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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.

TableCoffee ,
@TableCoffee@lemmy.ca avatar

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!

ReakDuck ,

Arch Linux

ReakDuck ,

I always am going to run into heavy issues when using Debian, Ubuntu or Fedora. On Arch, things also aren’t always smooth, but the issues are mild, always solvable and transparent.

ReakDuck ,

The Arch Wiki is in a language made by users for users. Meaning that its easy to understand because the wiki allows to talk about issues, alternatives and more hints about each small topic, every other wiki has some structure where important details are missing or not taken seriously.

CrabAndBroom ,

Arch and KDE as a DE because I’m a borderline-obsessive tinkerer.

Although NixOS is tempting me, but I haven’t moved past the virtual-machine-specimen-jar phase with that yet lol.

milo128 ,

Starting with a blank slate is so refreshing. It takes time to build everything up from scratch and I understand that you can get a great experience out of the box with other distros, but I love the simplicity of not having any bullshit I didn’t install myself.

ReakDuck ,

True, yeah, didn’t think about the downside that you need to build it up from scratch. But people could use arch based distros I guess? Never used them.

Lotsen ,
@Lotsen@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Nobara

  • easy to use
  • fast on my hardware
  • fedora based
  • KDE
InternetPirate OP ,

dupe

agent_flounder ,
@agent_flounder@lemmy.one avatar

Also, gaming works out of the box on my hardware (my gfx card wasn’t fully supported by 5.x kernel)

Lotsen ,
@Lotsen@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Another reason to use :)

Kangie ,

Gentoo

Kangie ,

Huge range of supported architectures

LastoftheDinosaurs ,
@LastoftheDinosaurs@lemmy.world avatar

USE flags let you enable/disable parts of software that you normally have no control over. If you don’t use bluetooth, for example, you can choose not to build bluetooth components when installing software.

maiskanzler ,

Ubuntu

maiskanzler ,

I love the dock

maiskanzler ,

I love the stability of LTS

maiskanzler ,

It's easy to use

maiskanzler ,

A lot of proprietary software is easier to install here

maiskanzler ,

I can use the same OS on my servers

samwise ,
@samwise@kbin.social avatar

easy enough to use for me (I'm a linux newb) and I can setup steam on it!
edit: forgot to mention I can get hibernation working on Ubuntu when I couldn't figure out how to do that in Fedora

jrubal1462 ,

Are you playing steam games that have Linux versions? Or is the “comparability mode” stable and fast enough that you don’t really have to think about it?

greyscale ,
@greyscale@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I don’t have time to fuck about, I use ubuntu mate because it gets out of my way and does what I expect it to do.

1draw4u ,

Shit just works

mvirts ,

For when I can’t get stuff to work on nixos 😅

JubilantJaguar ,

Because it just works. Because it’s based on free Debian and not corporate RedHat. Because mainstream Linux needs a flagship distro and that distro needs to be used and supported.

ehyuman ,

but Ubuntu is corporate, no?

Jao ,

Garuda Linux

nerdschleife ,

ArcoLinux with i3.

nerdschleife ,
  • it’s basically an arch installer plus a bunch of presets and scripts to get you started. The goal of this distro is to guide you to your first Arch install. I did that, but stuck with Arco.
  • the absolute friendliest linux community I have come across. The creator himself is likely to answer most of your queries. The youtube channel is a goldmine. Shoutout, Eric Dubois!
unwillingsomnambulist ,

Have used it before but am not currently running it. Absolute treat for someone who wants to start digging deeper into the inner workings of Linux. The tutorial videos are pretty clearly a labor of love.

tuto193 ,

Pop!_OS

DarthVi ,

I agree, it’s great!

  • image with baked in nvidia drivers which work out of the box without too much fuss
  • if you encounter problems, you can refer to the system76 website or use a solution provided by the community, since it’s based on Ubuntu
  • installation with full disk encryption enabled by default
  • right now it uses a slightly customized version of GNOME as DE (with “normal”/traditional windows and optionally a tiling wm), but system76 is working on a Rust-based DE, named Cosmic DE
zybir ,

I’ve been using Pop for about 2 years. I have yet to run into an issue that I couldn’t fix. It’s the first distro that made ditching windows easy.

los_chill ,

I feel the same coming from Mac. Things seem to just work. I’m not a Linux wiz so minimal headaches while learning to tinker make it perfect for me.

LeafyBirch ,

EndeavourOS

LeafyBirch ,

It's arch. It just happened to be the composition i had my previous arch setup as. Yay for AUR stuff, KDE Plasma for DE. Includes a couple of useful tools and makes for a very solid OS.

Anyone who has been in the Ubuntu sphere of things with Linux, should take a moment to try arch. EndeavourOS is perfect for these people.

00 ,
@00@kbin.social avatar

Easy to set up, very helpful community. If you liked Manjaro or think Manjaro is sketchy but like the idea of a slightly pre-configured arch, check it out.

ClonedPuffin ,

This, basically Arch but quick to install with all the most important things installed and ready without being bloated.

unwillingsomnambulist ,

Same. I’ve done the vanilla Arch thing and it’s alright, but the quality of life enhancements that come with EndeavourOS make it a great daily driver.

It’s the only distro I could get DaVinci Resolve Studio, Blackmagic Intensity Pro 4k, and my Radeon RX 6750 XT working with, consistently.

evadzs ,

Garuda Linux

evadzs ,

A lot of people think it’s just Arch with an installer and lots of bloat and a neon theme but it’s a lot more than that.

evadzs ,

Bootable Snapper snapshots enabled by default

evadzs ,

This really is my favorite Garuda feature - it’s saved my install more than once so that I can roll back a messy update, figure out what broke and why it broke, and then make sure the next update works

evadzs , (edited )

Fish shell by default with auto-complete previews as you type and lots of great aliases

cashews_best_nut ,

You can get pretty much everything Fish Shell does with a well configured Zshell pus more. Fish also smells.

20gramsWrench ,

And you can get pretty much everything garuda with a well configured Arch plus more but that would take ages to do

CohortCzort ,

That why i like garuda, its roughly where id want my arch settup without the hassle.

evadzs ,

Post install wizard for easily adding common applications

evadzs ,

Nvidia driver installation options that correctly set the mode setting, dkms drivers installed ootb, common apps like GreenWithEnvy ootb, great Nvidia support

evadzs ,

Besides Wiki and AUR that all Arch derivatives share, they have their own wiki that documents the changes they’re made to Arch and a very good forum for help

gobbling871 ,

Arch (BTW)

gobbling871 ,

I’m currently happy with it

gobbling871 ,

So many powerful tools that are not easy to find on other distros.

gobbling871 ,

Basically, have fine tuned my setup so much that it’s almost impossible to think of another distro.

InternetPirate OP ,

dupe

DigitalPortkey ,

And with archinstall I’d argue it’s about as easy to install as most “normal” distros these days.

ReakDuck ,

I’d also agree… but everytime I tried to use archinstall, it always failed, felt impossible for me to install arch

RegularIndependent98 ,

Arch, antix and linuxmint

vikingtons ,
@vikingtons@lemmy.world avatar

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.

starryoccultist ,
@starryoccultist@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Agreed. I’ve been using Fedora Silverblue for about a year. I love the immutable OS paradigm but IBM/Red Hat’s recent actions have left me feeling uneasy and I want to find an alternative.

vikingtons ,
@vikingtons@lemmy.world avatar

Silverblue is cool. I’ve been playing around with it on a portable NVMe drive. Planning on making the switch soon.

artkub , (edited )

I’ve also been using silverblue for about a year, it works well. Didn’t know about IBM acquiring Rad Hat, sad news.

For a similar experience there is Vanilla OS that I tried briefly and that seams to have similar immutability features and hastle free setup with a vanilla gnome desktop. It’s based on Ubuntu.

There is also NixOS which takes the immutability to another level. The entire system with all packages are configured in a config file. Which is nice if you want to have an identical setup on multiple machines but makes it a bit less user friendly imo.

zbb ,

Debian.

ThesePaycheckAvenging ,

Rock solid.

metacolon ,
@metacolon@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Lightweight.

Romdeau4 ,
@Romdeau4@kbin.social avatar

Fedora

Romdeau4 ,
@Romdeau4@kbin.social avatar

Stable

Romdeau4 ,
@Romdeau4@kbin.social avatar

Only FOSS software and repositories unless otherwise enabled

Romdeau4 ,
@Romdeau4@kbin.social avatar

Cutting edge application releases so I get the newest toys after they’ve been decently tested

Headbangerd17 ,

Uses the latest tech in linux e.g wayland and pipewire.

FarLine99 ,
@FarLine99@lemmy.world avatar

Applies patches for better programs work under Wayland (SDDM with git patches before long awaited 0.20.0 release).

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