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What is the best alternative to Bodhi Linux?
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Slackware
All
15
Experiences
Pros
8
Cons
6
Specs
Top
Pro
Stable
Uses stable, plain-vanilla packages from upstream.
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Con
Not user-friendly
It is made to be KISS (keep it simple, stupid), so you have to do everything by hand.
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Pro
Strong adherence to UNIX Principals
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Con
Large size live ISO
One needs to vain 3GB+ data for downloading one slackware ISO.
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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.
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Con
Narrow repos
Doesn't offer the same amount of options as other distros do.
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Pro
Package management
Uses standard tar archives with shell scripting as packages.
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Con
Niche/small community
Slackware is its own niche and has a small community.
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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.
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Con
Very slow release cycle
Hasn't updated in 3+ years.
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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.
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Con
Dependency issues
When it comes to dependencies, Slackware shows more issues than many other distros.
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Pro
Super fast
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Pro
No systemd
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Specs
Based On:
Softlanding Linux System
Default Desktop Environment:
KDE, Xfce, NONE
Init-System:
SysVinit
Package Manager:
pkgtool
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Experiences
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62
CRUX
All
7
Experiences
Pros
4
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
Ports
It uses the BSD ports system as package manager.
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Top
Con
Very small user community
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Top
Pro
Very BSD/UNIX-like
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Con
KISS
You have to do everything by yourself, there are no helpers!
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Top
Pro
Learning
Nice if you want to learn some stuff about Linux.
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Top
Pro
Very knowledgeable and helpful user comunity via IRC
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Specs
Based On:
NONE
Default Desktop Environment:
NONE
Init-System:
BSD-style initscripts
Package Manager:
pkgutils, ports(prt-get)
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12
Devuan GNU+Linux
All
9
Experiences
Pros
5
Cons
3
Specs
Top
Pro
Stability
It is stable like Debian.
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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.
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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.
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Top
Con
No systemd
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Pro
Excellent for normal people
It is easy to use and is a good choice for beginners.
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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.
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Top
Pro
No Systemd
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Pro
Most decent look amongst other XFCE distros
Default XFCE theme is unique of all the XFCE distos including MXLinux, Xubuntu etc.
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Specs
Based On:
Debian
Default Desktop Environment:
XFCE
Init-System:
SysVinit, runit or OpenRC
Package Manager:
dpkg with apt, aptitude or apt-build
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105
Debian GNU/Linux
All
44
Experiences
Pros
29
Cons
14
Specs
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Pro
Install and forget
Once installed you can almost forget about it and start to use your desktop for your daily tasks.
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Con
Systemd is everywhere
Systemd is very hard to debug by itself, and can break in very strange ways (such as not being able to mount a single partition on bootup), but the increasing number of desktops that are relying on specific functionality provided only by systemd (policy kit, dbus, etc) makes the entire system more fragile and harder to debug.
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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.
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Con
Outdated kernel of the live system
Since the LiveCD is based on Debian stable the kernel is old, outdated but stable.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Pro
Rolling or Release based
Every Debian Release can either use a Rolling or Release based model.
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Top
Con
Inconsistent init systems
While Linux uses systemd, non-Linux ports use the traditional sysvinit.
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Pro
Well-working team
The developer works very well so the the code is one of the best written out there.
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Con
Hard to learn
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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.
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Con
Breaks if you suspend/resume
Breaks when you resume the activity on the system if you use nvidia cards.
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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.
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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.
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Pro
Big open-source project
The Debian project is one of the biggest open source projects with over 5000 active contributors.
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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.
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Pro
Supports SecureBoot
You don't have to disable SecureBoot if you use it, which is useful for LiveUSB or dualboot setups.
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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.
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Top
Pro
The Debian Social Contract
Guaranteed commitment to adherence to values, principles, priorities, requirements and guidelines by the Debian project.
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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.
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Pro
Strict separation of non-free software
Debian is one of the few distros that let the user choose if he wants a free system or not.
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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.
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Pro
Widely supported
Almost any software that is available for Linux provides a Debian package.
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Pro
Many ports
Debian supports almost any Kernel maintained CPU instructions set. It has also a few non Linux Ports.
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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).
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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).
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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.
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Pro
Standard archives
Debs are normal ar and tar archives with shell scripting and additional gz, bz, lzma or xz compression.
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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.
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Top
Pro
Wise release model
Debian stable does not update a lot and instead provides stability and well tested softwares. You don't get distracted by every shiny new stuff that comes out, and focus on what matters: productivity and reliability of your system.
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Pro
Debian Fast Track for stable
Stable gets backported software from here.
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Pro
Great choice for returning Linux users
If you haven't used 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.
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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.
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Specs
Based On:
NONE
Default Desktop Environment:
GNOME
Init-System:
Systemd
Package Manager:
dpkg with apt, aptitude or apt-build
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Gentoo Linux
All
20
Experiences
Pros
13
Cons
6
Specs
Top
Pro
Full control of the software
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.
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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.
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Top
Pro
Portage's emerge is powerful
Portage is a package management system with a huge amount of options and features.
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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.
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Top
Pro
Fully customizable
The usage of advanced features like USE flags makes it more customizable than any binary distribution.
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Con
No default installer
Installation must be done manually by following instructions in the handbook.
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Pro
Freedom
You are free to do whatever you want with it. As a result, its configuration reflects your unique taste and personality.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Con
Too hard
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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.
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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.
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Pro
Documentation and community are second to none
Provides a whole handbook to refer to during setup and usage.
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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.
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Pro
Gentoo does not impose a standard look-and-feel
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Pro
Superiority and smartness
You get superiority and get called smart daily for going through the processes of punishing yourself to a compile install you also get a cool neofetch logo.
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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.
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Specs
Based On:
NONE
Default Desktop Environment:
NONE
Init-System:
OpenRC
Package Manager:
Portage
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OpenSUSE
All
30
Experiences
Pros
16
Cons
13
Specs
Top
Pro
Extremely reliable
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.
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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/
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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.
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Con
Old kernel by the Leap version
Kernel in Leap 42.3 is in version 4.4, that's pretty old.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Con
Bloated and slow
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Pro
Very stable
Stable, reliable, rock solid.
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Con
Short lived distro
Every release lasts 18 months only before needing a major upgrade.
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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.
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Con
Updates
Not a huge problem, but Tumbleweed is better updated via the command line.
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Pro
Supports RPM packages
Popular format shared with distros like Fedora, RHEL, Scientific Linux, Mageia etc.
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Con
Massive ISO download
The base ISOs are over 4 gigs, so be prepared for a very long DL if you have slow internet. There's a network installer version, but that just delays the long DL.
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Pro
Built-in drivers
Does the job needed and has the hardware drivers for the application built-in by the H/W supplier.
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Con
Bad support to NTFS fotmat.
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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.
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Con
Limited community support
The community is fairly small, and there is no indication on the forums regarding when a issues will be solved.
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Pro
Feature rich
It comes standard with a large number of pre-added applications that sort out your day-to-day use.
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Con
Packman repository has to be added to have good software support
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Pro
"Tumbleweed" Rolling Release
Regular and easy upgrades to stable and well tested software.
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Con
Startup takes a long time
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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.
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Con
Updates
Not a huge problem, but Tubleweed is better updated via the command line.
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Pro
YaST
Best administration and setup tool.
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Con
Complex permissions policy
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Pro
Fast
Applications feel fast.
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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.
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Pro
Outstanding community support
OpenSUSE has a VERY active user community. Questions on forums are generally answered in minutes.
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Specs
Based On:
SLS>Slackware>Jurix>SuSE Linux
Default Desktop Environment:
Plasma, GNOME, Xfce, LXQT, NONE
Init-System:
Systemd
Package Manager:
rpm with zypper
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