I use NixOS for my full-time development laptop and it's great. Declaratively specified OS environments are the bees knees.
Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
111–120 of 329 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#112I use Ubuntu because there is a StackExchange site, askubuntu.com, and because it's easy to set up and fairly reliable and I can always go to Archwiki if I want to dig deeper. And anyway, I run Xmonad so a lot of the gripes about Ubuntu's interface, Unity, don't really affect me. [1]
In the end it comes down to Ubuntu provides me with a better abstraction layer for support and problem solving over the top of Linux than the alternatives I've seen.
[1]: Edit. As that sort of interface goes, I think Unity is better than many, but it took some time fooling with it enough to be familiar to reach that opinion.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#113Ubuntu, Arc and may be Fedora. No need to look past these 3 unless you feel a bit adventurous.
Yeah, I came here to say this. Ubuntu (esp LTS) if you want "mostly just works, I don't want to spend time maintaining/configuring it", Arch if you're more adventurous and nerdy. Fedora if you are a "just works" person but are doing it on a ThinkPad.
Edit for typo: meant to say LTR.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#114I personally use ArchLinux on my development laptop.
Three major reasons:
A) AUR
B) custom installs are default
C) rolling release + up-to-date
Of course, Arch is not that easy to setup compared to other distros (Antergos might help), you're gonna have to manage the system yourself to some extent.
If you don't like ArchLinux you could go for Fedora, NixOS or Ubuntu variants.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#115Once you really get down to it, there's practically no difference between them, other than the package manager and repositories.
Personally I use Gentoo now because it doesn't have systemd and I like source-based packages; compiling everything is kind of a hassle sometimes though. I ran Arch for years and I really like it, the AUR especially is great.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#116Arch Linux If you want a developer laptop you want modern hardware. If you want to run modern hardware you want a modern kernel. In your case (since your hardware is a little old), you might not care about support from recent kernels but still want modern compilers, toolchains, etc available to you. You also probably don't want it to break every 6 months when you have to system upgrade. Rolling release is the best.
I agree Arch and rolling release is great to avoid breaks. Paradoxically, people are afraid of it for the opposite reason. In 9 years running Arch, I have never ever experienced the need to downgrade my kernel after an upgrade, and only once had to downgrade a package (ghc). I key point was always to run hardware that needs no drivers aside from those coming with vanilla kernels. Quite on the contrary, I love getting…
> I agree Arch and rolling release is great to avoid breaks. Paradoxically, people are afraid of it for the opposite reason.
> I am considering to migrate to NixOS or GuixSD (currently toying with 2 virtual machines). I find Arch to be a great imperative distro, but functional ones are simply superior. Declarative system configuration, declarative package recipes, and the ability to install multiple versions of the same package is key if you have a complex setup (e.g. doing deep learning).
I've been eying NixOS, but haven't heard of GuixSD. I'll look into it, would be interested to hear your comparison.
The main downside to NixOS seems to be package availability. I get the impression that you spend a lot of time repackaging things for it because the coverage isn't there yet.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#117[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
I love cinnamon so that's a big plus on Mint but I didn't love being stuck on an old version of Ubuntu and all the associated core packages/drivers. I had some hardware issues that were fixed by using a more recent version (now on Fedora). I'm by no means a seasoned Linux veteran though so just explaining that YMMV.
Doesn't Mint stay in-sync with the latest Ubuntu versions? It's literally Ubuntu with Cinnamon/MATE and different branding. Everything version-wise should be identical with Ubuntu, since it uses the same packages.
If you want that, there is an official mate version of ubuntu now which works extremely well. Not sure about cinnamon. Definitely much less update-related headaches than mint.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#119Xubuntu is my daily driver.
Fast and light, rock solid, many packages available, a lot of tutorials and documents on the 'net, and ltd is guaranteed to receive updates for three years on desktop and five years on servers (well, on server is Ubuntu).
Just works and doesn't get in the way.
If I need something else, qemu-kvm is awesome or docker.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#120I'm using Elementary, and I really like it so far. It's based on Ubuntu, and the standout things for me were: 1. Gets out of your way really fast - very little config and setup to do. 2. Clean UI - very macOS inspired, so they try and get rid of everything unnecessary. To the point where it doesn't feel like a normal Linux distro with knobs all over the place. 3. Excellent built in terminal - can't stress this enough…
Seconded. As someone who's hopped from distro to distro (Arch, Fedora, Ubuntu) on my ThinkPad x220, I'm really happy with elementaryOS for all the reasons you mentioned except HiDPI support (which I don't need).