
Ask HN: Why did you choose a particular “flavor” of Linux? - williamle8300
I&#x27;m thinking about jumping ship from OS X, and buying a machine to run a &quot;true&quot; distribution of Linux. I&#x27;m wondering what are some of the pros-cons of particular Linux &quot;flavors.&quot;
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rthomas6
I use Arch Linux because I get to choose exactly what is running on my system.
Arch also has the most active community as well, IMHO. If there's ever any
doubt how to do something, the Arch Wiki will show you how to do it, often 5
different ways.

One of the biggest pluses of Arch is the Arch User Repository. If a package
for something doesn't exist, someone will put it in the AUR for you. Whenever
some software is released for a specific Linux distro, I assume Arch gets it
too and I'm almost always right. I like Mint Linux's UI a lot (that's Mint
Linux's main selling point) so I installed it on Arch with one command. Steam
only worked with Ubuntu when it was released for Linux... except I installed
it on Arch with one command the next day. Spotify is tricky to get for Linux
unless you use a Debian based distro... or Arch, in which case it's in the AUR
ready to be installed with one command.

[https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_compared_to_other_...](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_compared_to_other_distributions)

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FiatLuxDave
I use both Mint and Ubuntu, on two separate computers.

Ubuntu is great except for the Unity crap. In theory, you can run Ubuntu
without Unity but I gave up trying to remove it after the first 5 hours of
work. If you are getting into Linux, its important to know that if the first
few sets of instructions you find on forums do not work, you will need to be
an expert to solve the problem. Normally forum instructions work great, just
be aware that 90% of the time is not 100%.

Mint is great. Period. It does exactly what I want - to act like a 'standard
windows' linux user interface without any crazy UI experiments getting in the
way. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

~~~
jenscow
It should also be noted that Mint is built on top of Ubuntu (and Ubuntu is
built upon Debian). And from my experience, things in general that work on
Debian or Ubuntu also work on Mint.

So if you're torn between the 3, pick Mint because it works out the box.

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smacktoward
If you're choosing a distro for use on a workstation (desktop/laptop), just
use Ubuntu. It has had miles more elbow grease put into it to make using it on
a workstation nice than any other distro available.

If you're choosing a distro for use on a server, popular choices are Debian,
CentOS, Red Hat, and Ubuntu Server. Which one is right for you will depend
mostly on your priorities:

* Debian: 100% Free Software and nothing but

* Ubuntu: Debian plus some small-but-nice tweaks

* Red Hat: compatibility with Big Enterprise Software, for people who don't mind paying for their software

* CentOS: compatibility with Big Enterprise Software, for people who do

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deciplex
I switched from Ubuntu to Mint a few years ago while Canonical was rolling out
Unity, because I found (and still find) the idea of a unified interface for
PC, phone, tablet, and whatever the hell else, to be utterly absurd. Metro and
Unity are in the same boat, as far as I'm concerned.

For those here using Ubuntu, has it gotten any better? Note that I did try
Unity when it was first coming out and I hated it, so if you loved it then and
are recommending it based on that I probably won't agree. I want to know, has
it _changed_ for the better?

~~~
seren
It is snappier, the launcher/finder works relatively well but can take some
times if you have too many lens. I quite like the keyboard shortcuts to glue a
window in a corner, or to change workspace. That's about it. It does not get
too much in the way. Nothing earth shattering and nothing too awful.

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yulaow
At the moment I am using mint-kde on my workstation and I stick to the long
support versions because I don't really like to reinstall my system each 9
months (yep I know I can save all there is in my home and the list of
installed packages, but I lose all the /etc configuration file and I have a
lot of configuration files on it). Of linux mint I love the fact is well
supported, there is a community around it almost comparable to that of ubuntu
(and you usually can solve problem of mint also looking at solutions based on
debian and ubuntu) and all DEs work perfectly if you want to constantly
switch.

On servers I usually just run ubuntu lts or debian stable based on the
requirements

A question: why you speak about buying a new machine to run linux? If you have
a macbook it is perfect for linux, I am waiting to have enough money to buy
one with the explicit purpose to run linux on it

~~~
williamle8300
Oh yea, that's true. I could just install Linux on my mac.

I hesitated on saying that is because I may have a period where I have two
computers to help with the transition.

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sauere
I don't know how familiar you are with the Distros... as far as the major
distros go (Debian/Ubuntu/Fedora/CentOS...), they all get the job done and the
only difference you might stumble on in the beginning will be the different
package management systems.

Anyway, i did not choose any flavour... i just happened to start out with
Debian because a fried gave me the CD many years ago when a 700mb download was
still a big thing. So i mastered Debian first and i still usually stick with
Debian-based distros (such as Ubuntu, elementaryOS) if i have the choice. That
being said i recommend Ubuntu for anyone that is getting into the Linux world,
simply because the community and available resources are huge. If you run into
any problems there is a 99% chance there is a easy to follow guide on how to
fix it.

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joeclark77
I tried installing Arch on my laptop and couldn't get it to work, so I went
with Ubuntu because it was easy. Haven't had any problems so far, except one:
I simply cannot get good results plugging my laptop into projectors. Either I
can't mirror screens at all, or if I can, I end up at a lowest-common-
denominator resolution, usually less than 1024x768. It could really become a
dealbreaker for me, because I need to give a lot of presentations in places
with their own projectors (e.g. classrooms). Anybody know if there's a Linux
distribution that can do whatever magic Windows and Apple do when plugged into
a projector?

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staunch
Ubuntu, because it's the most popular desktop distribution right now. Software
for the popular distributions tends to be more well distributed, tested, and
supported.

I've run Linux as my desktop for 17 years and that's why I'm running Ubuntu. I
hardly care at this point which distribution I run. They're mostly quite
similar and almost all rely on exactly the same software for most of what they
do.

~~~
galfarragem
+1 to Ubuntu. Meteor (officially) only supports Linux and OSX, so I run Ubuntu
along Win7. Some time ago I tried Mint. Mint is basically last version of
Ubuntu with windows inspired niceties (theme and drivers). I still prefer the
main distro.

As a Windows user Linux environment hurts a bit. Windows have a GUI for almost
everything, Linux not so, even if you can easily make stuff through Terminal
(like installing software) that makes you think that Linux approach is not
that bad. The problem is the huge learning curve (at least for an hobbyist as
me). It's like driving a Ferrari at night without knowing how to use the
lights. You feel the speed in the moments that you know what you are doing and
can see the way but sometimes you have to completely stop because you are in
the dark..

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brickcap
I use xubuntu because it's lightweight and runs fast on my weak laptop. I
tried ubuntu before that but it became impossible to run anything else with it
installed. Maybe I should have just changed the desktop environment but I
thought why not go with xubuntu instead. I have been very happy with it. It's
got everything that ubuntu does plus it uses fewer resources. Win win for me.

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Widow
As a complete linux noob I chose debian/ubuntu to dual boot on my laptop as a
sort of introduction into the wonderful world of linux. So far I've been blown
away with how easy it is to accomplish certain tasks and how awesome the
command line is compared to windows. I think in the future my next laptop will
just be a thinkpad with ubuntu on it.

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LarryMade2
I chose Ubuntu because back in the day

\- it was the easiest to install

\- Had all (or most of) the packages I wanted

\- the deb packages beat out rpm hands down (back in dependency hell days,
things are way better now)

\- when I had (or have even now) a problem, I could ALWAYS find a solution in
the Ubuntu Communities.

I may have to tweak it on install, to get a decent UI, etc. But if that's the
worst of it, it isn't all that bad.

~~~
williamle8300
"...to get a decent UI..."

Do you mean that you can install something other than Unity?

~~~
LarryMade2
Yeah, classic Gnome or some other one with a bit more functionality.

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breakingcups
I use Debian stable because I did not agree with Ubuntu's business plan at the
time and since Ubuntu was Debian based it seemed like the easiest transition.
The only downside is the 'old-ness'. I wanted to go with Jessie but the
installer wouldn't work and I never bothered upgrading when I got stable
installed.

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bluerail
I am an heavy windows user and now currently migrating to Linux. I chose
ubuntu to begin with because of its popularity which in turn guarantees less
overhead (essential for the new OS)

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atmosx
I'd say better get familiar with Linux first (go with Ubuntu it's the safest
choice) and then see if there are any distros that fit your needs better. If
you don't have time to spend on the OS, _light-weight_ distributions might not
be well suited. Other than that, I'd say stick to what you choose and you'll
be fine :-)

That said, at this point in time, I use too many OSX-related programs to go
back to Linux (I was using Gentoo 2001-2005 as desktop).

~~~
brudgers
I don't dislike Ubuntu, but I do think that Unity is enough of an odd duck as
a UX that a recommendation of Ubuntu to a Linux newcomer ought to mention that
it's not for everyone.

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db48x
I use Fedora, because it has the best SELinux support of the desktop-oriented
distros.

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johnny22
i choose Fedora because Red Hat puts a lot of work into all aspects of the
GNU/Linux ecosystem. I like Debian a lot (for philosophical reasons), but i
prefer something a bit more opinionated for everyday desktop use.

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tabakd
Arch. I like to keep things light.

~~~
ekr
Arch as well. I like to keep things simple (as in the Unix philosophy).

