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Ask HN: What Next After Ubuntu?

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Re: Ask HN: What Next After Ubuntu?

#81
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, but which release channel? And can I convert an Ubuntu into a Debian by reinstalling it while keeping my home directory?

> Ok, but which release channel? For home use, Debian testing is usually a good balance between things not breaking and things not being ancient. For servers, Debian stable is probably a better choice.

I’ve been bitten quite a few times by Testing so I run stable now.

Even the current stable is fairly “new” so I don’t even mind.

Re: Ask HN: What Next After Ubuntu?

#83
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One such user. Switched to Arch almost a decade ago (from Ubuntu->Mint->PopOS), and now on Asahi Linux (which is just ArchARM with a small overlay of 15-20 driver/kernel packages).

I have a M1 mac. How frustrating is Asahi compared to macos? I love me some linux but hate the driver fiddling

Here's an draft of my upcoming review: https://hackmd.io/@captn3m0/ByWpMgZho.

tl;dr: Asahi works great on Apple Silicon. There’s a small collection of software (like Widevine/Zig) that isn’t available on Asahi/ARM64, and some important features that are still in progress (Speakers/Webcam/Mic/External Monitors). GPU and Sleep support is still experimental, but the device is usable enough for me (No critical showstoppers so far).

Re: Ask HN: What Next After Ubuntu?

#84
post #59

I've been running Debian stable on servers for like 8 years now. Up until recently I had a server running Debian Jessie with 1,802 days of uptime. It served a decent amount of traffic. Services on there ran unattended for literally years and it was rock solid. I ended up decommissioning the server because for the same price I could get better hardware specs so I made a new server and put on Debian Bullseye (the lates…

What do you do for kernel updates?

Re: Ask HN: What Next After Ubuntu?

#86

I live in a region with a lot of government contracting businesses, so Red Hat Enterprise Linux is something I have to maintain a working familiarity with. However, I use Debian for all of my personal projects and infrastructure. The reason? There's no for-profit corporate interest directly controlling the project. The project's organizational structure resembles a constitutional democracy: https://www.debian.org/int…

Comes full circle as Ubuntu is derived from Debian

Re: Ask HN: What Next After Ubuntu?

#88
For end user workstations, my favorite Linux distros have converged on either Pop!_OS or Arch Linux (and Manjaro).

Pop!_OS is a remarkably stable and usable Linux distro. At least from a UX and aesthetics standpoint I find it competitive with macOS (I am also a longtime mac user, though macOS has lost its edge in recent years on the UX front). Overall I would say it's my favorite Linux distro these days. I am a big fan of the Debian family of distros in general. I used Arch Linux for almost ten years before switching fully to Pop!_OS and I never had an update go pear-shaped. Rolling release with pacman is amazingly robust indeed. I would say it's my number two.

I was an Ubuntu user from version 7 to version 16. Two things did it in for me. The first one was when Canonical submarined Amazon search queries into the OS's search feature somewhere around version 12 or 13. The second problem I had was major version upgrades reliably crashed my workstations. Every single major version upgrade meant a Busybox prompt after rebooting. After a few too many of those headaches (frustrations with apt upgrades causing trouble aside), it got to the point where I'd just do a nuke and boot to upgrade major versions instead of doing it in situ. After that happened for the last time sometime around Ubuntu 16.10 I said enough and dropped it going fully over to Arch Linux until around 2020, when I switched to Pop!_OS for a change of pace. Pop!_OS major version transitions have never caused problems for me. Arch Linux obviously doesn't have a notion of versions to begin with being rolling release.

Re: Ask HN: What Next After Ubuntu?

#89
post #67

I dislike Ubuntu for the same reasons and I can recommend two paths: For environments where you expect and appreciate stability- Debian. Hands down. Your initial feel is going to be like a leaner Ubuntu with a few extra steps (non free drivers or software). Very low learning curve. If you don’t mind “staying on top of your OS and packages”, then I’d recommend Arch Linux for desktop (not server). There is never “end o…

Why not server? Because of stability?

I use Arch as my main server for 5 years or so and never had any issues. I just update when I think about it.

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