I just read an article on ZD NET about the “Best” Linux distro of 2024. It got me thinking that we all have our favorite distro of Linux. My installed Linux is Mint Cinnamon.
Why?
5 or 6 years ago, I became very upset with Win 10. I decided to check out Linux. I also thought I would try to make an informed switch and did some research on the internet about which Linux would be user friendly, reliable, ease to install, and ease of switching from Windows. Most sites would list the top 10 or top 5 recommended Linux for the first time user and Mint was always there as well as a few other Linux distros. I like the sound of Mint and could pronounce it. Not sure at the time how to say the word Ubuntu and it just looked foreign to me.
I install Mint and been with it every since. Yes, I did do some distro hopping, but stayed with Mint.
Linux Mint is now to me like the saying goes feels good “like an old pair of shoes” or “I know it like the back of my hand”.
Hi Howard,
I dont have one favourite.
For years I used Debian , exclusively, but then I got a new graphics card and had to move to something that supported it… MXahs.
Debian now supports my graphics card, and I could go back , but I chose to stay with MX ( no longer need ahs ),. MX is more conservative than Mint.
I do also like Void, and I experiment with other non-systemd distros, including BSD.
It is important to have a good stable distro that does what you need easily.
I’m not tied down to anyone distro specifically - but - I’m thinking of reverting back from Pop!_OS to Vanilla Ubuntu 24.04 (i.e. gnome)…
I did read that article by Jack Wallen - I like elementary - and I did run it as my daily driver for a couple of years (circa 2015/16) - but - I always find it’s too locked down and I’m not game to see if some essential stuff like elementary tweaks is still compatible with elementary 8 - I strongly suspect it won’t be… I even chucked in some money to elementary way back then. I’d REALLY like to try it on a Pi4 or Pi5 - but - you have to back their github accound to get access to the ARM64 version of elementary.
So - I’m sticking with Ubuntu LTS for now - it’s the easiest to get / persuade it to look and feel like MacOs in my experience (and my main desktop has a MacBook Pro M1 either side of it)… I mostly just want the shell and easily install Steam and my Steam game library…
Had bad experiences with Garuda and Fedora - so - sticking with Canonical…
Pretty much the same experience as @daniel.m.tripp. I tried lots of distros to see which would support the hardware at the time. Mandrake was one I spent quite a bit of time on. This was 20 years ago. Ubuntu won that exercise. I didn’t really use it much for many years. Normally I used it with Windows using WUBI.
Eventually I used Elementary for a few years. I tried Pop!_OS a couple different times, but it always seemed kind of “cartoony” or amateurish. Then last year I did use it for most of a year.
When Ubuntu 24.04 came out I went back to using that. It just works. It’s well supported. I can also use it some for work.
I like MX a lot. Matter of fact I have it install as a guest OS on my desktop and use it from time to time. If Mint became unavailable, I would be on MX.
I am with howard on this only distro hoping I do is between lmde which is my prefered version now, coming from mate as that worked on older machines, to xfce for low spec older computers such as 2gb memory.
Did have a couple of tries at docker on mint to make it more mac like but eventually decided it was no big advantage.
I used Ubuntu for 15-20 years as my main distro but snap store made me leave that b(l)oat. It was my only distro from the beginning when it had Gnome2 (nowadays ~Cinnanon). I abandoned windows with Ubuntu. It’s my favorite distro but I choose not to use it anymore. I ended up to Void and Gentoo, on proxmox mostly Debian vms. IMO Linux system is kernel+package manager+environment. For me portage is the best package manager, xbps is second + Hyprland/Cinnamon for desktop use.
The “best Linux distro” is something like the best shoe, or the best jacket.
It does not exist. It’s different for everyone, like shoe or jacket does not fot all…
For me the best is Debian, maybe LMDE, as I found it a reliable workhorse.
They are very different. Portage is like BSD ports. Xbps is speedy and reliable.
I think I agree , but I am happy with apt and apk too. Pacman frightens me.
Void has never failed to boot after updating the system. That’s something I’ve not met with any other package manager. Pacman was the worst in this regard.
Started with Ubuntu ~10 years ago with the Unity DE which then later defaulted to GNOME. When Ubuntu re-introduced the Unity DE I tried it again but hated it after spending so much time in GNOME.
I did a further bit of distro hopping (like most do), tried Ubuntu Mate and various others but after trying LMDE I decided on full fat Debian 12 stable and haven’t thought about jumping ship since. It just - works and does well!
Now my daily driver and I see no reason to change. Almost as though I “matured” into a decent DE and I don’t miss the Dock clogging up my screen now (even though I could install one if I wanted to).
Interestingly, I still have a Ubuntu instance running on my scratch PC and even though the dock is ever present on the left, I still now prefer to use the left Super key to launch programs.
So I started my journey with Ubuntu 18.04 Ig in 2020 b4 the launch of 22.04. Used it for a year or so. Then tried Mint, Kubuntu, Neon, Manjaro, Garuda till approx 2022 ig. In 2k22, I switched to Pop OS 22.04. I personally think its the best…
Excellent hardware support, stable and clean UI, and I really like its workflow…
Still waiting for 24.04, really excited for COSMIC Desktop. 2k24 is almost over, its still not released yet. Hope it releases before April 2k25
That’s a choice I can agree with, although I like the app collection and XFCE desktop that Emmabuntus provides. Makulu is in my sandbox and it’s interesting.
FunOS is another one that’s intriguing, mostly because the package management system trains us to use apt with CLI scripts–can be accessed from any .deb distro at funos.com.
I only just realised thanks to your post that emmaus exists in other countries, thought It was just a french thing, I have dropped many objects with them to sell and bought through them other items. I know the use it to recycle older machines and are able to sell them on having cleaned off old user data
@easyt50
My approach to Linux is a little different, than other users!!! I do not look for a Linux, as for a daily driver, but I do need a Linux that will support, my old hardware, and the commands and apps that will do, the things I need. So far the only two have been EndeavourOS and Gentoo, and so I have EndeavourOS running on one machine and Gentoo running on the other, and both support the apps that I need.
And, of course I have my W11 machine for my go-to machine.
It has a dock at the bottom to launch stuff (and can also be used to task switch - e.g. multiple application windows for same app) - also has a strip / system tray at the top… It also has the window controls on the left hand side… And MacOs Icons on gnome for consistency.
It’s so easy to make Gnome look and feel like this…
I have a single keyboard (ThinkPad II keyboard with trackpoint) and mouse (Microsoft Surface mouse) on my desk - and use Synergy server on Pop! Os to drive two Macs and a Pi5 running Ubuntu 24.04 (arm64).
The MacBook Pro M1 on the right is my employer supplied device. I mostly just use it for email and chat (teams) because it’s so locked down - but I still have a ZSH shell and I can install and run Synergy KVM client… Some recent piece of big brother bothersome software on it now blocks access via SSH - and I can’t figure out how or what… I can SSH to localhost, and it works (even passwordless using my SSH keys) - but I get “kex_exchange” errors from outside - I’ve hunted high and lo across the wilds of the intertubes and not found an answer…
Yes, I could make Xfce look like that.
I often wondered whether users in the Southern Hemisphere setup their DE upside down… ie with the system tray at the top.
