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Ask HN: Most stable Linux distro for desktop use

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Re: Ask HN: Most stable Linux distro for desktop use

#11

Post by chris_b_ »

mhayden wrote: post #6

Fedora 21 through 23 has worked well so far. All of my peripherals work well on my ThinkPad X1 Carbon (3rd gen). The community is quite easy to join if you need to submit bugs or ask for help. I've had zero PulseAudio issues even with creating multiple monitoring devices, a USB DAC and a USB webcam with audio support. Which wifi cards are you using? Broadcom can be a bit of a pain, but the Intel chips are fairly easy…

I've been using Fedora full time for the last 6 years (since 14 I think) and it has been pretty good. Haven't used any other distro much though so no real comparison.

Definitely agree that Broadcom wifi (what I have now) is a pain - occasional kernel upgrades kill wifi, when reinstalling I never remember which combination of kmod/akmod things I need. That is the only real complaint though.

Re: Ask HN: Most stable Linux distro for desktop use

#15

Post by sandGorgon »

mhayden wrote: post #6

Fedora 21 through 23 has worked well so far. All of my peripherals work well on my ThinkPad X1 Carbon (3rd gen). The community is quite easy to join if you need to submit bugs or ask for help. I've had zero PulseAudio issues even with creating multiple monitoring devices, a USB DAC and a USB webcam with audio support. Which wifi cards are you using? Broadcom can be a bit of a pain, but the Intel chips are fairly easy…

Fedora 23 has been spectacular. I'm tired of the whole Unity, Mir direction that Canonical is taking.

F23 has played well with uefi + gpt on outdated hardware.

Re: Ask HN: Most stable Linux distro for desktop use

#16

Post by anonbanker »

Don't listen to these people; Ubuntu/Fedora/Etc are _garbage_ by default, and have been for years.

You're having issues with PulseAudio, systemd, and NetworkManager. Use a distribution that doesn't use these, or one that makes it easy to remove them.

Calculate Linux[0] is the easiest base with which to yank these tumors out of your life, because it has eudev and OpenRC installed by default. Easy to install, and simple to maintain. it's Gentoo, but without all that building of source, and only a 15-minute install. it's simple to install JACK[1], Cadence[2] and wpa_gui after you rip out NetworkManager and PulseAudio (or if you need skype, make PA the slave of JACK).

Second place goes to KXStudio[3], but only because it's an outdated (good) debian/ubuntu core, and uses JACK/Cadence by default. Third place is Void, which, while technically freer (and has LibreSSL!), is not as easy an install as KXStudio or Calculate. All are nice and stable, though.

After removing PulseAudio and NetworkManager from your computer, you'll be astounded at how stable linux is again.

0. http://www.calculate-linux.org/main/en/download

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBD-wsMiZCk

2. http://gpo.zugaina.org/media-sound/cadence

3. http://kxstudio.linuxaudio.org/

Re: Ask HN: Most stable Linux distro for desktop use

#18

Post by anonbanker »

superkuh wrote: post #7
mod wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fortunately it's still a very stable desktop environment. Source: It's my everyday OS.

Just wait until 16 is released and they switch over the desktop repos to their in house package system for phones: Snappy. That said, existing Ubuntu releases that still use Debian style packages are what I'd recommend (and what I use) too.

Snappy is the shark that Fonzie is jumping over.

Happy days started to suck long before that point, but it was definitely the best time to jump ship if you hadn't already.

Re: Ask HN: Most stable Linux distro for desktop use

#19

Post by threesixandnine »

I use Debian on my old Thinkpad T61 beater. I use it for everything. Coding, browsing and multimedia. I am no power user so it kind of just works. My wife is using Debian on desktop as well and for years now has been no-fuss-it-just-works...so I recommend Debian.
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