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Everyone's done with Ubuntu. It's just not good. Its got a stereotype at this point for being the easy noob distro but that's not even true. Its top to bottom a

Everyone's done with Ubuntu. It's just not good. Its got a stereotype at this point for being the easy noob distro but that's not even true. Its top to bottom awful and has been for many years.

Spooky23 4y ago
My favorite fail with Ubuntu is every version changes how DNS configuration works.
- hedora 4y ago
  This was my last straw. I installed some 6 month old LTS release, and it had to go through a 2-5 second timeout step on the initial lookup of each new dns name. Then, it would populate a local cache, and work well until the TTL expired or whatever. Anyway, if you are looking for a noob distro, I recommend manjaro. (The AUR packages are extremely unstable, but other than that, it’s pretty competitive with what Ubuntu was 10-15 years ago.)
  - Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
    > manjaro Is Manjaro really that noob-friendly? All I know about Manjaro is that it's based on Arch, which I always understood as being the LEAST noob-friendly distro besides LFS.
    - entropicdrifter 4y ago
      It's middle-of-the-road IME. Arch with good (but not amazing) defaults and a team that has had a number of controversies that kinda give them a shady vibe overall.
    - friend_and_foe 4y ago
      Arch isn't really noob unfriendly, it just requires an intimidating procedure to begin setup, which manjaro used to just do automatically for you, that was basically it's selling point, "arch without manually installing all your software." Now it's just adware and unstable crap, not near as bad as Ubuntu but I won't recommend Manjaro anymore. There are several less noob friendly distributions than Arch, I'd say NixOS, Void and Alpine probably top that list. Theyre great distros but they deviate significantly from what you'd expect from mainstream Linux.
  - kop316 4y ago
    Please do not use Manjaro. They are known to ship half baked WIP patches that cause massive breakages in their distro. Here is one of their latest instances: https://fosstodon.org/@alyssa@treehouse.systems/110049699665835743 https://fosstodon.org/@alyssa@treehouse.systems/110049699665... I personally have had them ship out WIP patches not meant for production, which has wasted a lot of my (volunteer) time chasing down phantom bugs in software I maintain. This has personally happened to me on at least four different occasions. A lot of other FOSS maintainers I know have similar stories. More info: https://manjarno.snorlax.sh/ https://manjarno.snorlax.sh/
michaelcampbell 4y ago
I have meager needs so I haven't run into (m)any of the issues here, but what's a deb based alternative that isn't meant for absolute stability at the expense of anything modern? (I ask with actual curiosity; I'm ignorant to most distros.)
- gmassman 4y ago
  FWIW I’ve been using Linux Mint for years and have never had a major issue. Most minor issues are with out of date repository packages which can usually be installed by other means.
  - michaelcampbell 4y ago
    Isn't Mint an ubuntu offshoot, or does it avoid the flatpak/snap issues?
    - hoppyhoppy2 4y ago
      Linux Mint is an Ubuntu offshoot that doesn't use Snaps but does include Flatpak support.
      - entropicdrifter 4y ago
        Not only does it include Flatpak support, but as of 21.1 it can even handle Flatpak updates through the GUI Update Manager alongside .deb packages from standard repos/PPAs.[1] [1] https://linuxmint.com/rel_vera_cinnamon_whatsnew.php https://linuxmint.com/rel_vera_cinnamon_whatsnew.php
- denton-scratch 4y ago
  Sid?
- linux_is_nice 4y ago
  I've had several people recommend the testing branches of Debian for relatively up-to-date software while still being stable FWIW
eYrKEC2 4y ago
Call me a noob if you like, but I don't like hunting down drivers. Tried to go to debian on my last dev machine upgrade, but reverted straight back to ubuntu. I may be lazy, but I really don't want to hunt down drivers. I'll try debian again next cycle.
- entropicdrifter 4y ago
  I run Mint on my primary desktop and it's fantastic. What Ubuntu LTS would've become if it had continued to focus on a good desktop experience and pushed Flatpak instead of Snap
  - at-fates-hands 4y ago
    I came here to say this too. Ironically I was about to set up a new Linux Dev machine with Ubuntu and now I'm more inclined to go back to Mint since I never had a bad experience with it. I was fortunate to skip the Gnome 3 days and the Cinnamon and Xfce implementations have been very stable for a while now.
- webkike 4y ago
  I haven't had trouble with drivers using Fedora in years. RPM fusion handles Nvidia drivers just fine. It's a far cleaner and "noob friendly" distro in my opinion, so long as you're able to google "how to install nvidia drivers fedora"
  - GlumWoodpecker 4y ago
    This is mostly just a Debian problem, due to their "no non-free software" philosophy, which extends to device drivers. I have never in my days booted a Debian install that worked with wifi out of the box, and I suspect I never will, due to that philosophy.. For that reason, I've stopped trying and I default to Ubuntu (-based) distros instead. All it takes to get rid of snaps forever is `sudo apt purge snapd`.
    - kej 4y ago
five82 4y ago
Canonical makes decisions based on their own self interest. Not for their users and not for the benefit of the greater community. That's what drove everyone away.
- raffraffraff 4y ago
  But driving everyone away isn't in their own best interest. They're basically shitting in their own well.
  - phendrenad2 4y ago
    They're probably doing just fine selling support for Ubuntu Server.
eadmund 4y ago
Ubuntu can be a bit easier to get a laptop running than Debian (although I personally use Debian). But whenever I see someone running Ubuntu on a server I think that there is a very real competence issue. Ubuntu should be kept as far from the server room, data centre or cloud as possible.

Everyone's done with Ubuntu. It's just not good. Its got a stereotype at this point for being the easy noob distro but that's not even true. Its top to bottom awful and has been for many years.

Spooky23 4y ago

My favorite fail with Ubuntu is every version changes how DNS configuration works.

hedora 4y ago
This was my last straw. I installed some 6 month old LTS release, and it had to go through a 2-5 second timeout step on the initial lookup of each new dns name. Then, it would populate a local cache, and work well until the TTL expired or whatever. Anyway, if you are looking for a noob distro, I recommend manjaro. (The AUR packages are extremely unstable, but other than that, it’s pretty competitive with what Ubuntu was 10-15 years ago.)
- Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
  > manjaro Is Manjaro really that noob-friendly? All I know about Manjaro is that it's based on Arch, which I always understood as being the LEAST noob-friendly distro besides LFS.
  - entropicdrifter 4y ago
    It's middle-of-the-road IME. Arch with good (but not amazing) defaults and a team that has had a number of controversies that kinda give them a shady vibe overall.
  - friend_and_foe 4y ago
    Arch isn't really noob unfriendly, it just requires an intimidating procedure to begin setup, which manjaro used to just do automatically for you, that was basically it's selling point, "arch without manually installing all your software." Now it's just adware and unstable crap, not near as bad as Ubuntu but I won't recommend Manjaro anymore. There are several less noob friendly distributions than Arch, I'd say NixOS, Void and Alpine probably top that list. Theyre great distros but they deviate significantly from what you'd expect from mainstream Linux.
- kop316 4y ago
  Please do not use Manjaro. They are known to ship half baked WIP patches that cause massive breakages in their distro. Here is one of their latest instances: https://fosstodon.org/@alyssa@treehouse.systems/110049699665835743 https://fosstodon.org/@alyssa@treehouse.systems/110049699665... I personally have had them ship out WIP patches not meant for production, which has wasted a lot of my (volunteer) time chasing down phantom bugs in software I maintain. This has personally happened to me on at least four different occasions. A lot of other FOSS maintainers I know have similar stories. More info: https://manjarno.snorlax.sh/ https://manjarno.snorlax.sh/

michaelcampbell 4y ago

I have meager needs so I haven't run into (m)any of the issues here, but what's a deb based alternative that isn't meant for absolute stability at the expense of anything modern? (I ask with actual curiosity; I'm ignorant to most distros.)

gmassman 4y ago
FWIW I’ve been using Linux Mint for years and have never had a major issue. Most minor issues are with out of date repository packages which can usually be installed by other means.
- michaelcampbell 4y ago
  Isn't Mint an ubuntu offshoot, or does it avoid the flatpak/snap issues?
  - hoppyhoppy2 4y ago
    Linux Mint is an Ubuntu offshoot that doesn't use Snaps but does include Flatpak support.
    - entropicdrifter 4y ago
      Not only does it include Flatpak support, but as of 21.1 it can even handle Flatpak updates through the GUI Update Manager alongside .deb packages from standard repos/PPAs.[1] [1] https://linuxmint.com/rel_vera_cinnamon_whatsnew.php https://linuxmint.com/rel_vera_cinnamon_whatsnew.php
denton-scratch 4y ago
Sid?
linux_is_nice 4y ago
I've had several people recommend the testing branches of Debian for relatively up-to-date software while still being stable FWIW

eYrKEC2 4y ago

Call me a noob if you like, but I don't like hunting down drivers. Tried to go to debian on my last dev machine upgrade, but reverted straight back to ubuntu. I may be lazy, but I really don't want to hunt down drivers. I'll try debian again next cycle.

entropicdrifter 4y ago
I run Mint on my primary desktop and it's fantastic. What Ubuntu LTS would've become if it had continued to focus on a good desktop experience and pushed Flatpak instead of Snap
- at-fates-hands 4y ago
  I came here to say this too. Ironically I was about to set up a new Linux Dev machine with Ubuntu and now I'm more inclined to go back to Mint since I never had a bad experience with it. I was fortunate to skip the Gnome 3 days and the Cinnamon and Xfce implementations have been very stable for a while now.
webkike 4y ago
I haven't had trouble with drivers using Fedora in years. RPM fusion handles Nvidia drivers just fine. It's a far cleaner and "noob friendly" distro in my opinion, so long as you're able to google "how to install nvidia drivers fedora"
- GlumWoodpecker 4y ago
  This is mostly just a Debian problem, due to their "no non-free software" philosophy, which extends to device drivers. I have never in my days booted a Debian install that worked with wifi out of the box, and I suspect I never will, due to that philosophy.. For that reason, I've stopped trying and I default to Ubuntu (-based) distros instead. All it takes to get rid of snaps forever is `sudo apt purge snapd`.
  - kej 4y ago

five82 4y ago

Canonical makes decisions based on their own self interest. Not for their users and not for the benefit of the greater community. That's what drove everyone away.

raffraffraff 4y ago
But driving everyone away isn't in their own best interest. They're basically shitting in their own well.
- phendrenad2 4y ago
  They're probably doing just fine selling support for Ubuntu Server.

eadmund 4y ago

Ubuntu can be a bit easier to get a laptop running than Debian (although I personally use Debian). But whenever I see someone running Ubuntu on a server I think that there is a very real competence issue. Ubuntu should be kept as far from the server room, data centre or cloud as possible.