Quoting: omicron-bWhat I would improve about it:
- Not everyone would agree, but I think packaging Firefox non-ESR releases would be good
- Implement modern documentation for newbies specifically, like a step by step guide to install Nvidia drivers from non-free repos, also using only GUI as an option
- Install and enable a couple of GNOME extensions by default to not scare people off
- Alternative bug reporting system for people not being used to filling out email templates in a terminal
- Add an option to easily search (by name) and install some obscure LibreOffice language pack via a simple GUI app

Actually, all these wishlist points are why I do not install Debian on my friends' and family's PCs, they all use Mint or Ubuntu.

Debian has a graphical bug reporting application under reportbug-gtk. And I agree install guidance would be an improvement for bringing in fresh meat. When I was first starting out, I must have bought and tried a dozen different wifi PCI cards before I finally realized that just because Debian installer says there is no firmware available for the card, does not mean that the libre firmware has not been loaded and working.

Distro: Linux Mint Cinnamon

What I like:
- apt
- Cinnamon

The main reason I switch distros has always been either the package manager/packages ( eg. being unable to install software because of outdated dependencies in the package manager ) or the desktop environment - I dont react well to changes in my desktop environment :P

What I don't like:

- Cinnamon

Yeah as nice as it is to have a desktop environment that keeps it's visual style and doesn't embrace "new fangled trends" it's also frustrating when they apply the same ideology to the underlying tech and refuses to embrace wayland, pipewire, latest kernel etc.

Which become even more frustrating when more and more google queries ends with 'only possible with wayland/pipewire/etc'

I guess I should mention, like omicron-b, I also run debian stable on a small headless server in my home. I think it's from 2010. I've replaced all the hardware in it at least once, including the drives, but the install remains.

What I like:
- Stable. Absent me doing something stupid, it's never broken.
- Basic. It's headless, not very flashy or a showcase distro, so most resources from Ubuntu forums to the Arch wiki apply. At most, maybe some of the file paths might be a little different.

I used testing as my desktop driver for a few years to game on. Worked great. Defitelt not a desktop showcase type distro. Or at least not visually. Definitely shows off the stability of Linux though. I did have one peculiar issue involving systemd, network manager, and NFS that would cause long shutdowns, but I think that was more my configuration than a distro issue.

Fedora with Gnome Desktop and Negativo17 multimedia repository:

- Up to date packages, esp. kernel and desktop, but not as raw as Arch;
- Early integrations of newer things on the horizon, e.g. wayland, btrfs, pipewire;
- Perfect vanilla Gnome Desktop integration (I do though use some extensions and a different theme);
- Very good packaging of Nvidia drivers from the Negativo17 repo;
- Very much suitable for gaming (a.o. Steam);
- I just know how to do things on Fedora ;).

Last edited by jens on 19 January 2022 at 7:35 pm UTC

Quoting: Guppy[...]

What I don't like:

- Cinnamon

Yeah as nice as it is to have a desktop environment that keeps it's visual style and doesn't embrace "new fangled trends" it's also frustrating when they apply the same ideology to the underlying tech and refuses to embrace wayland, pipewire, latest kernel etc.

Which become even more frustrating when more and more google queries ends with 'only possible with wayland/pipewire/etc'

Am I missing something here ? I am using Manjaro Cinnamon, with latest kernel and pipewire, and I have had no problems so far (in fact, switching to pipewire actually fixed somme issues I was having with Pulseaudio and Jack).

Granted, the Wayland part is frustrating, but I'm still stuck with my nVdiia for now, until new GPU become available / affordable again, so...

Quoting: furaxhornyxAm I missing something here ? I am using Manjaro Cinnamon, with latest kernel and pipewire, and I have had no problems so far (in fact, switching to pipewire actually fixed somme issues I was having with Pulseaudio and Jack).

The first two are against the distro not the destop ( I tend to muddle them up as Cinnamon is a Mint project ), I could in theory possibly replace them my self... but from what I read there is a problem with the version of some libaries Mint 20.4 uses compared to what eg. Nvidia binary is compiled against in against later kernels.. or something, I pretty much glossed over the rest of the article when I read "this will likely break you installation completely"




as a side node I now finally have wireless on my laptop as somebody backported the driver to 5.13 :D so atleast In my case having the latest

Last edited by Guppy on 20 January 2022 at 11:05 am UTC

Been on Fedora since I came back to Linux ~5 years or so ago. Before that was mostly Arch.

What I like:
“Rolling enough” – maybe not as fast as some other distros to get the latest version, but I get them fast enough to stay happy and they go through a decent QA process.

DNF – Yeah it’s on the slow side at times but it comes with a lot of power and tools at its disposal.

Packages – With RPMFusion enabled I have just about everything I’ve needed or wanted

Just works – Esp for gaming. I’ve had no issues with Steam, Lutris, WINE/Proton, drivers, etc. No fiddling to get anything installed or properly configured. SELinux by default. Sane configs.


What I don’t like:
Sometimes the latest and greatest bullet point features aren’t quite ready on release – I had a lot of issues with Pipewire when it was made default as a recent example

I miss the AUR – I know COPR exists and use some things from it but it’s not the same at easily filling the gaps.

Fedoras are now a meme

Quoting: RaabenBeen on Fedora since I came back to Linux ~5 years or so ago. Before that was mostly Arch.

What made you switch from Arch? Arch users are loyal for their os ( https://boilingsteam.com/which-linux-distro-for-gaming-q2-2021-survey-results/ ) so it is quite interesting.

Quoting: mr-victory

Quoting: RaabenBeen on Fedora since I came back to Linux ~5 years or so ago. Before that was mostly Arch.

What made you switch from Arch? Arch users are loyal for their os ( https://boilingsteam.com/which-linux-distro-for-gaming-q2-2021-survey-results/ ) so it is quite interesting.

To be honest, initial laziness really.

I was going to go back to Arch but my setup by that time had the case for LVM. Whichever number it was of Fedora had just released and I knew its installer was good and even defaulted to that, and could easily do LUKS with it as well. Each things I never set up manually before and I was more curious of the end result with both. I threw it on to see and honestly I was just never given big enough reason to give it up after I got going, so here I still am after years.

I'm old and tired and have less time now, so my distro hopping days are behind me really. I was (and am!) still considering going back to Arch when I build my shiny all new machine, but as you can imagine it's on hold the way things are in the market now... That said, I still think Fedora is underrated when it comes to desktop/gaming.

Arch.

What I like about it:

• Everything ships as close to upstream as possible. Arch doesn't make any or many distro-specific changes, so if there's a problem with the package, 99% of the time it's the package itself that's the problem.


• It's so simple. Everything I need is either in the official repositories or in the AUR. Building from source when necessary isn't a headache like on other distributions.


• I set up everything. I know what changes I've made, so it's easy to debug.


• Pacman is my favorite package manager by far. It's so simple and easy to use, and package management in general is very easy—upgrade everything to the latest version. If an older package is necessary, it's likely in the AUR.

What I dislike about it:

• On rare occasions, packages can suffer from breakage. They're usually fixed quickly, but I need to figure out what to do in the meantime and what's causing the issue. Such as the qt5-webengine issue with Anki a few months ago.


• Arch can get a lot of updates. It's the fastest package manager around, but some computers I don't touch for weeks and they need to upgrade 1000 packages. It can take up to 15 minutes.

I have the fewest problems on Arch. It's easy to use, and the AUR solves so many issues easily.