Linux users - what's your distro?

[Patrol1985]

What Linux distribution do you use and why? What do you consider its advantages and disadvantages?

My entry:

Distribution: Linux Mint 17 MATE
advantages: works "out of the box"; based on Debian and Ubuntu, so it can use their repositories
disadvantages: I wish there was an official lightweight version (based on LXDE etc.)

So how about you?

[reality 2.0]

I also use Mint MATE, but I use mint 13 rather than 17.

I agree with advantages, but I don't there are any disadvantages to using MINT, anything I can think up that might be one feels nitpicking and not a real disadvantage.

[Wagi]

I use LMDE. It's already completely usable right out of the box without being too terribly far behind in the repos. I feel like it's the closest thing to being a human-usable Linux distro.

[chungy]

Does it have to be just one? :p

The main distribution on my desktop (aka the one I boot into) is Arch, have had it since 2009. I like its simplicity, flexibility, and rolling upgrades. I also have CentOS and Debian in various chroots and libvirt-based KVM virtual machines. :P

[Patrol1985]

chungy said:

Does it have to be just one? :p

Of course...NOT! :P

[printz]

The first Linux distro I used was Ubuntu. It (the Unity interface) looks probably the best from them all, with enough common sense to be manageable, and nicely OSX-like. The main drawbacks (not exclusive to this particular distro!):

• it's unstable with display-mode affecting apps, such as SDL games. If they crash, then the whole screen gets messed up on return (like Windows 9x) and you have to fix it back with a strange "xrandr" terminal command!
  
• for some reason, when I tried to uninstall SDL (but that wasn't a well-researched reason in the first place), a huge list of installed apps and libs got removed, rendering the desktop UI broken and unusable.
  
• like they say of Linux in general, it is not guaranteed to survive updates. It can throw errors at any time and leave you in a command-prompt state without the desktop!
  

For my much older computer, I tried Xubuntu. All was well, the interface looked well enough, except that it was still affected by unstable updates. But much worse, it was retarded on handling multi-monitors: just like the aforementioned SDL trouble, but it would even reset monitor configuration to mirrored!

I briefly tried stuff like Fedora, but I didn't like it because it wasn't Debian, and because of the retarded context-based UI (Gnome 3? or was it Gnome 4?).

I also tried more professional stuff, like vanilla Debian, but I was put off by the DIY that I had to do for very basic things, such as getting sudo to work at all so I can install new apps.

Now I use Linux Mint. It feels more professional than Ubuntu, mainly because it does NOT recommend self-updating (thus it can leave you in a quickly obsoleting long-term-support version until you realise it). It still has UI troubles when exiting SDL apps, shame on it. And the main user interface, while usable, looks drab on multimonitors, like Windows 7 or less, mashing all the taskbar buttons to the taskbar in the main monitor.

All in all, Linux distros, at least the free ones, feel like half-finished expert-only developer tools. I admit they're better than Windows when you want to do versatile command-line stuff (Windows sucks here not just because of Command Prompt console, but also because of its command-line tools fragmentation). They can also be better than OSX if you are affected by latter's vendor limitations (such as Clang vs GCC, or OpenGL) or need proprietary Linux but not OSX software. It feels faster than Windows (no need for an antivirus to eat at your computer) or OSX (in real life programmers might have an easier time writing efficient Linux code than something that gets often deprecated on OSX, or is poorly supported because Apple sucks at programming). And they're the go-to OSes if Windows doesn't help you, but you're not on a Mac. But for any casual and robust work, Windows and OSX own it. For one thing, unlike Linux distros, they either never break, or can self-repair if they do. Linux feels more primitive at that part.

[Remilia Scarlet]

Distro: Slackware. I use it exclusively on all my computers, except the one I write music on, which dual-boots with Windows 7.

Advantages: The KISS philosophy it takes, the package manager, its stability, no System V-style init scripts (though it's compatible), and the development model. It's also worked out-of-the-box on everything I've thrown at it, even my first gen Eee PC, for the last 6 or 7 years.

Disadvantages: e17 (or I guess e19 now) doesn't come stock :( Also, the user repos ("SlackBuilds") aren't as big or diverse as the ones for other distros.

[Holering]

Hard for me to say and I'm very picky, but I think Debian is my favorite. Has the best support and supports the most hardware.

Gentoo is another great one. You learn a lot from their very supportive forums, and it's always clean because it's source based (and it has lots of software like debian-ubuntu). Only problem is it can take a while to finally have a working desktop environment. I think you learn the most about Linux (and useful stuff in general) with this one.

Used to like Slackware, but it comes like a Frankenstein mess, has no support or community, and necessitates bootstrapping from source tree if you want a clean system (dev86 is seriously unmaintained). It does do stuff, and it's amazingly stable despite mixing software built by different GCC versions, but I might as well install LFS and use slackware's package management (or something else). I feel like I'm asking Patrick Volkerding to have ass sex with me whenever I use it, along with Eric and others. No offense to them but are they trying to be "POP" idols? IMO, It doesn't feel like an OS, and it's only good for messing around.

[EricsonWillians]

Patrol1985 said:
I wish there was an official lightweight version (based on LXDE etc.)
[/B]

Have a look at the distro that I use. It's just exactly what you want :).

[Patrol1985]

EricsonWillians said:

Have a look at the distro that I use. It's just exactly what you want :).

It might actually be what I'd like! :o

So what are the disadvantages? Can I use the lastest proprietary AMD drivers with this distribution?

[Cire]

I've used Linux quite a bit, both at home and to a lesser degree, at school. What I like most about it is that it's a free, legal operating system. I still feel more comfortable with Windows though, since I've used it the most.

Since I'm mostly a gamer, I've been focusing on trying to find distro's suited for gaming. The best I've found yet is 'SuperGamer' imo. I've been unable to a mirror for the latest version though, and the torrent seems to be dead.

[FireFish]

My netbook is running Ubuntu precise, and my main pc is dual booting into ubuntu 12.04 with the Cinnamon desktop as i can
not stand unity and its gigantic UI or integrated search the internet type of stuff.
Unity is even removed to the last byte.

Ubuntu is advanced for those wanting to use it that way, while it is easy enough for people whom have never used an linux based OS.

The only problem with ubuntu is that it is attempting to do a package link to attempt to halt you from removing certain things you do not need
but the devs want you to keep. remove these certain packages without tought and you remove unrelated packages which leave you with a
broken unusable desktop set-up, but i removed them anyways as it remains linux based and thus moddable.

for the linux users missing windows, install the cinnamon desktop system if it has packages for your linux kernel based OS.

[printz]

FireFish said:

The only problem with ubuntu is that it is attempting to do a package link to attempt to halt you from removing certain things you do not need
but the devs want you to keep. remove these certain packages without tought and you remove unrelated packages which leave you with a
broken unusable desktop set-up,

Something like that really should not be allowed on a distro that claims itself as user-friendly, easy to use, or mainstream enough, like Ubuntu.

[Patrol1985]

printz said:

Something like that really should not be allowed on a distro that claims itself as user-friendly, easy to use, or mainstream enough, like Ubuntu.

I agree. Does that hold true for all Ubuntu derivatives? I'd really like to check that Lubuntu out.

[marxr]

I'm running ubuntu alongside windows 8.1 since i think ubuntu suits all my needs and is pretty advanced and easy.

[Remilia Scarlet]

Holering said:

Used to like Slackware, but it comes like a Frankenstein mess, has no support or community, and necessitates bootstrapping from source tree if you want a clean system (dev86 is seriously unmaintained).

...the hell? There is support (including commercial, found on the website), and also a community-run software repository. There's no necessity to bootstrap from source. If you don't want particular packages, just specify that in the installer. x86 and x86-64 are the two main branches, so x86 is not unmaintained. And only one GCC version is used, with it being 4.7.1 in Slackware 14.0.

Not that Slackware is perfect, but you may want to get some of your facts straight.

[alexa@nanako]: ~> cat /etc/slackware-version && ls /var/log/packages/*gcc*
Slackware 14.0
/var/log/packages/gcc-4.7.1-i486-1
/var/log/packages/gcc-g++-4.7.1-i486-1
/var/log/packages/gcc-gfortran-4.7.1-i486-1
/var/log/packages/gcc-gnat-4.7.1-i486-1
/var/log/packages/gcc-go-4.7.1-i486-1
/var/log/packages/gcc-java-4.7.1-i486-1
/var/log/packages/gcc-objc-4.7.1-i486-1
/var/log/packages/gccmakedep-1.0.2-noarch-2
[alexa@nanako]: ~>

[FireFish]

Cire said:

Since I'm mostly a gamer, I've been focusing on trying to find distro's suited for gaming. The best I've found yet is 'SuperGamer' imo. I've been unable to a mirror for the latest version though, and the torrent seems to be dead.

You could make a test drive (lol) of the steam os, which is purely gaming based and running on a linux kernel. You would have a steam interface integrated directly into your desktop, and access to steam its gaming library (for linux games that is.)

it is still in a beta stage so be warned not to use it as your one and only operating system yet.

http://store.steampowered.com/steamos/download

[Holering]

yukib1t said:

...the hell? There is support (including commercial, found on the website), and also a community-run software repository. There's no necessity to bootstrap from source. If you don't want particular packages, just specify that in the installer. x86 and x86-64 are the two main branches, so x86 is not unmaintained. And only one GCC version is used, with it being 4.7.1 in Slackware 14.0.

Not that Slackware is perfect, but you may want to get some of your facts straight.

[alexa@nanako]: ~> cat /etc/slackware-version && ls /var/log/packages/*gcc*
Slackware 14.0
/var/log/packages/gcc-4.7.1-i486-1
/var/log/packages/gcc-g++-4.7.1-i486-1
/var/log/packages/gcc-gfortran-4.7.1-i486-1
/var/log/packages/gcc-gnat-4.7.1-i486-1
/var/log/packages/gcc-go-4.7.1-i486-1
/var/log/packages/gcc-java-4.7.1-i486-1
/var/log/packages/gcc-objc-4.7.1-i486-1
/var/log/packages/gccmakedep-1.0.2-noarch-2
[alexa@nanako]: ~>

Was a joke (except the gentoo part) and Slackware is perfect.

Edit:
Maybe you won't find this interesting...

bash-4.2# cat /etc/slackware-version && ls /var/log/packages/*gcc* && ls /var/log/packages/*xlib*
Slackware OMGTWoOmAnNYCFLAGZs!11oNeZZ11!!!
/var/log/packages/gcc-4.8.2_multilib-bulldozer2-1alien		 /var/log/packages/gcc-go-4.8.2_multilib-bulldozer2-1alien
/var/log/packages/gcc-g++-4.8.2_multilib-bulldozer2-1alien	 /var/log/packages/gcc-java-4.8.2_multilib-bulldozer2-1alien
/var/log/packages/gcc-gfortran-4.8.2_multilib-bulldozer2-1alien  /var/log/packages/gccmakedep-1.0.2-noarch-2
/var/log/packages/gcc-gnat-4.8.2_multilib-bulldozer2-1alien	 /var/log/packages/gcc-objc-4.8.2_multilib-bulldozer2-1alien
/var/log/packages/cxxlibs-6.0.18-bulldozer2-1  /var/log/packages/cxxlibs-compat32-6.0.18-bulldozer2_32-1compat32

This thread is a joke...

[Patrol1985]

Holering said:

This thread is a joke...

Erm... why?

[fraggle]

Long time Debian user. I used Ubuntu for a while as a "better Debian" but I don't feel it fits that description any more.

[wildweasel]

I have been shuffling between various distros, mainly Ubuntu-based (and at some point Peppermint 4), but most recently Crunchbang Waldorf got put on my netbook and I do rather prefer it over Peppermint for its light memory footprint and customization options. It's a lot friendlier for the small screen, too, since I'm stuck with a 1024x600 LCD panel on the netbook. Plus, well, I've managed to set up Git and compile ZDoom on it, so I at least will never be bored when I drag the thing out...

[Patrol1985]

I've just tried Lubuntu and sadly found it rather disappointing:

1. Keyboard randomly stops responding in Chromium browser. A number of other users reported this bug as well.

2. There is no volume control application available by default, and if there is, it's so well hidden that I don't really care about looking for it. It should be available on the bottom bar all the time.

3. After installing proprietary drivers QuakeSpasm froze so badly that I couldn't even switch to console to kill the process.

On top of it all, I haven't noticed any significant performance changes which make up for the above flaws.

[Bucket]

fraggle said:

Long time Debian user. I used Ubuntu for a while as a "better Debian" but I don't feel it fits that description any more.

Same here - but sadly, until Debian catches up with hardware support, Xubuntu is the way to go. Hell, Debian won't even work properly on my netbook.

[geekmarine]

I've installed SteamOS on my computer just to fool around with it. Really, if you've used Big Picture Mode, you've experienced SteamOS - except my performance on TF2 was terrible. I don't know if its SteamOS itself, or if TF2 for Linux hasn't been optimized, or it was a driver issue or what. Not ever gonna become my primary OS or anything, but it's something fun to fool around with once in a while.

[ducon]

I run Debian since Potato.

[Stroggos]

Mostly I use Xubuntu (Essentially Ubuntu with XFCE instead of Unity/GNOME) I like the light weight of it as well as the feel, but mostly I use the terminal emulator to do everything. I'm currently debating moving to Fedora (XFCE Spin), but at the moment I've got Windows 7 installed (Don't judge me).

[Patrol1985]

Stroggos said:

but at the moment I've got Windows 7 installed (Don't judge me).

I won't, I consider windows to be a superior system. I use Linux only because it's light on my low-end netbooks :P

[Holering]

Patrol1985 said:

Erm... why?

Because I'm a joke. Seriously, I hope steam OS becomes successful.

[Patrol1985]

Holering said:

Seriously, I hope steam OS becomes successful.

So do I. It would be the closest linux has ever gotten to becoming "mainstream" and its support would certainly improve.

[gggmork]

Bump.
I have a usb flash drive that already has some other files on it (movies, mp3, etc). Can I just put linux on this flash drive with the other files, or will that erase all the other files or something? My goal is to get linux permanently on the computer (since all this 'live linux' stuff confuses me. I don't really care for some weird OS that exists on a usb only).
Thaaayaaanks! (in voice of randy from south park after people complement his hybrid car)