Ask HN: What Linux distro do you daily drive?
I'm a long-time macOS user and I just want a change. Curious what people here actually use every day and what made you stick with it. Curious if you also switched from a Mac too. I'd like to get out of the "walled garden" ecosystem.
38 comments
I am running - and strongly recommend - Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE). https://www.linuxmint.com/download_lmde.php
For the past several years, I was running Debian stable & XFCE. It is a great combination. However, I started teaching technology (programming, Linux, and maker-space tech, like laser cutters & CNC routers), and I wanted to see how close I could get to an "easy button" interface, paired with a principles-driven, highly stable base. I gave LMDE a try, with an open mind, and was seriously impressed.
Linux desktop environments have come a long way, and Mint - with the "start" button (with application quick search), window management, "sane" defaults - it just works.
I will also mention that the Software Manager perfectly blends Debian source packages, and FlatPaks. From my experience, nearly all software that I want to install on it "just works" by searching for it. Those that aren't available there, it seems that downloading a .Deb to install it "just works" as well.
As background context, I have used Linux for 20+ years (Mandrake, Gentoo, RHEL, CentOS, Ubuntu, Debian, and now LMDE) - LMDE gets my roaring endorsement, and I think more people ought to check it out.
For the past several years, I was running Debian stable & XFCE. It is a great combination. However, I started teaching technology (programming, Linux, and maker-space tech, like laser cutters & CNC routers), and I wanted to see how close I could get to an "easy button" interface, paired with a principles-driven, highly stable base. I gave LMDE a try, with an open mind, and was seriously impressed.
Linux desktop environments have come a long way, and Mint - with the "start" button (with application quick search), window management, "sane" defaults - it just works.
I will also mention that the Software Manager perfectly blends Debian source packages, and FlatPaks. From my experience, nearly all software that I want to install on it "just works" by searching for it. Those that aren't available there, it seems that downloading a .Deb to install it "just works" as well.
As background context, I have used Linux for 20+ years (Mandrake, Gentoo, RHEL, CentOS, Ubuntu, Debian, and now LMDE) - LMDE gets my roaring endorsement, and I think more people ought to check it out.
I wouldn’t get too caught up on distros. So many people end up distro hopping for years and never settle. The grass is always greener somewhere else, or there is always something new to try.
I’d just get one of the mainstream ones which will have the most community support available, and go with it. Ubuntu, Mint, or Fedora most likely. I’ve had good luck with OpenSuse in the past, but not too many people use Suse outside of the enterprise, which can be an issue if you’re just starting out.
Curious what you’re doing for hardware. That’s always the biggest hurdle for me when looking to do anything outside of macOS.
I’d just get one of the mainstream ones which will have the most community support available, and go with it. Ubuntu, Mint, or Fedora most likely. I’ve had good luck with OpenSuse in the past, but not too many people use Suse outside of the enterprise, which can be an issue if you’re just starting out.
Curious what you’re doing for hardware. That’s always the biggest hurdle for me when looking to do anything outside of macOS.
That’s great advice the main distros tend to have tons of support for much longer and easier to maintain I’m sure. I currently have a Mac mini m4 so I’m thinking a similar sized box with an AMD setup inside, those small mini PCs.
Pop OS, combined with "Toshy" for using Mac keyboard shortcuts. I find this is a really comprehensive translation of Mac shortcuts, even cmd+shift+{} works for moving between tabs. I use my Keychron keyboard in Mac mode retaining all the same muscle memory.
https://github.com/RedBearAK/toshy
It was working quite perfectly with 22.04 but there are some caveats with the recent Pop OS "Cosmos" version, I can't find the shortcut to cycle between instances of the same application (cmd + `) and in general the OS is a little buggy and functionality can be quite sparse in some applications like you can't rearrange tabs in their terminal yet and it didn't even have "open new tab to the same folder I'm in" until recently. However the trajectory they're on is a Mac-like system-wide consistency and thoughtfulness, it's just early-stage.
https://github.com/RedBearAK/toshy
It was working quite perfectly with 22.04 but there are some caveats with the recent Pop OS "Cosmos" version, I can't find the shortcut to cycle between instances of the same application (cmd + `) and in general the OS is a little buggy and functionality can be quite sparse in some applications like you can't rearrange tabs in their terminal yet and it didn't even have "open new tab to the same folder I'm in" until recently. However the trajectory they're on is a Mac-like system-wide consistency and thoughtfulness, it's just early-stage.
Awesome, I'll take a look at Toshy, too. I was looking into PopOS or CachyOS (with Cosmic). There seems to be such a vast amount of Linux distros and window managers than I remember from a good 5-10 years ago.
Everything seems to be tied to a subscription now on the Windows/Mac side in some way, its been very off putting for me.
Everything seems to be tied to a subscription now on the Windows/Mac side in some way, its been very off putting for me.
I really like being able to map the Mac key bindings.
I run Zorin on an old Mac and I am pleased with it.
I run Zorin on an old Mac and I am pleased with it.
Picked up Mint this summer and it has been a joy to use. The progress they've made in the last three years is astounding and opposed to every other time I've used Linux there have been zero moments of needing to run ten terminal commands from stack overflow to get sound to work.
Ubuntu because I don’t want to make researching distros a hobby and because I can use X-windows and because I know from experience I can use X-windows.
For completeness: I use Windows too because I use some commercial software and can buy used Thinkpads for about $100 any time I want another laptop.
For completeness: I use Windows too because I use some commercial software and can buy used Thinkpads for about $100 any time I want another laptop.
NixOS which is a curse because now I weep each time I have to use a distro that is not declarative.
Been on NixOS for 3 years full time. I can never go back.
Ubuntu, because I don't want to think about the OS too much. I expect that I'll someday try out more distros either to get away from snap or to get faster updates for different fractional scaling on multiple monitors.
Depending on the machine I use. My laptop is one of the few machines that can run entirely on open source from Firmware, drivers all the way to the top. Thus I run Trisquel. Definitely not for everyone.
But on other machines, I just run Mint. It is just a nice and comfortable thing. The base Cinnamon desktop is basically just Windows 7 locked in place with a few quality of life improvements. Not too ambitious but that ends up keeping things simple and mostly just works. For those that want more power and tweaking it isn't the best choice.
But on other machines, I just run Mint. It is just a nice and comfortable thing. The base Cinnamon desktop is basically just Windows 7 locked in place with a few quality of life improvements. Not too ambitious but that ends up keeping things simple and mostly just works. For those that want more power and tweaking it isn't the best choice.
Fedora. Pretty much everything works out of the box and synergizes well with the stuff I handle at work.
Only thing that ever broke was a nVidia driver thing, once. Flawless with AMD, and Proton means Steam runs AAA games out of the box. Windows VMs work fine.
Also had good experiences with the Ubuntu / Mint family, and liked Manjaro (Arch) until pacman stopped working for some reason
Only thing that ever broke was a nVidia driver thing, once. Flawless with AMD, and Proton means Steam runs AAA games out of the box. Windows VMs work fine.
Also had good experiences with the Ubuntu / Mint family, and liked Manjaro (Arch) until pacman stopped working for some reason
Fedora with KDE as the DE.
OS is solid, everything works, I'm happy.
The older I get the more I feel myself thinking like Linus. The OS should just get out of my way.
OS is solid, everything works, I'm happy.
The older I get the more I feel myself thinking like Linus. The OS should just get out of my way.
Sounds like a solid idea
I run Nobara, which is basically a beautyfied Fedora variant. It's pure Fedora with addons that make it easier to handle for Windows-damaged users. I left Windows last year, no regrets - Nobara just works and doesn't need any attention. Support community on Discord always up to help and very friendly.
I'm usually running Debian everywhere, and currently running OpenMandriva on my desktop PC. I work in the refurb department of an e-waste recycling company, where I install Linux Mint on most of what I sell. (If it has a touchscreen, it gets Debian with KDE.)
Give Linux Mint Debian Edition a try (https://www.linuxmint.com/download_lmde.php). I am in Latin America (Colombia) and I have been installing LMDE on 5-10 year old computers (former POS systems - old Dell Optiplexes and Latitudes), and its amazing how much it brings them back to life - fast & stable.
I was running Ubuntu everywhere until they started locking security updates behind a login.
Now I’m Debian for servers and whatever comfortable Debian based user experience is popular for a laptop. I played with zorin recently. It was fun.
Now I’m Debian for servers and whatever comfortable Debian based user experience is popular for a laptop. I played with zorin recently. It was fun.
Yes Ubuntu felt very Windows-like to me. I’ve heard lots about Zorin, did you use that with KDE?
I used to distro-hop a lot and in recent years settled with RHEL. The key change over the years is how fragile the supply chain becomes, so while distro like Arch Linux is a great learning experience, I just want to put a layer of maintainers who have higher stake than others between me and the world.
(RHEL has a free tier for developers limited to 16 instances.)
PopOS! I used arch for my intro but shortly got tired of the setup. I like Rust so I tried it and fell in close with cosmic. with auto tiling turned on, of course ;)
Fedora KDE or GNOME. I bounce between. Everything works out of the box.
I was always a Debian and Ubuntu guy, and hated RPM OSes, but between Debian's old releases and Ubuntu's decisions (snap), it was enough to drive me to Fedora. I get the latest versions and stability and a decent usable desktop.
I was always a Debian and Ubuntu guy, and hated RPM OSes, but between Debian's old releases and Ubuntu's decisions (snap), it was enough to drive me to Fedora. I get the latest versions and stability and a decent usable desktop.
I agree with other sentiments of don't worry too much about the distro, but just do it. There is a lot of "it just works" all over many distros. As a daily driver though, you might have different work or other requirements that might not just work and you can distro hop as well..
I believe it's important to be part of the change you want to see (from walled gardens perspective)
I believe it's important to be part of the change you want to see (from walled gardens perspective)
I went Windows -> Mac -> Ubuntu -> Arch -> Debian (current)
With Ubuntu I didn't like how Canonical was trying to push things I didn't like into the OS
Arch was fun for a bit but turned into a bit of a pain in the ass needing to fix things, or manually configure it
Debian Stable has more or less just worked and I have no reason to switch
With Ubuntu I didn't like how Canonical was trying to push things I didn't like into the OS
Arch was fun for a bit but turned into a bit of a pain in the ass needing to fix things, or manually configure it
Debian Stable has more or less just worked and I have no reason to switch
Aurora OS and Bazzite. Flathub crap happens, but I’ve never had so much confidence in my Linux machine. It has the windows or Mac quality that i can trust it to boot into a real desktop environment after any update. No more booting to a broken terminal session with no means of googling or real recovery
I use Linux for work, so i was not venturing into unfamiliar territory when i switched to Linux on Mac. When i installed Linux (elementary OS) on my Mac few years back, the issue that annoyed me was not the OS, but lack of proper drivers for my the touchpad.
I would still recommend trying it out as your mileage may vary.
I would still recommend trying it out as your mileage may vary.
NixOS. Why would anyone use anything else except out of ignorance? Maybe QubesOS makes sense.
I tried NixOS but i'm gonna switch, as there is some stuff that annoys me:
- I couldn't get the language syntax in my head.
- A lot of things need special care on NixOS (python environments, docker, vs codium remote explorer
- it's not a rolling relase
- during every update I usually have to perform the "error, fix, retry, new error, fix again"-dance multiple times
I really like the idea of NixOS, but it somehow doesn't flow for me
I really like the idea of NixOS, but it somehow doesn't flow for me
I also use linux mint zena , really good if you are just starting out and also if you want heavy customisation later on , that said i think you should go for fedora because it is lighter and also has heavy customisation.
I have toyed around with Arch and I really believe you can accomplish almost everything with it when other distros just aren’t as ready or capable.
I rely on Debian for my daily needs and forced it on my wife.
I rely on Debian for my daily needs and forced it on my wife.
Aurora for its rock solid reliability due to immutable root.
I got sick of breakage when updating to new Ubuntu releases.
I got sick of breakage when updating to new Ubuntu releases.
Zeven OS - a small distro something between Mint and ZorinOS
I tend to drive lower end laptops so I've always gone with Debian testing and Gnome. It just works!
Arch for last 5 years, never had issues, but I also buy laptops specifically with Linux support.
Debian. The big fat daddy that carries all the other distros.
I'm actually in the opposite position. I've used Linux for 10 years until I recently had to switch to Mac due to work. I started off in Ubuntu in 2016 and moved to Arch in 2018. I ran it until I started in a new job.
One thing that Linux just gets right compared to macos and windows is the package managers. Brew is nice and all, but it's nothing compared to pacman/apt. I also miss it for the window managers. Coming from i3, navigating a mac felt so slow and inefficient.
Linux can be intimidating, but I'd suggest just starting off and try it. Preferably in something more beginner friendly. I've heard good things about Debian. If you want the full on "I (kinda) use arch btw", I'd also check out Manjaro which runs arch in the background.
GL!
One thing that Linux just gets right compared to macos and windows is the package managers. Brew is nice and all, but it's nothing compared to pacman/apt. I also miss it for the window managers. Coming from i3, navigating a mac felt so slow and inefficient.
Linux can be intimidating, but I'd suggest just starting off and try it. Preferably in something more beginner friendly. I've heard good things about Debian. If you want the full on "I (kinda) use arch btw", I'd also check out Manjaro which runs arch in the background.
GL!
Thanks so much, yes I like how you can go to pacman/apt and boom everything is right there! Also I’ve become much more keyboard oriented in navigating and macOS just doesn’t have the same navigation as i3, hyprland, etc. It is intimidating a bit, but I haven’t really felt a challenge on the Mac/windows side for so long that I’m looking forward to it! Thank you.
If you want a taste of i3/Hyprland you could try aerospace. It's lean, a bit clunky to use and lacks a lot of functionality, but it's the best mac option for a i3-style display manager on mac. I installed it day 1 of switching and I haven't looked back since. I'm thinking of maybe looking into adding some PRs or forking it to see if I can add some functionality to it
NixOS everywhere. 12 machines and counting.
Q4OS — works great on older laptops
MX Linux (debian) w/ Xfce since 2021
I have switched from a Mac to Linux, but that was 20 years ago and the switch was only in laptops, because in desktops I had already switched from Windows to Linux earlier.
I had been very satisfied with the hardware quality of my Apple laptop, but I had mixed feelings about the Apple software. There were a few things that I liked, but overall I was dissatisfied because there were too many constraints in what I was allowed to do and I like to have absolute control over my computers.
In the beginning, I had experimented with many Linux distributions, but eventually, around 2003 I switched to Gentoo, also because it allowed me even better control of everything that a computer does than most Linux distributions available then (or now).
At that time, Gentoo had exceptional documentation, similar to that of FreeBSD, which had been a major source of inspiration for Gentoo, and I learned a lot of things from that documentation and from configuring and managing Gentoo on various desktops, laptops and servers.
I have continued to use Gentoo until today. Unfortunately, while Gentoo still has a reasonably good documentation for newbies, nowadays no Linux distribution has documentation as good as that from a couple of decades ago, because many new features have been added and a lot of the old features have become obsolete, but much of the documentation, at all Linux distributions, has not been completely updated with everything that has changed.
Until now, I did not have any reason to change from Gentoo, as it continues to allow me the fine control that I want. I have used from time to time other distributions, like Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, Arch, but all were more difficult to customize.
My parents had used Gentoo for more than a decade, until being around ninety years old, and they did not know what "Linux" is. Nonetheless, they did whatever they wanted, like reading and writing various kinds of documents, browsing Internet, watching movies, listening music, watching TV (with a TV tuner card) etc. That was possible because they had me for installing the OS and the applications that they needed. Once everything was installed, nothing was more difficult than it would have been in MacOS or Windows. Actually many things were simpler.
Nevertheless, it is likely that Gentoo is not recommendable for someone who does not have programming experience and who does not have someone to help, like my parents had.
Among the other Linux distributions, the one that implements some features that I want, so it is tempting to try, is NixOS (or its derivative Guix). But until now I have not found time to experiment with it, because there was no pressing need, as Gentoo, with which I am habituated, still works fine.
Gentoo is renowned for slow installations, because typically you must compile all the programs from sources.
But with modern fast computers that is not really true. With a fast CPU with many cores and high frequency, most packages can be compiled in seconds and there are only a few outliers, like Chromium, Webkit, Firefox, LLVM, which may need a long compilation time.
Moreover, for installing Gentoo on a slow laptop or mini-PC, you can run the installation on a fast desktop, where you install everything in a temporary directory after a fast compilation, and then you just copy the contents of the directory into the root file system of the target computer. Running the Gentoo installation can be done even if that desktop uses a different Linux distribution, or even if it does not have Linux, but you boot it from a USB memory containing some live Linux image.
I had been very satisfied with the hardware quality of my Apple laptop, but I had mixed feelings about the Apple software. There were a few things that I liked, but overall I was dissatisfied because there were too many constraints in what I was allowed to do and I like to have absolute control over my computers.
In the beginning, I had experimented with many Linux distributions, but eventually, around 2003 I switched to Gentoo, also because it allowed me even better control of everything that a computer does than most Linux distributions available then (or now).
At that time, Gentoo had exceptional documentation, similar to that of FreeBSD, which had been a major source of inspiration for Gentoo, and I learned a lot of things from that documentation and from configuring and managing Gentoo on various desktops, laptops and servers.
I have continued to use Gentoo until today. Unfortunately, while Gentoo still has a reasonably good documentation for newbies, nowadays no Linux distribution has documentation as good as that from a couple of decades ago, because many new features have been added and a lot of the old features have become obsolete, but much of the documentation, at all Linux distributions, has not been completely updated with everything that has changed.
Until now, I did not have any reason to change from Gentoo, as it continues to allow me the fine control that I want. I have used from time to time other distributions, like Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, Arch, but all were more difficult to customize.
My parents had used Gentoo for more than a decade, until being around ninety years old, and they did not know what "Linux" is. Nonetheless, they did whatever they wanted, like reading and writing various kinds of documents, browsing Internet, watching movies, listening music, watching TV (with a TV tuner card) etc. That was possible because they had me for installing the OS and the applications that they needed. Once everything was installed, nothing was more difficult than it would have been in MacOS or Windows. Actually many things were simpler.
Nevertheless, it is likely that Gentoo is not recommendable for someone who does not have programming experience and who does not have someone to help, like my parents had.
Among the other Linux distributions, the one that implements some features that I want, so it is tempting to try, is NixOS (or its derivative Guix). But until now I have not found time to experiment with it, because there was no pressing need, as Gentoo, with which I am habituated, still works fine.
Gentoo is renowned for slow installations, because typically you must compile all the programs from sources.
But with modern fast computers that is not really true. With a fast CPU with many cores and high frequency, most packages can be compiled in seconds and there are only a few outliers, like Chromium, Webkit, Firefox, LLVM, which may need a long compilation time.
Moreover, for installing Gentoo on a slow laptop or mini-PC, you can run the installation on a fast desktop, where you install everything in a temporary directory after a fast compilation, and then you just copy the contents of the directory into the root file system of the target computer. Running the Gentoo installation can be done even if that desktop uses a different Linux distribution, or even if it does not have Linux, but you boot it from a USB memory containing some live Linux image.
Gentoorian here as well, cheers.
I use it since ~20 years on most of my notebooks/PCs/root servers mainly because of its flexibility and I often end up wanting to use the very latest versions of software (e.g. ZFS, kernels, etc...) without struggling as most things are available from the official central package repository. I admit that updating/upgrading the OS is a pain from the time perspective (because of the long compilation times). As a programmer/developer the experience is as well fantastic as most of the libraries, compilers, interpreters, etc are very well integrated or easily installable.
I did try to use a few times Linux Arch, but I never fully liked its AUR.
For VMs I basically use always either Debian or Linux Mint with Xfce.
For gaming, mediacenter-PC and webradio-miniPC I use Linux Mint with Xfce.
It's funny that whenever I need assistance with some task (fixing a problem, doing something weird, ...) and I mention to Google Gemini something like "I'm using Gentoo Linux blahblah" then often Gemini starts its reply with something like "Ah, a picky Gentoorian, I see - then let's do this the complicated way..." :o)
I use it since ~20 years on most of my notebooks/PCs/root servers mainly because of its flexibility and I often end up wanting to use the very latest versions of software (e.g. ZFS, kernels, etc...) without struggling as most things are available from the official central package repository. I admit that updating/upgrading the OS is a pain from the time perspective (because of the long compilation times). As a programmer/developer the experience is as well fantastic as most of the libraries, compilers, interpreters, etc are very well integrated or easily installable.
I did try to use a few times Linux Arch, but I never fully liked its AUR.
For VMs I basically use always either Debian or Linux Mint with Xfce.
For gaming, mediacenter-PC and webradio-miniPC I use Linux Mint with Xfce.
It's funny that whenever I need assistance with some task (fixing a problem, doing something weird, ...) and I mention to Google Gemini something like "I'm using Gentoo Linux blahblah" then often Gemini starts its reply with something like "Ah, a picky Gentoorian, I see - then let's do this the complicated way..." :o)
I have multiple answers, since I routinely use multiple machines:
- Primary desktop (custom-built): NixOS + Windows 11 (latter currently unbootable because installing NixOS nuked Windows' UEFI; whoops lmao)
- Primary laptop (Framework 16): Aeon (immutable openSUSE variant) + Windows 11 LTSC
- Secondary laptop (Framework 13): OpenBSD-current (+ occasional Windows, Haiku, NixOS by booting from Framework expansion cards)
- Band room recording laptop (Dell G5 15): AV Linux
- Primary desktop (custom-built): NixOS + Windows 11 (latter currently unbootable because installing NixOS nuked Windows' UEFI; whoops lmao)
- Primary laptop (Framework 16): Aeon (immutable openSUSE variant) + Windows 11 LTSC
- Secondary laptop (Framework 13): OpenBSD-current (+ occasional Windows, Haiku, NixOS by booting from Framework expansion cards)
- Band room recording laptop (Dell G5 15): AV Linux
Arch for PCs
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