What Linux Operating Systems do you like?

Tonight spend the evening installing Arch on my Minisforum/second PC. Fedora 42 started having network 'drop outs' over the last few days and stupidly because the network cable is quite new & high quality I didn't think to change it. I had tried a different port on the switch and some other configuration. So decided to use as an opportunity to Arch again. I was then I realised the cable may be the cause. Doh!

That said it's been interesting re-installing Arch. No graphical glitches on this very same PC as there were when I last tried it (GNOME as the DE). I only tend to need a few packages from the repos, or the AUR. Arch doesn't have a quiet splash screen on boot-up like Fedora, but will be interesting to see how long it lasts before I brake it. Fedora has been very solid over the last few years and quickly become my favourite flavour of Linux.

EDIT: And...less than 24hrs back to Fedora 42. Obviously you have to configure more in Arch; bluez, power-daemon, cups etc. But even with that certain irritations persist such as not being able to find my network printer. So whilst Arch has definitely been a better experience than last time I think I'm too comfy with Fedora for now. The new graphical installer with Fedora 42 (haven't not installed it fresh for a while) is lovely.
 
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Timber said:
Tonight spend the evening installing Arch on my Minisforum/second PC. Fedora 42 started having network 'drop outs' over the last few days and stupidly because the network cable is quite new & high quality I didn't think to change it. I had tried a different port on the switch and some other configuration. So decided to use as an opportunity to Arch again. I was then I realised the cable may be the cause. Doh!

That said it's been interesting re-installing Arch. No graphical glitches on this very same PC as there were when I last tried it (GNOME as the DE). I only tend to need a few packages from the repos, or the AUR. Arch doesn't have a quiet splash screen on boot-up like Fedora, but will be interesting to see how long it lasts before I brake it. Fedora has been very solid over the last few years and quickly become my favourite flavour of Linux.

EDIT: And...less than 24hrs back to Fedora 42. Obviously you have to configure more in Arch; bluez, power-daemon, cups etc. But even with that certain irritations persist such as not being able to find my network printer. So whilst Arch has definitely been a better experience than last time I think I'm too comfy with Fedora for now. The new graphical installer with Fedora 42 (haven't not installed it fresh for a while) is lovely.
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Manjaro would have prob covered off most of those pure arch niggles?
 
f666 said:
Manjaro would have prob covered off most of those pure arch niggles?
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Tried Manjaro before a number of years ago and don't really like it. Endeavour OS is another one I've tried, but was quite bloated. I do love the concept of Arch and for a gaming PC I'd seriously consider Arch + KDE. To be clear is was a better experience on this Minisforum PC than last time. However I just think Fedora is in a great place and is my flavour right now. Cutting edge, very reliable and works reasonably well out of the box.

Ironically the issues that cause me to blame Fedora now appear to be network related as I have funny behaviour on a few devices so I don't think it has anything to do with the PC, or the ethernet cable (bringing forward an upgrade in my Ubiquiti upgrades). But it was quite interesting seeing Archinstall baked into Arch, the new Fedora GUI installer. I also realise I can build an install a Linux OS in very quick time, but because I use so much cloud stuff (email, notes, steam, social media etc.) that just re-enabling everything is where I lose most time.
 
Timber said:
Tried Manjaro before a number of years ago and don't really like it. Endeavour OS is another one I've tried, but was quite bloated. I do love the concept of Arch and for a gaming PC I'd seriously consider Arch + KDE. To be clear is was a better experience on this Minisforum PC than last time. However I just think Fedora is in a great place and is my flavour right now. Cutting edge, very reliable and works reasonably well out of the box.

Ironically the issues that cause me to blame Fedora now appear to be network related as I have funny behaviour on a few devices so I don't think it has anything to do with the PC, or the ethernet cable (bringing forward an upgrade in my Ubiquiti upgrades). But it was quite interesting seeing Archinstall baked into Arch, the new Fedora GUI installer. I also realise I can build an install a Linux OS in very quick time, but because I use so much cloud stuff (email, notes, steam, social media etc.) that just re-enabling everything is where I lose most time.
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You should look into OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. It is a rolling release distro like Arch but far more stable and easier to manage.
 
I guess YMMV. Arch + KDE is perfect for me and has been pretty faultless for quite some time. No niggles to speak of, although I do agree that you have to configure more things to get them working. But that's part of the attraction for me.
 
Cromulent said:
You should look into OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. It is a rolling release distro like Arch but far more stable and easier to manage.
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Something I've been thinking about, probably one of the few mainstream distro's left to try.

Buffalo2102 said:
I guess YMMV. Arch + KDE is perfect for me and has been pretty faultless for quite some time. No niggles to speak of, although I do agree that you have to configure more things to get them working. But that's part of the attraction for me.
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I think I could easily use it and as you say configuring it is half the fun. That said I'm running two PC's in the office atm; a gaming machine (Windows 11) and a daily driver (Fedora 42). Fedora's more plug-and-play stableness just suits the latter context more for now. When and if I can get the Windows 11 machine to Linux (kids playing Roblox atm so not an option even the android emu) I would probably consider Arch + KDE.
 
Good shout on opensuse tumbleweed, will have to check it out. Also reminds me to put a box on fedora, had parked a test build which I hope to find some time for soon.
 
Kali-Linux GUI Via wsl 2
I have to admit it works even on old rubbish, even the sound works. Also been testing Docker with Portainer front end.
I've not quite got a grip on the config editing process yet, maybe a few hints might help.
 
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I've posted a few times in this thread about CachyOS and how me being a lazy person (read that as just someone who wants to do "stuff" whether that be productivity (mainly) or leisure pursuits (shooting things in the face primarily, without the OS getting in the way (I'm looking at you Windows 11), i've never been a real fan of rolling desktop distributions (the laziness again) and for the longest time have used Ubuntu, then Mint and latterly Pop!OS 22.04 on pretty much all my machines. Push came to shove when I bought a 9070XT. I'm not usually a early adopter of anything really, but CachyOS got the Mesa drivers I needed far sooner than my usual distributions (yes, there's easy ways to get mainline/mesa/compile what you need whatever, but see my earlier comments on the lazy aspect) and the killer fact I already had a external NvME with a configured setup for my main machine (which has now been cloned to 2 laptops) ready to go.

Suffice to say I've been using it for the last couple of months and it has been surprisingly trouble free and stable on my main machine so much so it has spread like a virus to other machines without me really consciously realising it.

It works. I don't have to be clever to get it the way I like and as long as I actually read the output of when I update it hasn't caused me any hassle. Which is nice and I like it :)

NB. What prompted this post was an update that had a "user intervention required" tag on the output, I realised I hadn't needed to intervene for the last c.3 months whilst updating, and in my case this wasn't required, but got me thinking how trouble free my time has been thus far. I've had more hassle with LTS builds over the same period.
 
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As a long time *nix user for backend I have been trying a few desktop releases recently, looking to see which one I am happy to use daily instead of Win10/11, its also finding replacement apps for my daily tools, shame Elagato dont have a linux release for stream deck, well not that I have seen.

Elementary - nice and basic but little too basic
PopOS - a personal fave and good contender
Mint - another solid choice
Manjaro - looking to install and try, seems promising

Now also adding CachyOS as seems interesting.
 
SupraWez said:
As a long time *nix user for backend I have been trying a few desktop releases recently, looking to see which one I am happy to use daily instead of Win10/11, its also finding replacement apps for my daily tools, shame Elagato dont have a linux release for stream deck, well not that I have seen.

Elementary - nice and basic but little too basic
PopOS - a personal fave and good contender
Mint - another solid choice
Manjaro - looking to install and try, seems promising

Now also adding CachyOS as seems interesting.
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CachyOS will be like Manjaro but lighter and with less security **** ups (search it lol). It's Arch, which is a very nice box to work with on desktop. Add in Fedora and OpenSUSE to your list. Fedora especially is a nice experience these days, has huge community and Red Hat backing, and has been Linus Torvalds' desktop for years (i.e. it gets a lot of eyes and dev time!).

e: I've used Fedora since Fedora Core 1, so I may be a little biased. That said, I also use multiple others (Arch, Debian, Pop, Ubuntu) so I'm not blinkered. Suck it and see.
 
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I’ve tried just about all of them. Ubuntu is always a solid choice.

I do run Elementary OS on my Zimablade, it’s visually pretty.

I’m currently testing Bazzite as a Linux gaming platform and like it so far.

Arch/Black arch for work.
 
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Rainmaker said:
CachyOS will be like Manjaro but lighter and with less security **** ups (search it lol). It's Arch, which is a very nice box to work with on desktop. Add in Fedora and OpenSUSE to your list. Fedora especially is a nice experience these days, has huge community and Red Hat backing, and has been Linus Torvalds' desktop for years (i.e. it gets a lot of eyes and dev time!).

e: I've used Fedora since Fedora Core 1, so I may be a little biased. That said, I also use multiple others (Arch, Debian, Pop, Ubuntu) so I'm not blinkered. Suck it and see.
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I will check out the security stuff, thanks.

Not used Fedora since 6/8/9 releases, back then it just felt a bit bloated and not tried it again since, will have another looksie.
 
I've recently installed Fedora Gnome, I'm not sure I can deal with it as a default install, namely the change to workflow in not having a desktop. I am one of those people who use the desktop to dump temp files on. Not sure if I wipe and re install a different distro or use extensions to add functionality.
 
VaderDSL said:
I've recently installed Fedora Gnome, I'm not sure I can deal with it as a default install, namely the change to workflow in not having a desktop. I am one of those people who use the desktop to dump temp files on. Not sure if I wipe and re install a different distro or use extensions to add functionality.
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You can re-enable the desktop... but also, it's Linux? You don't need to install a different distro just change your DE if you want.
 
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