5 ms·

This is good distro for developers by developers. I wouldn't suggest it for everyday users though. There are too many beta quality bugs since it uses really ble

This is good distro for developers by developers. I wouldn't suggest it for everyday users though. There are too many beta quality bugs since it uses really bleeding edge releases.

soulofmischief 7y ago
If the 6-month release cycle is too frequent for you as a desktop user, consider using RHEL/Centos. In general Red Hat's distros are top-notch and easier to reason about than other distros.
- Longhanks 7y ago
  What? The software in CentOS' official repositories is horribly outdated (aka 'stable', which is why it runs on many servers). Why should a desktop system run CentOS? I'd rather recommend Ubuntu or one of its descendants. They also have LTS versions, if stability is a concern, but are not as outdated as CentOS.
  - soulofmischief 7y ago
    Fedora is too cutting edge and CentOS is too outdated? Ok then, go off to Canonical land where everything falls apart outside the most common use cases and your entire desktop experience changes every couple of years. Fedora isn't cutting edge compared to actual rolling release distros so if that's still too much for you then RHEL or CentOS should be enough.
    - 0815test 7y ago
      Debian works just fine, IME - better than Ubuntu LTS provided that the hardware support is OK. Even OpenSuse is a nice middle ground.
      - soulofmischief 7y ago
        Debian was nothing but trouble for me. I found myself in opposition to too many of their design choices and some packages to be too outdated. At the end of the day it lacks the polish and moddability I've come to expect from Fedora.
  - stevbov 7y ago
    I've put certain family members on CentOS. It kinda depends upon what you're doing with your computer. E.g. if I weren't into gaming I would be using CentOS over Fedora (or Ubuntu).
  - v_lisivka 7y ago
    CentOS 8 is not fresh enough for you?
    - Avshalom 7y ago
      Does it exist yet?
      - thg 7y ago
        No. But at least RHEL 8 (based on Fedora 28) has been available as a beta release for a while now (since 25th November 2018), so it shouldn't be too long.. I'd speculate another 4-6 months and we'll have it.
  - rootbear 7y ago
    I'm at NASA Goddard and we use RHEL/CentOS for servers and a few desktops and Ubuntu on some desktops. I am sometimes frustrated by the age of certain CentOS packages, but having compatibility with our servers is a plus. I've avoided Fedora due to the rapid release cycle and the lack of official support by NASA (at least here at Goddard). There's no perfect solution.
  - chomp 7y ago
    Why don't you use SCL if the official repos are outdated?
imbiased 7y ago
What release version was that? I started experiencing issues in 29, but has been rock solid otherwise.
tpush 7y ago
What beta quality bugs?
- opencl 7y ago
  F29 included bugs such as: -Cron jobs don't run -Package manager creates multi-gigabyte log files -Package manager crashes on systems upgraded from previous releases -GNOME crashes when switching to a virtual terminal and back -Default bluetooth config doesn't work for some devices -Ethernet runs at 10mbps instead of 1gbps https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F29_bugs https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F29_bugs
  - pizza234 7y ago
    > -Default bluetooth config doesn't work for some devices Bluetooth (Bluez) is a trainwreck on any distro; even the version shipped with Ubuntu 18.04 (LTS!) is broken.
    - dullgiulio 7y ago
      Not my experience. Or, if anything, bluetooth on Ubuntu works much better than on my Windows laptop (Lenovo).
      - pizza234 7y ago
        Certainly YMMV applies, however, it's important to distinguish the nature of the two cases. Broken BT support in a Windows context generally means poor drivers for a given device - at least the Windows 10, which is almost 4 years old, has a stable BT stack. Therefore, BT problems are of particular (per-device) nature. In Ubuntu, the problem is systemic, due to (even ignoring how terrible the BT protocol is) both Bluez's (alleged) terrible engineering practices, and Ubuntu's utter carelessness of the area. In this terms, BT problems are of universal nature. For example, the 18.04 Pulseaudio/BT configuration is broken by default - see https://askubuntu.com/a/1050172 https://askubuntu.com/a/1050172. This is not an exception; the Pulseaudio/BT configuration has been broken in a way or another since... forever. Very evidently, the Ubuntu devs prefer to ship a broken-but-up-to-date BT stack, than a working-but-old one. For a more historical perspective of the Ubuntu/Bluez trainwreck, see http://www.bennybottema.com/2010/08/08/how-ubuntus-broken-bluetooth-support-came-to-be http://www.bennybottema.com/2010/08/08/how-ubuntus-broken-bl.... Summary: "Bluez is a bunch of cowboy coders is why".
lucas_membrane 7y ago
I agree, but if you want to develop .Net or Swift, the available rpm's seem to originate downstream and lag the releases for ubuntu significantly. The releases of .Net core, the Swift toolchain, and Kitura, the IBM open source Swift web framework (even though IBM owns Red Hat), all come out targeting ubuntu. Because the different linux distros have significantly older or newer versions of some .so and .h files, releasing for all the major flavors is harder than it should be, and ubuntu seems to come first.
- vetinari 7y ago
  Swift is a PITA on Linux in general; the Ubuntu-only releases is only a symptom. It is a pain to build it at all, from the sources. With the exception of the apple/swift repo, all the other apple/swift-* repos do not even seem to have tagged releases. At least not in the sense that other projects do releases.

This is good distro for developers by developers. I wouldn't suggest it for everyday users though. There are too many beta quality bugs since it uses really bleeding edge releases.

soulofmischief 7y ago

If the 6-month release cycle is too frequent for you as a desktop user, consider using RHEL/Centos. In general Red Hat's distros are top-notch and easier to reason about than other distros.

Longhanks 7y ago
What? The software in CentOS' official repositories is horribly outdated (aka 'stable', which is why it runs on many servers). Why should a desktop system run CentOS? I'd rather recommend Ubuntu or one of its descendants. They also have LTS versions, if stability is a concern, but are not as outdated as CentOS.
- soulofmischief 7y ago
  Fedora is too cutting edge and CentOS is too outdated? Ok then, go off to Canonical land where everything falls apart outside the most common use cases and your entire desktop experience changes every couple of years. Fedora isn't cutting edge compared to actual rolling release distros so if that's still too much for you then RHEL or CentOS should be enough.
  - 0815test 7y ago
    Debian works just fine, IME - better than Ubuntu LTS provided that the hardware support is OK. Even OpenSuse is a nice middle ground.
    - soulofmischief 7y ago
      Debian was nothing but trouble for me. I found myself in opposition to too many of their design choices and some packages to be too outdated. At the end of the day it lacks the polish and moddability I've come to expect from Fedora.
- stevbov 7y ago
  I've put certain family members on CentOS. It kinda depends upon what you're doing with your computer. E.g. if I weren't into gaming I would be using CentOS over Fedora (or Ubuntu).
- v_lisivka 7y ago
  CentOS 8 is not fresh enough for you?
  - Avshalom 7y ago
    Does it exist yet?
    - thg 7y ago
      No. But at least RHEL 8 (based on Fedora 28) has been available as a beta release for a while now (since 25th November 2018), so it shouldn't be too long.. I'd speculate another 4-6 months and we'll have it.
- rootbear 7y ago
  I'm at NASA Goddard and we use RHEL/CentOS for servers and a few desktops and Ubuntu on some desktops. I am sometimes frustrated by the age of certain CentOS packages, but having compatibility with our servers is a plus. I've avoided Fedora due to the rapid release cycle and the lack of official support by NASA (at least here at Goddard). There's no perfect solution.
- chomp 7y ago
  Why don't you use SCL if the official repos are outdated?

imbiased 7y ago

What release version was that? I started experiencing issues in 29, but has been rock solid otherwise.

tpush 7y ago

What beta quality bugs?

opencl 7y ago
F29 included bugs such as: -Cron jobs don't run -Package manager creates multi-gigabyte log files -Package manager crashes on systems upgraded from previous releases -GNOME crashes when switching to a virtual terminal and back -Default bluetooth config doesn't work for some devices -Ethernet runs at 10mbps instead of 1gbps https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F29_bugs https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F29_bugs
- pizza234 7y ago
  > -Default bluetooth config doesn't work for some devices Bluetooth (Bluez) is a trainwreck on any distro; even the version shipped with Ubuntu 18.04 (LTS!) is broken.
  - dullgiulio 7y ago
    Not my experience. Or, if anything, bluetooth on Ubuntu works much better than on my Windows laptop (Lenovo).
    - pizza234 7y ago
      Certainly YMMV applies, however, it's important to distinguish the nature of the two cases. Broken BT support in a Windows context generally means poor drivers for a given device - at least the Windows 10, which is almost 4 years old, has a stable BT stack. Therefore, BT problems are of particular (per-device) nature. In Ubuntu, the problem is systemic, due to (even ignoring how terrible the BT protocol is) both Bluez's (alleged) terrible engineering practices, and Ubuntu's utter carelessness of the area. In this terms, BT problems are of universal nature. For example, the 18.04 Pulseaudio/BT configuration is broken by default - see https://askubuntu.com/a/1050172 https://askubuntu.com/a/1050172. This is not an exception; the Pulseaudio/BT configuration has been broken in a way or another since... forever. Very evidently, the Ubuntu devs prefer to ship a broken-but-up-to-date BT stack, than a working-but-old one. For a more historical perspective of the Ubuntu/Bluez trainwreck, see http://www.bennybottema.com/2010/08/08/how-ubuntus-broken-bluetooth-support-came-to-be http://www.bennybottema.com/2010/08/08/how-ubuntus-broken-bl.... Summary: "Bluez is a bunch of cowboy coders is why".

lucas_membrane 7y ago

I agree, but if you want to develop .Net or Swift, the available rpm's seem to originate downstream and lag the releases for ubuntu significantly. The releases of .Net core, the Swift toolchain, and Kitura, the IBM open source Swift web framework (even though IBM owns Red Hat), all come out targeting ubuntu. Because the different linux distros have significantly older or newer versions of some .so and .h files, releasing for all the major flavors is harder than it should be, and ubuntu seems to come first.

vetinari 7y ago
Swift is a PITA on Linux in general; the Ubuntu-only releases is only a symptom. It is a pain to build it at all, from the sources. With the exception of the apple/swift repo, all the other apple/swift-* repos do not even seem to have tagged releases. At least not in the sense that other projects do releases.