GNU Guix System, for the following reasons:
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User-level management of packages, i.e. each user has their own profile which contains their own installed packages, which is separate from the set of system packages. i.e. no need to be root to un/install packages
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Commitment to GNU Free System Distribution Guidelines, meaning no proprietary software, proprietary kernel bits, or promotion of such - which I’m aware some see as a negative but I specifically purchased Linux-libre compatible hardware for this reason.
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Source-based package manager with an option for retrieving pre-built packages (“substitutes”) from build servers. Any Guix machine can become a build server.
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Packages can be built from a specified git revision, or with a specified patch, etc.
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A package is just a variable defined in Guile Scheme. A package repository (“channel”) is just a git repo containing a collection of packages.
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Declarative configuration of system i.e. kernel, packages, services, users, etc.
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Un/installs are atomic transactions, they create new generations of profiles that can be rolled back. Same goes for system configurations. Each system “reconfiguration” actually creates a new entry in the bootloader so if it breaks you can boot into the previous system generation and manage it.
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I have been using Debian for almost 20 yrs. In all that time I have tried many many distros and have yet to find one that I liked as well as Debian. Apt is just great. The number of packages available is awesome. It works on more hardware than other distros.
Debian and Devuan.
Debian because I am used to and like its work model, first as user, then as SysAdmin hobbyist and later as SysAdmin student. I use it mostly when I need a fast installation or work in certain tools without non-SystemD support.
Devuan, my main distro. I use it for all other use-cases. I also experiment here when I got used to some tools which are SystemD dependent and look for replacements.
Edited: in general, Debian is organized and clean with a very dedicated documentation without breaking the rules of each software.
Different Linux distros are optimized for different use cases, so what’s best really depends on what you’re looking for. That said, I found Pop OS to be really hassle free which is what I’m looking for at this point. It just works out of the box, I haven’t had issues with it breaking during updates, and pretty much all the apps I use are in the official repos. So, can definitely recommend it as a Linux that just works.
Imo theres no best distribution, I just use what I see fit for a particular purpose. My favourite for personal laptop use (internet, development) is Void Linux for the following reasons:
- Sane and minimal base system (I hate NetworkManager though, but it can easily be switched for e.g. connman)
- The package manager is decently fast
- Fairly recent software in the official repo, while still being stable
- The documentation is good (It could be worded better though)
I would also say familiarity and comfort are a lot bigger factor than some might admit. I stick with Fedora because I know it, not because it’s somehow objectively better than other distros. At this point, most distros will work ootb on most hardware and serve a lot of the same purposes.
Yes, obviously there isn’t a best one, I was just curious which one y’all like best using for your purposes. (Was that a bad way to phrase the question?) This is the first time I heard of Void Linux, I’ll have a look at the site you linked!
Yes, obviously there isn’t a best one, I was just curious which one y’all like best using for your purposes. (Was that a bad way to phrase the question?)
No, the post title was very fine!
Some cool stuff I forgot because I only use it on my Laptop:
- They offer an alternative build with musl libc, a less “bloated” and potentially more secure alternative to glibc (desktop stuff broke often when I tried it, but for servers it’s really nice)
- They support ARM and have easy to use prebuilt images for popular arm boards
linux mint because its plug and play and its as user friendly as windows, but without all the bullshit.
I like elementaryOs the most because its DE is beautiful but it is not as good as I would like since its team is quite small, I would love if Pnetheon would be distro agnostic so that I could use it with Arch.
Arch… Because # of pakages available and I know what packages are installed on the system
I prefer Arch for the bleeding edge packages and AUR. The other thing I like about arch is that the desktop environments or window managers are not heavily modified from the release of the maintainer. So KDE Plasma is like how the maintainer wanted it to work/look.
Arch Linux for the recent software. But I also like Alpine, Debian, Ubuntu, Nix.
Void Linux. It’s lightweight and I am used to the package manager and the package ecosystem. I help updating packages in the repo too sometimes so contribution is easy. IRC channel for it is decently helpful.
Manjaro gnome.
Manjaro because it has the most software that can be easily installed.
Gnome because I like the defaults. KDE can be fun to configure but it tends not to work very well on my hardware.
Same here :D
NixOS. Very portable setup. This is what I like best. Also rather stable install, easy recovery out-of-the-box.
While at the same time, with a relatively large number of packages, and near-recent software versions. As an Arch user until recently, it’s the most happy compromise.
I’m really enjoying Pop!_OS. It was pretty simple to install, maintain, and customize. Updating to 21.04 was flawless for me and had no hiccups.
Void and Arch (Artix), btw. Of course, different distros are suited to different cases.
Fedora rawhide on laptop and Fedora 34 on PC. All witch Gnome.
Rawhide on laptop how is it ? Is it “stable” enough for daily usage ?
I am currently running fedora silver blue on my only machine and I love it
Yes and no. In most cases there are no problems, but there can be errors where you need to use the command line.
