Current Events > Thinking of Linux distro hopping this weekend, any suggestions?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Apparently, "Mint sucks" now and admittedly I've been living under a rock. So I would like to refresh myself.

At the moment I'm currently considering giving Gentoo another shot and customizing it with GNUstep and WindowMaker, if only because I'm a weird hipster and idolize NextStep.

I've never actually used Arch, maybe that might be worth a shot.

It's not Linux, but I kinda dig the Haiku interface. Although I'm not sure if Haiku itself would be viable as a daily driver.

RasterGraphic posted...

At the moment I'm currently considering giving Gentoo another shot and customizing it with GNUstep and WindowMaker, if only because I'm a weird hipster and idolize NextStep.

I've never actually used Arch, maybe that might be worth a shot.

I'd recommend saving yourself some pain with these, and giving EndeavourOS a shot

It's pretty similar to vanilla Arch, but with a "just werks" out-of-the-box experience

Fedora's pretty much the gold standard. You can get versions of it with every major desktop environment and its packages/updates are as close as you can get to bleeding edge without jeopardizing stability.

Going for a retro-styled desktop experience isn't really worth it imo since there aren't any icon packs that are consistently updated enough to fit into something like a NextStep feel.

I miss CrunchBang. SteamOS is the most experience I get these days. I'll be watching for ideas.

RasterGraphic posted...

I've never actually used Arch, maybe that might be worth a shot.

Arch is a "build it yourself" thing. You will have to install basically everything. There is zero auto config. Not really recommended if you just want to start using your PC right away.

I think I'm going to give Fedora a shot.

As much as I want to go hard with something super customization heavy, I also kinda actually need to use my computer.

CachyOS (best optimized period out of the box), PikaOS (best optimized Debian based). Or you could use Fedora / Nobara with the CachyOS kernel, but why bother when CachyOS exists?

CachyOS was probably the best experience I had when I was messing with distros a while back, which I found surprising given Arch's reputation. Then there was the fun realization that, like everything Linux, they decided they needed to introduce a new standard you have to account for with Pacman and AUR or whatever.

Tyranthraxus posted...

Arch is a "build it yourself" thing. You will have to install basically everything. There is zero auto config. Not really recommended if you just want to start using your PC right away.

This is outdated. Arch ships with an install script now, so you just run archinstall and go through a wizard to pick what you want, basically. But most people would be better off with CachyOS.

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed is the best at everything

MagiMarthKoopa posted...

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed is the best at everything

Its not even the best at having a name you can pronounce without giggling.

How is mint supposed to be bad now?

Rika_Furude posted...

How is mint supposed to be bad now?

It has ancient packages (including an ancient kernel, which means ancient drivers) like Ubuntu does, has poor Wayland support if any at all, and really has nothing good going for it other than a subjective opinion that Cinnamon looking like Windows is good. Its always been bad for anyone whos not a grandma who does nothing but browse the internet. Normies are only now starting to realize it since Valve made Linux gaming so much more viable.

Last time I considered Linux, was when I attempted to setup a dual boot with Ubuntu & discovered it was a no-go, since the way EFI/UEFI is partitioned on a disc, and Windows boot loader being unable to process more than 4 partitions.

Still, Ubuntu trial mode was fun, though I always hear everyone complains about it being too much like Windows nowadays.

darkbuster posted...

Last time I considered Linux, was when I attempted to setup a dual boot with Ubuntu & discovered it was a no-go, since the way EFI/UEFI is partitioned in on a disc, and Windows boot loader being unable to process more than 4 partitions.

Still, Ubuntu trial mode was fun, though I always hear everyone complains about it being too much like Windows nowadays.

Never, ever dual boot with a single disk. You should be booting from a Linux bootloader anyway, but eventually a Windows update will put the shitty Windows bootloaders back as the priority one, and you have to use a live USB and fix it by hand. Using a separate SSD for Linux and setting that drive as your primary boot device means Windows cant fuck with it.

PraetorXyn posted...

It has ancient packages (including an ancient kernel, which means ancient drivers) like Ubuntu does, has poor Wayland support if any at all, and really has nothing good going for it other than a subjective opinion that Cinnamon looking like Windows is good. Its always been bad for anyone whos not a grandma who does nothing but browse the internet. Normies are only now starting to realize it since Valve made Linux gaming so much more viable.

Is that much different from say, Debian? Which also has old packages on purpose since they are more thoroughly tested/proven

darkbuster posted...

Last time I considered Linux, was when I attempted to setup a dual boot with Ubuntu & discovered it was a no-go, since the way EFI/UEFI is partitioned on a disc, and Windows boot loader being unable to process more than 4 partitions.

Still, Ubuntu trial mode was fun, though I always hear everyone complains about it being too much like Windows nowadays.

There's no reason to dual boot with Ubuntu anymore you can just get it on WSL

PraetorXyn posted...

Never, ever dual boot with a single disk. You should be booting from a Linux bootloader anyway, but eventually a Windows update will put the shitty Windows bootloaders back as the priority one, and you have to use a live USB and fix it by hand. Using a separate SSD for Linux and setting that drive as your primary boot device means Windows cant fuck with it.

Yeah, that was some 10+ years ago, when I was looking for an interesting project to do, & found that Ubuntu was the easiest transition from Windows. To give you a frame of reference, I burned an actual Livedisc for that. The whole thing was more just to "dip a toe" into Linux. It was slow, but running it from a disc did scratch that itch.

Rika_Furude posted...

Is that much different from say, Debian? Which also has old packages on purpose since they are more thoroughly tested/proven

Only degree, as Debian stables packages are even more ancient. Debian sucks for a desktop computer too, and for the same reasons. Desktop computers are not 24/7 servers where a minute of lost uptime costs thousands of dollars at minimum.

I would run Debian as a server (in fact I do already, as Proxmox is basically Debian but built to be a hypervisor), but on a server, Im running all my applications in Docker containers and virtual machines, so the ancient packages dont cause any problems. I wouldnt even go near anything Debian-based period aside from PikaOS for desktop computing.

When your packages are so fucking old I cant do what I need to do with my computer, or theyre old enough they make my performance significantly worse, I dont give a fuck how stable it is.

Ill give you a perfect example of this. At work Im forced to develop on a RHEL 8 VM, because to these dumbasses, The servers run RHEL 8, so you should develop on RHEL 8. Developing on a server OS is excruciatingly painful, and the version of Flatpak on it is literally so old, I cant even get GNOMEs Extension Manager extension from Flathub because Flathub doesnt support it. If they let me develop on Fedora, Id have none of these problems and my deliverables would deploy 100% identically to the way they do now.

Tyranthraxus posted...

There's no reason to dual boot with Ubuntu anymore you can just get it on WSL

Running Linux through Windows kinda entirely defeats the purpose of using Linux in the first place

PraetorXyn posted...

Never, ever dual boot with a single disk. You should be booting from a Linux bootloader anyway, but eventually a Windows update will put the shitty Windows bootloaders back as the priority one, and you have to use a live USB and fix it by hand. Using a separate SSD for Linux and setting that drive as your primary boot device means Windows cant fuck with it.

Ehhh, it isn't as terrible of an idea as you make it out to be (especially if you don't want to be messing with multiple drives)

Speaking from experience, I haven't had any bootloader shenanigans mess up my system in several years (and even then it was usually a GRUB update)

EDIT: although setting it up in the first place was a pain in the ass, ended up having to use GRUB as the primary bootloader, with the Microsoft Bootloader itself as a GRUB entry to get into Windows

I ended up giving Cachy a try.

I like it so far, but I've only played around with the live demo. Installer is sitting at 37%

It's desktop (which I think is kde) is refreshingly responsive. I liked cinnamon, but that thing chugs.

Just sit on Endeavour and never look back

FL81 posted...

Running Linux through Windows kinda entirely defeats the purpose of using Linux in the first place

Yeah, WSL is basically a convenience feature for developers, not really a replacement.

I use Linux because Windows is slow. If I have to go through Windows to get to Linux then there isn't much of a point.

RasterGraphic posted...

Yeah, WSL is basically a convenience feature for developers, not really a replacement.

I use Linux because Windows is slow. If I have to go through Windows to get to Linux then there isn't much of a point.

This.

I do feel there is a use case difference between developers, and folks who just want to resurrect old hardware with something snappier than Windows (or don't like Microsoft's practices)

FL81 posted...

Running Linux through Windows kinda entirely defeats the purpose of using Linux in the first place

Ok but running Ubuntu defeats the purpose of using Linux in the first place

You can do some pretty weird stuff with WSL if you're determined enough. Full 3D and compute acceleration. Desktop environments are a bit trickier.

Honestly, Ubuntu is for people who want a mac-like experience but can't afford one.

I stopped using it years ago when a race condition in an update completely broke X and fixing it was a nightmare.

Elementary OS is the mac-like. It's such a blatant rip off I'm surprised Apple hasn't tried to sue them.

Yeah, there is no way that thing isn't infringing on a patent or two.

Well, I broke my bootloader.

I don't think the situation is unsalvageable though. It does boot into grub, but it's just the terminal.

I'm gunna try a few things.

Tyranthraxus posted...

Ok but running Ubuntu defeats the purpose of using Linux in the first place

lmao you're not even wrong

RasterGraphic posted...

Well, I broke my bootloader.

I don't think the situation is unsalvageable though. It does boot into grub, but it's just the terminal.

I'm gunna try a few things.

Start over. Grub is xorg.conf levels of obnoxious.

Tyranthraxus posted...

Start over. Grub is xorg.conf levels of obnoxious.

Yeah, at the moment that's the plan. Going to do some manual partition table editing.

It seems there's a weird limitation that the boot partition must be 300 megs and I originally had it at 128.

So the installer overwrote the EFI partition on my Windows disk.

I know this is fixable, I've done so before, but it's a PITA.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


I mean, that question is the purpose this topic.

I personally want to get away from Mint because the outdated package situation is out of hand. It's super obnoxious that common tools such as CMake are so out of date.

I'm giving Cachy a try. Installation issues aside it's pretty neat so far. Very fast.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

https://get.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


This is my recommendation:

https://pureos.net/

If you're willing to try Arch why not give Slackware a try? It might have an installer straight out of 1991 but it is an up to date OS, even bleeding edge with the -current branch. I like that everything in Slackware is configured using plain text and script files. And all software is installed from source with nothing being modified from upstream. There are "slackbuild"(sbo) scripts and the sbopkg.org repository to make things easier. And there is the Slackbook, which probably hasn't been updated since like 2009, but is still largely relevant and very helpful. And the community on linuxquestions.org is friendly and helpful. It's an OS that really forces you to get under the hood and understand how things work.

For a higher level Arch-based distro, Manjaro is cool.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

CachyOS, or PikaOS if youre afraid of anything Arch-based.

CachyOS has a customized kernel with the best performance Ive come across and tons of patches and fixes. Lots of people on other distros use that kernel. Nothing else really compares in terms of performance and optimization and just taking care of you versus the zero amount of effort you have to put in. You can take other distros and get them setup that way, but it takes work.

I prefer using it with GNOME over KDE though.

kind9 posted...

If you're willing to try Arch why not give Slackware a try? It might have an installer straight out of 1991 but it is an up to date OS, even bleeding edge with the -current branch. I like that everything in Slackware is configured using plain text and script files. And all software is installed from source with nothing being modified from upstream. There are "slackbuild"(sbo) scripts and the sbopkg.org repository to make things easier. And there is the Slackbook, which probably hasn't been updated since like 2009, but is still largely relevant and very helpful. And the community on linuxquestions.org is friendly and helpful. It's an OS that really forces you to get under the hood and understand how things work.

For a higher level Arch-based distro, Manjaro is cool.

Manjaro and Garuda should be avoided.

Manjaros developers forget to renew SSL certs every so often, and Garuda is gorgeous but its Manjaro 2.0 in terms of how easy it is to break it.

In my opinion, any good Linux distro should have a very accessible installer, systemd, EFI booting, Wayland as default, and an AUR-like repo.

Starks posted...

In my opinion, any good Linux distro should have a very accessible installer, systemd, EFI booting, and Wayland as default. And an AUR.

Preach.

CachyOS ticks all those too.

PraetorXyn posted...

Preach.

CachyOS ticks all those too.

Seems really all-in on x86 feature levels. I'm fine with that kind of optimization but it really pisses off Linus apparently.

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Torvalds-Mind-Fart-x86_64-Level

Starks posted...

Seems really all-in on x86 feature levels. I'm fine with that kind of optimization but it really pisses off Linus apparently.

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Torvalds-Mind-Fart-x86_64-Level

I dont think he cares unless they try to upstream them.

v3 shouldn't be a huge ask but Intel released processors without avx2 just last year. Man, that company is screwed until Nova Lake in late 2026.

Starks posted...

v3 shouldn't be a huge ask but Intel released processors without avx2 just last year. Man, that company is screwed until Nova Lake in late 2026.

Yeah. The only machine Id run Intel in at this point is a media server as QuickSync is good for hardware transcoding.

every time someone asks which distro to use, 5 different people reply with 5 different distros

which is the one true distro (for gaming/general use)

Rika_Furude posted...

which is the one true distro (for gaming/general use)

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed

Rika_Furude posted...

every time someone asks which distro to use, 5 different people reply with 5 different distros

which is the one true distro (for gaming/general use)

CachyOS

Been using Catchy for the last several days.

It's certainly fast, but I wouldn't call it painless. But the experience is forcing me to learn new stuff which was part of the point of this exercise.

I am missing apt though, partially because I still have to use some closed source stuff for school and the like. Linux support for closed source stuff is very Ubuntu/Debian centric. I'm still not comfortable with work arounds or aur.

Also, whatever default text editor it's terminal uses sucks. I can't wrap my head around it. I don't think it's vim because the commands don't seem to work. It might be micro which I have little to no experience with. I need to switch it to nano when I have time.

I do love how snappy it is though. It's nice to actually use my computer without bloat programs slowing things down or otherwise distracting me.