Discussion · bonfire.mavnn.eu

Since this seems to come up a lot, especially now with Windows being replaced by Copilot and Tim Apple being a frequent guest at the White House, I thought I'd write up my quick and objective guide to choosing Linux distros:

I just want something stable and easy to install that's still being maintained next century: Fedora.

I want a carefully hand crafted desktop experience curated for me by people who know what they're doing: KaOS.

I want to carefully hand craft my own desktop experience from scratch, I don't care how many wikis I have to read: Arch.

I think I'm somewhere in between those two extremes: Manjaro.

I'm a gamer: Bazzite.

I'm a Mac: Elementary.

I'm a Haskell weenie: NixOS.

I think rms made some good points: Debian.

I think Tommy Robinson made some good points: Omarchy.

I like South African billionaires: Ubuntu.

Johan Moir (Mastodon)

@[email protected] · 6 months ago

@bodil what about Mint?
I was maybe planning on trying that on my macbook air 2017

alex

@[email protected] · 6 months ago

@bodil Thinking about it, I guess this is a good view on RMS. (Debian only since 2009 😅)

Pokemod97

@[email protected] · 6 months ago

@bodil Fedora is facing AI pressure from Red Hat btw.

chocobo13ζ

@[email protected] · 6 months ago

@bodil
I want to carefully handcraft etc etc, but with even more granularity and control over features and dependencies, and don't mind waiting on compiling for updates: Gentoo

Chip Butty

@[email protected] · 6 months ago

@bodil I feel so judged (my pref is for more ()s so I'm moving to guix, some day). I fear it will be the worst of Debian, Arch, and NixOS, but w/more stripey socks.

Daniel Terhorst-North

@[email protected] · 6 months ago

@bodil wait, so that means...

[dont do it]

...that dhh is...

[im warning you]

...the Arch enemy?

[i hate you]

Bodil

@[email protected] · 6 months ago

@tastapod Dan.

Michael Newton

@mavnn · 6 months ago

@[email protected] Well, if you've ever had any reason to want to do anything unpleasant to @[email protected] now's the time - nobody would blame you given the provocation...

Daniel Terhorst-North

@[email protected] · 6 months ago

@mavnn @bodil idiocy is my love language

Deborah Preuss, pcc 🇨🇦

@[email protected] · 6 months ago

@bodil @ShaulaEvans I'm new to Ubuntu.
Q: what does it have to do with SA billionaires? Sounds like I need to know.

A.B. Murrow

@[email protected] · 6 months ago

@bodil Actually made me look up KaOS.

This is cool. I feel like the best distros invest heavily in a single DE and put a lot of emphasis on user experience. Elementary, PopOS, Mint, and Zorin come to mind as examples.

Fritz Adalis

@[email protected] · 6 months ago

@bodil @samebchase
This is all objectively correct. What are your thoughts on UIs?

degenerating degenerate

@[email protected] · 6 months ago

@bodil

Fedora is good but it is an update treadmill, versions come out every 6 months and are out of security support after ~13mo.

RHEL-based distros like Rocky are literally maintained for 10 years, if you don't care too much about the latest bits this makes once a decade distro updates a reality (you still have to update for security fixes, but actual upgrades, where stuff changes, to apps etc occur less often).

Shae Erisson

@[email protected] · 6 months ago

@bodil

Have you heard the joke that nix compiles Haskell to bash?

I've been happy using NixOS for five years, and I enjoy morally correct humor.

Bodil

@[email protected] · 6 months ago

(I should add, in case you feel the need to object that your favourite distro isn't mentioned, that these are all distros I've run myself inside of the last half decade or so, or I wouldn't feel qualified to comment on them. Except Omarchy, of course, that's only there for the gag.)