For my personal usage, of the Linux distros, I like Ubuntu. It's the Gold Standard that everyone supports.
I've used Mint, Debian, BSD, HP-UX, Solaris, CentOS, Raspbian and a bunch more. Indeed, somewhere I got a USB stick with a mint distro. But I haven't installed it. I do like it, we used at one place at work and we build a bunch of machines with it. It seems stable enough.
From my point of view, which is developing software (DO NOT call me a coder), they pretty much do the same. Indeed, I've used some variants with real time modifications which I prefer. But, to me, from an R&D point of view, I don't much care for anything above ISO Layer 4. So long as the system is stable and it supports my tool kit and has xterm and vi and grep and the standard CLI and an IP based network stack I'm happy.
For "normal" PC use, I go with Windows, and carefully manage the updates, because most everything runs on it. And it does bit perfect, something that the Chromebooks don't and that Android still has issues with.
I like Raspbian because it's a very neat little thing that can be configured to do lots of physical things.
I don't do Apple. Sorry, I have never liked their Closed and Expensive way of doing business. If you are doing just a few things and Apple supports them, then you're likely golden. But if you want to know how it works or ask for things that are not supported, then you're SOL.
As someone with more than a passing knowledge of Computer Engineering, Apple is not for me. Their store "geniuses" are laughable... just a bunch of self important, arrogant users.
I've used Mint, Debian, BSD, HP-UX, Solaris, CentOS, Raspbian and a bunch more. Indeed, somewhere I got a USB stick with a mint distro. But I haven't installed it. I do like it, we used at one place at work and we build a bunch of machines with it. It seems stable enough.
From my point of view, which is developing software (DO NOT call me a coder), they pretty much do the same. Indeed, I've used some variants with real time modifications which I prefer. But, to me, from an R&D point of view, I don't much care for anything above ISO Layer 4. So long as the system is stable and it supports my tool kit and has xterm and vi and grep and the standard CLI and an IP based network stack I'm happy.
For "normal" PC use, I go with Windows, and carefully manage the updates, because most everything runs on it. And it does bit perfect, something that the Chromebooks don't and that Android still has issues with.
I like Raspbian because it's a very neat little thing that can be configured to do lots of physical things.
I don't do Apple. Sorry, I have never liked their Closed and Expensive way of doing business. If you are doing just a few things and Apple supports them, then you're likely golden. But if you want to know how it works or ask for things that are not supported, then you're SOL.
As someone with more than a passing knowledge of Computer Engineering, Apple is not for me. Their store "geniuses" are laughable... just a bunch of self important, arrogant users.
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I think the main advantage of flatpacks (If I'm understanding them right, haven't used them) is to enable distributing applications on linux as binaries. Otherwise I don't see any advantage, I'll also stick with the packages from the distribution, or, if I want a newer version of an application, build it from source, which is usually straightforward on Linux.
I don't use flatpacks, but wouldn't they package all dependencies including say a specific version of python or java or ??? whatever else the app depends on. One of the things that drives me crazy is just how many things certain apps require to work when I try to install something. With my product I don't rely on a myriad of other packages, it is a set of binary executables and not crazy large either. I think around 40M suffices. Now the customer data set on the other hand can grow enormously. I've one customer with a 100+GB stream file that they convert into my system.
Yes, but the space wastage is not the biggest problem. Many flatpacks are bundled with outdated libraries that have security vulnerabilities. They sometimes go for months, or even years, before the flatpack maintainer decides to update it. Add to this the fact that the vast majority of flatpacks allow access to the entire system. Flatpacks missed the mark in many ways. It is up to the user to choose carefully which ones to use, and how to best ensure they stay in their respective sandboxes. A new Linux user cannot be expected to know this or understand how to configure things securely.
As I said. Last resort.
Flatpack is not the only containerized app package format (call them "Fatpack" due to the massive amount of memory space required to install even a trivial app such as some notepad requiring hundreds of Megabytes), but also Snap containerized packages which Ubuntu uses nowadays, including its closely adhered distro variants Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu.
These Snap packages are forced updates and are not trivial to manage or turn off for a newbie as there is no GUI control panel for Snap so one have to resort to the CLI, and even if one is well versed using CLI, Snap lacks granularity, one simply can't disable updates/install for one app only, it's either uninstall Snap completely or not, which may not always be an option.
I don't know how many times right in the middle of a browsing session I just discover the browser is silently starting to misbehave until one figures out Snap did an update in the background, extensions silently stop working (potentially dangerous in particular when security extensions stop working), in addition there are several glitches and problems with permissions using Snap.
The other is it takes forever to start up some Snap contained apps, my browser start-up takes 2 full minutes before it starts rattling, until then the process explorer indicates zero activity, it just sits there doing nothing.
Installing the non-Snap package on Ubuntu will automatically get replaced by a Snap variant as soon as Snap updates runs next time, quite authoritarian, Ubuntu got lot of criticism back in around 2023 I recall when the snapcrap show started.
Unfortunately Ubuntu is becoming more and more some sort of corporatocratic tyrant of Linux world.
Have otherwise been satisfied with Xubuntu, but probably time for a distro hop, and perhaps find one not running the dreaded SystemD init which has become a cancer and a security threat due to its vastly larger attack vector surface.
Don't give Ubuntu any business, Linux Mint is a safe bet and Snap is disabled by default.
These Snap packages are forced updates and are not trivial to manage or turn off for a newbie as there is no GUI control panel for Snap so one have to resort to the CLI, and even if one is well versed using CLI, Snap lacks granularity, one simply can't disable updates/install for one app only, it's either uninstall Snap completely or not, which may not always be an option.
I don't know how many times right in the middle of a browsing session I just discover the browser is silently starting to misbehave until one figures out Snap did an update in the background, extensions silently stop working (potentially dangerous in particular when security extensions stop working), in addition there are several glitches and problems with permissions using Snap.
The other is it takes forever to start up some Snap contained apps, my browser start-up takes 2 full minutes before it starts rattling, until then the process explorer indicates zero activity, it just sits there doing nothing.
Installing the non-Snap package on Ubuntu will automatically get replaced by a Snap variant as soon as Snap updates runs next time, quite authoritarian, Ubuntu got lot of criticism back in around 2023 I recall when the snapcrap show started.
Unfortunately Ubuntu is becoming more and more some sort of corporatocratic tyrant of Linux world.
Have otherwise been satisfied with Xubuntu, but probably time for a distro hop, and perhaps find one not running the dreaded SystemD init which has become a cancer and a security threat due to its vastly larger attack vector surface.
Don't give Ubuntu any business, Linux Mint is a safe bet and Snap is disabled by default.
Talking about "old farts" 😛
I'm not sure about flatpacks. It brings with it the issue of having code around that relies on hard compiled-in libraries that may have become a security issue. So it also means you should update all your flatpacks to keep them current. A bit the windows model. On the other hand at least it let you run software that would otherwise not run because maintenance has been abandoned.
I'm not sure about flatpacks. It brings with it the issue of having code around that relies on hard compiled-in libraries that may have become a security issue. So it also means you should update all your flatpacks to keep them current. A bit the windows model. On the other hand at least it let you run software that would otherwise not run because maintenance has been abandoned.
Linux is becoming more and more dependent on large blocks of code that want to do everything that has been done already a long time well. Ans programmers are jumping on those because "new and hip", not because "better". I'm thinking of Systemd, Pulseaudio, Pipewire and now Wayland. Since KDE has become hard dependent on Wayland functionality is down the drain and stability as well. Regular crashes since that happened.
@Havoc I had a rough time with Wayland initially, but currently I find it pretty darn solid. Debian Bookworm + Gnome + Wayland. My primary video is the integrated AMD APU, but everything also runs great on the supplemental Nvidia RTX 2050 in my laptop, including Steam, and various CUDA stuff like Ollama.
For audio, I still like ALSA.
For audio, I still like ALSA.
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Audio is Alsa+Jack for me. Jack was one of the main reasons I went to Linux in the first place. So simple to get your audio in, out and around the applications.
Nothing but "Plasmashell has crashed" messages since the hard switch to Wayland. Also no respect anymore of "focus follows mouse", "focus stealing prevention" doesn't work anymore, no session restore anymore, drag-and-drop has issues because screen updates can't follow... Big step backwards.
Nothing but "Plasmashell has crashed" messages since the hard switch to Wayland. Also no respect anymore of "focus follows mouse", "focus stealing prevention" doesn't work anymore, no session restore anymore, drag-and-drop has issues because screen updates can't follow... Big step backwards.
If wayland doesn't do focus follows mouse, I'm out. I'm still on X, and will just not upgrade to a distro that forces wayland then. The first thing I do on a new box is switch it to focus follows mouse. To me anything else is just brain dead. If I put the mouse over a window, I did it for a reason. I should not need to click. Whoever thought it was a good idea should be banned from coding.
Labwc (Wayland) does focus-follows-mouse. Wayland's biggest shortcoming is that it does not allow programs to read or set global coordinates (window positions). Wayland is very nice and stable on AMD graphics cards.
Ed
Ed
So how is it possible for a window manager to operate in wayland. Under X, the wm is just another program, which reads/modifies global coordinates of windows among other things.
In Wayland, the compositor is the window manager. I don't miss the overhead of the window manager being a separate program.
My programs call GTK and can use X11 and Wayland interchangeably. I can't tell which is running by looking at the screen. Dragging windows is much faster under Wayland.
Ed
My programs call GTK and can use X11 and Wayland interchangeably. I can't tell which is running by looking at the screen. Dragging windows is much faster under Wayland.
Ed
I've used Fedora for decades, being advance code for Red Hat which is commercial and solid as heck. I might actually say that Red Hat is the gold standard, not wishing to get into a fight. Fedora code runs ahead and once stable, is incorporated into Red Hat (or at least this was the way things ran). I haven't followed these things closely. I'll admit to not trying Debian or Ubuntu. Anything else I did try was very early, and I needed solid more than anything.
Since it was mentioned, I have downloaded MINT LMDE and will give it a spin on a small computer box that sits on the network beside my NAS doing odd jobs. I really want to migrate completely to Linux of any flavor and detach from Micro$oft completely. Win 11 - never. I haven't run Office on the Windows box (I use Open Office, which is fine).
Since it was mentioned, I have downloaded MINT LMDE and will give it a spin on a small computer box that sits on the network beside my NAS doing odd jobs. I really want to migrate completely to Linux of any flavor and detach from Micro$oft completely. Win 11 - never. I haven't run Office on the Windows box (I use Open Office, which is fine).
Anyone know how to fix the coarser touchpad behavior in Linux Mint? The touch threshold squelch level is definitely higher than the same hardware on W10. Every two-finger scroll is easily "too far", then too far "back again" - like my arm is in a cast. I'm sure others must've noticed; is there a better "driver" or that for a specific touchpad?
Not that I'd throw the baby with the bathwater, but this is the biggest base-level operational difficulty I've found so far. Touchpad functionality is remarkably easier to manipulate in W10, for the simple stuff like moving the cursor and scrolling.
Not that I'd throw the baby with the bathwater, but this is the biggest base-level operational difficulty I've found so far. Touchpad functionality is remarkably easier to manipulate in W10, for the simple stuff like moving the cursor and scrolling.
@jjasniew, you might try loading a USB stick with the Ubuntu .iso (or another distribution using Gnome). Boot from that USB stick and check to see if the touchpad works any better. I don't use a touchpad with Linux, and Gnome is not my daily driver, but chatter on the Internet seems to lean toward Gnome having the best touchpad integration.
Especially with Gnome. I have heard/read KDE/Plasma can still be a bit wonky, but I haven’t used KDE since about 2003. It’ll get fixed though, I have no doubt. I don’t think Wayland will be stopped at this point.
I can also confirm no issues with touchpad on Gnome, and the speed/acceleration is configurable. Isn’t in Cinnamon?
@jjasniew I am not particularly familiar with laptops and Linux, although I did troubleshooting with one of mine running Win 7 as I were not happy with the cursors much more coarser movement along horizontal line than vertical, never completely fixed it but got a bit better finding a Synaptic driver from a completely different computer brand/model after much trial and erroring.
Anyways, you could have a look at this article, you may have to try out Synaptics driver for Linux.
https://www.maketecheasier.com/fix-touchpad-not-working-linux/
Check out Mint forum, here's one thread with lots of hints.
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=378157
Anyways, you could have a look at this article, you may have to try out Synaptics driver for Linux.
https://www.maketecheasier.com/fix-touchpad-not-working-linux/
Check out Mint forum, here's one thread with lots of hints.
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=378157