Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?
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I loathe this question (it's not you) because everyone asks it and it really doesn't matter. They spend so much energy worrying about the distro that they miss the Linux experience of customization because they are so focused on a particular flavor.
Honestly, it doesn't matter. I would use Ubuntu which is easy enough to use for anyone and is well supported. To me gnome looks really nice by default on Ubuntu, and is your best community supported workstation distro by far.
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Manjaro (based on Arch) has been great. I have yet to look for software to install that isn't available either via the standard repos or AUR.
I'll concede that I've had to get into the cli a couple of times for minor package manager bugs, but that's a minor issue for me. (OP asked preferred, not best for newbs)
The main selling points for me have been:
- Excellent hardware support within it's own ecosystem / environment
- semi-bleeding edge
- rolling-release (install once, update forever)
- good use / setup / integration for the Cinnamon DE
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Personally, I prefer the Cinnamon desktop experience. You can get that on both Ubuntu and Fedora.
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@IRJ said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
I loathe this question (it's not you) because everyone asks it and it really doesn't matter. They spend so much energy worrying about the distro that they miss the Linux experience of customization because they are so focused on a particular flavor.
Honestly, it doesn't matter. I would use Ubuntu which is easy enough to use for anyone and is well supported. To me gnome looks really nice by default on Ubuntu, and is your best community supported workstation distro by far.
I disable Ubuntu dock and Desktop Icons and some other settings via gsettings after I installed Ubuntu.
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@black3dynamite said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
@IRJ said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
I loathe this question (it's not you) because everyone asks it and it really doesn't matter. They spend so much energy worrying about the distro that they miss the Linux experience of customization because they are so focused on a particular flavor.
Honestly, it doesn't matter. I would use Ubuntu which is easy enough to use for anyone and is well supported. To me gnome looks really nice by default on Ubuntu, and is your best community supported workstation distro by far.
I disable Ubuntu dock and Desktop Icons and some other settings via gsettings after I installed Ubuntu.
Yeah I like the no desktop icon feel. Although I decided to keep the dock after 20.04 for some reason, but I did previously remove it
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@JaredBusch said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
Personally, I prefer the Cinnamon desktop experience. You can get that on both Ubuntu and Fedora.
After giving Pop_OS a spin last month, I got to where I actually don't dislike Gnome anymore. I do like Cinnamon and KDE as well.
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@IRJ said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
@black3dynamite said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
@IRJ said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
I loathe this question (it's not you) because everyone asks it and it really doesn't matter. They spend so much energy worrying about the distro that they miss the Linux experience of customization because they are so focused on a particular flavor.
Honestly, it doesn't matter. I would use Ubuntu which is easy enough to use for anyone and is well supported. To me gnome looks really nice by default on Ubuntu, and is your best community supported workstation distro by far.
I disable Ubuntu dock and Desktop Icons and some other settings via gsettings after I installed Ubuntu.
Yeah I like the no desktop icon feel. Although I decided to keep the dock after 20.04 for some reason, but I did previously remove it
I keep my most frequently used apps on the dock.
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@EddieJennings said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
@JaredBusch said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
Personally, I prefer the Cinnamon desktop experience. You can get that on both Ubuntu and Fedora.
I got to where I actually don't dislike Gnome anymore.
Welcome brother
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@IRJ All hail
vi, our lord and savior! -
@IRJ said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
@black3dynamite said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
@IRJ said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
I loathe this question (it's not you) because everyone asks it and it really doesn't matter. They spend so much energy worrying about the distro that they miss the Linux experience of customization because they are so focused on a particular flavor.
Honestly, it doesn't matter. I would use Ubuntu which is easy enough to use for anyone and is well supported. To me gnome looks really nice by default on Ubuntu, and is your best community supported workstation distro by far.
I disable Ubuntu dock and Desktop Icons and some other settings via gsettings after I installed Ubuntu.
Yeah I like the no desktop icon feel. Although I decided to keep the dock after 20.04 for some reason, but I did previously remove it
yeah when I initially switched to GNOME 3 when it first came out I was a big fan of no desktop icons. I haven't had any for a long time. I also keep a dock, but on the bottom. I'm basic.
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Getting ready to throw Mint Cinnamon onto a laptop although Pop OS seems to be the new belle of the ball nowadays.
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@biggen said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
Getting ready to throw Mint Cinnamon onto a laptop although Pop OS seems to be the new belle of the ball nowadays.
There's a big difference, visually between Cinnamon and GNOME3 desktop environment.
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@biggen said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
Getting ready to throw Mint Cinnamon onto a laptop although Pop OS seems to be the new belle of the ball nowadays.
Pop_OS doesn't make their own desktop like Mint does. Mint's focus is making an alternative desktop environment and Mint is just the showcase OS for it. Pop_OS! is a tweaking to Ubuntu used as the default on custom hardware.
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Typing this from Mint Cinnamon. Pretty impressed with it so far. Pretty snappy interface and browsing with Chromium is good.
I haven't used Linux on a Desktop/Laptop in probably 10 years. I've only used it for servers since the late 90s. Not having to export/import bookmarks and having Google Chrome save passwords sure makes the transition easier. I'm not a power user with a lot of custom Windows applications so most of my use is on the web which is OS agnostic anyway.
I'll have to see what custom/pretty themes are out their for Cinnamon.
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@scottalanmiller said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
@biggen said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
Getting ready to throw Mint Cinnamon onto a laptop although Pop OS seems to be the new belle of the ball nowadays.
Pop_OS doesn't make their own desktop like Mint does. Mint's focus is making an alternative desktop environment and Mint is just the showcase OS for it. Pop_OS! is a tweaking to Ubuntu used as the default on custom hardware.
Cinnamon is far and away my preferred DE. I just wish that other distro's / spins would integrate it as tightly with the underlying OS as Mint does. The add/remove (install/uninstall) integration right into the main menu is convenient. I just have an extreme dislike for their policy of staying on LTS / Stable packages and package base.
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@notverypunny said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
@scottalanmiller said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
@biggen said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
Getting ready to throw Mint Cinnamon onto a laptop although Pop OS seems to be the new belle of the ball nowadays.
Pop_OS doesn't make their own desktop like Mint does. Mint's focus is making an alternative desktop environment and Mint is just the showcase OS for it. Pop_OS! is a tweaking to Ubuntu used as the default on custom hardware.
Cinnamon is far and away my preferred DE. I just wish that other distro's / spins would integrate it as tightly with the underlying OS as Mint does. The add/remove (install/uninstall) integration right into the main menu is convenient. I just have an extreme dislike for their policy of staying on LTS / Stable packages and package base.
Fedora's Cinnamon spin is pretty much as integrated as Mint.
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@scottalanmiller said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
@notverypunny said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
@scottalanmiller said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
@biggen said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
Getting ready to throw Mint Cinnamon onto a laptop although Pop OS seems to be the new belle of the ball nowadays.
Pop_OS doesn't make their own desktop like Mint does. Mint's focus is making an alternative desktop environment and Mint is just the showcase OS for it. Pop_OS! is a tweaking to Ubuntu used as the default on custom hardware.
Cinnamon is far and away my preferred DE. I just wish that other distro's / spins would integrate it as tightly with the underlying OS as Mint does. The add/remove (install/uninstall) integration right into the main menu is convenient. I just have an extreme dislike for their policy of staying on LTS / Stable packages and package base.
Fedora's Cinnamon spin is pretty much as integrated as Mint.
They are pretty much all integrated once installed. Many DEs have a software manager / software center gui now that is shortcutted.
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@Obsolesce said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
@scottalanmiller said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
@notverypunny said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
@scottalanmiller said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
@biggen said in Linux Desktop: what's the "preferred" distro?:
Getting ready to throw Mint Cinnamon onto a laptop although Pop OS seems to be the new belle of the ball nowadays.
Pop_OS doesn't make their own desktop like Mint does. Mint's focus is making an alternative desktop environment and Mint is just the showcase OS for it. Pop_OS! is a tweaking to Ubuntu used as the default on custom hardware.
Cinnamon is far and away my preferred DE. I just wish that other distro's / spins would integrate it as tightly with the underlying OS as Mint does. The add/remove (install/uninstall) integration right into the main menu is convenient. I just have an extreme dislike for their policy of staying on LTS / Stable packages and package base.
Fedora's Cinnamon spin is pretty much as integrated as Mint.
They are pretty much all integrated once installed. Many DEs have a software manager / software center gui now that is shortcutted.
Yeah, pretty much all DE have that now.
