How to choose your next Linux distro?

Discussion
61

Hi Rosika,
Checked in my Void
There is firemon, firecfg, and jailcheck
but no firetools and no package seems to supply it.

I looked into AnyDesk, found this from Google
" Void, being a Linux distribution, doesn’t come with a specific “default” remote desktop app. Instead, it supports a variety of remote desktop tools, with popular choices like RustDesk, AnyDesk, and TeamViewer being readily available for installation through the Void package manager. These applications allow users to remotely access and control their Void system from other devices."

but that seems to be wrong… I can not find AnyDesk or RustDesk or TeamViewer with xbps-query ???
It does have remmina

Then I found this
" While the official Void Linux repository may not include a remote desktop server, users can create custom repositories or utilize third-party packages to add this functionality, as noted in the Void Linux Handbook."

So you would have to do a custom install.

Regards
Neville

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62

@nevj :

Hi Neville, :waving_hand:

Thanks. I didn´t know that.

Thank you for checking anydesk.

Yes, I was looking for those packages on void´s package page, too.
E.g.:

here:

kgw_void
kgw_void833×386 27.5 KB

Although I haven´t installed Void either as a daily driver or as a VM I should´ve found the packages this way, if they were available.

Quite. I found it as well.

I also took a look at the custom install page your link referred to:

This is only recommended for serving custom packages created personally, or packages from another trusted source.
[…]
the use of third-party software packages poses very serious security concerns, and risks serious damage your system.

Hmm, this doesn´t sound too good… :thinking: .

Well, at least remina is available in Void.
If Void (or Solus or any other rolling-release distro) would be taken into account for use as a dialy driver, I´d have to run it as a virtual machine for some time beforehand in order to gain some experience with it. :wink:

Thanks a lot for your help, Neville. :heart:

Many greetings from Rosika :slightly_smiling_face:

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63

Hi Rosika,
Allow me to clarify the following: I love Manjaro and the problem may even be caused by my laptop, or by me, which I find hard to believe, but I think I’ve already said here on the forum that Manjaro is my favorite distro for my laptop.

The problem is that I’m living in a time when the last thing I want is to have problems with my PCs and, all of a sudden, there’s another problem that I need to install the operating system again.
Like Daniel @daniel.m.tripp , I don’t have anything to lose on disk, because everything is backed up in clouds, but it wasn’t the ideal time to install distros, I think you all know what I mean.

I strongly advise you to try Manjaro. It’s the only distro, since the beginning of COVID, that I’ve always used on my laptop and I work a lot with it and Aragorn is right in what he says.

Who hasn’t had problems with their distro and had to install it again? :thinking:

Jorge

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@Tech_JA :

Hi Jorge, :waving_hand:

Thank you very much for providing your opinion on Manjaro. :heart:

That´s great.

And cloud-backup, well, that´s always a clever thing to do, if you can afford it as far as your data consumption is concerned.

I see. Well, that´s quite a twist.
I think I might try it after all. First as a virtual machine so that I may be able to collect some experience with it.

To be honest: the project of looking for a stable rolling-release distro is something that I pursue for Margret, a high school teacher, who is a friend of mine.
She uses her laptop as daily driver and she needs it for her profession as well.
So the OS has to be a rather stable one, as she depends on her laptop on a daily basis.

Right now she´s using Linux Lite (like me) but it seems the´s inclined to try a rolling release distro in the future so the she´d have to install the OS just once. :wink:

That´s the main reason for my investigation here.
At least I have to be confident in recommending some dedicated distro to her.
If Manjaro really fits the bill: all the better.

Thanks a lot, Jorge. :heart:

Many greetings from Rosika :slightly_smiling_face:

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65

Hi Neville,

I’ll try to explain my logic in assigning the degree of difficulty.

In the 1990s, I tried RedHat, which I bought in a magazine, and I didn’t understand anything, but I’d never had any information other than in magazines.

Later, alongside Windows, I used Mandrake and Mandriva, and that’s when I began to have contact with Linux as a user.

In 2006 and until 2010, I used Debian exclusively.

I went back to Windows and, from 2019, I went back to Linux, this time Linux Mint on the PC, AntiX on a very old laptop, which I then switched to Linux Mint.

I got a new laptop and installed Manjaro until today.

On the PC, I still have LM as my main distro, but I’ve tried a bit of everything.
What’s common over the years is that I’ve always been around Debian and derivatives.

When I tested OpenSuse and FEDORA, I felt “lost”, more so than with Manjaro, which, truth be told, throughout all these years of Manjaro, it was only this year that I started using the “pamac” command, instead of “pacman”, so you can see how uncomfortable I am when working with Manjaro.

Perhaps the 2 or 3 times I tested OpenSuse and FEDORA, I wasn’t so receptive to change, I certainly can’t explain what happened, but it’s an incentive to try these two distros again and see if I change my mind.

Testing doesn’t hurt, there’s always curiosity, it’s patience that’s often lacking.

This is my explanation for the list I published, my friend.

Jorge

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66

Hi Neville,

From my experience, the problem always manifests itself in the same way: the graphical environment starts to get slower and slower.

One of the intermittent problems is that, after logging in, the desktop icons appear in a different order and, after about 2 seconds, they return to the positions in which I’ve always used them (I have the icons scattered around the desktop).

Programs have become slower.

Do you know when Windows programs become “not responding”? Something similar happens, but it’s intermittent but regular.

I’ve done everything I know to try and solve this problem.

I’m off today. It’s a good day to do a root installation.

Jorge

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67

Just being curious, not criticizing. Why do so many find installation so hard? I back up my data daily, so all I have to do in a fresh install is load my password manager in my browser and start working. Sometimes I take ten minutes and install two or three programs, but virtually all distros have what I need in the box. The only thing that might make installs a burden is trying to operate without broadband service.

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Hi Bill,
Right now, one word says it all: patience.

As I said before, I love Manjaro, but it’s failing at a very bad time: right now, I needed the laptop to be as stable as possible. I’ve always had it, apart from those times I mentioned now it’s happening again.

And I know you’re not criticizing, I have the same opinion as you, but the time wasn’t right for installations.

Jorge

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69

Maybe you could have a dual boot laptop. Like your preferred distro and a Mint/Debian as a “backup” system. Then you could continue working and fix the main distro when you have time. I do this with my work machine.

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Hi ihasama,
That’s a good suggestion, thanks :wink:

Jorge

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71

You had said you noticed your laptop slowing down. I wonder if you created a new test user and logged in as that user if things worked snappier or not. Just curious.

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72

I had it once, with MX, but it was my fault… I mucked up the package database

I think I will leave Manjaro where it is on my list… with Arch

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73

Hi Rosika,
I think Solus would be more stable than Manjaro.
Arch and derivatives is not the way to go if you want stability

Regards
Neville

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You mean package installs… not a full OS

  • trying to install a package without doing update/upgrade first
  • trying to install something that is not part of the package system… eg a .deb file download
  • installing from source code from a git site
  • installing from code you wrote yourself
  • installing from a .tar.gz file ?.. eg installing R
  • missing dependencies in the package repo
  • installing PPA’s or from AUR or other untested repos
  • installing binary downloads infected with malware
  • mixing incompatable software… within the package system you are protected from this, usually

I am sure others could add a few more difficult install cases.

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75

Hi Neville, :waving_hand:

thanks for providing the new link. :heart:

The author says:

Note: These rankings are based on my personal experience and testing, so your mileage may vary depending on your use case and preferences. […]
ranking from least to most stable based on your testing.

Seems he put a lot of time and effort into coming up with his list.
He tested 9 distros after all.

I´ll read through the article carefully.
Whatever I will recommend to Margret, I need to test it as a
virtual machine fist - for quite some while.

My experience with Arch (as a VM) is that until now I could fix any problems that came up. But it took some time get to the bottom of them.
Plus: updates take really long, therefore I update/upgrade the system just once a month.
I guess that´s mainly due to the fact that I installed some AUR packages.
Updates invoked by pacman only are quite fast.

The bottom line is: Arch wouldn´t be the right system for Margret. :wink:

Thanks again and many greetings from Rosika :slightly_smiling_face:

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76

Solus does a couple of things which would make an end-user very happy.

  1. They have exactly one package to do one thing. Not a billion doing the exact same thing.
  2. They vet their packages. They don’t accept beta software, only stable software.
  3. They have a separate testing repository, meaning software is well tested before it hits the main repository.
  4. The crowd they aim for is end-user desktop. They maintain a laser focus on this.
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77

Yes. For example you can not run sshd in Solus. It can not be configured as an ssh server. It will do ssh client.
I wonder whether it would support what @Rosika wants to do … remote access via anydesk?

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78

I think it’s available through “third party repositories”.

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80

Garuda falls in about where Manjaro lands, They are both Arch-based, they are both rolling releases, they both use systemd, and they both boot with grub/grub2. I ran Manjaro for a while, then I tried Garuda-KDE-Lite, and I prefer its implementation and user experience. I still use Garuda here.

Ernie

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81

Thanks, I needed that
Revised list

Mint
LMDE
MX/Systemd
Peppermint/Debian
Solus
.....
Ubuntu (and variants)
Ubuntu with PPA
......
Debian
Fedora 
OpenSUSE (tumbleweed or leap)
.....
NixOS
Arch without AUR
Manjaro
Garuda
Arch with AUR
.......
Gentoo/Systemd
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