop. I have been having problems with my internet modem for a very long time. the work around is easy but a pain. Is there another distro that is similat to gnome?

I don't quite understand the correlation between the internet modem and the desktop. Could you explain?

As for the Gnome desktop, I believe Ubuntu currently employs version 3.8 (i.e. Gnome 3). It has a different look than the previous generations of Gnome (Gnome 2).

It for that sole reason that I refuse to use Ubuntu w/ Gnome anymore. At home I prefer to run Kubuntu (with KDE) -- it's the closest thing I could find to the "classic" Gnome -- and at my office, I run CentOS 6.5.

[beammeup]

Hi Ok maybe I wasnt clear. I like gnome 2 or 3 and would like to continue to use it if possible (dont like change I guess). I do not like Unity. I have only tried Ubuntu. every time I update Ubuntu I have to reinstall the old drivers to get my modem to work. I would like to move away from Ubuntu to something that I do not have to reinstall my drivers everytime I update and has a desktop environment similar to Gnome2.or 3.

[dave_boo]

Most likely your modem drivers aren't in the kernel; therefore any distro will suffer the same problem. You were not specific on which modem you have (you posting the results of an lusb in the terminal would help us make recommendations), but if you are happy with the distro/windows manager/desktop environment you have now, why not just spend the money for a compliant modem?

I am a huge fan of LXDE. Super light on the resources and stock it reminds me of the old Win 9x interfaces although it can be beautified up.

**edit**

The talk of Ubuntu messed up my fingers.

Edited June 4, 2014 by dave_boo

[jpinx]

Hi Ok maybe I wasnt clear. I like gnome 2 or 3 and would like to continue to use it if possible (dont like change I guess). I do not like Unity. I have only tried Ubuntu. every time I update Ubuntu I have to reinstall the old drivers to get my modem to work. I would like to move away from Ubuntu to something that I do not have to reinstall my drivers everytime I update and has a desktop environment similar to Gnome2.or 3.

Check the kernels for your drivers. I run debian on an old eeepc and it chugs along very happily. Debian has the best support of any distro, and you'll even get advice on your drivers there irc.freenode.net#debian

[hkt83100]

About the apps you like, why don't you create a command line to install all of them at once ? Then no issue at all. Sudo apt-get install xxx yyy zzz. You take time to write this line only once on your short life ... Then you can switch distros easily. I use Mint because of the proprietary drivers.

Installing the applications is just one part. After that the apps need to be configured.

I would like if there would be an general purpose configuration backup system, which would remember all the applications and their configurations and store somewhere on the cloud or home NAS.

Nowdays I just want working system. Once selected which I liked, I like to keep in that, unless there is some significant benefits to change.

Just keep the home on its own disk. All the configuration will be kept after a change of distro. Mount the home in your new installation, thats it. I have a 250 GB disk for /, home has 1 TB. Plenty of space for websites, databases, etc.

[Guest]

I generally keep only my personal stuff on /home and all the media on different location. Then make the symbolic links from /home/foo/Pictures to a correct location. This makes the backups and media transfer more easy for me.

Anyway I'll scrap the old server and do a fully fresh installation. It will take a while to install all the handy little software, which is not included in the fresh installation. The benefit is that I get rid of all the uneeded software as well. For example I think the server has 3 different little programs to extract/modify exif data on on photos, few web servers etc. etc.

[beammeup]

Hi Ok maybe I wasnt clear. I like gnome 2 or 3 and would like to continue to use it if possible (dont like change I guess). I do not like Unity. I have only tried Ubuntu. every time I update Ubuntu I have to reinstall the old drivers to get my modem to work. I would like to move away from Ubuntu to something that I do not have to reinstall my drivers everytime I update and has a desktop environment similar to Gnome2.or 3.

Check the kernels for your drivers. I run debian on an old eeepc and it chugs along very happily. Debian has the best support of any distro, and you'll even get advice on your drivers there irc.freenode.net#debian

Do you mind telling me how I can check the Kernals? So if my drivers are not in the Kernal then I will have the same problem with all Linex Distro's? My PC is quite old so maybe I'll just get a new one. I am at work and I dont rmember what the modem is. If I want to try a new distro is it as easy as downloading to USB and booting from that drive to try?

[jpinx]

As far as I know they don't remove old drivers, so if you have the latest kernel that's as good as it gets

[dave_boo]

Hi Ok maybe I wasnt clear. I like gnome 2 or 3 and would like to continue to use it if possible (dont like change I guess). I do not like Unity. I have only tried Ubuntu. every time I update Ubuntu I have to reinstall the old drivers to get my modem to work. I would like to move away from Ubuntu to something that I do not have to reinstall my drivers everytime I update and has a desktop environment similar to Gnome2.or 3.

Check the kernels for your drivers. I run debian on an old eeepc and it chugs along very happily. Debian has the best support of any distro, and you'll even get advice on your drivers there irc.freenode.net#debian

Do you mind telling me how I can check the Kernals? So if my drivers are not in the Kernal then I will have the same problem with all Linex Distro's? My PC is quite old so maybe I'll just get a new one. I am at work and I dont rmember what the modem is. If I want to try a new distro is it as easy as downloading to USB and booting from that drive to try?

We need three things from you. All are going to be done in a terminal. First open a terminal and type in below:

uname -a

Then type in this:

lsusb

And finally this:

lspci

Highlight the outputs, right click and choose copy, then paste it into the forum in a reply. Don't ctrl-c as that is a special sequence in the terminal...don't ask how many times that has bitten me in the arse! When putting it into the forum, make sure you use the code tags (highlight the results from the terminal and choose the < > button up at the top of the reply screen under the smiley face) as there are some who freak out if you don't use those tags.

[beammeup]

When I update it installs the 8169 drivers which dont work so I have t revert back to the 8168 drivers which work. Not a big deal takes 30 seconds but a pain in the @ss

3.2.0-60-generic-pae #91-Ubuntu SMP Wed Feb 19 04:14:56 UTC 2014 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 06)

Edited June 13, 2014 by beammeup

[aarn]

So many linux systems to try out, how can one really give an authoritative answer to 'What is your favourite?'.

Well, try multisystem. It is available via synaptic package manager, or you can google. Installation on a usb is straight forward.

Multisystem enables you to load the .iso files of as many linux distributions as your usb can accomodate, and try (or install) them.

Go to distrowatch.com to check out what is available... it is like being in a toy shop with an unlimited credit card.

As for me, I put a 60Gb ssd in an external hard drive enclosure. Loaded MultiS. Then snaffled ~ two dozen linux .iso files.

OpenSuse derivatives and Gobolinux don't appear to work with MultiS.

Some of the lighter distros - wattOS, linuxlite... wow! AA