I made the unfortunate post about asking why people liked Arch so much (RIP my inbox I’m learning a lot from the comments) But, what is the best distro for each reason?
RIP my inbox again. I appreciate this knowledge a lot. Thank you everyone for responding. You all make this such a great community.
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Debian just works.
EndeavourOS is the best because.
It’s currently on my system and said system hasn’t burst into flames yet, so I’m too lazy to change it.
Also, its space themed which makes it automatically the coolest.
OpenSUSE because rolling release and no IBM. Never used it though.
Currently I use Mint. It works but it’s not the best.
You should certainly try OpenSUSE, it’s as good as it says on the tin
It’s my plan. Not in the mood to distro-hop on my laptop right now, and I got to get through my Epic Games backlog (and also the Steam demos I can’t be bothered downloading again) before I swap over my Windows 10 desktop.
Sure, no rush there!
I tried OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, that was a massive mistake (video codecs broken, froze whenever I tried to enter my password without changing from X11 to Wayland or vice versa (a theme was installed)).
Just reinstalled it with OpenSUSE Leap and at least the video codec issue is gone.
Did need to manually configure my disk partitions to get full OS encryption and now my partition table is a REAL mess.
Odd; some codecs are surely not available by default, but can be downloaded from Packman repo, and for the rest I didn’t ever face it.
I was told I was missing H264 codecs but it’s 2025 so I doubt that’d have the effects I saw. I tried following the instructions to install them provided by OpenSUSE but some kinda dependency nonsense occurred with ffmpeg. Either way, I guess a rolling release isn’t for me.
Linux Mint because it’s extremely simple and has caused me no issues for over a year. It’s the best distribution to get someone who is afraid to switch from Windows or MacOS to understand that using Linux can be just as easy.
NixOS. I’ve gotten so used to the declarative nature of NixOS, that I simply cannot go back to a “normal” distro anymore.
I love Pop OS because it got me back into Linux after ditching it for windows for the last 10 years, partly to do .net development and partly because I hated the state of Ubuntu/Unity.
As soon as cosmic is stable and easy to install on Nix I’ll switch to it.
I used to use Determinate Nix on Pop!_OS before I switched to NixOS for good. You can still get a lot out of Nix on a traditional distro, granted you have to deal with few things manually (nixGL being one of them). But it still works, especially for development; it’s just unparalleled.
Gentoo because it is as stable as Debian, less bloated than Arch, has more packages than Ubuntu, is rolling release, can mix and match stable, testing and unstable on a whim.
Even its one downside, compile times, is now gone if you just choose to use binary packages.
And less stable than Arch, and more bloated than Ubuntu… If that is something you want for whatever reason! It is the most versatile distro in existance because it’s literally anything you want it to be - clean and nice, or total chaos. What is there not to love?
Gentoo <3
Aeon desktop is the best indeed:
- Crazy fast install.
- System configuration is done on the first boot.
- Supports ignition and combustion.
- The install USB can become a $HOME backup if you re-install.
- Full disk encryption by default and mandatory.
- Latest GNOME, looks clean and pretty.
- Rolling.
- Immutable, with Distrobox by default.
As far as desktop Linux goes, I don’t see why I would use anything else atm. Give it a try!
Or, if you want all the same features without immutability, just go with OpenSUSE Tumbleweed!
(Aeon is an OpenSUSE project, too)
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I like the way Pop!_OS looks. Not gonna pretend it’s the best. But as far as default UIs, it clicked with the most. Default gnome seemed too spartan and all of the Windows-like DEs remind me too much of Windows. Which I don’t like. If that makes sense.
Fedora is quite unremarkable, no issues of late. Or ever, for that matter. It’s glorious.
Because it uses the best desktop environment (GNOME) and im the most familiar with
(I wonder how many downvotes i will get)
Hopefully none, why do you like Gnome? I thought it was okay, but I really love KDE more. I don’t hate Gnome. It seems really good for anyone who uses a touchpad or touchscreen.
I can’t speak for anyone else but I can tell you what I personally love about Gnome.
I like that it’s Spartan. I like that it looks good without me having to customize a thousand different settings.
I like that It has client side decorations, so every window doesn’t have to have an obscene, chunky, mostly useless title bar.
I don’t miss every single application having 100 different options packed into a menu bar. Once you get used to it, you realize that it was mostly getting in the way the whole time.
It’s just a really streamlined workflow for 98% of what you do. The problem is that 2% where it’s too spartan and God do you wish you had some options.
But I also think KDE is a great desktop environment. If I were more of a gamer I’d be using KDE. I think XFCE is an excellent desktop environment for aging hardware and Windows converts. It is very much a matter of taste, Use cases, and your preferred workflow.
Thank you. All very good points.
Endeavour OS is the best because you get all the benefits of Arch combined with a familiar and friendly installer, a good out of the box setup with the desktop of your choice. Not to mention the outstanding community that’s built up around it.
Mine is the best for me because I like it the best. It does what I need with a minimum of configuration or customization. My needs and preferences are probably different from yours though, so Linux Mint Debian Edition with Cinnamon desktop environment might not be the best for you.
I use Fedora. I like that it’s very up to date and that it doesn’t change the GNOME defaults. It also has a big community and many resources to look into if anything goes wrong.
Fedora
Any RPM-based system has exemplary validation and, as long as we don’t throw it out with flatsnappimages, it presents a very clean and maintainable install.
Extra points for PCLinuxOS which has avoided lennart’s cancer.
No points for SuSE as they continue to exist as the over engineered bastard child of slackware and RPM, like slackware met 73deJeff on a trip and let the tequila do the talking. Mamma mia!
Arch.
Do I need to justify myself any further?
Btw
