What is the best alternative to&#x20;NetBSD?

Uses stable, plain-vanilla packages from upstream. See More

674 43

score 229 · Answer 2

Slackware

Top Pro

Stable

Top Con

Not user-friendly

It is made to be KISS (keep it simple, stupid), so you have to do everything by hand. See More

Top Pro

Strong adherence to UNIX Principals

Top Con

Large size live ISO

One needs to vain 3GB+ data for downloading one slackware ISO. See More

Top Pro

Oldest surviving Linux distro

Besides Debian (which was first released in August 1993), it is the oldest still maintained Linux Distribution and was first released in July 1993. See More

Top Con

Niche/small community

Slackware is its own niche and has a small community. See More

Top Pro

One more distro which is init based

Some users don't like to install systemd based distros because they increase booting and processing speed. See More

Top Con

Very slow release cycle

Hasn't updated in 3+ years. See More

Top Pro

Ideal to learn more of Linux

Follows the original Linux roots. It still sees Linux as a free clone of UNIX so the distribution tries to be UNIX-like. See More

Top Con

Narrow repos

Doesn't offer the same amount of options as other distros do. See More

Top Pro

No systemd

Top Con

Dependency issues

When it comes to dependencies, Slackware shows more issues than many other distros. See More

Top Pro

Package management

Uses standard tar archives with shell scripting as packages. See More

Specs

Based On:Softlanding Linux System

Default Desktop Environment:KDE SC

Init-System:SysVinit

Package Manager:Pkgtool

You build the package from a source you can see and read. You decide which features you want to build in and which aren't needed. You can choose build options, optimisation and whatever else fancy stuff you want modified. With a binary distribution this simply isn't possible. See More

229 46

score 758 · Answer 3

Gentoo Linux

Top Pro

Full control of the software

Top Con

Not beginner-friendly

You have to read a lot of instructions to start, even if you are familiar with Linux. Furthermore, as you have to configure the kernel and init system, expect some boot failures at beginning. See More

Top Pro

Portage's emerge is powerful

Portage is a package management system with a huge amount of options and features. See More

Top Con

Since everything must be compiled it takes a lot longer to update

And if you have to update the kernel or some heavy software like Chromium it can takes hours if not more on weaker hardware. See More

Top Pro

Freedom

You are free to do whatever you want with it. As a result, its configuration reflects your unique taste and personality. See More

Top Con

Customized package installation can take a long time and cause installation failures

The Gentoo package management system allows you to configure what compilation flags packages should support - i.e. specific processor flag support (SSE, SSE2, etc.), -O1, -O2, -O3 optimization, etc. If you accept one of the default flags, Gentoo downloads binaries from the server. However, if you decide to optimise, it can and will download all source packages and start compiling allthe programs and libraries on your system. If your chosen flags don't work with a particular library, installation will fail. See More

Top Pro

Great for anyone who is serious about learning the intricacies of Linux

It's useful for both beginners and professionals. For the installation, Gentoo offers various types, which are referred to as stages. Basically meaning how in depth you would want to go into the process of installation. For beginners it's useful to choose for a starting distro due to its various stages that can be very time consuming but beneficial as you learn the composition in general of Linux. See More

Top Con

Somewhat outdated solutions

While being outdated per se is virtually impossible for a rolling-release distro with a large community, a large portion of said community sticks to outdated solutions. For example, Gentoo's primary init system is OpenRC, which is cumbersome and awkward to use and provides little control over the system. While you can just choose systemd, it will require some tinkering. Other examples include stubbornly declaring an initramfs a last resort and an "oh my god 1337 H4XX0RZ surely have nothing better to do than trying for a month to exploit some vulnerability to steal my pony art, I have to fortify so hard my performance and ease of use will suffer" 90s security mentality. Because of just how much freedom Gentoo provides you with, this usually isn't a big deal though. See More

Top Pro

Fully customizable

The usage of advanced features like USE flags makes it more customizable than any binary distribution. See More

Top Con

No default installer

Installation must be done manually by following instructions in the handbook. See More

Top Pro

Can by optimized to any given CPU by using proper compile flags

Since everything is being built on your PC you can fine-tune the code to make use of your CPU. And all it requires is two lines of string variables in a global config. See More

Top Con

Too hard

Top Pro

Documentation and community are second to none

Provides a whole handbook to refer to during setup and usage. See More

Top Pro

Can be officially systemd-free

Gentoo's default init system is OpenRC. Gentoo also officially supports systemd-free Gnome and udev. Users are free to choose any init system they want. See More

Top Pro

Portability

There are many architectures available for Gentoo : i386, x86-64, PowerPC, PowerPC 64, sparc, DEC Alpha, ARM, MIPS, PA-RISC, S390, IA-64, sh, m68k. See More

Top Pro

A very large collection of software is available

There are more than 19.000 packages available in the official repository. And even more with overlays. See More

Top Pro

Gentoo does not impose a standard look-and-feel

Top Pro

Live USB installation

Installation via a Live USB allows you to go back and fix mistakes from it without having to restart the whole installation process. See More

Arch's goal of simplicity means there's usually one preferred way to get things done - through organized and well documented configuration files. This focus, combined with the community's recognition that configuration files can be intimidating, has resulted in excellent documentation that's accessible to newcomers, and very instructive about how Linux actually works. The documentation is often so thorough that, when searching for solutions to problems while using other distributions, such as with video card drivers, oftentimes you'll find the most effective solution in the Arch Linux wiki or on the forums. See More

758 155

score 2621 · Answer 4

Arch Linux

Top Pro

Excellent documentation

Top Con

Not for the faint of heart

You need to be very carefully with updates. See More

Top Pro

A package for almost everything

If you need to install something, chances are someone in the Arch community has already made a package for it. This makes it incredibly easy for you to install and maintain all of the non-media content on your computer. See More

Top Con

Manual install process

The installation requires a lot of manual intervention/decisions. See More

Top Pro

Cutting edge rolling release

Arch Linux follows a rolling release model, which allows users to stay on the most up-to-date versions of the software they are using. See More

Top Con

Instability can be an issue

Sometimes you can have a surprise, but in most cases it can be fixed quickly. See More

Top Pro

No restrictive handholding, pure control over everything

Arch is mainly aimed at experienced Linux users, there is no hand-holding and not much in a way of UI elements when trying to install or tweak settings. See More

Top Con

No graphical installer

Although some derivatives such as Manjaro and ArcoLinux exist. See More

Top Pro

Arch Linux Wiki

The Arch Linux Wiki is very useful not just for Arch Linux users, but for anyone who uses Linux. See More

Top Con

Requires some background with Linux and the command-line to setup

Going in with zero Linux knowledge is not really recommended when wanting to install Arch, though it can be a good learning experience for those that are dedicated to trial and error as well as reading many faqs. See More

Top Pro

As slim or copious as you want it

Arch keeps its core repositories slim and free of unnecessary dependencies. At first installation only a bare system is set up. You can easily get the other applications through the package manager. The repositories are nearly as full as those of Ubuntu, while they are often more up to date. That way you don't have to waste time with software you don't need or want. See More

Top Con

Fragile packages

Updating an Arch system is always a gamble. The problem could be as simple as a package having a bug causing a program to crash on start or it may be something bigger like the WiFi or Bluetooth no longer working. There is also the slight chance the system may not even boot at all after a large update. If the user does not plan to read the forums weekly/daily or update fairly often, things can go wrong very fast. See More

Top Pro

Excellent package management with the AUR

The AUR is a repository with a very extensive catalogue of build/install scripts that are contributed by users. While these scripts are inherently less secure than conventional packages maintained by a distro's authors, it's still way easier to verify the security of install scripts than it would be to write them yourself. It's very usefull. See More

Top Con

Works only on AMD64

It is the only official supported instruction set of CPUs. See More

Top Pro

Fast and simple package management

Pacman has performance advantages over apt-get and yum in both database operations (thanks to being written for speed) and download times (by virtue of using better mirrors than other distributions tend to select by default). There are also fewer default repositories to download from, and all package management is combined into one tool instead of being split into dpkg, apt-get, and apt-cache like on Debian distros. See More

Top Con

Not really for desktop

More like for posting screenshots on Reddit. See More

Top Pro

Simplicity is absolutely the principal objective behind Arch development

The design approach of the development team focuses on elegance, code correctness, minimalism, and simplicity, and expects the user to be willing to make some effort to understand the system's operation. See More

Top Con

Lost its way

It aimed to be KISS but it has lost its way and is getting more and more complex, for example, it uses systemd which is anything but KISS. It also has now some kind of package post configuration included. See More

Top Pro

Huge Repositories

Although Arch Linux only comes with around 10,000 packages, you can use the Arch User Repositories (AUR) which will add over 50,000 more packages. See More

Top Con

Highly egotistical community

Top Pro

Good overall system quality

QoL of Arch is generally good. You get something more consistent and doable in Arch then you would get with most other OSes. See More

Top Con

Documentation only makes sense if you know how to adjust it

While the documentation is a very valuable reference for experts, the recipes often don't actually work on your own computer. Some articles are outdated, incomplete, contradictory or duplicated. Only if you are expert enough to know which steps to skip, to adjust or which other documentation parts to plug in, you can make it work. See More

Top Pro

An opportunity to improve

The process of learning to setup and use Arch will improve your skills with Linux and computers in general. See More

Top Con

Too many package upgrades that require manual intervention

Every year or so there is a update to ArchLinux that will break your system unless you first read the front page of archlinux.org. This happened with SystemD and with a few other updates that require you to do prior steps befor pacman -Syu. See More

Top Pro

It is Linux at the core

This distro is barebones enough to make a new distro from. See More

Top Con

Occasional upstream package bugs

Most package maintainers look for issues that the packages might have ispecifically for arch. Which means if a package has a bug that applies to all Linux distros regardless of the flavor, the maintainer may not be able to: A) catch it before pushing a update or B) have to wait for the packages developers to fix it. This is a minor issue because most issues are often patched before the end of the day if many users rely on it, or if its a less used package there will be specific troubleshooting instructions on the arch site. See More

Top Pro

Highly customizable

Tailor the system to your needs. See More

Top Con

Rolling release requires bandwidth

Arch uses a rolling release model for updates. Unlike, for example Ubuntu where a new version is released every six months, packages are updated when they are ready. The advantage is a very up to date system and that the work of upgrading can be spread over a longer span of time to a point where it is hardly noticeably effort. However it can be difficult for people without a high bandwidth connection, or with limits on how many GB can be downloaded imposed by their internet service providers. A GB a month of downloads is quite possible. This can be somewhat offset by Arch being lightweight, besides the relatively small core, the user selects what is installed (and has to be updated). See More

Top Pro

No need for external repos

The default and community repo of Arch Linux are so vast, that there is barely any need for additional software sources. And if there is, the additional software can be added to AUR, which results in the need actually growing the Arch repos. See More

Top Con

Not so great overall

Apart from the ArchBuildSystem/AUR, which brings you very quickly newer package versions, there is not really much where Arch Linux shines. You get better package managers with other systems. The most Linux distributions are far more stable than Arch. You learn more about Linux by using LFS or a source based distribution. You can customize the system much more in LFS or Gentoo. See More

Top Pro

Helpful community

If searching through the wiki or the forums for any problems turns nothing, any question on the official forums, Arch subreddit or the IRC channel will be answered within minutes. There will probably be no hand-holding however, Arch users prefer to point anyone to a resource that may help them instead of trying to outright solve their problem in a forum thread. This is quite helpful for people who want to really learn how their system works but also for other people who may stumble in that thread considering how most problems don’t have a universal solution. See More

Top Con

Uses Systemd

Top Pro

Support for a large variety of hardware

From latest wacom pads to obscure wireless cards in laptops Arch's hw support has been and continues to be good. It has worked on laptops where other leading distro's like debian/ mint/ ubuntu failed to detect and work with all hardware. See More

Top Con

You have to install everything by hand on a command line

This may be a CON for a lot of people that are new to Linux but a PRO to those who actually want to learn something new. See More

Top Pro

Simple by design

Arch Linux is actually incredibly simple. It's really just a partition scheme, package manager, Linux kernel, file system, systemd and the bare minimum of utilities needed to easily set up your hardware. This makes it super simple to build your desired system using binary packages because there no bloat getting in your way when installing or configuring packages. See More

Top Con

Package manager is so naive

For example, it doesn't allow you to purge (remove package and its configuration files). See More

Top Pro

Rolling updates

Updating will keep the whole OS up to date (unlike Ubuntu/Debian/etc. where occasionally you will need to perform major version updates). See More

Top Con

Problems with driver/kernel/gpu consistency

Arch has no proper desktop support, you must craft your system together. Things may work for the first but generally it takes days to configure a stable and working system. This is NOT ideal for a desktop user. See More

Top Pro

Incredible educational value

Arch gives great insight in the inner workings of operating systems, computers and data manipulation. See More

Top Pro

Helpful for understanding how Linux is installed

Arch does not come with an automatic installation process. The user is expected to walk through the installation steps published on the Arch wiki. This is very useful if, later, something happens to the installation as the user will be more familiar with the foundational steps required to get a full blown Arch installation working. See More

Top Pro

Vanilla

Learn about Arch, learn about Linux. What works for Arch, works for many other distros too. See More

Top Pro

Flexible upgrades

Upgrade once a day, once a week, once a month,... three times a day... automate it, upgrade manually, add packages to the ignore list. See More

Top Pro

On average only 1 manual intervention needed a year now

The comments about issues with upgrades are over-exaggerated. Those comments assume that : A) They happen often, B) you are using a specific package with an issue, C) that package maintainers can't release a patch to the package that will work around the issue for you, and that D) Manual intervention or system recovery from such issues is hard to fix. On average once or twice a year a user may have to cut and paste some commands in the terminal to fix an issue, but that's about it. Additionally any system recovery required from such missed interventions is easy, just follow the wiki and make a live USB if your using a desktop or laptop. See More

Top Pro

Great for low performance hardware

Arch Linux works quite well with low performance hardware like netbooks. See More

Top Pro

Highly reliable and stable build

See experts working on the packages and upgrades. Given Arch splits the load among people who care and have the experience, the overall setup is very stable and reliable, even though very broad too. See More

Top Pro

Supports various desktop environments and window managers

Doesn't limit you in terms of desktop environments or graphical servers (X, Wayland). See More

Top Pro

Helpful 3rd-party installers

There are extremely helpful 3rd-party installers such as Anarchy Linux (Formerly Arch Anywhere). See More

Top Pro

Multilib support is just around the corner

Just uncomment the according entries in the pacman.conf. See More

Top Pro

Minimal

If you need something, you should install it. It has nothing as default and you can build your system from zero. See More

Top Pro

Ultimate mid-range OS for Tinkering

If you like to tinker with things and see how they work you don't get much better than arch linux unless you commit to building your own kernel and using flags manually when installing your packages. See More

Top Pro

Incredibly easy to manage

Arch is very simple to maintain, backup and in rare cases repair and recover. For example, the manual to recover your boot manager is already in the install guide! See More

Top Pro

Stripped down to the bone

Since its stripped down, it is fast and you don't have to deal with bloatware. See More

Top Pro

Low maintenance

To basically keep your Arch setup up and running, it takes very little to barely any maintenance. See More

Top Pro

Experts working on the packages

Providers only provide the basic system and do a great job doing so. While with AUR people who actually use the packages, provide and maintain them. They CARE about making them work. See More

Top Pro

Great hardware support

Out of the box Arch comes with great hardware support. See More

Top Pro

Easier to review the distributions packages

Unlike other some distributions, it's super simple to review the packages you download on the official arch repos or arch user repository. See More

Top Pro

Great security out of the box

Even a default Arch setup offers great security with the minimum number of open ports and very little information on the system for outsiders. See More

Top Pro

Highly reliable upgrades

Always works. No matter if you upgrade 7 or 700 packages. See More

Top Pro

Vast variety of use and purpose

With its vast repos, Arch offers tons of applications for all kinds of use. See More

Top Pro

Good for ricing for r/unixporn

Top Pro

You actually learn a LOT of the inner workings of your OS.

Since you do everything by hand and a LOT of it, you actually learn very useful things even for other distros. See More

Top Pro

Completely signed repos by default

Arch-based distros, or even Arch installers, often use unsigned repositories. See More

Specs

Based On:N/A

Default Desktop Environment:N/A

Package Manager:Pacman

As the most popular Linux distribution, there's a wide range of sources for support online if you ever need help, including the Ubuntu Wiki, Ubuntu Forums and the Ask Ubuntu Stack Exchange site. See More

2621 597

score 1384 · Answer 5

Ubuntu

Top Pro

Lots of support

Top Con

Custom PPAs required for most software

To get the most software available, user must add several PPAs to the system. That has major problems: 1) Terminal recommended for adding a PPA, which can scare away users 2) A PPA can potentially distribute malware by creating a "newer" version of a package than available in other PPAs, such as the Linux kernel. 3) PPAs must be recreated and re-added with every major system update See More

Top Pro

Wide range of software out of the box

The default apps available in Ubuntu cover the gamut of most anyone's needs. From music, video or office applications Ubuntu has an app that will cover the users needs. See More

Top Con

No rolling release

New Ubuntu versions are released two times a year, during this period almost all software receives only security updates and minor bug fixes. See More

Top Pro

Simplicity

Ubuntu is designed to be used by everyday people. Because of that, Ubuntu has tried hard to make a user interface that's intuitive and looks pleasant and clean. See More

Top Con

Includes adware

Advertisers pay to have their links or software preinstalled. Like the links to Amazon installed by default in the dock. See More

Top Pro

Great long term support release schedule (2 years)

This allows for users to always have a new supported release available without long unkown wait times in between. See More

Top Con

Unstable

Some people pointed out that updating Arch is a high risk affair. And one should carefully read forums before doing it. The same is true about Ubuntu. Making system updates (like it was with 10.04 to 11.04) that screw so many things up became a routine. Even LTS releases should not give confidence that it will work. See More

Top Pro

Use it on almost any device

Not just for laptops - Ubuntu was designed with tablets and touchscreen devices in mind, and with phone support on the way. Ubuntu also has Long Term Support releases, as well as a version oriented toward servers, so you can use the same OS at work or on mobile as you do on your desktop. See More

Top Con

Canonical does not respect Ubuntu users' preferences

In 2012 it became impossible in Ubuntu to move the close-window-button back to the upper-right corner of the window, where it always was before. To the questions of their users Canonical replied that they know better than users where it would be convenient for users to have the close-window-button. See More

Top Pro

Just works out of the box

Lots of support for hardware, lots of pre-installed software, and a smooth install process means less time downloading drivers, less time digging through configuration files, and less time deciding on software to use just to get up and running. It also means less time digging through forums looking for support. See More

Top Con

Relatively high system requirements

The default GNOME desktop environment is a resource hog which requires hardware accelerated graphics rendering in order to run smoothly, making out of the box Ubuntu unsuitable for low end systems and older hardware. Even mildly aged hardware, you'll get far better performance out of a lighter desktop environment like LXDE or XFCE. See More

Top Pro

Perfect for collaboration on open source projects

This is probably the best option when collaborating on open source projects in hardware. This is mostly because packages and tools are readily available via software center. See More

Top Con

Canonical (author) is proprietary

Canonical is focused on making money so you can see many proprietary offers by them and the OS has built-in trackers (Amazon). See More

Top Pro

Good UI for small monitors

Because the menu usually is in the title bar and the launcher auto-hides, the whole screen can be used by an application. See More

Top Con

Redundant

With the removal of Unity, there is no point in choosing Ubuntu over Debian anymore because everything else is imported from Debian to Ubuntu. See More

Top Pro

Flexible

The setup for personal use is simple enough for anyone to achieve, and can easily be modified to act as a server. Programs and all features are easy to find and use, and first-timers can easily pick up on how to use it. See More

Top Con

Extremely un-customizable

Top Pro

Good PPA repositories available

PPA repositories allow you to install the latest version of your preferred software while keeping the rest of the operating system "stable". See More

Top Con

Binary incompatible to Debian

Ubuntu releases are based on Debian testing/unstable, however, unlike other Debian-based distributions they are not binary compatible due to different libc versions, so you can't install Debian packages in Ubuntu and vice versa. See More

Top Pro

UTF-8 is the default character encoding

Beginning with Ubuntu 5.04, UTF-8 became the default character encoding, which allows for support of a variety of non-Roman scripts. See More

Top Con

Splits the Debian community

The most packages are imported from Debian but Ubuntu uses own bug trackers and develops its own patches. See More

Top Pro

Unified search

Type any query into the Dash Home, and search will look through files, stores and web-pages to find what you are looking for. See More

Top Con

Doesn't shutdown/standby properly on Lenovo laptops (b, e & g series) and desktops (Thinkcentre)

Ubuntu has some serious issue with some Lenovo laptops and desktops. Sometimes, it doesn't shutdown correctly. See More

Top Pro

Dedicated software center

The Ubuntu Software Center offers a GUI interface for installing new apps which is extremely easy and welcoming for beginners to Linux. But it should not be used by more advanced users since the method of installing through the terminal is much faster and easier after one is used to it. See More

Top Con

A tweaked Gnome version

Instead of original Gnome desktop with Ubuntu you get a tweaked Gnome and most of the tweaks makes user experience worse. See More

Top Pro

Company behind it

This means that the system must run well, otherwise they will lose money. See More

Top Con

Native apps are still being updated

Top Pro

Stable

It‘s one of the most stable Linux Distros. See More

Top Con

Problematic to integrate in Windows server environment (Active Directory)

Top Pro

Looks good

Ubuntu looks clean even when running from a LiveCD. See More

Top Con

Random system errors may pop up

Top Pro

Cares about stable drivers

Top Con

Software can be outdated, if not severely outdated

If you try to download "unpopular" software, so you may find you're downloading a version that's several years old. See More

Top Pro

Has a clean Gnome interface

Gnome has lot of extensions available and can be custmoized rather easily. See More

Top Con

Systemd

Top Pro

Very stable.

Top Con

Not so strong at all

Top Pro

Runs at low resources

Run far faster than Windows on Dell laptop See More

Top Con

Company stays behind it

Top Pro

Runs 95% out of the box

Top Con

Systemd

Top Con

Systemd

Specs

Based On:Debian Stable(core) Testing/Unstable(universe/multiverse)

Default Desktop Environment:GNOME

Package Manager:Debian Package Manager, Snap Daemon

Contains too many tools for hacking. Those tools are not already included in BackBox or ParrotOS. See More

1384 482

score 149 · Answer 6

Kali Linux

Top Pro

Better than ParrotOS, BackBox for hacking purpose

Top Con

Not intended to be a daily driver

This distro was written for pen testing and security work. It is not meant to be a day-to-day OS (unless that's your job). See More

Top Pro

Standard pentest tool set

Top Con

Very old packages

E.G. Firefox's current version is 61 but Kali linux consists of its 52th version. Though kernel is not that old. See More

Top Pro

Live session distro used for forensics

149 67

score 302 · Answer 7

Devuan GNU+Linux

Top Pro

Stability

It is stable like Debian. See More

Top Con

Difficult to install on non-free hardware

Unlike Debian, Devuan offers no unfree netinstall media, so if your system needs unfree drivers (e.g a laptop or a tablet), you'll have to download the Debian firmware on a separate USB. See More

Top Pro

It's Debian

Devuan is Debian just without systemd, it just mirrors the the Debian archive and repacks packages that have hard dependencies on systemd. See More

Top Con

Fragmentation

Forked distributions like Devuan and Artix fragment the Linux community and hurt the original project. Debian users who do not want systemd should use Slackware or BSD instead. See More

Top Pro

Excellent for normal people

It is easy to use and is a good choice for beginners. See More

Top Con

No systemd

Top Pro

Most decent look amongst other XFCE distros

Default XFCE theme is unique of all the XFCE distos including MXLinux, Xubuntu etc. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian

Default Desktop Environment:Xfce (KDE, MATE, Cinnamon and LXQt are available)

Init-System:SysVinit, OpenRC or runit

Package Manager:Debian Package Manager

It's a very niche OS that no one uses. See More

302 46

score 65 · Answer 8

Haiku

Top Pro

Very Fast

Top Con

No one uses it

Top Pro

Beta has been released

After about 6 years since the alpha version, beta has been released on Fri, 2018-09-28. Check here for release notes. See More

Top Con

Small community

It is important when developing to be familiar with tools that other developers use. You can make any utility in any language you feel like, but if it's in an esoteric language that no one can read targeting a small platform that no one uses, then it was just something you did as a hobbyist, not as a developer. This is not to say that Haiku isn't a great operating system to hack around on. Just don't delude yourself into thinking you're doing it to get familiar with tools that you need to know to be a better developer. See More

Top Pro

Only need 512mb ram

Top Con

Unfinished

It's still in beta and quite unstable. Making it unsuitable for developing applications of any kind. See More

Top Pro

Stability

Top Con

UI quite different to other OSes

Top Pro

Runs perfectly on old Hardware

Specs

License:MIT

OS Family:BeOS-like

Programming Language:C++, C

Widget Toolkit:Interface Kit

Very fast and good. See More

65 14

score 639 · Answer 9

Artix Linux

Top Pro

No systemd

Top Con

Few Arch packages might not be available yet

Developers are working migrating all packages into their own repositories while ensuring there's no systemd malware. See More

Top Pro

Close to bare Arch Linux

No learning curve if you're coming from Arch or any of its derivatives. See More

Top Con

No systemd

Top Pro

Rolling distro

Top Pro

Lightweight

Only the software you would need like Terminal emulator, file manager, media player and a browser. See More

Top Pro

runit

Artix actively supports the runit init system known from Void Linux. (Equally besides the OpenRC init system known from Gentoo.) See More

Top Pro

Flexibility

You can have a functional system in less than 10 mins using GUI installer OR you can do it "the Arch way" . See More

Specs

Based On:Arch Linux

Init-System:OpenRC, runit, s6

OS Family:Linux

Release Schedule:Rolling

Illumos is completely free and open source. See More

639 112

score 12 · Answer 10

illumos

Top Pro

Open Source

Top Pro

ZFS file system

illumos uses ZFS as its file system. ZFS is also a logical volume manager besides being a combines file system. The main features of ZFS include: protection against data corruption, data compression, checking continuous integrity, high storage capacities support etc... See More

Top Pro

Zones

Zones provide an isolated environment to run applications in. Processes that run in zones are prohibited to interfere or monitor any other activity in the system. See More

Top Pro

Performance analysis and troubleshooting

illumos uses DTrace for performance analysis and troubleshooting. See More

Specs

OS Family:UNIX (Solaris)

12 4

score 258 · Answer 11

openSUSE Tumbleweed

Top Pro

Stable

Tumbleweed is stable enough to use every day. Updates are OpenQA tested to ensure stability before being released for Tumbleweed. Bleeding edge untested software can be tried using OpenSUSE factory. See More

Top Con

Complex multimedia codecs and plugins installation

Top Pro

Tumbleweed + OpenSUSE Build Service

Top Con

Little / no third-party support

Like it or not, most third parties don't want to deal with less-popular distros. So most of them only support Ubuntu LTS and those versions of RHEL/CentOS that are still supported. See More

Top Pro

Easy installation and cutting edge apps

Top Con

Slow and painful unfortunately, especially compared to other modern distros

Top Pro

User friendly + Good support

Active and friendly user community, updates come fast See More

Top Con

"Online Update" update in YaST control center only works in openSUSE Leap.

Top Pro

Good selection of preinstalled applications

Top Con

Packman repository has to be added to have good software support.

For me, not really a con See More

Top Pro

a large amount of softwares!

Specs

Release Schedule:Rolling

A single instance of Void will be supported forever without needing to reinstall. See More

258 57

score 490 · Answer 12

Void Linux

Top Pro

Rolling release

Top Con

Not suitable for those new to Linux

Documentation is scarce, NTFS partitions aren't automatically mounted, etc. See More

Top Pro

Runit init system

An init system with the "do one thing and do it right" mentality. Void Linux does not support systemd. See More

Top Con

Not popular

Void Linux is not a popular Linux distro. So, if you run into a problem then it's likely you won't find any fix except from the maintainers. See More

Top Pro

XBPS (X Binary Package System)

A brand new package manager that is fast, full-featured, and tailored specifically for Void Linux. See More

Top Con

Nvidia CUDA cumbersome to setup

If your using a Nvidia card with programs that require CUDA for fast rendering (Blender), you can expect some trouble getting it to work as it's not included with the Nvidiadriver of the nonfree repo. See More

Top Pro

Runit is fast and easy to configure

Runit init system is incredibly fast to boot and very simple to use. See More

Top Con

Manual unclear about base configuration

Manual does not explain how to fix GRUB and gives no partition hints to the available options. See More

Top Pro

BSD-like improvements with Linux

Full support for LibreSSL, an OpenSSL fork focused on maximizing security. The xbps-src package builder works in a similar manner to BSD's ports collection. See More

Top Pro

Musl image available

Musl libc is lighter and faster than bloated glibc. Musl has been argued to be more secure overall than glibc also but is also not supported by all software. See More

Top Pro

Very minimal

More minimalistic than Arch since it doesn't use systemd. See More

Top Pro

Very lightweight

Base installation can idle at less than 250 megabytes of RAM. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use installer

Unlike it's closest competitor, Arch, Void includes a very user-friendly and simple installer in the ISO. See More

Top Pro

Different DE's live ISO's are available

Arch Linux doesn't make ISO's with different DE's. One need to manually install it through CLI version. But Void which is competitor of Arch, provides a wide range of DE's ISOs. See More

Top Pro

Uses LibreSSL

LibreSSL is a fork of OpenSSL by OpenBSD developers that aims to be more secure. See More

Top Pro

Friendly forum

Unlike the Arch Forum, it is a friendly forum (although small). See More

Top Pro

Xbps-src

Xbps-src is a source packages collection which is pretty similar to FreeBSD's ports and may replace AUR for Void users. See More

Top Pro

Many packages

There are some packages in official repos, than may be found only in AUR. See More

Top Pro

Updated version of IceCat included in the default repositories

GNU IceCat is available and updated. See More

Top Pro

No systemd

Uses runit instead of systemd. See More

Specs

Based On:Independent

Default Desktop Environment:GNOME, KDE, XFCE, Cinnamon, Enlightenment, LXDE, LXQt, MATE, CLI

Init-System:runit

Package Manager:XBPS XBPS-Src

Since Parabola is a completely free distro, there is no non-free software available and the community repositories are small compared to the AUR. See More

490 99

score 283 · Answer 13

Parabola GNU/Linux-libre

Top Pro

Protects your freedom, certified free by the FSF

Top Con

Small repositories

Top Pro

Option to use OpenRC or Systemd

Parabola has an OpenRC edition and a Systemd edition, so users can choose which init system they want. See More

Top Con

Won't work out-of-the-box on the most PC's

Almost all PCs need non-free drivers but Parabola has none to offer. See More

Top Pro

Very Secure

Top Con

Incompetent developers

They only care about removing "non-free" software, rather than making a properly working OS. See More

Top Pro

Has its own repos

Parabola has its own repos (which are almost as large as Arch Linux) and the IceCat browser is included. See More

Top Con

Same cons that apply to Arch Linux

Top Pro

All the benefits of Arch Linux, only 100% certified free software

Top Con

Serves no purpose

It's just Arch without non-free software and is basically a niche OS with few users. See More

Top Pro

Can be migrated from Arch Linux without a CD/USB

Top Con

Not compatible with AUR

Unlike other Arch-based distros, this free distro doesn't support AUR. See More

Top Pro

Based on Arch Linux

Top Con

Not really free

People have to pay hundreds to maintain this distro. See More

Specs

Based On:Arch Linux

Default Desktop Environment:LXDE

Init-System:Systemd or OpenRC

Package Manager:Pacman

Ports provide a wide collection of software which are easy to build, install and modify. They contain recipes and patches to build various software, so you can simply run "make && make install" to build and install the software. You may also keep local patches and it would be picked up automatically. It also allows you to use the latest software even if you are not using the latest version of the operating system. See More

283 64

score 42 · Answer 14

FreeBSD

Top Pro

Powerful ports collection

Top Con

Inferior driver support for workstations

Lack of drivers for some modern personal devices. See More

Top Pro

Batteries included

Base system contains basic developer tools, including compiler, debugger and system utilities. See More

Top Con

Pathetic third-party application support

Need to run Photoshop? No luck. Even most software that's portable to Linux will have a hard time running on FreeBSD. You're stuck with ONLY running the free software. See More

Top Pro

Jails mechanism

Jails allow for partitioning a system into several independent "mini-systems", a feature not found in many of the popular OS choices. See More

Top Con

Not for beginners

If a user needs an easy way to navigate around the filesystem, a text only Unix-derivative is not his best choice. See More

Top Pro

Stable updates

Top Con

Very shallow desktop support

Specs

42 13

score 2092 · Answer 15

Debian GNU/Linux

Top Pro

Wide choice in desktop environments

Debian offers stable and testing CD images specifically built for GNOME (the default), KDE Plasma Workspaces, Xfce and LXDE. Less common window managers such as Enlightenment, Openbox, Fluxbox, GNUstep, IceWM, Window Maker and others can also be installed. See More

Top Con

Stable release contains extremely outdated packages

If you want the newest packages, you'll have to do a minimal installation of Debian stable then upgrade to testing or you need to install testing directly: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianTesting. See More

Top Pro

Standard vanilla Linux desktop

Debian runs standard Gnome, XFCE, KDE - it doesn't use its own special desktop environment or debian specific modifications or customisations, which means that users benefit from the work of the whole Linux community, Debian developers can focus on the distribution itself, and any support for your desktop environment on other distributions should work on Debian as well. See More

Top Con

Internal quarrels harm the project

Instead of working all together to provide the best Operating System, some maintainers are just ignorant and aggressive to new ideas or new maintainers. That led to many crises and controversy in Debian's history. See More

Top Pro

Wide choice of hardware platforms

Debian has the widest choice of hardware platforms, including: amd64, armel, armhf, i386, ia64, kfreebsd-i386, kfreebsd-amd64, mips, mipsel, powerpc, sparc, s390, s390x, source, multi-arch. See More

Top Con

Ridiculous package splitting

Even though it makes sense to split devel and the actual binary of an application, the splitting has become as mess in debian and its derivates: for example the nvidia driver is splitted into over 40 different packages: https://packages.debian.org/en/source/sid/nvidia-graphics-drivers See More

Top Pro

Very stable

Debian has a Stable branch, where packages are thoroughly tested before release. Furthermore Debian is know to be the definition of stable when it comes to production systems. See More

Top Con

No choices

Debian basically doesn't give you any choices, even dpkg supports this feature with virtual packages: for example, it is very hard to use a different sound system than ALSA, like OSS4 or to use ALSA with pulse audio emulation, and the same goes for different init systems. See More

Top Pro

Install and forget

Once installed you can almost forget about it and start to use your desktop for your daily tasks. See More

Top Con

No default support for unfree drivers

Debian does not official support unfree software so if you have a wifi card or anything elese that requires an unfree driver you will need to download the unofficial/non-advertised non-free iso image which contains all unfree driver packages. See More

Top Pro

Easy to find help with any problem

Debian is one of the oldest and most popular distros out there. Debian's popularity means that you will always be able to find a solution for your problem just by searching on Google, or if by chance nobody has had the problem you are having it's very easy to ask the community and quickly get a solution. See More

Top Con

Breaks if you suspend/resume

Breaks when you resume the activity on the system if you use nvidia cards. See More

Top Pro

Comes with over 55.500 packages

Because of its popularity, Debian has a lot of applications available which range from productivity programs to business software, games and development tools. It comes with over 55.500 packages (software that is precompiled and ready to be installed on a local machine) -- all of them for free. See More

Top Con

Outdated kernel of the live system

Since the LiveCD is based on Debian stable the kernel is old, outdated but stable. See More

Top Pro

Highly secure system

Known for being consistent in maintaining a highly secure system. Several other popular distros use Debian as a base or core for their own Linux OS, the security being one of the main factors why it's so commonly used. See More

Top Con

No good choices of fresh desktop environments

GNOME is quite outdated and buggy; KDE is too old, even in Sid it is at 5.14 branch (at Jun 13 2019 Plasma 5.16 is available in many rolling/fresh distros); XFCE behaves like crooked, visual artifacts at the taskbar and so on; Cinnamon as far as I know works better in Linux Mint compared to (almost) any other distro; For other desktop environments (e.g. MATE) can't say - these are too new (as projects) and possibly incomplete, thus might have many bugs. See More

Top Pro

Rolling or Release based

Every Debian Release can either use a Rolling or Release based model. See More

Top Con

Not designed for general desktop usage

By default, Debian Stable is not that great of a distro for general desktop usage, since the packages are very outdated. You'll have to spend a while configuring the system in order to make it work. See More

Top Pro

Well-working team

The developer works very well so the the code is one of the best written out there. See More

Top Con

Buggy and non-user friendly

You need to know almost as much as Arch and deal with documentation not as good as the Arch wiki in order for Debian to work. See More

Top Pro

A lot of ways to install software

You can either use aptitude, apt or apt-build to install software from the Debian package archives. See More

Top Con

Old software is not useful, but is stable

Certainly for the stable and old stable versions. But the testing version has quite up to date software. See More

Top Pro

Live install images for CDs, DVDs and USB thumb drives

Debian releases live install images for CDs, DVDs and USB thumb drives, for the i386 and amd64 architectures, and with a choice of desktop environments. These Debian Live images allow the user to boot from a removable media and run Debian without affecting the contents of their computer. See More

Top Pro

Great for gaming

As Debian is the base for SteamOS and because Ubuntu is based on it, it's almost certain that all Linux games will run properly and require no hacks like creating symbolic links because of some hardcoded paths. See More

Top Pro

Big open-source project

The Debian project is one of the biggest open source projects with over 5000 active contributors. See More

Top Pro

Supports SecureBoot

You don't have to disable SecureBoot if you use it, which is useful for LiveUSB or dualboot setups. See More

Top Pro

The Debian Social Contract

Guaranteed commitment to adherence to values, principles, priorities, requirements and guidelines by the Debian project. See More

Top Pro

A real installer

Unlike other distributions that just extract their Live image, Debian offers a real traditional and modular installer to customize the installation. See More

Top Pro

Debconf

Depending how it is configured debconf does the most of the hard work for you and only asks you with configuration /file conflicts. See More

Top Pro

Strict seperation of non-free software

Debian is one of the few distros that let the user choose if he wants a free system or not. See More

Top Pro

Many ports

Debian supports almost any Kernel maintained CPU instructions set. It has also a few non Linux Ports. See More

Top Pro

Widely supported

Almost any software that is available for Linux provides a Debian package. See More

Top Pro

Unique release cycle

The most Linux distros have one or two stages before a release, but Debian has five before a new stable version is released (experimental > unstable > testing > code-freeze/bug hunting > stable). See More

Top Pro

Great choice for returning Linux users

If you haven't use Linux for a long time, say 5-10 years, it's a great distro in which you can quickly get in the boat again. You don't have to worry about falling back. Everything is in its place. See More

Top Pro

Apt-build

It is possible to rebuild the entire system and optimize it for your hardware (of course, it is not as detailed as Gentoo's USE flags). See More

Top Pro

Has small amount of today's bugs (e.g. no duplicate web cameras in Skype - likely not Skype's fault)

But has quite a few bugs from 2016-2017, apparently for long term. See More

Top Pro

TUI installer

The Debian installer can still be launched as text/curses-like installer which is more compatible and keyboard-friendly than the graphical version. See More

Top Pro

Standard archives

Debs are normal ar and tar archives with shell scripting and additional gz, bz, lzma or xz compression. See More

Top Pro

Inconsistent init systems

While Linux uses systemd, non-Linux ports use the traditional sysvinit. See More

Specs

Package Manager:dpkg (Debian Package Manager)

OS Family:GNU/Linux

Release Schedule:approximately every 24 months

Main Usage:Universal

Atomic non-destructive upgrades / rollback of a system upgrade / declarative reproducible system configuration / unprivileged installation of packages / transparent source or binary deployment. See More

2092 338

score 80 · Answer 16

NixOS

Top Pro

State of the art package manager

Top Con

Documentation is not good

Top Pro

Robust

Packages don't break after a NixOS upgrade as they are prone to with other distros (especially Arch). See More

Top Con

A configuration change might end up bricking your system

Top Pro

Reproducible System

NixOS is configured using the Nix package manager, allowing your system to be replicated and kept in sync across multiple machines. Great for keeping a laptop and desktop in sync. See More

Top Con

Uses a text-based installer

Top Pro

Minimal

You can start with a minimal environment and add packages and software to suit your needs as you go along. See More

Specs

Package Manager:Nix Package Manager

OS Family:GNU+Linux

Release Schedule:Point or Rolling

The packaging team is dependable resulting in system updates that come in a timely fashion and systems which rarely, if ever, break due to packaging. The versions of software that are selected and the configuration of them is typically extremely high quality. See More

80 25

score 643 · Answer 17

OpenSUSE

Top Pro

Extremely reliable

Top Con

Poor support for nVidia drivers in Tumbleweed

No native driver support and nouveau may be broken, especially for KDE, and not suitable for some GPUs. See More

Top Pro

Easy installation and administration

openSUSE makes use of a GUI tool called YaST to install and setup an openSUSE system. YaST is very easy to use and makes the process of installing and maintaining an openSUSE installation a breeze. See More

Top Con

Short lived distro

Every release lasts 18 months only before needing a major upgrade. See More

Top Pro

One-Click install

Much better system then other distros for installing any package. It is as simple as clicking on one button and typing in your password. Adds a repo to your system keeping everything updated at the same time. See More

Top Con

Old kernel by the Leap version

Kernel in Leap 42.3 is in version 4.4, that's pretty old. See More

Top Pro

Easily get packages from other sources

SUSE Build Service offers packages from the same sources as Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, SUSE Linux Enterprise and other distributions. This is the most underused package tool in Linux today. See More

Top Con

Limited community support

The community is fairly small, and there is no indication on the forums regarding when a issues will be solved. See More

Top Pro

"Tumbleweed" Rolling Release

Regular and easy upgrades to stable and well tested software. See More

Top Con

Updates

Not a huge problem, but Tubleweed is better updated via the command line. See More

Top Pro

Very stable

Stable, reliable, rock solid. See More

Top Con

Some clear differences from other Linux distros

This might be a systemd issue or OpenSUSE specific, but changing certain text files does not update things. They must be edited in YaST, or in /etc/sysconfig/ See More

Top Pro

Convenient package management with Zypper

Fast, reliable, powerful and almost impossible to leave a broken system. The Yast interface will also give you access to a Zypper GUI if you are uncomfortable with the command line. See More

Top Con

Startup takes a long time

Top Pro

Probably the best KDE desktop experience

Both Gnome and KDE desktop options are well polished to fit with the opensuse theme and environement, so either desktop is a great choice. See More

Top Con

Packman repository has to be added to have good software support

Top Pro

Supports RPM packages

Popular format shared with distros like Fedora, RHEL, Scientific Linux, Mageia etc. See More

Top Con

Updates

Not a huge problem, but Tubleweed is better updated via the command line. See More

Top Pro

Amazing choice for both newbies and power users

OpenSUSE is very easy in terms of installing packages, administration and customization, yet very powerful in the same. Every user should find his own piece of cake in this OS. See More

Top Con

Bloated and slow

Top Pro

Built-in drivers

Does the job needed and has the hardware drivers for the application built-in by the H/W supplier. See More

Top Con

Complex permissions policy

Top Pro

Dedicated professional community

Directions on other desktop Linux's often force you to use GUI packages or have steps that introduce security issues. OpenSUSE has a professional community and directions are usually geared toward GUI and CLI with similar steps. See More

Top Pro

Outstanding community support

OpenSUSE has a VERY active user community. Questions on forums are generally answered in minutes. See More

Top Pro

Feature rich

It comes standard with a large number of pre-added applications that sort out your day-to-day use. See More

Specs

Based On:Jurix>SUSE

Default Desktop Environment:Plasma, GNOME, Xfce, LXQT

Package Manager:RPM Package Manager

The UI of Mac OS is rather unrivaled. The smooth, responsive, and cohesive UI makes the system quite joyous to use. See More

643 189

score 311 · Answer 18

macOS

Top Pro

Polished UI

Top Con

Expensive

OSX is tied Apple hardware and Apple hardware tends to be expensive for what it gives. See More

Top Pro

Based on Unix

macOS being a UNIX certified system means that you can install a lot more stuff with a lot fewer headaches than if you were on Windows. See More

Top Con

Limited hardware

Usually, the hardware that can run this can't be upgraded. See More

Top Pro

Powerful terminal

It's very similar to a Linux terminal. See More

Top Con

Most software is closed source

For people who like to use open source tools for their development work, this may be a problem. There's plenty of advantages to open source software, one of which is the ability to tinker with and customize the tools themselves that you are using. Although there's plenty of FOSS tools available for Mac, especially through Homebrew, the number of packages available is much lower than the number of packages available for any Linux distribution. See More

Top Pro

More commercial software and gaming support compared to other Unix systems

Adobe CC, MS Office, Steam games. See More

Top Con

Closed source

Mac OS is closed source itself, which means that it is developed more slowly and has more problems. See More

Top Pro

Easy access to lots of great dev tools

There's a large selection of great development tools available for OSX. The operating system itself comes bundled with a powerful terminal emulator, called Terminal. Additionally, Apple provides tools, like Xcode, an IDE that contains a comprehensive collection of tools for developing OSX and iOS software, for free. See More

Top Con

No native package management

A comparison of package managers available for OSX can be found here. See More

Top Pro

Best support for Objective-C

Top Con

Poor application support

Fewer apps run on Mac OS than on Windows or Linux. See More

Top Pro

Lots of open-source software available

Because it's Unix under the fancy GUI, most open source ports easily to it. See More

Top Con

Bash version is obsolete

macOS comes with an obsolete version of Bash, due to licensing issues. See More

Top Pro

Has many special tools for developers

Has support for multiple IDEs. See More

Top Con

Vendor-Lock-in

You are now forced to use the Apple services. See More

Top Pro

Great Git GUI tools

Tower, Kaleidoscope, SourceTree. See More

Top Con

Silly modifier keys layout

The Command key is strange, Alt is where Super should be. See More

Top Pro

Ideal setup, out of the box

Next to no custom configuration is necessary. See More

Top Con

Poor X11 integration

The most open source software does work but is very poorly integrated due apples ancient version of the X-server. See More

Top Pro

Has software that only runs on Mac

For example, Sketch. See More

Top Con

Very few options for running hosted, on the cloud

Top Pro

Streamlined workflow between devices

Because this is an Apple product, there is a streamlined workflow between your computer and all mobile devices. For example, if you type an a Pages document, once you save, you can open the updated document just moments later on your iPad, and vice versa. The same goes for iMessage, (yes, you can text people with your phone number from your computer. Actually, you can text other people with apple devices with just your Apple ID, with or without a phone number, for free!) Numbers, Notes, Reminders, Contacts, and just about any other Apple workflow application. See More

Top Con

Too little customization options

Top Pro

Great modifier key layout

Top Con

Touchbar on Macbook Pro's

Top Pro

Using VMware you can also run Windows 10 on the Mac

This is useful for testing and some development tools that are Windows-only (XML Spy, MapForce). See More

Top Con

Not very user-friendly

Top Pro

You need it to compile macOS or iOS apps

Specs

License:EULA

Based On:Research UNIX>BSD>NeXTSTEP

OS Family:UNIX (BSD/Darwin)