I started on Debian potato and used pretty much every distribution at sone point, often three at a time. I’ve used Ubuntu for the last five years because it’s easy, stable and upto date. I know people get very minmax about their choice of os and I love that but yeah we need to remember when we say it’s ‘fine’ or ‘good enough’ that yeah it’s not race tuned or weaponised or whatever special builds people are making but ita still much much better than windows.
I’m done with Ubuntu, after it had glaringly obvious bugs in 4 seperate releases right after booting the default install.
I’m talking, system starts and the first thing you see is a crash message. Or the DE locking up. Or the software center throwing an error when you try to install a program. Or Firefox telling you it can’t restore your tabs, when you just started it for the first time. etc.
Debian used to be more of a hassle to set up, but nowadays I think it’s one of the highest quality distros available. It really just works.
Arch is also very good, and never broke on me in a decade, but what it does do is change stuff on you constantly, and I’m getting too old for that.
Definitely, I don’t really like Ubuntu that much even though it’s my go-to. What I like is Xfce. Whether I get it via xubuntu or something else I don’t really care.
Arch Linux user here to say… Ubuntu’s fine, man. Love all the derivatives that can take advantage of the core Ubuntu system (e.g., Mint, which I’ve installed for family members).
I love Arch. I use it all the time. I will not inflict it on any family members.
Eh, I’m at the stage where I’m done with windows and have no desire for osx, but I also don’t have an entire evening or weekend to be locked into my computer like I used to. At a certain point, I need my computer to just work most of the time so I can finish my actual work and then spend time with my family.
Arch users are like the car guys who spend all day tuning the engine and adjust the seats on namometer scale. I myself drive an ancient volvo that looks like shit but works great no matter the abuse I put it through. And I use LMDS for the same reason - it does what I need it to do, with no need for manually adjusting compression ratios.
I had a much better experience with Manjaro over EndeavourOS because it supported more of my hardware, but to be fair I’m using an Asus gaming laptop. When I build my next desktop, I’m gonna try a straight Arch install.
the problem with ubuntu is canonical, it’s a shame it’s got the reputation as “the third OS” when it’s basically the only distro that’s trying to replicate the walled gardens of microsoft and apple.
It’s one rich dudes toy is how I see it. It’s a good distro but once I tried to uninstall some things and it wouldn’t let me and so that was the end of it for me at home. I use the server version at work for one machine.
I wouldn’t describe Microsoft as a walled garden (and Canonical even less). But maybe that term comes with degrees, and different perspectives of what’s tolerable.
Windows is less of a “walled garden”, and more like a shared garden where the other gardener is really inconsiderate and will mess up your part of the garden whenever it doesn’t align with their vision.
Jesus Christ this thread is full of people who don’t realize they’re the judging hipster in the post.
Ubuntu isn’t the entry level distro that you move on from once you’ve gotten your feet wet, and your not very subtle pats on your own backs for using something different aren’t earned.
Does it do everything the user needs from it? If so, don’t tell them that they need to “graduate” to a “better” flavor.
I ran Gentoo for about 3 years (and will likely return soon) and I reckon there are plenty of really advanced Ubuntu users who know more about how my system works than I do.
Any mainstream general purpose distro can do mostly anything and can be used by power users. Some should ONLY be used by power users, but that doesn’t make them inherently better than a distro that both a newbie and a power user can understand and use.
You know why I use Gentoo? Literally the bragging rights. I doubt I’m optimizing things THAT much with my fancy compiler flags.
this is so true. just because one can use more advanced systems doesn’t mean he’s smarter than all the more “basic” system users. especially in the linux world.
all of the distros can pretty much do the same thing, some distros are just more focused on the ease of use.
Ironically I’ve tried installing Ubuntu a couple of times in the past, but for whatever reason it didn’t work. I’m currently using Debian instead just because the install worked. No idea why, maybe my laptop is just weird.
I used Arch for years because I wanted to learn more about how linux works and it was a good way to push myself. I think it worked because I am better at problem solving now - I even read the error messages lol
for real. my uncle has been programmer his whole life and he was always the most linux guy I’ve known. I have never seen him use any other os. and yet he uses ubuntu. his own words are thar he doesn’t care about all the bells and whistles that come trough distros like arch or gentoo. ubuntu works well enough for him and it’s what he is used to, so he uses that.
using ubuntu defiently does not mean you’re a noob or non-techy linux user. personally I wouldn’t touch it again but the linux culture about arch being superior and others being for noobs is ridiculous
This 1000%. Since basically High School I’ve been on Ubuntu for the machines I need to work, because at the end of the day it usually does. Some of the people I meet see that I use a Chromebook with the containers enabled and have similar reactions. “How can you use that it’s not even real Linux?”, as if it isn’t literally a Linux kernel. The Steam Deck is popular because you don’t need to know Linux to use it, and Ubuntu is popular because you don’t need to know a lot of Linux to use it.
I still prefer nerdy hipster elitists gatekeepers from greedy corps after all is said and done. The first is unfortunate flaw of human character, the second is a calculated machine. If this is the price to pay then so be it. Individuality often isn’t as nice on the surface as the common but the common often has hidden sinister motives under the comfy, smoothened out rug of user friendliness.
Lonely nerds don’t have PR and marketing teams but also won’t stab you in the back for profit. Sometimes they can be huge assholes though.
For real I started on Ubuntu and nearly a decade later I still would be on Ubuntu if it wasn’t for their migration to snaps with the proprietary back end.
Only linux newbies and weirdos hate on Ubuntu. It’s a good all around operating system. Not the best choice and Canonical fails a lot but it’s still a net good.
The neck beards that judge someone’s distro choice without knowing their use cases don’t represent the Linux community. Just use the best tool for the job
To be fair, most tools are pretty bad at all other jobs besides the one it was made for. Same goes for an OS. If Ubuntu is made to off ramp people more comfortable with Windows, then that’s just a fine purpose for aln OS.
I use Ubuntu on most of my servers and dual boot my gaming rig with Ubuntu Desktop mainly to host LLMs. I’ve been a Linux user for 25 years, I remember playing around with Red Hat pre 2000. Right now though, I want a solid distro that supports lots of hardware (my network consists of x86, ARM, Oracle Cloud, SBCs, etc), has a large community for support, and isn’t likely to get abandoned. Ubuntu solves that
No, Apple gives off hipster vibes to the average PC user. Apple products are basically jewelry, you choose Apple products largely to be seen with them, so that when you slide that phone out of your pocket there’s that Apple logo on it. So that your bubble is blue in iMessage. That’s hipster shit.
The average PC user has never seen Linux running on a PC and doesn’t understand what a “distro” is at all. Ubuntu and its default Gnome DE isn’t as easily mistaken for Windows as KDE or Cinnamon is, so this one might spark the conversation a little faster, and “average” Windows users tend to compare Linux users of all stripes to vegans.
WIthin the Linux community, Until maybe 5 years ago Ubuntu had the “beginner OS” stank to it. “Start here until you’re ready to edit xorg.conf like a real man.” Canonical has been shifting away from “Linux for the masses” and more toward “Leveraging synergies” to the point that I straight-up recommend against Ubuntu for daily use as their Snap ecosystem has a lot of disadvantages for desktop users especially gamers. To me, Ubuntu is a radial arm saw, the wonder do-all death trap grampa won’t shut up about that no one makes anymore. In the modern day, best practice is to forget they exist.
I’m a big PC guy, love building my own computers every few years. But, I use MacBooks for when I’m out of the house/traveling. Because windows laptops suck and MacBooks are just good.
My daily driver used to be a MacBook Air running Linux. Apple hardware is amazing, I don’t give a shit about the logo on my laptop. I only switched to MacOS for a daily driver when I started working for a company that gave me a MacBook pro so I sold my Air which was just gathering dust.
I can’t argue with @Ashelyn 's answer of "SteamOS running on the Steam Deck. Beyond that, on normal x86 gaming PC hardware? There isn’t a meaningful answer. I have perfectly good luck gaming on Linux Mint. Others prefer Arch or its forks, some prefer Nobara which is on the Fedora family tree.
What’s the best distro for gaming on Linux? The one that you keep installed.
Technically, steamOS because it’s designed to play games and it’s what the steam deck uses. That probably won’t have many other non-gaming features though, and I’ve personally never used it. In my experience, you can get most games without a hyper-aggressive anti cheat working on any Linux distro with varying degrees of effort, just a matter of having all the needed libraries installed! The more popular distros like Ubuntu, popOS, Fedora, even Arch (btw) should have a lot of helpful information out there on how to get Lutris or Steam set up.
Hmm idk man, anything that has ads playing everywhere 24/7 is not hipster, hipster is unknown, but stylish etc. Hipster is more trendsetter and macOS is not a trendsetter, it’s just a trend at this point. Anything pop by definition is not hipster.
To give a pithy example: macOS is to tech hipsters what hot topic is to goth hipsters
Apple products are basically jewelry, you choose Apple products largely to be seen with them
that’s usually the take of someone who has never actually used them. I’m far from an Apple fanboy - I actually use all OS because I understood a while ago that each has its strengths.
my main machine is a Mac and the reason for that is that it is very reliable. I feel like I can count on it to take somewhere and have it just work and not get stuck in a boot loop, or locked out in the login screen (things I faced with linux distros) or stuck in a surprise update screen with Windows.
of course it’s a locked down system with little flexibility and could be expensive, but it pays off in reliability imo. when I want to do some more tricky shenanigans I have a machine with linux, and windows is for… well it’s only really worth to play games with for me hehe
I have used Ubuntu for years. I’m not a noob by any means, and would consider myself more advanced than most users. I used to love tinkering, but once I had a set of scripts built that set everything up just the way I like it on a new install, the need to tinker faded.
I have recently switched to Debian due to bloat and snaps, but I won’t ever judge an Ubuntu user.
Yeah I started in the Red Hat 2 era, played with all the WMs and DEs, compiled my own kernel a few times. After a point I had too much going on in my life to tinker with my distro. My needs are simple, I just need a terminal and a package manager.
Snaps have issues sure, but anything is better than the dependency hell of old.
I use Ubuntu on my servers because it just… Works, out of the box I can run my scripts and have no issues 100% of the time. On desktops I used to use SolusOS for gaming as that was the only Linux OS at the time I could comfortably game on without many hiccups.
And thats fine. You are entitled to your opinion, and your opinion is based on actual things.
As long as you don’t denigrate and insult others for using it, or try to pretend you’re the superior linux hackerman for not using it, You’re all good.
Hard disagree. I dual boot both Windows 11 and Ubuntu on my main laptop and Ubuntu is usually way faster feeling, except sometimes on shutdown due to some snap or cups bug. Almost everything opens in a second or less, and I get better battery life on Ubuntu as well. My bigger problem is that it struggles with WiFi under crowded conditions.
I’m rly happy when ppl switch to a GNU/Linux OS, tho I would never recommend Ubuntu to anyone (anymore), since Linux Mint has a much saner no bs team that is not fucked over by a corporate
Ubuntu is a gateway drug. Its lickable Fisher-Price interface is easy to use for basic tasks like web browsing, email and so on, and the always present sidebar provides reassurance. Once users start chafing against the limitations, they can move to forks like Xubuntu, or all the way to Debian itself, or if they really want to get their hands dirty, Arch.
As Canonical has been doing nothing but worsening the user experience in Ubuntu for end user desktop use I see “performing every task they need it to” as decreasingly likely.
m8 linux is not for the sort of person who gets panicked about options in the first place, there’s an alarming disconnect in this trend towards pretending it’s just linux’s reputation for complexity that puts people off. There are people in this very thread who don’t even recognize that apple is fascist hipster bullshit and almost noone who understands why. What’s more, I once heard a grown woman argue she shouldn’t have a different opinion than her parents because if it was good enough for them it should be good enough for her. People are fucking monkeys, mate. If linux ever hits 10% market share I’ll be amazed. Hell, 5 is a stretch…
Ubuntu is wide spread, well documented, and was the recommended distro for a lot of things (like steam) for a long time.
I used Ubuntu for a long time, I didnt grow up and move on or any hipster shit like that… I simply moved to Nobara because it offered a better out of the box experience for me, a gamer, due entirely to all the gaming related stuff being installed as default, at start.
This weird need to feel superior to others over distro choice is weird, and kinda pathetic. Its just stupid and pathetic to be insulting and denigrating others over their distro choice… And says a lot more about the pathetic nature of the person saying it, then anything they could type.
and yes, I said pathetic 3 times, because thats just how pathetic it is to be like that.
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