Your Linux distribution

[Morakot]

A nice poll to see what Linux distros people use.

If you use several different Linux distros, please chose your main or favourite machine to answer the poll.

If your distro is not listed in the first nine choices, look at DistroWatch's popularity contest and see the 12 month ranking to answer the poll.

Tell us your particular set up: server, desktop, laptop, tablet, multi-media, etc. in the discussion below, if you like.

Edited March 13, 2016 by Morakot

[stuck]

The poll doesn't really reflect my reality as I use Linux for both business and personal. I have several Linux droplets on Digital Ocean running Centos and Ubuntu but have settled on LinuxMint for personal use. I however use an iMac for my computer needs so in a sense, I run Unix, not Linux.

LinuxMint would be my personal choice.

[Oxx]

Simply saying "Mint" doesn't reveal much. Is it the Debian or the Ubuntu-based version? Is it with Cinnamon or MATE?

[slipperylobster]

I use tahr puppy....

It can utilize ubuntu tahr packages. Best thing is, it loads into ram. If you don't save anything, All traces disappear when you turn off the computer.

Pretty slick.

You can save on the thumb drive that you boot off of....if you need to.....or just put everything you want to save on dropbox, etc.

Great backup...and great way to carry your own operating system around. I used to bring mine to the store and plug it into a laptop, before I bought it. (With permission)

You can actually keep a backup of your system on dropbox, if your laptop gets grabbed/confiscated by customs.

Nothing on the hard drive!

Edited June 23, 2016 by slipperylobster

[stuck]

I use tahr puppy....

It can utilize ubuntu tahr packages. Best thing is, it loads into ram. If you don't save anything, All traces disappear when you turn off the computer.

Pretty slick.

You can save on the thumb drive that you boot off of....if you need to.....or just put everything you want to save on dropbox, etc.

Great backup...and great way to carry your own operating system around. I used to bring mine to the store and plug it into a laptop, before I bought it. (With permission)

You can actually keep a backup of your system on dropbox, if your laptop gets grabbed/confiscated by customs.

Nothing on the hard drive!

Whether you worry about your content or customs, you should be encrypting everything. I don't own a HD internal or external that is not encrypted.

Edited June 24, 2016 by stuck

[thai3]

what's linux?

[Oxx]

what's linux?

What's Google?

[jchfriis]

Mint Mate for my Media box, the rest is on Mac.

[Rob13]

Mint Mate for my Media box, the rest is on Mac.

Why did you choose Mate over Cinnamon?

[SpaceKadet]

On 6/24/2016 at 11:43 PM, stuck said:

Whether you worry about your content or customs, you should be encrypting everything. I don't own a HD internal or external that is not encrypted.

Good to see that paranoia still rules OK....

Don't forget to tape over your laptop's camera and microphone too.

[gpdjohn]

Mint 17.3 cinnamon for everyday use

Kali for fun

Ubuntu 14.05 for Kodi box

Openelec  also on a kodi box

 

 

[MikeThaiEvo]

Hi all,

 

so happy to see this topic in Thailand!

I was always a fan of Vanilla stuff, so for me Home/Personal use

Slackware Distro 64bit 14.1

Hosting Environments ALL:

 

CentOS 6.x

:)

[raro]

Since 4 weeks Mint 18 here, very happy with it. Some issues though, that brought me back to this forum. 

[rhythmworx]

Arch with swag

 

https://swagarch.github.io/

[jmd8800]

Thread bump. I have a cheap Shuttle XS35GT with 2 hard drives. /dev/sda is 500GB and /dev/sdb is 60GB SSD.

 

/dev/sda boots to Solus Budgie.  /dev/sdb boots to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and is the main desktop. I use sdb for main desktop and save work to sda.

 

Solus is an interesting trip back in time to the Gnome 2 era. Solus Project

 

I use elementary OS on a Chromebook c720 when I travel. I've no need for anything expensive when I travel and think losing a 3 year old 200$ laptop better than losing a 500$ or more laptop.

 

I use the laptop for unexpected travel arrangements which include agoda or airline reservations involving ATM and or credit card numbers. I do not use my phone for things involving credit card numbers or online banking. I believe the cell phone security risks are far too great.

[MikeThaiEvo]

On 10/13/2016 at 0:19 PM, jmd8800 said:

Thread bump. I have a cheap Shuttle XS35GT with 2 hard drives. /dev/sda is 500GB and /dev/sdb is 60GB SSD.

 

/dev/sda boots to Solus Budgie.  /dev/sdb boots to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and is the main desktop. I use sdb for main desktop and save work to sda.

 

Solus is an interesting trip back in time to the Gnome 2 era. Solus Project

 

I use elementary OS on a Chromebook c720 when I travel. I've no need for anything expensive when I travel and think losing a 3 year old 200$ laptop better than losing a 500$ or more laptop.

 

I use the laptop for unexpected travel arrangements which include agoda or airline reservations involving ATM and or credit card numbers. I do not use my phone for things involving credit card numbers or online banking. I believe the cell phone security risks are far too great.

As Linux Security Admin, and over the years of being forgotten as such moved to serious web development and hosting management, i will explain to you only one thing:

Phone or a computer, it connects to a host. If a protocol of connection/host is not secured you'll end up having same security issues regardless of the platform you are using. Actually it's much more harder to break a system box of a phone (if locks are properly set) than any laptop where cache and history is keeping most of all.

Point: There is no security anymore. At least internet is not secured. Router firewall, pre-DNS, ISP gateways, Hosts on the end of the hops... it doesn't help at all. 

Example: GoDaddy who has maybe biggest infrastructure as hosting company had this year hack that resulted in 17 hours of NoHaveGoDaddy anywhere on the globe. All their data and world-wide infrastructure was down for 17 hours. I still keep all the passwords in my head or paper and pen and a safe. I dont believe in cloud or secured platforms, ever since hacking distros became public (BackTrack, KaliLinux, etc...).

[JSixpack]

8 hours ago, MikeThaiEvo said:

 any laptop where cache and history is keeping most of all.

 

Maybe least of all if the cache and "history" are encryped etc. (The "etc." is to answer all the quibbles; consider them refuted beforehand, as they can be w/ counterarguments).

 

Quote

Point: There is no security anymore. At least internet is not secured. Router firewall, pre-DNS, ISP gateways, Hosts on the end of the hops... it doesn't help at all.

 

Oh, actually it can help quite a lot. Without it, the modern banking system would hardly be possible, in fact.

 

Quote

Example: GoDaddy who has maybe biggest infrastructure as hosting company had this year hack that resulted in 17 hours of NoHaveGoDaddy anywhere on the globe. All their data and world-wide infrastructure was down for 17 hours.

 

Shit happens. So maybe his encrypted laptop could die or be stolen. Yes. Next.

 

Quote

I still keep all the passwords in my head or paper and pen and a safe. I dont believe in cloud or secured platforms, ever since hacking distros became public (BackTrack, KaliLinux, etc...).

 

But then the memory or paper might get lost, your pen run out of ink, your safe cracked. There's always something, you see. Since your bank can be hacked 'cause "there's no security anymore," better not to have a bank account, right? I once knew of a guy in Pattaya who thought his 2 million baht was secure in his unbreakable home safe. According to the Pattaya Mail, he learned differently at knifepoint. :)

 

 

 

Edited November 13, 2016 by JSixpack

[A1Str8]

My favorites are mint and zorin. 

I use them on everything. MacBook, Chromebook other notebooks. 

[brianinbangkok]

Lunbuntu 16.04 on a desktop and Raspbian on the Rasberry PI's

Sent from my GT-I9305 using Thaivisa Connect mobile app

[JSixpack]

antiX on my netbook, dual booting Mint 18 & Win 7 on the desktop.

 

My Mint is looking killer. This guy has created a lot of helpful scripts that can save lots of time when you're configuring a new installation; really loves his work, goes into great detail:

 

 

[brianinbangkok]

Lunbuntu 16.04 on a desktop and Raspbian on the Rasberry PI's

Sent from my GT-I9305 using Thaivisa Connect mobile app

And now also OSMC kodi on a Raspberry 2.

Sent from my GT-I9305 using Thaivisa Connect mobile app

[thinkless]

I've been a distro jumper for years, but have recently become enamored with Apricity OS -- an Arch-based distro. Love it.

[Richard W]

I switched to Linux because I was having trouble booting my dying desktop machine.  I had to reboot less often for Linux.  When I finally replaced the desktop by another one, I used  Linux because my scanner wouldn't work with Windows 7.  Ubuntu had been recommended because it supported building one's own keyboard layout (I use IPA and the Lanna script, though originally nothing beyond the capability of the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (MSKLC)), and the highpoint was Ubuntu Precise 12.04.  As program build support was becoming antiquated - HarfBuzz utilities failed for example - I upgraded to Xenial 16.04, and have had miseries with keyboard switching ever since.  The problem may have been that I had had to upgrade C++ to compile ICU, and upgrade scripts using python consequently initially failed.  At least the HarfBuzz utilities now work.

[96tehtarp]

Slackware

[Gary A]

I too have tried many different distros. I was pretty happy with Mint but got bored with it. I now have Zorin on my laptop and netbook. Zorin works pretty well on my low powered netbook and even better on my laptop. I am using SSD's on both machines.

[dblaisde]

Actually "Ubuntu Mate", not listed. It has the support and stability of Ubuntu (and wide user base to resolve questions easily) but using Mate as a desktop rather than the usual (and to me ugly and inefficient) standard Ubuntu desktop ("Unity", which Ubuntu has decided to ditch).

 

I've used many other versions, starting with Slackware in 1994, at a time when you had to compile your kernel if you wanted to add a new device driver. (I was a software engineer by trade so it was a natural, having used Unix a lot at work.)

 

I'm 70 now, so the stability and user base of Ubuntu is a good fit.

[dblaisde]

On 7/20/2017 at 8:28 PM, Gary A said:

I too have tried many different distros. I was pretty happy with Mint but got bored with it. I now have Zorin on my laptop and netbook. Zorin works pretty well on my low powered netbook and even better on my laptop. I am using SSD's on both machines.

Thanks. Never heard of Zorin, but then new distros are coming out all the time. The linux world is a democracy, alive, inventive, chaotic and sometimes unstable, but I much prefer it to the dull greedy totalitarianism of Windows or Apple. I like Android too, on my phone and for the same reasons (and they use Linux as a foundation...about to change), though Google has turned evil. I'm hoping for a good Linux distro for my android someday. "Software wants to be free".

[Gary A]

Since my Acer laptop is a medium powered machine and my netbook is definitely low powered, it basically comes down to speed for me. I do admit that I like the Windows style and Zorin has that style. I never liked trying to download a program then trying to figure out how to install it. My laptop boots in about 30 seconds and even I have no problem installing new programs and finding my way around the system. I haven't timed the netbook but even it boots pretty fast. I had seriously considered giving away the netbook because it was so irritatingly slow.  I think the SSD's in both machines helps a lot. I didn't mind buying the SSD's because I can always use them in some way.

 

I use my old hard drives in Orico external enclosures and they are great for backup and storage. Both the laptop and netbook have 128 GB SSD's. My desktop has a 500 GB SSD. I doubt that I'll ever run out of storage space with my external drives.

Edited August 13, 2017 by Gary A
More information

[dblaisde]

On 6/29/2016 at 10:06 AM, thai3 said:

what's linux?

It's big, warm and hard but doesn't make the sheets dirty.

[maxpower]

8 hours ago, dblaisde said:

It's big, warm and hard but doesn't make the sheets dirty.

Hard warm and functioning correctly = dirty sheets.