What Distros do you want to shoutout and why you think they are doing well/are the best at what they do?
I am curious what is out there and have only had some experience with Linux Mint, SteamOS, and Pop!_OS
The one I installed, obviously.
this is the best answer haha
Sample size: 1
That’ll do! Let’s hit the pub.
Even with uncertainties, it gets close to 100%
gentoo! still kicking it
Gentoo is sooo insanely versatile. I just love it.
Whats the purpose of gentoo over arch and when do you draw the line of diminishing returns? It sounds like gentoo is a lot harder for not much more reward.
Hard to say without having used Arch. I just really like Portage. It does some really neat things.
i really love portage and i like compiling from source everytime i used Arch i got trapped in dependency hell
If you leave alone the haters, Ubuntu is doing great. Mint LDME also fantastic if you wish to have a rock solid base.
What is in LMDE that isn’t in plain Debian out of the box beyond branding?
LMDE comes with some nice packages that just make your life easier. It is basically Debian but… with sane defaults
Anything in particular I should be wary of switching from Mint to Mint DE?
LDME does not supports PPAs
I don’t know about the best but Debian has been going strong for 32 years and the backbone of many distros. Its MVP in my book.
You can even get a modern gaming distro based off of it (PikaOS).
EndeavourOS, it’s Arch with a familiar installer, several useful helper scripts, and a friendly community.
Same, endeavorOS has been my default install for years now.
Its nice enough that I’m even considering putting it on my parents PC when windows decides to stop updating here in a couple months
NixOS is amazing, but it’s also got a crazy learning curve. Once you grok it though, it really changes the way you configure your computer.
Fedora is always my favorite big name distro, they’re constantly pushing the envelope and adopting new features that need some stability and exposure to mature.
Bazzite has been working so well that even the wife has converted over. It cured my distro hopping so I haven’t played much attention to how other distros have been doing.
A question - can I use Bazzite for uses other than gaming? I game on my laptop, but most of the time I’m writing code. Could I use it for that or should I go for something like Fedora, Debian or Arch?
You absolutely can. There’s a small learning curve for using immutable distros, but once you get a handle on it, it works great.
Fedora has gotten much more stable and reliable in the past decade. 15+ years ago it was generally regarded as nice but unstable. I’d say nowadays for a moderately technical user it offers a better experience overall than Ubuntu or Mint. There are still unfortunately some pitfalls for new users (media codecs come to mind). In fact, the only issues i’ve had in most of those 10 years have been related to GNOME plugins or the Plasma 6 transition, problems that also occured on Ubuntu.
I have 2 computers: one running Ubuntu, one Fedora. This has been my setup for over a decade. I have lately been finding Ubuntu more and more cumbersome to use, with less of the “just works” experience i remember having in the past. Perhaps the focus on cloud computing has caused the desktop to languish a bit.
I would like to try Pop!_OS, but i haven’t had a free evening for a while to do a backup and reinstall on one of my computers. It’s also been a while since i used Mint, so my impression could be out of date.
The nice thing about Linux overall (compared to macOS and Windows) is that each update generally improves on the experience. On commercial platforms the experience gets worse as often as it gets better, usually both at the same time. GNOME and Plasma are both overall much better than they were a decade ago (despite a few regressions) while macOS and Windows are both worse in general.
I started my Linux journey with Ubuntu, then switched to Linux Mint for a while and dabbled with Manjaro for a hot minute, and ultimately found my home on Fedora Workstation for the past several years. Once set up with rpmfusion and 3rd party codecs it’s a very solid and reliable distribution. The new atomic projects (and derivatives) look very interesting too.
Fedora Silverblue – a very good balance of immutable distro and user friendliness. Stability and reliability of being immutable without low-level hacking like in Nix / Guix.
I’ve started using Nobara recently, and I like it a LOT. Makes it really easy for a noob like me to both play games and edit videos. I actually made a Monster Hunter video entirely in Linux with Davinci Resolve, and it worked really well. I’ve been an adobe tool my entire editing life, but I really like the switch I recently made :)
The whole of Fedora atomic distros are interesting in an exercise in getting good with layering and distrobox. Pop_os 24.04 just to see if a third pillar of Linux frontends with GTK and Qt is viable. People are always pissy about Manjaro but they seem to have an interesting present being pre installed on the Orange Pi Neo handheld
Garuda absolutely nails it with their helper app that sets you up with a choice of popular software, handles updates, and gives you easy access to common settings.
It makes it very approachable for people new to Linux.
In my opinion I love CachyOS.
Linux Mint DE and Arch, the ultimate duo of Stability/Freindlyness & Power/Control
I do like Mint very much, but I think that they are neglecting to update their apps. A lot of apps are not up to date, and that’s just sad…
