Best version and vendor of Linux

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30 May 2014, 2:30 pm

BSD never killed anyone, it just has sh!tty support for drivers and 3. party software, that's all. The stability and performance of FreeBSD is nevertheless impressive. Most of the times when you're using FreeBSD (the Netflix servers run this), you're not aware of it.

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Kurgan
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30 May 2014, 2:34 pm

EnglishInvader wrote:

TheGeekMan wrote:

Arch linux seems to be a popular version of Linux. It's suitable for any environment as you can customize it to suit your needs.

I don't think Arch Linux would be suitable for a Linux newbie. It comes as a bare bones package and it's up to the user to install and configure everything which is fine for the seasoned hobbyist but impossible for someone who has no understanding of how Linux operates.

Mint and Ubuntu are the definitive home user distros. Mint is more user friendly, but Ubuntu has the benefit of corporate backing which in turn makes it more compatible with proprietary services like Steam and virtually any Linux compatible PC product will be designed for Ubuntu 12.10 LTS. My advice would be to start with Mint and then branch out to Ubuntu if you need it.

The best way to think of Linux is as a task-specific tool kit. If you have a specific job that you want done, there will be a version of Linux out there to do that job. If that job is contemporary home use, Mint or Ubuntu. If the job is to keep an old PC/laptop running, Puppy Linux or one of the many low-spec distros out there. If the job is creating a server, something like Arch Linux would be more suitable.

There are many systems based on Arch Linux (eg. Antergos) that come with a frontend, GCC, and several drivers included. You still have to install most of the software yourself, but this is easy to do via pacman. Don't get me wrong, Mint is good, but once you get used to Arch Linux, you'll never look back at anything based on Debian again.

As a rule of thumb, stripped down distros are almost always better optimized and almost always more reliable than the feature complete ones.

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drh1138
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30 May 2014, 2:54 pm

Kurgan wrote:

I will second this sentiment. The *BSD's I have tried, I have had to run in a VM due to poor support for my laptop's wireless card. Nonetheless, it's a wonderful OS family. When I can finally get a desktop going, I'd like to raise the status of BSD on my system to a full-on install.

quetzalcoatl
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30 May 2014, 7:15 pm

I would play with multiple. I use Debian when I'm deploying a server because it's really stable. For my home use I'm currently using mint because it's ubuntu core is similar enough to debian to ensure I don't have to mess around too much to get custom stuff to work. But it just works without too much effort. To learn linux it's better to play with a lot of different systems to begin with. That way when you face something new you will have adaptable skills. BSD is really good fun but it's a true Unix and so can be annoying if you've learnt the linux syntax. There somewhat annoyingly different. Altough I started with Redhat I'm not keen on it now. I used to be a windows engineer ( Feel the embarassment) and that was the distro I'd heard of. wouldn't go back if you paid me. If you want to reach guru level then build a linux from scratch.

Kurgan
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31 May 2014, 3:28 am

You can always install the BASH shell + KDE, Gnome or Cinnamon for FreeBSD as well--which enables you to get the "look and feel" of Linux. Userspace programming for BSD and Linux is very similar; with kernelspace programming, it's a different story.

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VIDEODROME
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31 May 2014, 3:46 am

I would suggest Debian since so many other distros use it as a base. It would be good to start with the Debian "apt-get" package manager.

For those that like Arch, I'd recommend checking out Manjaro Linux. It's easier to install, they have their own repos, and it still uses Pacman.

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