I use Ubuntu because I don't want to spend time configuring and wasting too much time researching how to fix every issue that I'd had. I know Ubuntu has a lot of issues, but I just want to spend time doing my work. Also I like Unity.
Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
261–270 of 329 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#262People are surprised when I recommend openSUSE. I personally use its rolling version Tumbleweed. - Its stable while being very latest of packages. So I am done with distro upgrades which might break something between version changes. - It has largest number of packages in repository https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Linux_distributi... . - YaST is great for everything to administer - NetworkManager, static…
I've just uninstalled openSUSE Tumbleweed after using it as my primary dev machine OS for about three months.
One good thing that can be said about it is that it has the most stable KDE packages of all KDE distros that are still left.
Other than that, it was the most unstable non-Microsoft OS I've ever used. Kept crashing on me all the time, updates broke stuff frequently. After the last update, it refused mounting my encrypted home partition for whatever reason.
From my experience, I'd recommend steering way clear of openSUSE if getting actual work done is a priority.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#263ArchLinux is very decent distro. If you need something that you can tweak to be the continuation of your mind, environment designed exactly for you, it is Arch. If you have some time in the beginning to read archwiki, you will avoid a lot of problems in the future. After you understand how it works, it is easy to fix whatever breaks. For me Arch breaks extremely rarely. I use it for 7 years and remember no more than…
Yup. I switched from Ubuntu to Arch after I realised I was trying to make Ubuntu work like a rolling release distro. This lead to frequent breakage. Arch definitely has a learning curve, but it also helps you realise that some things really are as simple as they appear (if that makes sense). That said, if you're like me and prone to fits of 'mad science', you will find yourself breaking your OS from time to time. But…
This is a really good summary. I use and love Arch as my desktop. I've also used it as a server and for non-techie family members and in those situations you end up creating a bit of a rod for your own back.
For those cases I use Kubuntu for destops and Ubuntu for servers, pick the current LTS release and install unattended-upgrades to ensure security updates get maintained.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#264Debian and I'm surprised more people aren't saying so. Ubuntu or Mint, which are built on Debian do not add much value these days, IMO and Ubuntu's 6 month release cycle is intolerable. If you get behind with upgrades you are screwed. Even after all these years it's hard to beat apt-get. I think a lot of people dismiss Debian as unmodern or some how less than the distros built on it but that's hardly the case. Debian…
> Even after all these years it's hard to beat apt-get. I would say Fedora's dnf has it beat quite objectively, but to each their own.
> dnf has it beat quite objectively
You mean even though the slightest care was not given to reliability while coding it?
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@lists.fe...
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#265Hard to beat Ubuntu LTS. It has plenty of documentation and community support, has mostly up-to-date drivers and runs VirtualBox. LTS offers stability over several years. I use Xubuntu variant with i3. Moreover, I prefer to develop on the same OS I deploy to. ArchLinux: Great community but too many surprises when updating that sometimes break things or in one case left the OS unbootable. Fun to tinker with but if you…
> Debian:
> slow to upgrade
More or less the same as Ubuntu LTS, ~2 years.
> and doesn't support newer hardware
Enable non-free, install firmwares and now they're almost equal in terms of hardware support (which one has newer kernel depends on the year). For support comparable to HWE stack kernels use the kernel from backports repository and now Debian probably has even better hw support because backports kernel is updated every ~3 months following mainline, while Ubuntu follows latest non-LTS Ubuntu kernel, thus every 6 months).
It's been more than a decade these claims aren't true anymore. Please stop repeating the same old myths.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#266ArchLinux is very decent distro. If you need something that you can tweak to be the continuation of your mind, environment designed exactly for you, it is Arch. If you have some time in the beginning to read archwiki, you will avoid a lot of problems in the future. After you understand how it works, it is easy to fix whatever breaks. For me Arch breaks extremely rarely. I use it for 7 years and remember no more than…
I am running ArchLinux right now on a my machine (webapp dev and network technician) and I don't recomment it. I don't blame ArchLinux per se, but rolling updates are no good for someone like me. Updates break things. Often. Almost every time. And you don't notice until you need to use that broken thing. To install new things you may need to update whole system. And you break something completely different. -PHP7 jus…
The problem is- you cant test against that- i mean, how should they detect ahead of update that they break things. Add a unittest function to every program on every system out there, and do a test-update with a opt-out?
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#267I prefer Antergos w/ i3+gnome. It's sleek, beautiful, and i3 makes coding a breeze by using a keyboard-centric flow.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#268Pretty much any reasonably-mainstream distro will be about equivalent for the features you're prioritizing. Usually, when someone asks about which distro to use, my go-to answer is openSUSE. It's easy enough to give Ubuntu a run for its money, and I've found it to be much less prone to breakage. ---- I personally use Slackware. Some developer-friendly features I've found to be useful: * Ships with all sorts of editor…
> Arch and Gentoo, Slackware Over years, I have tried all three and found Slackware to be the easiest one to install and get up and running as a development environment or as a server. It worked perfectly on a Dell laptop (including wifi) in 2003, and it is working perfectly now on an Asus UX305 (the best light-weight non-Apple laptop I know of).
It's definitely the easiest to install of the three. There are some tradeoffs, though:
* No dependency resolution. I consider it a feature, but quite a few folks will understandably consider it a huge drawback.
* No PAM. Again, whether this is a feature or a drawback depends on the user.
* No systemd. Same story.
Basically, the aim of Slackware is full customization and transparency, which means that users are not required to worry aboit dependencies or broken authentication systems or binary log files. Slackware also has a pretty strong "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality, which probably explains why the installer doesn't look all that much different from the one in Softlanding Linux System ;)
I'm sure you already know all this; just clarifying for other readers on this thread. It's definitely the easiest of the SAG Trifecta to install, but it deviates pretty strongly from the Linux distro norm due to its history and philosophy.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#269ArchLinux is very decent distro. If you need something that you can tweak to be the continuation of your mind, environment designed exactly for you, it is Arch. If you have some time in the beginning to read archwiki, you will avoid a lot of problems in the future. After you understand how it works, it is easy to fix whatever breaks. For me Arch breaks extremely rarely. I use it for 7 years and remember no more than…
If you want an Arch-based system with less worry about updates, have a look at Manjaro. The team do a pretty decent job of making sure each batch of updates work together - though if you use the 'stable' branch you'll be a week or two behind Arch stable (but not for security updates). If you want it more frequently, Manjaro's 'unstable' is synced to Arch stable. Yes, Manjaro has a small team and occasionally mess up…
Antergos is another option, I like it a lot better than Manjaro personally.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Linux distro for a development laptop?
#270Earlier quoted context omitted.
The nice thing about Debian is that they have all your cases covered. Long-term release for my server (Stable), rolling release for my laptop (Unstable). And the latter serves as a learning stage for the former, especially during transition times (e.g. introduction of systemd).
You forgot the porridge that is just right, "testing".
I actually found Testing to have the drawbacks of both: it's neither well tested and rock-solid, nor up to date with bugfixes. I used Testing on my laptop for a year, and it was the only time I had serious bugs that lasted for more than a day.