Distros

What are /tech/'s favorite Linux distros?(USER WAS WARNED FOR THIS POST (Rule 4) Always elaborate on your opinions, Write a better OP next time, One line OP with a single question and no additional context? Why is this question being asked?)

Mint Triquel Kubuntu Never really went too deep into learning the nitty gritty of linux. I should really look into the book I saved about linux drivers to get me into kernel soykaf but... I dont have the time

Antergos Void I prefer Void over Arch though, even though it's a harder installation(for me), I just love xbps.

Manjaro. All the nifty features of Arch coupled with the "it just works" of Ubuntu. Ubdates are held back by a very short amount of time to check for stability, so it's less holy-soykaf-I-just-updated-and-it-fuarrrked-everything than Arch. tl;dr MANJARO MASTER RACE

Fedora

I just use KDE Neon because I'm boring. Also it has a very similar feel to Mint which I'm more familiar with than other distros, so with the plasma desktop enviro it feels fairly comfy.

I grew very fond of Xubuntu when I tried it. It works pretty well for my toaster. It's comfy too.

>>1744 So you couldn't figure out how to install arch huh?

I use Arch/Antergos currently, but I'm thinking of moving to Bedrock using Debian/Fedora/OpenSUSE as a base before building it back up to my current arch set up.

Debian for now but I'm trying to test every popular distro at least 3 month to see which is better.

>>1745 > Fedora I have to second this. It's so comfy and stable; I'm unsure why it's not more popular.

Debian Testing. Can't wait for Stretch to be released to Stable next week so that Testing finally becomes unfrozen. During my days off in summer I hope to experiment with Arch, Manjaro and Gentoo.

I'm using stable gentoo since late 2007 (switched to the hardened branch in 2010). It has never caused me any problems.

Debian. It's stable, even if you use the Unstable release, and things just work nicely out of the box. When you need an application that isn't in the repos, you can just add an extra ppa now (like Ubuntu does), so that's nice. I tried Fedora which was okay until you tried to install stuff from rpmfusion, that was a tremendous pain. I tried Arch which was kinda cool, but I felt like I was never done configuring and installing soykaf, even after I used it for a month. I would run into some use-case that would just work on Debian but still needed setup on Arch, so my workflow would get interrupted and I'd have to start reading the wiki again. If this was just for a few days after install it'd be okay, but it lasted too long for my taste. Shoutouts to the AUR though, that soykaf is amazing.

>>1758 Yeah, though Debians repos are large, only the AUR is bigger so you probably won't need PPA's.

>>1753 Personally when I started using Linux daily the name really turned me off. I know it's petty and stupid but having something called fedora installed on your computer is just begging for it. >>1756 I'm using debian testing as well with KDE Maximum comfy.

Trisquel GNU/Linux, but I may have to move to another OS like Parabola or GUIXSD soon as the updates are really far behind to my liking. The APT package manager is ok as long as you don't compile stuff, then it you have to go through dependency hell.

Debian Stable. I just want security updates if possible.

openSUSE is rock solid and very underrated. They have a rolling version too (Tumbleweed) that I use as daily driver.

i've tried linux mint and then ubuntu, liked mint better

Arch. It's like Gentoo without CFLAGS.

Debian testing + i3 or Ubuntu + xfce. It's what I use at work and doesn't require much configuration to work well.

qubes my main interest in computers is customizing them until they break

>not using Hannah Montana Linux

>>1846 I think I'm going to move from Arch to OpenSUSE soon. Not because I have any issues with Arch, but so I can have a solid base with which to ruin my system with Bedrock.

Mine is Debian. Stable, solid, lots of support, no regressions and has only libre packages by default.

I'm using Devuan right now and it's pretty great.

Arch on desktops and Debian on servers. I think the former for servers would be okay as well if you want to do a lot of maintenance.

>>1942 Well if you sign up for the arch alerts mailing list they tell you a lot of the maintenence you'll need to do in advance. Like when they split the openvpn systemd service file from openvpn@.service to openvpn-client@ and openvpn-server@, I got an email about it like six months before the change even hit the repos. Still extra maintenance over something like debian, but a lot easier than the arch haters make it out to be.

Gentoo hardened. I still have my debian laptop in case anything hits the fan. I'm still having trouble setting up the proper screen resolution. xrandr doesn't do it's thing and the guide did not help. Thinking about recompiling the kernel, but I think I already have everything configured properly with it recognizing the gpu. It takes 6 hours to compile the kernel and it's modules though with this pentium d.

Qubes is ridiculously powerful if you're privacy and anonymity-minded and is a lot more powerful of an experience through the use of seamless VMs. Alpine is also great since it's based off of Gentoo Hardened but currently maintained, and the variations offered (ie Xen , RPi).

>>2168 >Alpine is also great since it's based off of Gentoo Hardened As a Gentoo user I'm having a hard time seeing how Alpine is based off of Gentoo Hardened? As far as I know the distro doesn't even use the Portage package manager.

>>1753 >>1745 Second. I can't stand Debian-based distros. I'm not willing to put enough time to maintain an Arch/Gentoo installation and i'm pretty sure i'm not smart enough to not be stupid. I'm too indifferent to Debian itself, and OpenSUSE and Fedora seem to me to be the best distros, and for now i'm sticking to Fedora because of its mostly consistent UI/UX.

Slackware. Extremely comfy and very stable.

openSUSE tumbleweed for me is the best distro.

Always use openSUSE Tumbleweed on my laptop, and openSUSE Leap on server.

Mint With KDE Desktop Environment ( Desktop ) Manjaro with XFCE Desktop ( Thinkpad )

>>1740 Plain old Arch. (and most things arch based) with a nice Openbox i dont really find a need to compare distros anymore, because they are all the same thing, only largely differing in usability when say ones Arch based or Debian based so on and so forth, the only big selling point in a lot of distros in the features and usability out of the box. but yeah Arch

>>1753 Because only the old versions are free.

gentoo

Gentoo and NixOS.

>Gentoo on my desktop >Void on my laptop >Slack on the rpi I just can't stand systemd

1. Slackware 2. Debian My next step to ascension would be a BSD operating system from there I can code my own operating system from scratch and become one with my computer.

>>3608 >My next step to ascension would be a BSD operating system from there I can code my own operating system from scratch and become one with my computer. BSD is even older than Linux. If you want to write a new operating system isn't that a step backwards?

>>3333 Me neither, I just dislike that it tries to be everything and also a init system. >Devuan on desktop >Arch Openrc on NAS >Devuan on RPi >??? on newly obtained Thinkpad I have to get started on getting my Thinkpad up and running, I really haven't needed it a lot but it would be nice to have it going.

Debian Its easy to install. Its stable and its well maintained and has a large number of packages available both officially and provided by third parties. I fuarrrken love debian

>>3615 >BSD is even older than Linux. If you want to write a new operating system isn't that a step backwards? No you are missing the point I want to become one with the machine so using simple (and higher performance) operating systems will get me closer to my objective.

>>3677 I don't think you should expect superior performance on a BSD system over a Linux one.

>>1740 Source Mage GNU/Linux

>>1767 >Personally when I started using Linux daily the name really turned me off. I know it's petty and stupid but having something called fedora installed on your computer is just begging for it. because it's the community distro of redhat and was already around before "fedora" became an edgy meme on certain korean fine art forums.

>>2168 >>1873 I want to use Qubes but it doesn't seem able to be installed on any of my hardware, or im meant to magically know of some workarounds during install process, very irritating

Even though I typically use Debian for my everyday use, I wanted to throw one up for puppy today, for absolutely saving my ass while I was recovering the data from a screwed up hard drive. Made the process about ten times easier and faster than it was on any other distro I tried, and eliminated a lot of the really stupid issues I was running into, even with fresh installs. Thank you, Puppy.

Parabola

>>1740 Debian Stretch, of course. Used arch and fedora in past.

>>3751 Puppy is best Linux.

LFS.

Gentoo and Slackware. Gentoo on my desktop, slackware on my laptops and servers.

Debian Stable. It just werks. That's it.

>>1758 Even testing breaks X at least once a year. >>3751 Ditto. Puppy is my recovery cd of choice any time soykaf hits the fan. I maintain rather old (10+ years old in some cases) legacy systems and I cannot count how many times Puppy saved my ass. Runs on practically anything without fighting it. Personally I always loved Debian for its ease of use and stability (stable anyway). Fedora never did anything but crash and break frequently on any of my machines. Gentoo always managed to hose its filesystem within a week of setting it up for some reason. I had one machine with Arch for testing purposes but an update broke the init process within a month so I ditched it. Personally I miss Mandrake due to its relative simplicity, but it is more or less long gone now. Currently using Devuan, Antix, and Debian stable on my systems but looking for more systemd-less distros to try.

>>1870 Not even close. More like Debian Sid without apt. Personally I just use Devuan Testing, works nice.

>>1743 + for Antergos

Reccomend a newbie a Linux distro. Please.(You should always elaborate on your opinions rather than just spilling the soykaf. This is a terrible OP. What do you mean by newbie ? What are your requirements for a Linux Distro ? What have you tried already ? Please make less soykaf posts in future. )

>>4004 recommend* Ugh.

Source Mage GNU/Linux

>>4006 I have heard quite some good things about it. I would probably try it out. Thanks.

>>4004 I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re refering to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/LInux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called “Linux”, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine’s resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called “Linux” distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.

>>4004 Hello newlain, it's nice that you wish to join linux users. However you should really not start a thread with a single short sentence. And provide at least some info about what you are looking for, or what your background is, or other questions you might have about Linux systems. >>4006 Is the project even still alive?

>>4009 >Is the project even still alive? yes (barely)

Man,this post of mine is pure soykaf. Sorry. I'm looking for some lightweight distros like Arch,but also a bit advanced like Slackware. Since I'm pretty new to Linux,design and flexability is (all) that matters to me.I just feel like trying it out. The desktop in pic related is a nice example of what im looking for.

>>4019 Puppy Linux. As lightweight as possible and you can get a Slackware build.

>>4019 Why not give Gentoo a try? I disagree with people that say you should stay away from it as a new user, quite the opposite. If you are the learning type, you can pick a lot while doing it you would not come in touch with while working with other distros, for example doing Debian for a year or two, just "using" it, and ricing a bit won't make Gentoo any "easier". It's also not really "hard" in that sense, you just have to be willing to invest some time. I would recommend going the `genkernel` route at your first try, you can always jump into the full kernel customization later. After your first 1 or 2 installs you will find it easy, and the only time consuming part about it will be the compiling. The Handbook is nice: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:AMD64

>(You should always elaborate on your opinions rather than just spilling the soykaf. This is a terrible OP. What do you mean by newbie ? What are your requirements for a Linux Distro ? What have you tried already ? Please make less soykaf posts in future. ) GNU/Linux* >>4019 GNU/Linux*

Not going to lie, As much as there is a stigma attached to Arch being really hard, It's going to do you more good in terms of learning linux.

>>4006 very good recommend for newbie

>>4004 why not to try ubuntu? just give it a shot.

>>4006 >Actually recommending an LFS with a package manager and installer, themed for old DnD guys to a newbie

>>4024 This looks nice, definetly gonna give it a try, Seems really lightweight as you said, ~100MB.

>>4026 Alright, alright,I learned my lesson.

>>4019 Debian testing.

>>4004 I use Fedora Linux and I think it's reasonably friendly. You just have to know that the repo RPMFusion is where to find the patented and non free stuff and everything else just works.

>>4019 if you're interested in arch manjaro is cool tbh, the whole install takes like 30min max and everything works out the box

I'd highly recommend ubuntu as a newbie. I switched this summer to using ubuntu for 95% of my computer time and I love it!! (still use win10 for 3d vidya) But ubuntu is super easy to get into to dip your toes into linux and it has a great community supporting it!

This is what I would recommend for a new Linux user: http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/9.1.0-live+nonfree/amd64/iso-hybrid/debian-live-9.1.0-amd64-mate+nonfree.iso It's Debian stable with extra firmware and a live boot option. Use Rufus to put it on a usbstick. Boot it and run the 'live' version from the usbstick. If you like it, install it.

>>4362 >>4349 >>4155 I have a USB WiFi adapter and it won't work on Xubuntu without drivers that only a single person works on and that I needed to build myself. Not too much of a problem, except my only internet connection while I can't use the USB adapter is the one through my phone, which is very slow. Are there any Debian-based or Arch-based distros that come with any wireless adapter drivers out of the box?

From my time at Linux before going back to Windows, it was Manjaro

>>1744 Manjaro devs have repeatedly proven themselves incompetent at even basic tasks. http://web.archive.org/web/20150409040851/https://manjaro.github.io/expired_SSL_certificate/ http://allanmcrae.com/2013/01/manjaro-linux-ignoring-security-for-stability/ I would recommend Antergos as an alternative.

Slackware, because no headaches or distro specific bullsoykaf and it's as stable as you can get. Been considering CRUX/Gentoo for a while but never had the patience or motivation to really do much with them. It may be way a way more archaic way of doing it, but I think manual dependency resolution is the best thing you'll get for a barebones system second to USE flags

>>3333 >Void Glad to see another user on here. It single-handily stopped my distro hopping.

Debian 9.1 & Testing are pretty good, but I mainly use OpenSUSE 42.3 Leap on my development laptop and love it.

I use debian (xfce of course), mixture of comfort and ease to set up. It just werks. I was interested in OpenBSD for a bit but never followed through, due to other things coming up and laziness.

>>4440 +1 Void status: embraced

Need suggestions for Linux distro that isn't full of NSA backdoors and CIA bullsoykaf.

Tails or just make your own distro and keep updating it...

Debian or Centos? You can use sysvinit pretty easily in Debian if you're wary of systemd. For a more DIY approach, Gentoo or Arch I suppose, but you need to know what you're doing a bit more. I know Debian stable is good about frequent security updates. Avoid Mint. Not sure about Ubuntu, but I notice it's used a lot for servers these days, so it couldn't be too bad.

>>4612 CentOS has SELinux by default, which is literally NSA.

Awaiting the usual (USER WAS WARNED FOR THIS POST (Rule 4) Always elaborate on your opinions, Write a better OP next time, One line OP with a single question and no additional context? Why is this question being asked?). Seriously, give us a list of distros and why they might or might not fit your "NSA backdoors and CIA bull​soykaf". Also give an in-depth description of what you think these things are.

>>4613 SELinux is not a backdoor though. The NSA has a defensive side too. I vote >>4615 to be our new mod.

Really, I've heard of a few. Like Qubes OS & Tails, but I keep reading in the news and on forums like lainchan that practically all of them are already broken by CIA and NSA. To be specific, the NSA and CIA have backdoors into Windows, Mac OS X, and recently announced Linux via various hacking tools like Aeris already aimed and affecting distros like Debian, CentOS, Red Hat, FreeBSD and Solaris. To get right to it, my question (and I apologize as I posted that really late and honestly was drunk so my thought process to bring my question to the keyboard was not efficient as it should've been.) are distros like Qubes OS and Tails as well as others that I don't know of yet or have forgotten truly that secure and safe to use to avoid NSA / CIA spying? Call me paranoid, but I've have always been irked / furious at the thought of someone looking over my shoulder at all times judging and profiling what I'm doing / looking at online. It's not right.

>> 4621 Keep in mind we're probably a target for disinformation (and trolling), so citation-less and often baseless accusations that something's broken or backdoored with no legitimate citations are to be expected. Now as for your question, I can't really answer it but I'll raise a few points. If you're not American, then you only have the problem you're trying to protect yourself against a remote state actor. Problem with security is that it can often act like a house of cards, you need only one wrong to bring it down. If the hardware's fuarrrked then we're all fuarrrked, so let's assume it isn't (otherwise the whole thing is moot according to your threat model). You still get the problem of zero-days, which you also can't do much about and which the Americans seem to very eager to protect ( https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/feds-drop-child-pornography-case-to-protect-exploit-a-9752 ). Backdoors as far as FOSS goes are a strange idea. Is it because the devs are incompetent or ignorant that it uses this broken crypto library or is it intentional?

No matter the linux distro you still have Intel Managment Engine or AMD Secure Processor which enable backdoor cappabilities on hardware level even after you turned off your computer. At any time, while your computer is connected to peripheral device which is connected to internet, AMD SP or Intel ME can turn on your computer, take over your processor and command it without your permission. There are some ways to disable the abilities of Intel ME or AMD SP by librebooting (but just on few versions ), or just wait for Talos to come out

>>4623 Intel ME/AMT and AMD PSP are evil things indeed, BUT, the AMT's remote management function doesn't work until it's explicitely provisioned by the user (administrator), and it only listens through the Ethernet interface by default. Also librebooting isn't the only possibility to deal with it http://blog.ptsecurity.com/2017/08/disabling-intel-me.html

>>4621 >To be specific, the NSA and CIA have backdoors into Windows, Mac OS X, and recently announced Linux via various hacking tools like Aeris already aimed and affecting distros like Debian, CentOS, Red Hat, FreeBSD and Solaris. The CIA leaks were backdoors in the sense of malware that is planted on systems after they are compromised. Are you asking if there is a Linux distro that is immune to malware? You are not paranoid you are just ignorant.

>>4623 Hah! I'm above these mere mortal troubles. The only things that may reach me are my stupidity and any vulns in my software targeted by manual or automated attacks, since not all my ports are closed but eh I'll manage since my rig doesn't have anything that a lot of people could take advantage of. t. gentoo with bulldozer

Not trying to be ignorant here. Really am concerned with privacy and not being watched. However I currently lack the level of knowledge and experience to compile or straight up build my own OS. (Please no templeOS horsecrap posts. This ain't 4chan.)

>>4638 Any linux distro without systemd is okay in terms of your own os spying on you. Any BSD is okay too. Web privacy is a whole other issue.

If you want total security why not write an OS yourself without network capabilities that way it will be impossible for CIA niggers to exploit your system. (Assuming you are a l33t haxor and made no mistakes writing the OS)

>>4638 Judging by the threat model you mentioned in your posts, your best bets are Tails, Whonix, and Qubes. Tails isn't really meant to be a fully installed OS, but is better used R/O on portable media like a dvd or usbstick. Note that Tails worked extremely well for Snowden, so ignore any FUD about it.

>>4621 > the NSA and CIA have backdoors into Windows, Mac OS X, and recently announced Linux via various hacking tools like Aeris I just read about Aeris here : https://www.ghacks.net/2017/07/29/wikileaks-releases-manual-for-linux-implant-aeris/ . It doesn't look like a pre-installed backdoor, just your standard malware. I don't think there's anything to fear here.

OpenBSD Only two remote holes in the default install, in a heck of a long time! Present Day, Present Time! AHAHAHAHAHA!

>>4610 None. Linux leverages hardware implementations of certain things, leading to vulnerabilities simply due to running on possibly compromised hardware. I am not talking about IME or PSP, those can be disabled. Example: the RDRAND instruction. I do believe there is a proof of concept that if RDRAND is compromised, entropy in Linux becomes predictable to a degree. Of course, there are Linux kernel patches floating around that add support again these attack vectors. Run any distribution of Linux, just keep up to date, and have patches against known attack vectors.

>>4623 Good luck, I'm running Libreboot!

If I wanted to run a lightweight distro on a raspberry pi that would ONLY play back music from folders and maybe show album art, and could be navigated using only a few buttons, what distro would I be looking at? I see lots of distros for music but they are for streaming. If anyone wants to know why it's because I have a broken walkman and I want to gut it and turn it into a nice pmp with 24 bit/192kHz DAC, to playback mp3s, flacs, etc.

>>4712 I haven't tinkered with raspi stuff for a while but the first thing that comes to mind would be Arch for raspi and just installing X.org and a music player on top with a startup script that boots into X and starts the music player in fullscreen mode. It's not the most elegant solution but it's a feasible one I can think off the top of my head. With just X and whatever music player running it should have no problems with performance, unless we're talking about a poor music player and a huge music library combo especially with an SD card (if that's the case).

>>4712 >>4715 I wouldn't recommend Arch, keeping it up to date is a chore. I'd go with a debian netinstall and use MPD+Whatever client you want to use as music player, mainly because you could easily script interactions with the music player by using mpc/making your own software that reads the state of the walkman's button and using MPC as a base implementation of MPD's protocol. I'll agree with >>4715 for starting just X with the musicplayer in fullscreen though.

I want to use crux, but the ports system is all fuarrrked up. Mismatching signatures, dead links, in addition to the barrier to enter make it hard to use. Void is fine for now

>>4826 Delete all your .footprint, .md5 and .signature files in your ports (make a bash script or alias to do it for you) is a quick fix.

>>4827 Thanks for the tip. If I ever get antsy and find time again, I'll give it a go

Has anyone successfully installed GuixSD? It won't boot on my desktop; it just chokes partway through something about "radeon" (card is HD7870)..I got it to boot on an older machine, but the installer runs into compiler errors when it's not choking on network hiccups (imma email the list with logs this weekend probably)

>>4006 >>4010 > SMGL That is pretty nice actually, I always thought the project was long dead. Can anybody tell me a bit more about it? Not talking about the features, but development. Is the team back on it? Is it picking up traction? I see it mentioned quite often recently.

Slackware, the fact that you can set everything up and easily leave it alone for years suits my personality :+) >>4006 Source Mage sounds pretty cool to me, it's on my list of distros to check out if I ever leave Slackware for w/e reason (along with Void, I like that it has runit out of the box but not sure about the package management)

>>4870 Not sure what's so special about SMGL personally, it's like Gentoo but without any layer of automation. It is LFS with a package manager, but whether that's a good thing or not is up for speculation. It has a unique init system and an easily moddable package manager for anyone that knows bash, but besides that Gentoo's more of an actual fully fleshed distribution. >>4231 I've actually found Sorcery to break way more and require a lot more user intervention then Portage, but then again if you don't want to be expected to intervene at all you shouldn't be using a source based distro to begin with. I've known about SMGL a long time before it's gained it's current brewing soykaf meme status, and it's nothing special outside of the novelty of it's fantasy naming scheme and elitist "hardcore" userbase, a guess that's a good thing for people who are into using an obscure OS so they can feel better and superior about themselves because they know how to troubleshoot an unstable hot mess of an unusable for everyday use OS.

>>4827 Even still, the repos seem dead https://crux.nu/portdb/ 6c37 repo is dead if you click on the url link

>>4835 It probably has to do with your graphics card not initializing properly because it requires nonfree firmware to function. Many GPUs need a nonfree vBIOS to work. Look into using onboard graphics if applicable.

>>4878 It's a Pitcairn / GCN1.0; this specific model was released March 2012 It's in the no-man's-land between the "legacy" cards needing the Radeon driver and the ones supported by AMDGPU (that is, both are usable; but both have implications) GuixSD's fundamental purism-as-a-tenent-not-an-option has led to complete lack of availability on any hardware requiring runtime-loaded firmware, yes? That is very lame because the transactional package manager thing seemed like a nice system Coulda been great :/ Oh well, back to the drawing board I had hoped to have found something that 1. Doesn't have systemd 2. Is neither fubared (Gentoo's Portrage) nor outdated (Devuan and all other niche systemd-free distros)

Yo lains I want to stop distro hopping, can anyone please recommend some distros to look into that are minimal like alpine

For me it was Arch, but only after: >installing it >having some trouble but doing fine >switching to Manjaro >Arch >switching to Antergos – liking it a lot >back to Arch – this time knowing exactly what I'm doing This is going to depend on what you want from OS. For me Arch provides just the right balance of skill/confort. Being rolling distro also helps.

Your only requirement is "minimal like Alpine" with no explanation as to why Alpine is not suitable. Waste of time.

Arch does the job for me. I've tried going to other distros after a time but I feel like everything's too bloated.

void

I distrohopped a lot, never got into arch (manjaro was cool when it was openRC and with the i3 pre-installed flavour). After doing a lot of distros I desided gentoo was my thing and it really has been the one distro that does everything.

Crux linux, its very nice

>>4871 Is slackware suitable for not so experienced users? I haven't done that much with linux. Just Some stuff with Raspberry Pi, Banana Pi and such. And some setups within the System. But all that was made with the help of others, like tutorials. Got Mint on a spare drive, but wanted to try other distros. Fedora, slackware, OpenSUSE and two others I can't remember now came to my mind.

I really like Fedora's stability and it's up to date packages. But DNF and the lack of a Synaptic really bothers me. I really liked on Debian how I could navigate through the packages by sources, free/non-free, type. Fedora is just missing a Synaptic for me.

Void Gentoo Slackware OpenBSD Present Day, Present Time! AHAHAHAHAHA!

>>4897 Hmm, personally I think it's better to work with easier distributions first. I ended up on Slackware after going using Mint for a decently long amount of time and Debian for a little bit. If you use an easier distro you have to actively challenge yourself though. Unfortunately, there isn't really a definitive answer. If you jump in headfirst you will definitely learn a LOT, but it'll be difficult. Personally, I'd stay away until you have a few months of messing around with the more technical side of linux under your belt.

Ubuntu

Debian seems to be the best all around distro for me. YMMV. - stable, fast, secure - huge package repository - popular, which means lots of specific help, tutorials, and .deb packages outside the repo - I trust the Debian devs and admins more than Ubuntu's, Redhat's, or Suse's - you can go the foss 'purist' route (default) or add the non-free repos - a large part of the intermet runs Debian servers - convenient package management, or else I'd probably still be using Slackware - I'm past the learning phase that Arch and Gentoo are good for - you can make Debian as minimalist as you want or as bleeding edge as you want, contrary to popular belief - the Debian online community have a better attitude than most others my $0.02

>>4881 If you want you can try Void or possibly NixOS but then that means systemd. I'm pretty neutral on the whole init thing honestly. There is also the option to install your preferred distribution and install the GUIX package manager on top of it.

>>4934 Do you use Stable branch?

>>4941 >Do you use Stable branch? Yep, Debian stable, currently "Stretch". Kernel 4.9 standard but I upgraded to 4.12 no problems. Some people like Debian testing for the newer packages, but I like the fast security updates on stable.

For a stable system: Debian For playing around: GoboLinux (get on my level Arch, Void & Gentoo users!)

>>3884 Wanted to go for this one, but can you use the newest software or its outdated?

>>1740 Arch Linux because of the AUR and rolling release platform.

>>1740 GoboLinux, Puppy Linux and Blag.

Debian user for several years, now in a solid love for Arch and it's simplicity. And my curiosity for the meme gentoo only grows and I'll probably try it for another round. (the score is Gentoo 3 x 0 Lainon for now)

>>4881 Portage really isn't fubared. The only real problem with portage is that it takes a while to resolve dependencies when doing whole system updates, but other than that it works pretty well.

Slackware, because I like to experiment. I don't mind using the more consumer-friendly distros (like Mint), but they seem kind of fragile, so the most I ever do with them is change the wallpaper. The BSDs are pretty nice, too.

Now I have my primary laptop on Debian Testing, and my secondary laptop on Gentoo. My plan is yo switch the other machine to gentoo oneday too. However for now I have a college critical app that absolutely positively does not work on Gentoo. There are however tutorials on how to make it work on Arch. So i might install Arch as a stepping stone on my primary laptop, before I go Gentoo on there too. My questions are: How is Arch 'harder' from a Debian users perspective? How is Arch 'easier' from a Gentoo users perspective? What are some other differences from both Debian and Gentoo?

Debian, because I've been using Linux a long time and I'm more interested in using my OS than maintaining it.

>>3694 why

NixOS or Guix should be the ideal lainchan distros, right? Their package managers are manipulated with a declarative, functional programming language. Each change you make to the OS is versioned so you can clone your OS across PCs or do a rollback with ease. No dependency conflicts. Doesn't get much more schway than that. Also, I've been doing some reading about Gentoo and the BSDs, and it seems like they are almost similar in some aspects, but still lack the functional programming.

>>5916 This is indeed the future. >unadulterated freedom >no gross systemd bullsoykaf >based beautiful lisp everywhere >functional unbreakable package management and system declaration People shouldn't be so cautious of the word `beta' - I've been using GuixSD as my main system for about a year now with no problems. The concept of meta operating systems like this might be a little daunting at first, but once it starts to click it's the coolest soykaf - That we ever didn't do OS design like this retrospectively seems absolutely retarded to me now. I cannot urge you all to check it out strongly enough.

>>5919 Wasn't that made by the Suckless guys? I stay away from their autism usually, but this looks pretty cool.

I like Mint but I prefer Solus OS now. If I built another computer for everyday use, I will just use Solus OS.

>>5922 I'd be really surprised if it was a suckless project. It's very far from things such as Stali, which is a suckless distro.

>>5922 Nothing to do with suckless/cat-v or any of their people at all as far as I know. In fact, I imagine they'll hate it because it's GNU"s baby.

>>5919 >>unadulterated freedom While this is cool for some people, it doesn't even allow blobs. Meaning no intel or amd gpu drivers for me. Still must be great for servers. Guix seems a bit cooler than Nixos, so I hope someone makes a more lenient distro using the same package manager. >I've been using GuixSD as my main system for about a year now with no problems. What hardware are you using? What's the graphics performance?

>>4006 How can I source Mage a macbook?

>>2274 What about Systemd? Isn't it scary, oniisan?

>>1753 It's literally THE backdoored linux distro. Why is this on Lainchan? We're talking redhat here and is the one us gov took explicit interest in

>>6104 >It's literally THE backdoored linux distro Ok, where's the backdoor then?

>>5919 I used that one for a while (actually, I've tried it a few times already), I can't quite remember why I didn't stick to it, maybe it's because it is so alien. I am used to good old Unix-likes which is why I prefer the BSDs. But I remember guis pleasantly, and I would try it again and if I feel adventurous, make it my main system. Oh I remember one reason I didn't stick to it, it's fuarrrking hard to configure. At least, the config scheme is very different, most things being user-specific and /etc/ being mostly read-only. And the documentation is severely lacking in that front. It is also source-based which is the same reason I'm not using smgl, I don't have enough processors to do that (All I have is an old thinkpad). All that said, I do think GuixSD is in the right direction, and it'd be nice to see OS development take some ideas from those guys.

>>6133 oh and grub2 in the default install, I should look into how to have it install lilo instead

>>6113 I don't necessarily agree with the guy you're replying to but that's a pretty stupid response too. Example: >iOS is backdoored >then where's the backdoor? But Fedora is open source so I get what you're saying. But just because it's open source doesn't mean they can't sneak soykaf into installer images for example.

I use Debian to host a webserver

anyone here on devuan

>>2276 I recently started using Slackware. I've had less trouble with this than anything else. Very nice.

What considerations should go into picking the distro for a server, other than prior experience? I've been using Debian so far, and it's been good enough. However, I've recently switched to Ubuntu on the desktop, and now, frankly just for the hell of it, I'm thinking about switching to Ubuntu on my server as well when I upgrade the hardware soon, but this post on Reddit about security updates on Ubuntu gives me second thoughts: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/2a5u3h/do_you_prefer_ubuntu_server_or_debian/cirsrxc/ Since this is just a home server and I have some room to play with, another possibility would be CentOS. That would give me some experience for the future in case I ever end up working with something like RHEL, which is admittedly unlikely. Clear-cut technical distinctions, or at least ones that aren't just a matter of taste, seem hard to find. Does it ultimately just boil down to personal preference?

You know, systemd probably doesn't matter

>>6577 I've been using Slackware for about 5 years now. I've been urged to distrohop so many times but it's trained me to stop (which has been GREAT for my productivity.) Every time I experiment with something, I always go back to the comfort of Slackware. Best non specialized distro hands down.

Windows 10

Wow I think systemd actually bricked my thinkpad. I don't know how this is possible, but it's the likely culprit >run a variety of different systems on my thinkpad for years >BSDs and linux distros without systemd >install arch >after 2 weeks it starts halting randomly >backup some stuff and think of a replacement for it >Now my computer doesn't boot *at all* Avoid the IE of init systems at all costs.

Kubuntu -> Manjaro -> Fedora -> Manjaro -> Fedora -> Manjaro -> Antergos -> Gentoo

Fedora Tipping™ -> /g/entooman -> Debian

>>6551 Yeah, we need to keep advertising it for support. I don't like Lennartware.

>>6794 There was some drama a while back where systemd did brick some boards by exposing UEFI variables to the filesystem. These weren't ever supposed to be writeable, but when have manufacturers ever given a soykaf about standards they can ignore? However, as far as I know Thinkpads were not included among the affected models. As soykaf as Sysd is, it might not be the culprit here.

>>7186 Those EFI variables were always writable just not traditionally exposed through the file system where hoopleheads run rm -rf / for teh lulz.

>>7186 do you mean this?

>>7202 to be honest the creator of this image sounds more ass-blasted than those other people.

>>7203 To be fair Poettering has a long history of saying the wrong thing and generally aggravating people and the image doesn't capture any of that. On the other hand people who hate him and flip out over systemd do act like cocaine addled downsyndrome teenagers basically all the time. It's hard to know which side to root for.

Void Linux, very similar with arch linux without SystemD

Void

>>7306 >very similar to arch Linux I disagree, I've used arch and am currently using void. The only similarity I can think of is the xbps package manager which's syntax reminds me of pacman but nothing else.

>>7306 >>7432 The fact that it might be similar to Arch is putting me off. Might as well learn BSD if I ever get to escape the pull Debian has on me. Also pic related cracks me up for some reason.

>>7490 Ponysay is also available in the official Arch repository.

Ubuntu Mate minimal. This is '''kind''' retro-futuristic DE in a stable OS. Maybe with snaps or flatpack, the LTS will be usable for normal desktop after a year.

>>4004 Bunsenlabs Linux. Openbox with great interface. This is like a beginner's step to all those years of ricing and editing config files.

I've been using Gentoo for 2 years and before that I ran Debian for 4 years. I'm getting tired of having to compile everything by myself and am thinking about going back to Debian. A friend of mine insisted that I should try Manjaro instead and while I won't try it, it reminded me that I could try Arch. I really enjoy the idea of being able to use up to date software (being able to download -9999 packages is my favorite portage feature) but at the same time I don't want to have to upgrade very frequently (I don't want my OS to break if I don't update for a month). Also, I'll probably avoid using the AUR. So what should I do, lains? Should I go back to Debian Testing or could Arch fit my use cases ?

>>7630 Go system-d free. Use Void.

>>7633 Sorry but I don't buy into the anti-systemd meme.

>>7668 Watch out guys. Someone with a brain has appeared.

>>7630 I believe you will feel comfortable with arch lainon. I went from freebsd to arch and it was painless. The only thing that comes to mind is that you might miss some compiler time customization that you have on gentoo. Avoid using the AUR when you don't have to, but using it is fine as long as you learn how to read the PKGBUILD files. It is quite useful when you need some obscure package.

>>7676 It's not contagious. You're safe.

I tried Fedora and all the most known Debian based distros, will try arch or an arch based soon. So far pure Debian is my favorite

Why can't there be a distro based on Debian testing but without the held-back security updates?, is Ubuntu really the only choice?

>>7771 Just use Sid.

>>7777 I tried, eventually the bugs got to me and fonts got fuarrrked up in some gtk applications, couldn't find a fix, waited a week to see if any further updates would fix it, which didn't happen and I couldn't stand looking at the fonts anymore. Nice quads tho.

>>7786 I meant "fuarrrked", not "fuarrrked", I don't know how that even happened.

>>7787 soykaf, did I just blow my new user cover?

>>7788 Yes.