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Ask HN: What is your Linux distro of choice?

• paulhauggis 12y ago
  CentOS on the server, Ubuntu on the desktop.
• tux 12y ago
  Arch Linux + XFCE on desktops/laptops, and Ubuntu LTS on servers. I've also, switched from Windows XP/7 to Ubuntu then Linux Mint. Used Linux Mint for about a week and found Arch Linux. Been using Arch ever since. If you need help with setting up Arch see official wiki @ https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners%27_guide https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners%27_guide But if you're a beginner in Linux world I would recommend you start with "Manjaro Linux" which is based on Arch Linux. It has graphical installer and works out of the box. Between, I think Manjaro Linux website has moved to https://manjaro.github.io/ https://manjaro.github.io/ I've also wrote a post last year on how to install Arch Linux. But I highly recommend the above official wiki instead. http://www.distrogeeks.com/arch-linux-2014-install/ http://www.distrogeeks.com/arch-linux-2014-install/ cache in case the site down because of Hacker News lol http://web.archive.org/web/20150425182255/http://www.distrogeeks.com/arch-linux-2014-install/ http://web.archive.org/web/20150425182255/http://www.distrog...
• svennek 12y ago
  After many (many) years of Gentoo, I switched to Arch. Have never looked back... (both servers and desktops)
  • tux 12y ago
    I run Arch server on local network for development but for production server its not a good idea. Because Arch is rolling release you will have to update and reboot your server a lot. Unless you are okay with using obsolete packages, which defeats the purpose of rolling release.
• Ygg2 12y ago
  Xubuntu. It is the only Linux distro that runs smoothly in my VM.
• vezzy-fnord 12y ago
  Slackware. It's the only distro that has never let me down or broken down on me in any significant way. Its highly vanilla, conservative and generally component-agnostic nature means you can fling and perform just about all sorts of ugly hacks (which you need to do a lot in the Linux world anyway) on it without your system being holistically affected in any notable way. I stopped caring about my WM a while ago and mostly just use Fluxbox with some small menu tweaks.
  • progman 12y ago
    What about security updates? Are they as easy to maintain as in Debian and Ubuntu? I used Slackware at the very beginning of my Linux time in the 90s, and I really liked it. Now I am considering to use it again in face of Debian's non-optional move to systemd.
    • vezzy-fnord 12y ago
      Security updates are regularly served both in mainline and -current (rolling) repositories, along with dedicated security advisories. See: http://www.slackware.com/security/ http://www.slackware.com/security/
• Ronsenshi 12y ago
  Xubuntu 12.04 on my dev machine. Would switch to 14.04, but reviews doesn't look very good. Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on all of the servers.
  • rukshn 12y ago
    Yah I tired Xubuntu 14.04 before going with Mint for couple of days and it is not good
  • pan69 12y ago
    Which reviews? I have been using both 14.04 and 14.10 on my desktops without issues. Soon I'll be switching to 15.04.
    • Ronsenshi 12y ago
      Just some videos on YouTube. It's been quite a while, so can't say anything specific besides that those particular reviews weren't very positive.
  • timbit42 12y ago
    Xubuntu 14.04 is working well for me on three systems.
• moopling 12y ago
  I had a very minimal amount of linux knowledge before jumping into arch as a distro: been using it for just over a year now and it was definitely a great choice. The best thing about arch in my opinion is the wiki, it has pretty much everything you need to know as to how to install and configure most any packages. I cannot understate how much I have learnt about linux from the many, many hours spent reading the wiki. That said, it is a massive time sink. The first couple of weeks I spent pretty much all my spare time trying to get something usable, and it was probably a couple of months before I preferred my setup to, say, windows (which is what I had been using up to that point).
  • rukshn 12y ago
    Yah that's what I was also wondering, installing a desktop environment, drivers, all from the command-line no matter how familiar I'm with the terminal is something I'm afraid to try. Also I don't think I can install deb apps on Arch if I'm not mistaken
    • moopling 12y ago
      Having access to another computer while you are setting up really helps. Have the wiki up for cross reference until you have a desktop environment. You can't use debs, but that isn't important as arch has a really nice package manager which makes it very easy to install anything from the official repos. Installing user maintained packages from the AUR is more tricky, but again there is the wiki. Once you know the ropes there are a couple of packages you can install to make installing from the AUR easier (like yaort, or pacaur), but you should really know how to do it yourself before relying on these tools.
      • tux 12y ago
        I agree, pacman package manager is amazing it beats the s*t of apt-get and rpm both in dependencies and usability. At least from my experience :-) Also there is GUI's for AUR and official packages if you prefer that. I recommend "Pamac" or "Octopi" Check out wiki at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Graphical_pacman_frontends https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Graphical_pacman_fronte... Oh and don't forget about huge recommended list of packages at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/List_of_applications https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/List_of_applications
• geoka9 12y ago
  Debian, both desktop and servers. I find it very convenient to have the same distro everywhere, and Debian is very well suited for it.
• jab416171 12y ago
  A few years ago, I was exposed to the RHEL family and haven't looked back. I run CentOS on servers and Fedora on desktops/laptops.
• fierycatnet 12y ago
  Used to be Fedora/CentOS, now it's Ubuntu with MATE. I think I still prefer Red Hat but Ubuntu makes it a bit easier for development, and a lot of servers tend to use Ubuntu.
• atmosx 12y ago
  Gentoo, but I never use it anymore, because I don't have time (to compile and customise everything).
• captn3m0 12y ago
  Currently on Ubuntu + Cinnamon, but plan to switch back to elementary freya soon.
• troels 12y ago
  I used Ubuntu on the desktop/laptop for a couple of years, before switching to mac. I still use Ubuntu extensively on server side environments.
• 300 12y ago
  Gentoo with i3 window manager. As a sys admin, I like to build my own setup from ground up, and know exactly what I have installed.
• ProNoob13 12y ago
  Debian server with LXDE.
• ProNoob13 12y ago
  Debian server with LXDE.
• DanBC 12y ago
  For various unfun technical reasons Fedora20 on a broken MacBook Pro. It's sub-optimal. It's surprisingly, alarmingly, buggy. It's also a poor combination of hardware / software. I'd probably be happier with something else, and I'm saving up to get a different computer. At which point I'll be using FreeBSD (EDIT: although the last time I used FreeBSD it was version 5) and possibly Arch (although I don't want to update it (other than security updates) frequently so I'm not sure Arch would be the best choice. Linux From Scratch would probably be better but I'd need to set aside some time to learn and do. People often ask about the distro when really other things are probably more important for most people. Things like the desktop environment or package manager probably have more impact.
• leaveyou 12y ago
  I go with the flow.. Ubuntu Server LTS on servers and Ubuntu Unity on desktops. I started with Zorin OS, then Ubuntu, then Xubuntu for a while, then I checked Mint, Debian, Lubuntu, Kubuntu, FreeBSD and PCBSD (I even nearly installed ArchLinux :) ) for short and very short periods of time and then I settled on plain Ubuntu for the most satisfaction with the least head ache.
  • teach 12y ago
    Same. I spent enough time recompiling kernel modules in the 1990s; I've gotten all that out of my system. I just want a system with sane defaults that mostly works. Just (~10 minutes ago) upgraded to Ubuntu 15.04 and I leave it alone. Mind you, this is for a desktop machine built from parts. If I could justify the purchase I'd buy a Mac laptop and use Mac OS on that.
• abruzzi 12y ago
  RHEL for my servers. I don't use Linux on a desktop, OSX instead.
• darkstar999 12y ago
  Linux Mint, it's like the good ol' day of Ubuntu.
• larzang 12y ago
  Mint. I need Sublime + terminals + browsers to work, anything else is gravy, and Mint does the best job of providing sane defaults and making it easy to change the few minor things I do. 15 years ago I didn't mind spending hours (days weeks) tweaking config files to get everything about my distro absolutely perfectly customized, now I just want it to work out of the box and get out of my way so I can get real work done. Cinammon also has the nicest workspace management of any desktop environment I've tried, which is a solid bonus since it's probably the DE-specific feature I interact with most on a day to day basis.
• ninjin 12y ago
  Lubuntu for my desktop, Ubuntu is still runs an excellent package ecosystem, but the window manager just took a wrong turn. LXDE is simple and behaves just like a window manager has behaved for ages, nothing fancy. Ubuntu LTS for servers, it is very stable and still has an excellent package ecosystem. For my desktop, my history is DOS, Win 3.11, Win ME, Win XP, Gentoo, FreeBSD, Ubuntu, and Lubuntu. For servers, Gentoo, FreeBSD/OpenBSD, and Ubuntu LTS/OpenBSD. I use OpenBSD for network installations such as gateways.
• faragon 12y ago
  Ubuntu and Fedora. Not because being the "bests", but because having better hardware support (from my point of view).
• tanderson92 12y ago
  I have been using Exherbo for about 5 years fulltime and never looked back. It is a vanilla source-based distro with a focus on flexibility and users who know what they are doing. I would recommend people check out what it is about if that is appealing to you because there are tons of other great features (cross compiling handled natively by the package manager, good alternatives support, and binary package distribution). It is one of the few distros out there which is not just another theme on *buntu
• hammerandtongs 12y ago
  Generally I'd discourage you from caring. It's frequently that case that new users of Linux think there is something to be gained by "trying" (and continuously reinstalling) different Linux distributions. The reality is that the software that makes up Linux (iirc there are 30k packages in Debian) is generally available across all of these distributions to a greater or lesser extent. It's all the same software with relatively minor changes made to it to fit into the particular distribution. You can use almost any desktop environment from any of these. The underlying system software is aligning quite a bit these days as well with systemd. Stick with a distribution. When something goes wrong, try not to reinstall but instead figure out the problem and fix it. Modify the system to your liking and in the process actually learn the pieces that make it up. Document, for yourself, the things you did so that you can be confident you actually learned something that you can reproduce.
  • rukshn 12y ago
    Yah but the customizing is minimal in Linux mint, you can't pick a new Desktop environment, you can't modify the look and styles in linux mint, so it's more like using windows IMO, that's why I thought of using something with more freedom
    • larzang 12y ago
      Of course you can. You can install any DE you want on top of Mint, it's still Linux, and you can modify the appearance of the shipped XFCE or Cinammon DEs with themes.
  • vezzy-fnord 12y ago
    This is the case for most distributions, indeed. In fact, there's few core/scratch distros and a majority are all derivatives, frequently of other derivatives. However, there are exceptions. There are experimental (though actually most are very much usable for real-world or even everyday tasks) distros with markedly different and more unconventional software stacks. Examples include Alpine, Morpheus, Sabotage, Void and NixOS. One should not be discouraged from trying those, not least of which is precisely to see other ways of integrating systems beyond the status quo.
• calvins 12y ago
  CentOS for servers, and Ubuntu for desktop.
• Adaptive 12y ago
  Arch on desktop and personal server. However, I recommend that you get Ubuntu up and running on your hardware first. Hardware support out of the box should be good enough to identify that things are mostly working (or not). Then put Arch on it. Arch is a great distro to learn on. Set aside a weekend. You'll learn a LOT and can always roll back to Ubuntu (or Fedora, though that has it's own out-of-box limitations) if you don't enjoy the Arch process. I dabble in Fedora from time to time, and deploy a LOT of Ubuntu boxes, but I stick with Arch personally due to familiarity and the AUR. Edit: I also stick with Arch because, no matter what distro you use, if you search for the solution to an issue you are having, you are likely to find the Arch Wiki is one of the top results. The wiki is a generally outstanding resource.
• adnanh 12y ago
  On my Thinkpad Edge 13 (AMD) laptop, I've been using Linux Mint 17 (XFCE version) mainly because everything worked out of the box. On my work desktop workstation, I'm using Fedora 21, with applied tweaks using the fedy tool[1]. [1] https://github.com/satya164/fedy https://github.com/satya164/fedy
• neverminder 12y ago
  Vanilla Ubuntu. Purely from practical perspective.
• oahziur 12y ago
  I am using ubuntu 14.04 on Macbook.
• justincormack 12y ago
  Currently running Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Alpine and Gentoo, plus FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD. There is not that much difference between the mainstream distros, try Alpine or a BSD if you want something a bit different.
• bananaoomarang 12y ago
  Arch + KDE5. I'd echo comments above saying that today most distros amount to the same thing, but the benefit of Arch is it's minimal by default, so you don't get any junk, and pretty much everything is setup by you. It's not hard to install because of how great the wiki is, just take a look at the Beginner's guide and you're all set. I personally prefer it to Mint/Ubuntu because of the packaging system (easy to rebuild packages from ABS, modify AUR ones etc)
• yramagicman 12y ago
  I'm an OS X guy by birth. My dad has used Macs since the 512ke, but a year or so ago I tried Ubuntu and Crunchbang. I loved Crunchbang, Unity, however, got on my nerves. Eventually, I got fed up with how slow Debian stable updates and didn't want to try Debian testing because the "testing" idea scared me off, so I decided to try Manjaro. I loved the package manager, pacman, and also yaourt, however I ran into a library incompatibility with some software, VLC, I think, so that killed my enjoyment of Manjaro. After doing a practice install of Arch in a VM, I took the plunge and put it on my hdd. I haven't looked back since. Now I run a customized version of the Awesome window manager on my Arch box, along side OS X. Wouldn't use anything else. :) TL;DR Arch with the Awesome window manager.
• onestone 12y ago
  Arch (with KDE Plasma 5) for desktop. Ubuntu LTS or Debian for servers (whichever has a more recent release).
• WorldWideWayne 12y ago
  Fedora 21 with Gnome 3 is my preferred distro for desktop Linux. It's easily the best experience that I've with a nix desktop. Linus Torvalds runs Fedora as well - http://www.tuxradar.com/content/interview-linus-torvalds-linux-format-163 http://www.tuxradar.com/content/interview-linus-torvalds-lin...
• andor 12y ago
  Red Hat distros: Fedora, CentOS. Red Hat is a technology leader, especially for Desktop stuff, and they have the right attitude to bugs: bugs should be fixed, not worked around, and fixes should be made (or at least merged) upstream.
• lazylizard 12y ago
  no desktop. except when oracle requires it. all rhel, centos.
• cyphax 12y ago
  My distro of choice is Slackware. It is designed to be vanilla and it's pretty tinker-friendly if you want to tinker. It's made in such a way that it makes me feel at home, which is always nice about an operating system. Xfce is my DE of choice. It's very flexible and fast.