After trying anything with rolling release in it, I
settled on openSuse Tumbleweed , it runs here on
a 12 year old x61 lenovo/ibm , on a samsung with atom 150
processor, on a lenovo T460s, and on 2 tower boxes.
There are no complains once you have all the toolchains
installed for your development effort.
The other rolling distro to recommend is Arch, but it takes
some time to get it where you want it to be.
Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
21–30 of 329 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#22Your post seems to suggest that you won't be developing for Linux and just need something that's a good virtualization host and all-round desktop. In this case, any distribution that you can get along with will do. Especially if you don't have much experience with Linux, Ubuntu and Fedora are both excellent choices. I tend to recommend the latter over the former.
If you do actually need to develop for Linux, I would suggest something with a rolling release model, otherwise it won't be long before you'll need to start compiling things from source because you need a more recent version of than your distro is packaging.
"Rolling release" means that there is no Arch Linux 1, 2, 3 and so on, as in Fedora's case. Arch periodically releases an install image, which you use to bootstrap your system, but the latest tested version of every package is what's available in the package repository, for everyone, and as soon as a newer version is packaged, you can install it. This seems to be the best way to guarantee that you get the latest packages and the most stable system that you can get with them (spoiler alert: it's not that stable, but not disastrously unstable, either; I've ran rolling release distros on my laptop for years).
Arch is an usual recommendation in this case. Red Hat Enterprise Beta, uh, I mean, Fedora, is also a good choice -- it's not a rolling release, but it regularly ships with very recent packages. It's also a testbed for new technologies, and does have the advantage that you get a fully setup (and generally mostly working) system from the beginning.
If you're a more experienced user, you might want to have a look at Gentoo and Void Linux.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#23It's a matter of tools. All distro's are basically very similar but come with different desktops and package managers. I spent many years jumping around Debian and its derivatives but then I found Arch and it just felt right. I love the package manager and the fact I can control what I have installed. With a 9 cell Thinkpad battery and some cleaver settings I can last all day. I have to admit that these days I tend t…
Another upvote for Arch. I've been Mac only for 5 years, but my linux of choice for all personal projects and my Linux machines (when I use them) has been arch for 7 or 8 years already. Rolling updates are something I really, really appreciate in Arch.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#24Archlinux ( https://archlinux.org ) is a great rolling release distribution, and the Archlinux wiki ( https://wiki.archlinux.org/ ) is an invaluable ressource.
Surprised at the amount of love for Arch (incl derivatives) on this thread. Let me add my vote to it as well. I converted to Arch more than a year ago from Ubuntu for the same reason as many others here - the need for PPAs to get up to date versions of software and the dist-upgrade pains that come with PPAs.
One thing when using Arch, you won't get an out of the box experience and you will need to tweak almost every aspect of the system manually.
- Missing even a trivial step during installation (such as setting locale) can lead to quirky repercussions. The plus side is that getting your hands dirty during setup really familiarzes you with the system.
- Pacman (and Yaourt) is simply great and make updating, removing and filtering packages a breeze
- AUR (arch user repos) contain nearly every popular FOSS and non-FOSS software not provided officially. Installation and removal is painless with Yaourt. No more PPAs.
- Packages occasionally break. E.g. When libx265 is upgraded but VLC is not compiled against the latest version, resulting in the latter unable to play any media. These are usually fixed pretty quickly in the repos, or you can workaround with a bit of searching.
- Archwiki and the forums are some of the best resources to turn to when you eventually run into problems, and trust me you will
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#25"what's the best X" is why most programmers waste their time shasing a myth. There is no best thing for all, it all depends on the individual. A better question would be "what's a good enough X" And then go from there to best suit your needs. A generic best X simply does not exist out of a context, and the contex is usually personal.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#26I'm going on 9 successful years of fedora. I spent 4 years switching distributions ever couple months until then. I think its probably different for everyone.
I'd also like to suggest the Fedora route.
I've tried most(and then some) popular distros and the last 6 years I've settle on it.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#27I'm a CS student and I had this exact question a year earlier. I tried ubuntu as everyone suggests for a begginer, then switched to deepin and then over to elementaryOS. Sure I'm never going back to windows but ubuntu never seems to work out of the box. The next station in this Linux journey is to dual boot Mint and Arch. Mint for when I wanna get things done and Arch for learning and customising linux.
Once you are past the initial installation (give it a few hours) you can get things done with Arch quite easily as well.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#28As a side note, I love how this question would be begging for a distro war anywhere but HN. Here everyone says things in the way of "There's no best distro" or really humbly say what they are using and why. This is the best way IMHO that HN shows how it is the opposite of any random internet website; In HN we can have civilized conversations about some topics that are not possible almost anywhere else on the internet and that is awesome.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#29I see a lot of folks here recommending Arch. I got the impression that it might not be as stable or secure as say, Debian or Ubuntu. But I've found it hard to find reliable up-to-date info on this -- so I'm not sure whether it's just FUD.
Can anyone comment on the current situation? Can you set Arch to automatically update with security patches only? Or is it an "updates include patches plus new bugs too" type situation?
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#30I would go with Gentoo. I reckon that compiling might be a PITA but I'm rather accustomed with the workflow, using flags to handle specific requirements, OpenRC and other gentoo-specific intricacies that might scare off new-comers.
On the other hand, gentoo makes a great linux experience for those who would like to get more intimate knowledge of Linux internals, networking, etc. It's a great experience if you have time and will to get your hands dirty. The documentation is excellent IMHO and the community (forums) very helpful.