

What Linux Distro is the best for a developer on a laptop? - mrt0mat0

I have been hopping around a lot when it comes to linux. I have been sitting on Mint for a while now, and i&#x27;m wondering if there is a better linux distro out there? I&#x27;ve tried the big common ones, but I like having options. I have about a dozen VMs for different ones and nothing seems to work as well as mint. This is for a laptop that i will be mostly using to troll the net while i watch tv and occasionally code with.
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chao-
There is no "best". There is only "best for your needs". I'd recommend
changing the title, lest people take it wrong and derail the thread.

If by "works" you mean "has a familiar and mostly-polished interface", then I
would agree. If you like Mint so far, go with that. To give a comparison on
the "other end" of the user experience spectrum, try Crunchbang. It is the
same underlying ecosystem as Mint (Debian), but builds itself out of a handful
of more minimal components. It's my go-to dev distro because it's just enough
to get work done in, and nothing more.

If you've tried "the big common ones", then you've hit 90% of the mainstream
options. If you need something special, unique or custom beyond those, you
definitely would have identified those needs in your post.

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LarryMade2
I've been using Ubuntu for almost ten years now. What got me here:

\- Package management: DEBs were sooo much easier to deal with than RPMs.

\- Hardware support - usually everything just seemed to work or there was a
forum discussion with a solution on what to do about it.

\- Good variety of included packages.

\- Excellent support forums, even if you are doing non base Ubuntu stuff
there's probably a discussion a 'google' away that covers whatever issue you
have. So, even tough Canonical does not-so-pleasant things to the UX, you can
easily find ways to fix your experience and back to developing.

If you have similar positive experiences with Mint, why switch? Figure out
what you are missing or looking for first.

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ericcoleman
It's really just up to what your personal preferences are, mostly related to
packaging and setup.

I've been using ArchLinux for a while, but have been slowly moving to stock
debian.

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phren0logy
Out of curiosity, why are you stepping away from Arch? The move to stock
Debian suggests it might be the ease of spinning up identical systems on EC2
or the equivalent.

I like Arch, but it takes a while to get configured. It seems more suited to
an installation that is going to be highly customized anyway, so starting from
scratch makes sense.

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mercnet
I run arch on my laptop and you are definitely right. It took me days to
configure everything and that required having a 2nd computer available to
search things. However, it did teach me a lot about terminal and how things
worked compared to installing Ubuntu. Another downfall is when something
breaks during an upgrade. However, 90% of the time the solution is on the Arch
news site.

There are a lot of reason why I love it though. Very quick boot time on a
spinning disk and small memory foot print when running. I run awesome wm
(window tiling manager) which is great for coding with a small laptop screen.

I am not sure if I would run it on a production server though.

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CyberFonic
I prefer Debian based OS, e.g Ubuntu, Mint, et al.

Then all the windows managers are a mere apt-get install ... away.

The only thing that irks me is the driver support for laptop peripherals.
Still can't get MBP to run as cool and for as long on battery with Linux as
with OS X. I've given up on VmWare as it seems to churn the CPU even doing
very little.

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grumps
Have you had better experience with Virtual Box? I have a windows 7 VM on VB
but if I don't use it for a couple weeks the windows update is PIA... I'm
pretty sure its a VB issue.

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sehrope
I use Linux exclusively on my desktop and have had a bunch of laptops over the
years with Linux installed (mainly Debian based). It's never been quite
pleasant though. I work primarily off my desktop so I wouldn't mind it that
much but it was never good enough for me to be happy when roaming.

I recently got a Macbook Air (the new 2013 one) and it's working out pretty
well. Rather than deal with a desktop Linux OS I've got everything running in
VMs and either work through them or cloud based remote servers.

For casual computer use (web browsing, email, etc) I use native apps. For
software dev I use a combination of SSH to VMs/remote servers and native text
editors accessing shared filesystems (mainly sshfs).

I still much prefer my desktop (a real keyboard is always _way_ better) but at
this point my laptop is tolerable enough that I can roam around and actually
get work done.

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CyberFonic
I too prefer the desktop and a decent keyboard. Recently upgraded to SSD and
it just flies. When on the road, I use a ChromeBook, light and great battery
life. Instead of installing Crouton, I just ssh into VPS servers.

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LoneWolf
There is no best, there is a specific distro you will like using and find a
better fit for your needs.

Take this example, some years ago I tried Debian, SuSe, Mandrake, and a few
others, ended up using Gentoo and it is still my distro of choice, I won't say
it's the best for everyone, but so far has been the best for my needs.

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spetsnaz
I use a lot of differents Distros at my work and yes, the "best" is Gentoo.
Best performance, super stable... I totally recommend It.

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a3n
Since you're on Mint you're in the apt-* world. One of the Mint variants is
probably best for a combination of minimal configuration and latest-ish
packages in the repository. Debian itself (the final stop upstream from Mint)
would be good if you want to be involved with your own system's configuration
for whatever reason; its packages will be somewhat more out of date, possibly
more stable.

If you're selling into an enterprise that requires RedHat, Oracle etc, then
possibly CentOs for cheaper development costs as compared to developing on
RedHat itself. Those are in the RPM world.

So many other ways to slice this pie, depending on what you need and how
involved you want to be with your disto as opposed to whatever it is you're
doing.

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lsiebert
I tend to recommend scientific linux over centos, like I recommend mint over
Ubuntu., and for much the same reason.

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baconhigh
IMO the "best" is the one that requires the least amount of futzing from you
to get your job/work done.

You don't want to waste time setting up X.. resolving dependencies.. making
things 'work' that should 'just work'.

So, whatever solves that?

Personally, I've gone for the latest available release of Ubuntu where
possible, although recently i've started using OS X and shelling into a linux
machine to do any necessary work that requires it. I find OS X provides a
decent *nix underneath and with the addition of
[http://brew.sh/](http://brew.sh/) \- makes it a viable choice for me over a
Linux set up.

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grumps
I'm more of hobbyist developer, although I could probably switch to
professional but I'd have to pick PHP... and I'm not so crazy about that.

Anyway at work I run Ubuntu 12.04. Mostly because I find it to be a little
more forgiving than Debian out of the box.

At home a run Debian Sid. I ran Wheezey for almost a year and when it was
released as stable I switched to Sid. My only real issue is the lack of the
full Firefox.. Right now I'm pretty sure I have the one installed from a mint
repo. Ice Weasel just isn't the same. For example when using outlook it would
set my spell check to Bolivia Spanish. Despite the default being English.

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codemonkeymike
When it comes to compatibility you should think of a debian kernel based
distro. Ubuntu, Mint(What I am currently using), or Debian(Stable, Testing,
Unstable etc etc). If its your first time using Linux I would stick with
something that is familiar to a Windows user, Mint.

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at-fates-hands
>>If its your first time using Linux I would stick with something that is
familiar to a Windows user, Mint.

This 100%.

I started out with Madriva after being a lifelong MS user. It was a steep
learning curve. I had to learn how to compile and install stuff from source.
While not a bad thing to learn, for a Windows user, it was totally foreign to
me.

After several years enjoying Mandriva I switched over to Mint and thought,
"Good lord, where have you been my whole life!?" It was like night and day. I
actually got a lot more comfortable using terminal with Mint then I ever was
with Mandriva. I also switched over to Gnome from KDE and think its much
better than KDE.

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asenna
I started off with Ubuntu but moved onto Mint. I love Mint 14 and I don't feel
the need to use anything else. For some of my clients working in the Microsoft
environment, I use windows in a VM with a shared folder. Works great.

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cyberviewer
My suggestion is crunchbang ;) try and you will understand ;)
[http://www.crunchbang.org/](http://www.crunchbang.org/)

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angersock
I've greatly enjoyed #! (Crunchbang):

[http://www.crunchbang.org/](http://www.crunchbang.org/)

It's Debian based with minimal extra bullshit, has a super-friendly config
script right out of the box on first boot, and uses OpenBox as the WM. Very
snappy and minimalist distro.

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mattkrea
+1 on this.

Crunchbang has been a great OS so far. The stability of Debian but OpenBox is
a much more pleasant experience. Loving it so far.

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LoneWolf
I don't want to sound pedantic (but I know I do), but please don't call it an
OS, it's a distro.

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mattkrea
Haha you do but you are obviously correct.

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dsschnau
fwiw i run Fedora 19 on my Asus Zenbook and I love it.

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mtgx
The best for what? If you want something easy and like Windows 7 UI-wise, then
try Zorin OS.

[http://zorin-os.com/](http://zorin-os.com/)

