X-Post from /c/linux@programming.dev
The author raises some good questions about the licensing of the core utils. Why the MIT license? Why not stick to GNU GPL?
X-Post from /c/linux@programming.dev
The author raises some good questions about the licensing of the core utils. Why the MIT license? Why not stick to GNU GPL?
I really don’t know what to do for my next desktop distro.
I don’t use my PC exclusively for gaming. So things like Bazzite or Nobara are not my jam.
Arch-based distros seem too bleeding-edge. I don’t have that much free time to troubleshoot my PC. That’s why Ubuntu was so appealing to me. It just worked! Now I feel that with the latest LTS I’m going to be trapped into Canonical’s ecosystem with Snaps or risk borking my install. I hate this idea.
I might just move to Debian Stable. I don’t mind being a big behind if it means having a rock solid system. I’m also very used to the Debian packaging system. Also there’s no company behind it that might take it in a certain direction.
Alternatively there could be OpenSUSE Tumbleweed slow roll, but apparently it doesn’t play well with NVidia graphical drivers? I’m also not used to their ecosystem at all.
Tough decisions ahead.
Fedora’s key selling point is being up to date and extremely boring. It’s mainly just off-the-shelf software, with minimal niche custom software. Flathub and Steam are available from the setup process. It’s the most Linux Linux that Linuxes today.
Try Linux Mint (or LMDE).
I started off with Nobara, then tried Linux Mint but moved to Kubuntu, I tried Ubuntu but stuck with Kubuntu, the Kubuntu fucked up and I tried Linux Mint again and havent looked back since. I really like Linux Mint and its what I recommend to anyone I try to get onto Linux. It just works
Yeah but I really like the KDE Plasma desktop.
@ZombieCyborgFromOuterSpace @Goodlucksil In my experience with Arch I never really had issues unless I fucked around with stuff I shouldnt. Sometimes I wanted to just mess with stuff and see what would happen. Normal daily use, no issues though.
Nowadays I use Alpine because I don’t want SystemD, which I would not recommend because it takes some doing to make stuff work right.
If you don’t need up-to-date new releases of software, Debian is totally fine. Fedora worked okay for me too, but fuck IBM and RedHat and such.
If Bazzite appeals to you except for the gaming orientation, look into the Fedora UniversalBlue spins.
Thanks, but Bazzite doesn’t really appeal to me. Fedora does have an official KDE Plasma desktop distro now though.
I’m on Tumbleweed, just regular. It works fine. There are hiccups on occasion, typically NVidia screwing up their drivers.
Tumbleweed has snapper however, letting you roll back upgrades with just a couple button presses. Takes less than five minutes.
I highly recommend it.
Another vote for Tumbleweed. Again, it just works. While I have an older card just begging for the sweet release of death, I’ve had no real issues with nVidia drivers either.
I run Cachyos (KDE), for 9 months now. It’s Arch based. I have had only one problem that I caused myself because I didn’t read the docs well enough. Other than that I have had zero issues and it just works.
It’s the best distro I’ve used (previously ran very early Ubuntu, the SuSe for a while, then Mint).
Cachy is pretty solid. If you can name a distro I’ve at least tried it. Though I would still recommend mint for someone who has no idea what they’re doing and just need things to “work”. But garuda, endeavor or cachy are all pretty solid and straight forward. And with the talk of a new independent graphical package manager for Arch. It’s only going to get easier to operate and maintain.
Bazzite has a couple of non-gaming sisters: Bluefin (gnome) and Aurora (KDE). Like Tumbleweed they’re immutable so you can’t mess with the stuff they keeps it running which is why it just works.
FWIW Tumbleweed isn’t immutable. It’s a rolling release. MicroOS is the official openSUSE immutable release, but it’s server oriented. Kalpa is immutable openSUSE for desktop, but still in development.
The separate Aeon desktop project is more mature, and also focused on desktop usage. With Gnome.
Try NixOS. If you can make it work for you then you will never go back. Learning curve is pretty steep though.
Fun fact: if the learning curve is steep, then it’s rising up a lot in a small amount of time. In order words, a steep learning curve means a lot of learning happens quickly!
That’s only if you use time as your X axis.
as someone who uses NixOS I wouldn’t recommend NixOS. sure it makes the hard things easy but it makes the easy things hard.
Then you potentially fall into the trap of configuration hell where you’re just constantly tinkering to get that sweet spot. I have to take vacations from NixOS otherwise I wouldn’t get any work done. Don’t get me wrong I LOVE it but it’s not for everyone.
the curve for someone coming from ubuntu is pretty much a wall.
Linux Mint is a good choice but it doesn’t come with a GNOME flavour by default. You can install it yourself if you want, though.
I moved to Fedora after leaving Ubuntu. Worked fine for me, but you’ll have to re-train your muscle memory for some terminal commands.
sudo apt installbecomessudo dnf installandrpmis a little different fromdpkg. Other than that, with the Dash to Dock extension, Fedora feels exactly the same as Ubuntu to me.the bigger difference with dnf is instead of
apt update && upgradeit’sdnf upgrade --refreshWhy does dnf always default to n in y/n questions? That is annoying to me
So does pacman, I don’t see what package manager doesn’t confirm with y/n for safety.
With apt it defaults to (Y/n) rather than dnf’s (y/N) that’s what I’m talking about.
Ah you mean the capitalisation.
you can add the flag
-yif it helpsYour comment is almost exactly the text for “why you should use fedora”. Not as bleeding edge as arch, not as behind as debian. A great balance.
I’ve found Fedora can still be too fast-moving sometimes. An update to Bazzite broke SDDM on my laptop a while ago, and until an obscure permanent solution was found, the workarounds that existed were either some other obscure hack, or “just use this outdated build that doesn’t get security updates anymore, bro.”
People heap all sorts of praise on Fedora, but the only version I’ve ever really liked has been Bazzite, and even then, that’s had its problems for me like I mentioned above.
try FreeBSD, then Mint.
I had the same way of thinking you do when I switched. I eventually landed on LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) because it just worked. Debian itself was too old to do some gaming stuff I wanted and Arch is too bleeding edge for my taste and amount of free time I have to throw at it.
LMDE gives you the rock solid experience with just enough updates to have an easy time with updates or occasional tinkering
bazzite is not just for gaming
it’s brilliant for everything
I normally use NixOS but recently tried out PikaOS on one of my machines and I love it. Sure it’s got a gaming focus but it’s fast. damn fast. makes my dev work a breeze. It feels like one of the most complete Linux distros I’ve ever used. takes all of 15min to install and you can be up and running with everything you need within 30min. And their Pikman package manager is one of the best I’ve ever used. has distrobox built into it so if I want to install something from Arch, or the AUR, or Fedora, or whatever I just do “pikman --aur install whatever” spins up a distrobox, automatically exports it, good to go. Also has one of the fastest startups I’ve ever experienced that it felt like I wasn’t on systemd. Like Void runit start up speed.
If there are people who want something like Bazzite or Nobara but want a lot more flexibility for packages than PikaOS is it.
Ubuntu is fine. Fair warning if you do go the debian route, upgrading from one Debian stable version to the next is not as easy as an Ubuntu distro-upgrade. But OTOH the Ubuntu upgrades are probably the riskiest part of ubuntu too.
I wish there were a Linux equivalent for what the Windows world had before Windows 7 went EOL, where you could have an older, stable base OS that was mostly forward-compatible with newer software.
You can sort of achieve this with Debian Stable and Flatpak, but it’s not as seamless as the forward compatibility old versions of Windows had.