Share Your Favorite Linux Distros and Why You Love Them
Share Your Favorite Linux Distros and Why You Love Them
So we can clearly see the most popular distros and the reasons why people use them, please follow this format:
- Write the name of the Linux distro as a first-level comment.
- Reply to that comment with each reason you like the distro as a separate answer.
For example:
- Distro (first-level comment)
- Reason (one answer)
- Other reason (a different answer)
Please avoid duplicating options. This will help us better understand the most popular distros and the reasons why people use them.
I've been trying to convert to linux since the mid-2000's. Ubuntu and derivatives, fedora, and SUSE. Gaming and my lack on knowledge always brought me back to Windows.
In 2018 I tried Manjaro and loved it. But I broke it without the knowledge to fix it multiple times. The Arch BTW memes were strong at the time so I took the plunge and studied the wiki, and documented my own installation process and really learned a lot in the process. Proton was released and suddenly gaming got WAY better. I didn't remove my windows install completely until 2022 but Arch has been my home on my main machine.
I have since put together a proxmox cluster and run many distros for various things but that's a whole other rabbit hole!
Fedora
I want to preface this by saying that Red Hat absolutely deserve your ire in light of the recent news.
I appreciate that Fedora has relatively recent packages for a fixed release distribution. I really appreciate how they've pioneered in desktop-oriented technologies to help make Linux a more palatable experience for regular users, and I'm glad to see these gradually be adopted by others over time.
I'm happy to hear that the Fedora project still mostly operates Independently under redhat / IBM, but I'd be lying if I said the IBM acquisition didn't worry me to the point of looking into alternatives.
Arch
- Minimal and I install whatever the hell I want on it
- AUR
LMDE
- Because it's Mint & Debian
Alpine -- In praise of Alpine and apk
Arch linux (btw). Because it's easy to install and has the most accessible package manager of em all.
...
...before you shoot rocks at me and try to burn me alive.... download an arch iso, run it, and then type "archinstall". Thank me later.
"Oh, but its still veeeeeery hard to inst-"
Debian.
Garuda
Debian
Garuda Linux
I've been a Mint faithful for a few years now
Fedora KDE.
We're looking to create a comprehensive list of the most popular Linux distributions and the reasons why people use them.
I'm curious, do you intend to put up the results somewhere?
YiffOS
Void Linux
It has it's own package manager which is nice and performant, it has another script similar to the AUR to an extent, runit is simple and sensible.
- Arch
- Debian
- My favorite overall, they're community-run, stable, well-maintained, have a rich history of being awesome, and they're just top quality general-purpose distros. I tend to use Arch for more recent desktop systems and Debian for server systems or older desktops.
- NixOS
- What I'm dabbling with currently, the concepts here are amazing but it's a bit of work at first to truly get value out of it. Still, seems to be a good option for my next notebook OS.
- Fedora Silverblue (respectively the immutable variants)
- Also cool, as is Fedora in general, although with the recent Red Hat fiasco and Fedora's plan to introduce opt-out telemetry I'm more hesitant now. Some time ago I'd have listed Fedora at the top but now it's slid down a bit.
- Mint
- Kubuntu
- Easy recommendations for new users coming from Windows
- VanillaOS
- I like the idea of making it possible to install packages from all distros (they will then run in a distro-specific container). I wouldn't use it, but it's cool
- Kali
- Tails
- Alpine
- From the more specific distros
- Slackware
- Honorable mention, because it introduced me to Linux back in the day (yes, I liked starting the
hardUnix way). I wouldn't recommend it these days but it's kind of like the granddaddy of all Linux distros, and it was awesome in its prime. I'm sure it can still be used today but it's gotten quite niche.
- Honorable mention, because it introduced me to Linux back in the day (yes, I liked starting the
Arch. It's a "build-your-own" distro without the hassle of compiling everything from source, like with Gentoo (still love Gentoo, though). Also, it has pretty big repos with the AUR on top of that.
And no, it's not unstable, if you can read. My oldest Arch install was 5 years old and even then, it didn't break. I just wanted to do a fresh install for no particular reason.
Void Linux
Lubuntu with lxqt desktop environment and i3 window manager.
DietPi on my ARM devices
Arch, antix and linuxmint
NixOS. Reproducible, Wide Package selection, Hard to fuck up + Not yet another Arch based distro
Linux Mint
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**Stability**. Mint is stable, easy to use, and has a good help forum. I am better with the end-user side than the developer side. This allows me to focus on what I need to do.1a. If I need to do something more complex that requires the terminal, there are plenty of sites that explain it step by step. So, I don't need to become a programmer to tweak my system.
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**Simplicity**. It's easy to find where to go to change settings and add new programs. -
**Safety**. Linux has repositories of trusted programs, and it's super simple to download from them. Even with trusted sites for Widows programs, I did get a couple programs that came with malware. The open source nature of Linux eliminates much of the profit motive for scammers, plus other developers would quickly expose such attempts in the Linux community. -
**Speed**. When I had a dual boot system, the Linux OS booted on avg in 15 sec, where Widows took 30-60 sec. I can't quantify, but the Linux OS overall seemed to run smoother faster than Widows too. -
**Security**. I've never had to deal with viruses or malware with Linux. (This may change as Linux gains increased market share, but, so far, so good.) Linux doesn't come with bloatware or potential spyware either. There are many Widows programs -- MS Games, Cortana, MS Photos, etc -- that cannot be uninstalled. Cortana cannot be disabled. (It says it can, but it still runs in the background. Who knows what data it is collecting.) -
**Conscience**. MS has a multibillion dollar contract to develop VR headsets for soldiers. These will be used to control machines (and maybe robots) on the battlefield. Once we have troops off the battlefield, war (and all its horrible consequences) will become a much easier choice. I know my govt has lied about EVERY war after WWII (at least). Staying away from MS helps me to not fuel the war machine and promote peace.
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Permanently Deleted
-- Debian Testing
- Debian packaging
- Rolling
- Newer than Stable
- Debian Free Software Guidelines ( DFSG)
- Good support of old systems and random architectures.
Gentoo, because I love the control.
Arch.
I don't love it, like at all. But it's the least buggy and easiest to use one I've tried.
I really wish there was a simple plug and play, everything just works and doesnt break on updates distro.
Archlinux
Allows for a minimalist setup and it has a great wiki.Fedora
- it's up to date
- little to no bloat
- stock gnome shell
- uses latest technologies
- just works
Fedora Workstation on desktop, perfect mix of stability and up-to-date packages.
Unraid on the NAS, does pretty much everything I need and haven’t put any thought into using something else.
Ubuntu Server on a few VMs, although I’ll probably look into different options in the future as I’m not a huge fan of Ubuntu.
Arch/SteamOS on Steam Deck, of course.
Debian for anything that I just need to run forever.
its a tie between linux mint and garuda linux, linix mint for stability and garuda for being an arch based linux for people like me that are too stupid to get arch running by itself
@InternetPirate Fedora it is has all the good and new stuff without being unstable. Will switch to Silverblue for an even more stable experience sometime soon.
Started on SuSe, but Ubuntu stuck with me since the early releases... Just very familiar to me at this point. Been my goto os on my laptop for ages....
OpenSuse, Fedora second.
- Nobara
- Built for gaming
- Based on Fedora
- Stable and easy to set up
- Nobara
Once I started using Manjaro KDE I found no real reason to leave. -Reason: It just works. I'm not a developer, just a user. I don't like tinkering and Manjaro just kind of takes care of everything for me.
As a daily, linux Mint/Mate all the way.
@InternetPirate I've been happy with Ubuntu since 2007, I don't always like Canonical's choices, but they're easily changed. Recently tried Vanilla OS, easy install and seems solid, good alternative to Nix I think.
Another vote for Pop OS. I was already somewhat familiar with Ubuntu, and the nvidia drivers included in Pop as well as its gaming support drew me to it. It's worked very well for the most part.
Nixos Void Arch
Permanently Deleted
Permanently Deleted
Manjaro. I love it's simplicity and ease of use. It's the closest I can get to Windows without actually using Windows. I'm glad it makes using an Arch distro easy and accessible. KDE is a godsend as well.
