Fun Friday: Linux Distribution of Choice?


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Hey everyone,

 

I was working on reviving my decade old MacBook Pro yesterday, I didn’t want to put MacOS on it again because the only versions it supports are end of life, so inevitably I went down the Linux route.

 

I prepped my USB, installed my distribution of choice (Ubuntu) and set it up as I needed (my dedicated GPU is dead so I needed a fair few tweaks to force the integrated one).

 

As I was installing Ubuntu, it occurred to me, I gave ZERO thought to deploying anything other than Ubuntu, it’s just MY default go-to when I need a Linux OS.

 

So, what’s your go-to? Why is it your go-to? Was it a feature, a security/compliance requirement? Was it the support? Or was it the first one you just *clicked* with?

For me, I first started using Ubuntu on the 10.x release. I used Debian and Centos, but Ubuntu just felt nicer to use, helping me learn more about Linux and getting me comfortable enough to go headless on a Linux server (which would make me more confident when Windows started doing Core later on!).

 

 


28 comments

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Interesting question, indeed! 

I started seriously with Linux with Debian … many years ago :older_man: . I cannot remember the version. Distribution was intended for server. Years later I got my old work-notebook. The last OS I wanted to install was Windows (at this time Windows 8). So I tried some Linux distributions. My first try was Ubuntu and funnily enough also the final :grinning:. Still my favorite one, for desktop and server.

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My first contact with Linux was a Suse SLES many years ago. This had several problems at this time and I did not use Linux some years after that (AIX on Power Servers was the choice at this time for the customer… something completely different...)

Some years ago I played aroznd qith Ubuntu and I like it very much. It is rather easy to unstall and use.

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BTW: looking forward to read @Geoff Burke stories :joy:

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BTW: looking forward to read @Geoff Burke stories :joy:

Definitely! And @wolff.mateus as he was celebrating Linux’s birthday! :grin:

 

Thanks for sharing @vNote42 & @JMeixner. I’m not alone in my love of Ubuntu!

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Hi Folks,

Choosing a distribution is personal choice often but can be technical as well. There are many distributions as you all know out there and some try and focus on particular areas more than others. So for things like Forensics and Pen testing backtrack and Kali are great, and they can be used as livecds as well so as not to touch the disks. There is an educational one as well forget the name, a media music centric one, a science one etc. Of course Linux is really the kernel so what ever icing is on top is pretty subjective. I have played around with tons but stuck in the end pretty much to Debian based distros.

So it is good to search up and see what might fit. Obviously depending on your Linux background your choice will differ. Debian folks like me prefer Ubuntu, but I have worked and used rpm RedHat types dists as well. 

For a while I even used Freedbsd as a desktop well. 

 

Right now for my laptop I use Ubuntu. For a server and base for Kubernetes nodes I am leaning towards CoreOS from Redhat. It is an immutable operating system. When you update it, you actually update the image!! :). It sits under Openshift controlplane nodes as I have been finding out. It used to be a separate project but RedHat purchased them. I think you can install it separately @BertrandFR might know as he uses Openshift. 

Probably CoreOS is not for a laptop. If you are a security nut then nothing beats OpenBSD, not Linux since from the BSD family but I don’t think it has ever been compromised. 

 

cheers

 

Userlevel 7
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Hi Folks,

Choosing a distribution is personal choice often but can be technical as well. There are many distributions as you all know out there and some try and focus on particular areas more than others. So for things like Forensics and Pen testing backtrack and Kali are great, and they can be used as livecds as well so as not to touch the disks. There is an educational one as well forget the name, a media music centric one, a science one etc. Of course Linux is really the kernel so what ever icing is on top is pretty subjective. I have played around with tons but stuck in the end pretty much to Debian based distros.

So it is good to search up and see what might fit. Obviously depending on your Linux background your choice will differ. Debian folks like me prefer Ubuntu, but I have worked and used rpm RedHat types dists as well. 

For a while I even used Freedbsd as a desktop well. 

 

Right now for my laptop I use Ubuntu. For a server and base for Kubernetes nodes I am leaning towards CoreOS from Redhat. It is an immutable operating system. When you update it, you actually update the image!! :). It sits under Openshift controlplane nodes as I have been finding out. It used to be a separate project but RedHat purchased them. I think you can install it separately @BertrandFR might know as he uses Openshift. 

Probably CoreOS is not for a laptop. If you are a security nut then nothing beats OpenBSD, not Linux since from the BSD family but I don’t think it has ever been compromised. 

 

cheers

 

Well, you certainly didn’t disappoint @Geoff Burke ! Thanks for sharing :)

 

Kernels is a great point as well because beneath each of these you can still get variations on kernels, for example early on in the world of Linux, if you were working with audio and needed low/no-latency audio, you had to use a variation of a “RealTime” kernel! More information here

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Isn’t it amazing that Ubuntu is the preferred Linux operating system of choice! Everyone loves it!!

It is user friendly.  I guess this is why it is the choice for every day-to-day Linux user. Above all, it is highly customisable and has a Software Center full of apps with low system requirement to run the OS. 

Yes, it is very STABLE!

Userlevel 7
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Hi Folks,

Choosing a distribution is personal choice often but can be technical as well. There are many distributions as you all know out there and some try and focus on particular areas more than others. So for things like Forensics and Pen testing backtrack and Kali are great, and they can be used as livecds as well so as not to touch the disks. There is an educational one as well forget the name, a media music centric one, a science one etc. Of course Linux is really the kernel so what ever icing is on top is pretty subjective. I have played around with tons but stuck in the end pretty much to Debian based distros.

So it is good to search up and see what might fit. Obviously depending on your Linux background your choice will differ. Debian folks like me prefer Ubuntu, but I have worked and used rpm RedHat types dists as well. 

For a while I even used Freedbsd as a desktop well. 

 

Right now for my laptop I use Ubuntu. For a server and base for Kubernetes nodes I am leaning towards CoreOS from Redhat. It is an immutable operating system. When you update it, you actually update the image!! 🙂. It sits under Openshift controlplane nodes as I have been finding out. It used to be a separate project but RedHat purchased them. I think you can install it separately @BertrandFR might know as he uses Openshift. 

Probably CoreOS is not for a laptop. If you are a security nut then nothing beats OpenBSD, not Linux since from the BSD family but I don’t think it has ever been compromised. 

 

cheers

 

Spot on :clap::clap:

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I did find that applications that were ported to FreeBSD worked significantly faster then on Linux. Freebsd has the fantastic ports system as well. FreeBSD jail is another parent of today’s containerization.

 

It has been a few years but I might give it a spin again. I had some FreeBSD servers that were incredibly solid, they are probably still running and doing the tasks there at my old job :) 

 

https://www.freebsd.org/ports/

 

https://freebsdfoundation.org/freebsd-project/resources/installing-a-desktop-environment-on-freebsd/

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I did find that applications that were ported to FreeBSD worked significantly faster then on Linux. Freebsd has the fantastic ports system as well. FreeBSD jail is another parent of today’s containerization.

 

It has been a few years but I might give it a spin again. I had some FreeBSD servers that were incredibly solid, they are probably still running and doing the tasks there at my old job :) 

 

https://www.freebsd.org/ports/

 

https://freebsdfoundation.org/freebsd-project/resources/installing-a-desktop-environment-on-freebsd/

forgot the jail link :) https://rderik.com/blog/running-a-web-server-on-freebsd-inside-a-jail/

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Just to add with the ports you can change the make file if I remember correctly and have the application build specifically for your system, cutting out tons of excess crap. My biggest dislike of windows is that you are force to buy the Buffalo pretty much, i.e. this big chunk of everything, where as with Linux and BSD systems you can make them lean and mean, remove everything. Heck you can even remove the shell like in immutable containers, rm -r /bin :) but of course on an OS that could cause some issues :) 

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I must say, i have only used centos and ubuntu so far for using linux as a server. I don‘t have any experience with Linux for Desktops. I had never the personal interest to try it out. To many features missing like gaming when I was teenager 😋

Now with Veeam, Ubuntu is the way to go for me.

 

 

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I must say, i have only used centos and ubuntu so far for using linux as a server. I don‘t have any experience with Linux for Desktops. I had never the personal interest to try it out. To many features missing like gaming when I was teenager 😋

Now with Veeam, Ubuntu is the way to go for me.

Yes, same here. Never used Linux on the desktop, for server only.

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Another vote here for Ubuntu as I have been using it more and more so getting used to commands, etc.

I guess second would be CentOS.

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I started my Linux steps on Debian 5. Ubuntu was the sequence…

Look for that..

 

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@Mildur and @Chris.Childerhose, I think CentOS distribution has changed fundamentally. When I got this right, newer versions (CentOS stream) are more focused on new features than on a stable version.

https://centos.org/cl-vs-cs/

… correct me if I am wrong

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Yeah it's hard to get around Ubuntu, so I do understand love here 😁 Unfortunately I'm not a big fan of it, I'm sorry @chris_eromosele 😉

Ubuntu and Fedora Core were the first distributions I've played with. Ubuntu has always been user friendly and had a broad support, so it was never a bad choice. I often see it in the wild and have used it with Veeam because if it's integration. I just don't like the way of the project as they often do their own stuff instead of working together with other projects. And I still remember the Amazon shopping lense…

My personal choice is openSUSE, which is running on my desktop and home server. It's very stable, has a huge package support and it's connected to SUSE Enterprise Linux, just like CentOS used to be. I like the Gecko and it's green 😀

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@Mildur and @Chris.Childerhose, I think CentOS distribution has changed fundamentally. When I got this right, newer versions (CentOS stream) are more focused on new features than on a stable version.

https://centos.org/cl-vs-cs/

… correct me if I am wrong

That's right. Stream is completely different from what CentOS used to be. It's no longer directly connected to Redhat Linux. Stream is a rolling release somewhere between RHEL and Fedora; it will focus more on up to date packages then stable versions.

Userlevel 7
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Yeah it's hard to get around Ubuntu, so I do understand love here 😁 Unfortunately I'm not a big fan of it, I'm sorry @chris_eromosele 😉

Ubuntu and Fedora Core were the first distributions I've played with. Ubuntu has always been user friendly and had a broad support, so it was never a bad choice. I often see it in the wild and have used it with Veeam because if it's integration. I just don't like the way of the project as they often do their own stuff instead of working together with other projects. And I still remember the Amazon shopping lense…

My personal choice is openSUSE, which is running on my desktop and home server. It's very stable, has a huge package support and it's connected to SUSE Enterprise Linux, just like CentOS used to be. I like the Gecko and it's green 😀

yes, can remember, @regnor … a slap in the face

https://www.networkworld.com/article/2226648/canonical-flip-flops-on-ubuntu-s-controversial-amazon-feature.html

at least currently it is removed 

Userlevel 7
Badge +13

Hi Folks,

Choosing a distribution is personal choice often but can be technical as well. There are many distributions as you all know out there and some try and focus on particular areas more than others. So for things like Forensics and Pen testing backtrack and Kali are great, and they can be used as livecds as well so as not to touch the disks. There is an educational one as well forget the name, a media music centric one, a science one etc. Of course Linux is really the kernel so what ever icing is on top is pretty subjective. I have played around with tons but stuck in the end pretty much to Debian based distros.

So it is good to search up and see what might fit. Obviously depending on your Linux background your choice will differ. Debian folks like me prefer Ubuntu, but I have worked and used rpm RedHat types dists as well. 

For a while I even used Freedbsd as a desktop well. 

 

Right now for my laptop I use Ubuntu. For a server and base for Kubernetes nodes I am leaning towards CoreOS from Redhat. It is an immutable operating system. When you update it, you actually update the image!! :). It sits under Openshift controlplane nodes as I have been finding out. It used to be a separate project but RedHat purchased them. I think you can install it separately @BertrandFR might know as he uses Openshift. 

Probably CoreOS is not for a laptop. If you are a security nut then nothing beats OpenBSD, not Linux since from the BSD family but I don’t think it has ever been compromised. 

 

cheers

 

Thanks @Geoff Burke for the insights! Would you still recommend Ubuntu for notebooks?

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I started my Linux steps on Debian 5. Ubuntu was the sequence…

Look for that..

 

Ubuntu is a derivative of Debian. Therefore, “Ubuntu ≡ Debian” only with a little differences 

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Yeah it's hard to get around Ubuntu, so I do understand love here 😁 Unfortunately I'm not a big fan of it, I'm sorry @chris_eromosele 😉

Ubuntu and Fedora Core were the first distributions I've played with. Ubuntu has always been user friendly and had a broad support, so it was never a bad choice. I often see it in the wild and have used it with Veeam because if it's integration. I just don't like the way of the project as they often do their own stuff instead of working together with other projects. And I still remember the Amazon shopping lense…

My personal choice is openSUSE, which is running on my desktop and home server. It's very stable, has a huge package support and it's connected to SUSE Enterprise Linux, just like CentOS used to be. I like the Gecko and it's green 😀

I love your (this) line “my personal choice is openSUSE”. I should have personalised my statement too :smile:  

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Yeah it's hard to get around Ubuntu, so I do understand love here 😁 Unfortunately I'm not a big fan of it, I'm sorry @chris_eromosele 😉

Ubuntu and Fedora Core were the first distributions I've played with. Ubuntu has always been user friendly and had a broad support, so it was never a bad choice. I often see it in the wild and have used it with Veeam because if it's integration. I just don't like the way of the project as they often do their own stuff instead of working together with other projects. And I still remember the Amazon shopping lense…

My personal choice is openSUSE, which is running on my desktop and home server. It's very stable, has a huge package support and it's connected to SUSE Enterprise Linux, just like CentOS used to be. I like the Gecko and it's green 😀

yes, can remember, @regnor … a slap in the face

https://www.networkworld.com/article/2226648/canonical-flip-flops-on-ubuntu-s-controversial-amazon-feature.html

at least currently it is removed 

I never saw that! As I mainly focused on Ubuntu for Server! But glad it’s gone!

 

And there’s been good mentions here about the changes to CentOS. It’s worth mentioning that anyone wanting to get RHEL equivalent can look at the Rocky project :) it’s by the original founder of CentOS!

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Well i discovered linux with Backtrack (Debian) and Ubuntu at high school.

Now I have Fedora on my Laptop and running redhat OS family on servers.  I prefer to stay in the same Linux Ecosystem to be able to go deep dive in system part. Even if sometimes i loose i am wasting time on Kali Linux (Debian) for scientific purpose :grin:

I don’t have a favorite one, i prefer to run the most efficient and documented.

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Yeah it's hard to get around Ubuntu, so I do understand love here 😁 Unfortunately I'm not a big fan of it, I'm sorry @chris_eromosele 😉

Ubuntu and Fedora Core were the first distributions I've played with. Ubuntu has always been user friendly and had a broad support, so it was never a bad choice. I often see it in the wild and have used it with Veeam because if it's integration. I just don't like the way of the project as they often do their own stuff instead of working together with other projects. And I still remember the Amazon shopping lense…

My personal choice is openSUSE, which is running on my desktop and home server. It's very stable, has a huge package support and it's connected to SUSE Enterprise Linux, just like CentOS used to be. I like the Gecko and it's green 😀

I love your (this) line “my personal choice is openSUSE”. I should have personalised my statement too :smile:  

I think much in the Opensource world is based on personal choices and sympathies, although that’s no always ideal :sweat_smile:

 

I never saw that! As I mainly focused on Ubuntu for Server! But glad it’s gone!

 

And there’s been good mentions here about the changes to CentOS. It’s worth mentioning that anyone wanting to get RHEL equivalent can look at the Rocky project :) it’s by the original founder of CentOS!

I’m also glad that they’ve removed it afterwards, as it had a very bade taste…

Regarding the CentOS successors; for now I would wait to see how good they develope themselves and if they can survive for a certain time.

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