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Ask HN: What's your linux distro?

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Re: Ask HN: What's your linux distro?

#23

Post by memracom »

I think that the choice boils down to one of these three:

Ubuntu LTS CentOS OpenSUSE

Some people swear by Mint or Debian but for most people, there is little to no difference from Ubuntu. Even for servers, using the Ubuntu server install to build a headless server is quick and simple. After that, install something like Docker to install any other services that you require.

I happen to run Ubuntu LTS on the desktop with the GUI reverted to Gnome Classic. There is a package to add that option. But I run CentOS on servers most recently.

I used to run OpenSUSE and only really switched because I needed to get a more balanced experience with other distros. My last OpenSUSE server was a XEN vm host and OpenSUSE made that much easier to set up than plain XEN on OpenSolaris which is what I had used before.

One note about a GUI environment. If you can, leave it off the base server and install it with Docker or KVM or Virtualbox. This may mean that you have to manage two servers in one, and use the CLI a lot, but this is a good learning experience. Modern computers are so fat and fast, that we forget how Linux was in the early days, filling a T1 line using a 486 with 128M of RAM and a 512M hard drive.

Re: Ask HN: What's your linux distro?

#27

Post by Tharkun »

staunch wrote: post #10

Unless you have some reason not to you should just run Ubuntu. It's by far the most popular desktop Linux distribution, which tends to make your life easier. I've been using Linux as my desktop for 15+ years, so I've run lots of distros, but I'm using a stock Ubuntu 13 on my machines. It works, gets out of my way, and let's me get work done.

Your reasoning is a bit strange. You might as well recommend using windows for the same reason (popularity). I personally run Fedora for the exact reasons you gave. Eye of the beholder, and all that.

Re: Ask HN: What's your linux distro?

#30

Post by dizzystar »

Running Arch. I started my Linux Journey with Arch, and despite the rep, it really isn't that hard to use. Sure, you have to put forth a bit of effort to set it up, but the payoff is well worth it.

Pacman (package manager) is simply amazing and easy to use. Unlike other Linuxes, you know exactly what you are getting when you run the install script.

Lightweight. Nothing gets in your way. There is nothing to uninstall and there are no hidden spywares to opt out of.

I'm sure there's many other benefits. I tried Ubuntu and hated it. It would take me far more time to get Ubuntu to a level I liked (mostly stripping out the gunk) than it did to install Arch the first time.

The documentation is simply incredible. Not only is the documentation excellent for the OS, it is excellent for all of the things I've used out of the package repository and AUR.

I'm not a hardliner, but it would be hard for me to consider using any other distro at this point.

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