What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?

[Aerizu]

ElementaryOS at home, Ubuntu LTS for work.

[Blaise170]

Grab an SSD for quick boots, even if it's only 64GB. The first time I dropped one in a laptop, boot times went from about 55 seconds to about 12 seconds. My latest desktop boots almost instantly.

[davkol]

Grab an SSD for quick boots, even if it's only 64GB. The first time I dropped one in a laptop, boot times went from about 55 seconds to about 12 seconds. My latest desktop boots almost instantly.

There are machines at work are equipped with cheap 64GB SSDs from Kingston and they're awfully slow running default Linux Mint. Much slower than my old desktop with a 2.5" WD Black.

[Blaise170]

To be fair, I don't trust Kingston anymore after the **** they pulled a few years ago.

https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/184253-ssd-shadiness-kingston-and-pny-caught-bait-and-switching-cheaper-components-after-good-reviews

[xtrafrood]

Slow SSDs eh? I wonder if someone forget to implement trim in fstab. iirc trim has been in the kernel for a few years now.

[davkol]

I wonder whether people have never used, or have managed to forget about super slow SSDs in ultraportables from around/before 2010.

[xtrafrood]

I wonder whether people have never used, or have managed to forget about super slow SSDs in ultraportables from around/before 2010.

The pre-Trim days *shudders* (actually, I've never used an SSD with Linux)

[iri]

OK, now I have four linux machines at home (one running Ubuntu, and 3 Mint).

This Thinkpad 240's screen is so low contrast

[romevi]

This Thinkpad 240's screen is so low contrast

I'll take it.

Do you accept pictures of me drinking alcohol in public places?

[iri]

I'm not in the USA so yes. Bonus points if you are an attractive woman (though I imagine you aren't)

[xtrafrood]

I'm not in the USA so yes. Bonus points if you are an attractive woman (though I imagine you aren't)

Hehe

[strider8]

I use ubuntu. Have looked into other distros but if I'm being honest I just want something simple and easy to install to get me away from Windows/Mac.

[aya3154]

Gentoo, occasionally tails 

[floatingskull]

Ubuntuu personally, Debian and Red Hat for work.

[vivalarevolución]

Well, I'm going back to Ubuntu MATE on my desktop after a couple years of using different flavors of Manjaro, most recently Manjaro Deepin.  While every Linux distro has its bugs, I've grown tired of Manjaro's bugs. Dependency conflicts, random UI issues that come and go, programs that suddenly don't work, issues with hardware functionality, and some other annoying bugs. Some of this is Manjaro, some of this is Deepin. While I prefer the rolling release model over the fixed release model of Ubuntu, the bugs are just too annoying.

Obviously, Ubuntu MATE has its bugs and annoyances, but I find them less distracting than my experiences with Manjaro.  Manjaro is a great concept and works well most of the time, but I'm not sure if ready to keep as my workhorse distro wirh all the issues I have encountered over the past year or so.  I don't like to spend a lot of time fighting against my OS.

[fohat.digs]

Well, I'm going back to Ubuntu MATE on my desktop after a couple years

Why not use Linux Mint / Cinnamon?

It is Ubuntu-based and well-refined.

[user 18]

Well, I'm going back to Ubuntu MATE on my desktop after a couple years

Why not use Linux Mint / Cinnamon?

It is Ubuntu-based and well-refined.

Mint also has a MATE version, if that would be preferable.

[vivalarevolución]

Well, I'm going back to Ubuntu MATE on my desktop after a couple years

Why not use Linux Mint / Cinnamon?

It is Ubuntu-based and well-refined.

Linux Mint has too much crap I don't care for and more refinement than I prefer.  It is too refined and user friendly for my tastes.  The way that I judge a Linux distros is by the "wtf is this crap" threshold.  Basically, when I am taking a distro for a test ride, if I find myself throwing up my arms and saying "wtf is this crap" too many times, I am less inclined to use the distro.  And when I use Linux Mint MATE and Ubuntu MATE, there is an increased amount of WTFs with Linux Mint.

Although I might take Linux Mint for another ride tonight on the ole Virtual Box before making my final decision.  Refinement always is sexy.

[xtrafrood]

Well, I'm going back to Ubuntu MATE on my desktop after a couple years

Why not use Linux Mint / Cinnamon?

It is Ubuntu-based and well-refined.

Linux Mint has too much crap I don't care for and more refinement than I prefer.  It is too refined and user friendly for my tastes.  The way that I judge a Linux distros is by the "wtf is this crap" threshold.  Basically, when I am taking a distro for a test ride, if I find myself throwing up my arms and saying "wtf is this crap" too many times, I am less inclined to use the distro.  And when I use Linux Mint MATE and Ubuntu MATE, there is an increased amount of WTFs with Linux Mint.

Although I might take Linux Mint for another ride tonight on the ole Virtual Box before making my final decision.  Refinement always is sexy.

I have my "wtf is this crap" moments when I find myself working to remove more than a handful of packages after installing distro X.

[vivalarevolución]

Well, I'm going back to Ubuntu MATE on my desktop after a couple years

Why not use Linux Mint / Cinnamon?

It is Ubuntu-based and well-refined.

Linux Mint has too much crap I don't care for and more refinement than I prefer.  It is too refined and user friendly for my tastes.  The way that I judge a Linux distros is by the "wtf is this crap" threshold.  Basically, when I am taking a distro for a test ride, if I find myself throwing up my arms and saying "wtf is this crap" too many times, I am less inclined to use the distro.  And when I use Linux Mint MATE and Ubuntu MATE, there is an increased amount of WTFs with Linux Mint.

Although I might take Linux Mint for another ride tonight on the ole Virtual Box before making my final decision.  Refinement always is sexy.

I have my "wtf is this crap" moments when I find myself working to remove more than a handful of packages after installing distro X.

It's either so bloated that I'm overwhelmed with features and apps and a flashy UI or so minimal that it lacks everything beyond the basics and I spend hours modifying the thing.  Ubuntu MATE hits the sweet spot for me among the major distro offerings: has all the basics and a few extras that I like, but not so much that I uninstall half of the apps and modify the entire look and feel. 

And I am a fan of MATE, which has all the functionality and customizations that I want without trying to be overly modern (Hello KDE and Cinnamon) or straight out of the 90s (any DE that advertises itself as lightweight).

[xtrafrood]

Well, I'm going back to Ubuntu MATE on my desktop after a couple years

Why not use Linux Mint / Cinnamon?

It is Ubuntu-based and well-refined.

Linux Mint has too much crap I don't care for and more refinement than I prefer.  It is too refined and user friendly for my tastes.  The way that I judge a Linux distros is by the "wtf is this crap" threshold.  Basically, when I am taking a distro for a test ride, if I find myself throwing up my arms and saying "wtf is this crap" too many times, I am less inclined to use the distro.  And when I use Linux Mint MATE and Ubuntu MATE, there is an increased amount of WTFs with Linux Mint.

Although I might take Linux Mint for another ride tonight on the ole Virtual Box before making my final decision.  Refinement always is sexy.

I have my "wtf is this crap" moments when I find myself working to remove more than a handful of packages after installing distro X.

It's either so bloated that I'm overwhelmed with features and apps and a flashy UI or so minimal that it lacks everything beyond the basics and I spend hours modifying the thing.  Ubuntu MATE hits the sweet spot for me among the major distro offerings: has all the basics and a few extras that I like, but not so much that I uninstall half of the apps and modify the entire look and feel.

And I am a fan of MATE, which has all the functionality and customizations that I want without trying to be overly modern (Hello KDE and Cinnamon) or straight out of the 90s (any DE that advertises itself as lightweight).

If I can get away with it I'll usually only settle for a DE with a total ram usage of < 400MB. So I guess I generally settle for a Window Manager that loads enough stuff to function as a makeshift DE. I can fill in the gaps with shell scripts if need be, sometimes I'll cut shell scripts in lieu of playing video games. I'd rather trade a bit of CPU usage to conserve on RAM usage. Seems like every Linux/shell scripting book I read brings me one step closer to substituting bashrc/zshrc for a window manager. Eventually my desktop will be the shell prompt.  *scratches head*

[Leslieann]

If I can get away with it I'll usually only settle for a DE with a total ram usage of < 400MB.

This is actually not a good way to judge and is old thinking.

Not only can the OS scale memory usage when needed, you have ram expressly for the purpose of being used. You are building fast machine, then tying one arm behind it's back because you don't want it using both when it actually needs to use both. Not only can the system scale up and down memory use as needed, but by picking a D.E. based on memory means you are ignoring a lot of other things as well, primarily hardware rendering and CPU enhancements which can pay off greatly while under load. This is even more important on laptops where that efficiency translates to battery life, if you can trade a bit of unused memory to conserve battery, why would you not do that?

Unused is the key to all of this, if your memory isn't being used, it's being wasted. I can understand wanting this on a system with little ram, but if you have a modern system with modern enhancements you probably also have the ram to match. You may actually be doing more harm than good.

[vivalarevolución]

Well, just took Linux Mint MATE for another spin and it re-affirmed my earlier thoughts.  For one, MATE Tweak Tool is not included out of the box and the one downloaded from the repos has a lot less options than the stock MATE Tweak Tool in Ubuntu MATE.  Are you kidding me?  Don't make me create my own panels, come on, what is this.

[xtrafrood]

If I can get away with it I'll usually only settle for a DE with a total ram usage of < 400MB.

This is actually not a good way to judge and is old thinking.

Not only can the OS scale memory usage when needed, you have ram expressly for the purpose of being used. You are building fast machine, then tying one arm behind it's back because you don't want it using both when it actually needs to use both. Not only can the system scale up and down memory use as needed, but by picking a D.E. based on memory means you are ignoring a lot of other things as well, primarily hardware rendering and CPU enhancements which can pay off greatly while under load. This is even more important on laptops where that efficiency translates to battery life, if you can trade a bit of unused memory to conserve battery, why would you not do that?

Unused is the key to all of this, if your memory isn't being used, it's being wasted. I can understand wanting this on a system with little ram, but if you have a modern system with modern enhancements you probably also have the ram to match. You may actually be doing more harm than good.

My hardware rendering and CPU enhancements are all handled by kernel modules, and drivers that are DE egnostic. I don't see the harm in avoiding DEs (or sticking to lightweight ones) altogether when I can tie together several tools (compton, udiskie, clipit, dunst, nitrogen, unclutter, stardict, etc.) that take the place of DE tools and services. If you ask me the handicap metaphor is a bit much. My system purrs along with 11yr+ hardware; maxes at ~55c under load (60c GPU); loads into ~700MB (which includes email/music player/calendar/youtube rss, four terminal emulators, stack stuff, etc.); serves up a Nextcloud/Startpage/and few script generated pages; renders out (1080p) images with Blender; plays TV shows/Movies, compiles with gcc just fine; etc.. I would build the same installation on a modern PC (would switch from AMD FOSS to NVIDIA proprietary) if I had one at my disposal (laptop would use TLP--and extra msata for swapon. Would mostly use battery for browser/file editor/PDFs anyway). Heck my DM is just a script that launches when I login to tty1 (but it plays nice with xinit). I should probably mention that I include buffered memory when reading RAM usage (total - free). What I have is not much but I try to make the best of it. Also, living in Florida has me solar flare paranoid for some reason. Most of my RAM thoughts evolved around stepping up to ECC and limiting any useless data loss as much as possible. Keeping my 'DE' as modular and as light as possible seemed like a good idea at the time. Perhaps a bit overkill, however, over the past 14 months I haven't run into any of the disadvantages you mentioned. I guess I'm legally obligated to mention the hypervisors: QEMU works (no IOMMU groups tho), and so does Virtualbox (atleast the CPU has virtualization).

I wasn't commenting as if I thought everyone should use my configuration. It took me six years to build up to the point of where I am; I'm not about to tell anyone that it's my way of the highway. I wouldn't expect any Linux user to install their system from scratch. That's just crazy talk. Now if I could just kick the systemd habit I would totally switch everything over to runit (although I would miss the ease of restarting certain 'stack' services). Why does systemd even have some of the features it has? Who doesn't use cron? But I digress.

[Leslieann]

I wasn't commenting as if I thought everyone should use my configuration. It took me six years to build up to the point of where I am; I'm not about to tell anyone that it's my way of the highway. I wouldn't expect any Linux user to install their system from scratch. That's just crazy talk. Now if I could just kick the systemd habit I would totally switch everything over to runit (although I would miss the ease of restarting certain 'stack' services). Why does systemd even have some of the features it has? Who doesn't use cron? But I digress.

I forgot you were in so deep (sorry), you're way beyond what most people are looking at or for.

I just didn't want anyone getting the idea that memory was the only thing to watch for, it's kind of a pet peeve of mine. It used to be extremely common for Linux users (especially new ones) to use memory use to bash Windows by claiming Linux was faster because lower memory requirements (there are/were plenty of legitimate ways to bash Windows).  This sort of FUD is still being used today, one distro even uses similar thinking as one of their main selling points.

Systemd hasn't been a big deal for me really and while I can see it being problematic for some things, I've gotten the distinct impression a lot of people are just angry because something they are used to has changed. They don't care why, they just don't want to have to change their ways.

[xtrafrood]

I wasn't commenting as if I thought everyone should use my configuration. It took me six years to build up to the point of where I am; I'm not about to tell anyone that it's my way of the highway. I wouldn't expect any Linux user to install their system from scratch. That's just crazy talk. Now if I could just kick the systemd habit I would totally switch everything over to runit (although I would miss the ease of restarting certain 'stack' services). Why does systemd even have some of the features it has? Who doesn't use cron? But I digress.

I forgot you were in so deep (sorry), you're way beyond what most people are looking at or for.

I just didn't want anyone getting the idea that memory was the only thing to watch for, it's kind of a pet peeve of mine. It used to be extremely common for Linux users (especially new ones) to use memory use to bash Windows by claiming Linux was faster because lower memory requirements (there are/were plenty of legitimate ways to bash Windows).  This sort of FUD is still being used today, one distro even uses similar thinking as one of their main selling points.

Systemd hasn't been a big deal for me really and while I can see it being problematic for some things, I've gotten the distinct impression a lot of people are just angry because something they are used to has changed. They don't care why, they just don't want to have to change their ways.

Fair enough, I see what you mean. And with systemd, I guess it's fine as long as it lets me restart or reload services without having to reboot (althought I still wonder about some of the features).

[barrel]

I use Gentoo, Arch and GuixSD, Depending if I feel like reinstalling, I rarely use Arch though because it's not good at package splitting and some other silly things that I don't like about it, mainly revolving around it not being a source-based distro ( An example being that you can't compile vim with +xclipboard support natively, having to install gvim to get it )

[microsoft windows]

I USE WINDOWS 98.

[romevi]

I USE WINDOWS 98.

Show Image

You mean this?



https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95

[xtrafrood]

I USE WINDOWS 98.

Show Image

You mean this?

Show Image

https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95

Jane has the most incredible window decoration style. A++

[sth]

@csmertx - i'm all for ditching DEs but if you are looking for a nice DE that doesn't totally hog all your RAM, kde/plasma is real nice. whenever i have machines setup with a full DE it's either KDE or XFCE these days.

[romevi]

@csmertx - i'm all for ditching DEs but if you are looking for a nice DE that doesn't totally hog all your RAM, kde/plasma is real nice. whenever i have machines setup with a full DE it's either KDE or XFCE these days.

Dude, KDE hogs so much of my memory. Xfce4 is supah lightweight. Downloaded in like two minutes with all the goodies. KDE took four times as long.

No...thanks...

[sth]

@csmertx - i'm all for ditching DEs but if you are looking for a nice DE that doesn't totally hog all your RAM, kde/plasma is real nice. whenever i have machines setup with a full DE it's either KDE or XFCE these days.

Dude, KDE hogs so much of my memory. Xfce4 is supah lightweight. Downloaded in like two minutes with all the goodies. KDE took four times as long.

No...thanks...

well KDE is still heavier than xfce for sure but they've made great strides with plasma 5 to reduce overhead. depending on your distro and how much of KDE you pulled, there might be lots of other services running that are ripe for disabling.

/goes back to cwm/chrome/urxvt environment

[iri]

Ahh, XFCE. Fast, lightweight and memory efficient.

[xtrafrood]

@csmertx - i'm all for ditching DEs but if you are looking for a nice DE that doesn't totally hog all your RAM, kde/plasma is real nice. whenever i have machines setup with a full DE it's either KDE or XFCE these days.

Dude, KDE hogs so much of my memory. Xfce4 is supah lightweight. Downloaded in like two minutes with all the goodies. KDE took four times as long.

No...thanks...

well KDE is still heavier than xfce for sure but they've made great strides with plasma 5 to reduce overhead. depending on your distro and how much of KDE you pulled, there might be lots of other services running that are ripe for disabling.

/goes back to cwm/chrome/urxvt environment

Oh man, KDE dependencies, the gift that keeps on giving. Although, Plasma's frosted glass transparent look thingy might be worth 2GBs of RAM..

[vivalarevolución]

I USE WINDOWS 98.

Show Image

You mean this?

Show Image

https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95

I run the Windows 98 theme on my Windows 7 computer at work.  Nothing beats it.

[vivalarevolución]

@csmertx - i'm all for ditching DEs but if you are looking for a nice DE that doesn't totally hog all your RAM, kde/plasma is real nice. whenever i have machines setup with a full DE it's either KDE or XFCE these days.

Dude, KDE hogs so much of my memory. Xfce4 is supah lightweight. Downloaded in like two minutes with all the goodies. KDE took four times as long.

No...thanks...

well KDE is still heavier than xfce for sure but they've made great strides with plasma 5 to reduce overhead. depending on your distro and how much of KDE you pulled, there might be lots of other services running that are ripe for disabling.

/goes back to cwm/chrome/urxvt environment

Oh man, KDE dependencies, the gift that keeps on giving. Although, Plasma's frosted glass transparent look thingy might be worth 2GBs of RAM..

Holy dependencies, KDE.  I looked to install a couple KDE apps that I like, but the list of dependencies was about as long as my current amount of installed packages.  Wtf.

[davkol]

@csmertx - i'm all for ditching DEs but if you are looking for a nice DE that doesn't totally hog all your RAM, kde/plasma is real nice. whenever i have machines setup with a full DE it's either KDE or XFCE these days.

Dude, KDE hogs so much of my memory. Xfce4 is supah lightweight. Downloaded in like two minutes with all the goodies. KDE took four times as long.

(a) Plasma memory consumption in current releases is on par with Xfce4
(b) there are KDE Applications (that share memory) and Plasma features entirely missing from Xfce4—to achieve parity, one needs to get a bunch of GNOME/MATE libraries and utilities (or look up lightweight alternatives)

[suicidal_orange]

...
I can tie together several tools (compton, udiskie, clipit, dunst, nitrogen, unclutter, stardict, etc.) that take the place of DE tools and services.
...

For the first time when reading what someone uses I have no idea what any of these are - I'd ask for a screenshot but sounds like there wouldn't be much to see )  I'll have several long reads and see if any of it could be useful...

Reason being I'm looking for a new distro coming from OpenSUSE with KDE (seriously, who designs an applet to tell you there are updates available which pops up over the easiest button you can click to install said updates?  And if it must could it not have a close button so you don't have to wait 5 seconds for it to disappear??)  I'm still leaning towards Arch or Gentoo with no major xxx-desktop package to avoid updating all the 'user friendly' config utilities and apps/games I'll never use, but any rolling distro would do.

Is distrowatch.com still the best list?

[xtrafrood]

...
I can tie together several tools (compton, udiskie, clipit, dunst, nitrogen, unclutter, stardict, etc.) that take the place of DE tools and services.
...

For the first time when reading what someone uses I have no idea what any of these are - I'd ask for a screenshot but sounds like there wouldn't be much to see )  I'll have several long reads and see if any of it could be useful...

Reason being I'm looking for a new distro coming from OpenSUSE with KDE (seriously, who designs an applet to tell you there are updates available which pops up over the easiest button you can click to install said updates?  And if it must could it not have a close button so you don't have to wait 5 seconds for it to disappear??)  I'm still leaning towards Arch or Gentoo with no major xxx-desktop package to avoid updating all the 'user friendly' config utilities and apps/games I'll never use, but any rolling distro would do.

Is distrowatch.com still the best list?

Distrowatch seems to be one of the best (oh wow, BSD is almost in the top ten). A few of those packages I mentioned are unique but most of them aren't. Unclutter might be unique iirc. If you want screenshots I could try to capture whatever it is that the tool does and send to PM (my source for screenshots is usually /r/unixporn).

[vivalarevolución]

I think Distrowatch is a good resource to understand what is popular and might have the most support and resources.  Although it tends to favor recent hype, to some extent, and may not reflect the user base for each distro.  For example, Manjaro is top of the list right now, but it is the most commonly used distro? Probably not. Most of those visits are probably out of curiosity after hearing about it. A lot of the most popular distros on Distrowatch are more polished distros that will attract converts from Windows/Mac.  What regular Linux users actually stick with probably would a little different.

[romevi]

@csmertx - i'm all for ditching DEs but if you are looking for a nice DE that doesn't totally hog all your RAM, kde/plasma is real nice. whenever i have machines setup with a full DE it's either KDE or XFCE these days.

Dude, KDE hogs so much of my memory. Xfce4 is supah lightweight. Downloaded in like two minutes with all the goodies. KDE took four times as long.

(a) Plasma memory consumption in current releases is on par with Xfce4
(b) there are KDE Applications (that share memory) and Plasma features entirely missing from Xfce4—to achieve parity, one needs to get a bunch of GNOME/MATE libraries and utilities (or look up lightweight alternatives)

For me, the KDE dependencies are too heavy, and the GUI interface seems bloated and RAM-heavy, albeit pretty. Seeing as I'm trying to move toward a tiling window manager anyway, I really appreciate Xfce4's minimalist and bare-bones approach.

I experienced some lagging and freezing when using and switching applications on KDE; I've yet to encounter such a problem with Xfce4. It just werks.

[davkol]

xfwm4 is relatively primitive, for the better or worse. It's only one of many DE components, though.

Also, let's not forget it's still possible to replace the window manager in multiple DEs, Xfce4 and Plasma included.

[xtrafrood]

I'd say that tinywm is primitive (damn impressive for 50 lines though).

[sth]

Holy dependencies, KDE.  I looked to install a couple KDE apps that I like, but the list of dependencies was about as long as my current amount of installed packages.  Wtf.

that isn't a real problem

[voight-kampff]

I use pop! Is
It is based on Ubuntu, but I like the UI more.


Sent from my MIX using Tapatalk

[xtrafrood]

@sth -- Oh, you were serious about KDE. Whoops, I thought you were joking. To be fair I'm not a fan of KDE or Gnome so take that as you will.

[Findecanor]

And when I use Linux Mint MATE and Ubuntu MATE, there is an increased amount of WTFs with Linux Mint.

That's partly why I too chose Ubuntu Mate. I had tested both and had WTF moments with Mint.

Also, if there is any game I want to install, it is likely to support Ubuntu only. Maybe would work on a Ubuntu-derived distro, but...

[Leslieann]

That's partly why I too chose Ubuntu Mate. I had tested both and had WTF moments with Mint.

There isn't a desktop interface out there without some WTF moments, and that includes Mac and Windows as well.
The only difference in Linux is you get to pick which one annoys you the least.

And yes, almost anything running on Ubuntu will run on a Buntu based distro, for the most part. It often depends how far from Ubuntu (and to a lesser extent Gnome 3) they strayed. May want to try Peppermint, it's pretty much Lubuntu cleaned up with a nicer panel and application menu.

[Altis]

Since Xfce is the only way I fly, Mint Xfce, ChaletOS, and Linux Lite have all been great for me.

Mint is my install at the moment but I'm thinking of having ChaletOS for the ThinkPad.