What are the most stable rolling-release Linux distributions?

Manjaro allows the user to access of the Arch User Repository, a very large user-maintained repository of packages for Arch Linux and derivatives. See More

Top Pro

Arch User Repository access

Top Con

New packages and security updates are held for testing longer

Packages are usually about two weeks behind Arch's stable repository. While some urgent security updates are released as soon as they become available, other security updates are held for testing longer. See More

DependableZacatzontli's Experience

Love it See More

Top Pro

Support for multiple kernels

Manjaro has built-in support for multiple kernels as well as a way to easily install them. See More

Top Con

Can still be unstable

Here are the details of it. See More

AwesomestSopdu's Experience

Both installers were a disappointment as I couldn't set up LVM on my disk, the GUI installer will flip me off with some error instantly on starting the installation, and the TUI will hang on the stage of creating the PV. So CLI is your only friend here. Couldn't delete the PV on the first one either, it just does nothing. Sticking with arch at this point. See More

Top Pro

Based on Arch and user friendly

Manjaro is an Arch-based distribution with all the benefits of the Arch ecosystem and community but with the added benefit of being much more user-friendly than Arch. See More

Top Con

Calls itself "stable," but actually just holds Arch Linux repositories back for a week.

César Brun's Experience

Antergos is a cleaner version of "easy" arch. See More

Top Pro

Improved stability due to a longer testing period for new packages

Packages from Arch's repositories are tested (about two weeks) longer for stability and compatibility issues. Patches are applied, when necessary, before being made available in the stable repositories. See More

Top Con

Calls itself "stable," but actually just holds Arch Linux repositories back for a week

SplendidPudicitia's Experience

I find it very stable !!! See More

Top Pro

Excellent graphical package manager (Pamac)

Features include: providing notifications of available updates; mirror management; AUR support (with the option to suppress unnecessary confirmations during the install process); update settings (frequency, whether to check for updates from the AUR, packages to ignore updates for); and a history of packages installed, updated, or removed (from the official repositories - AUR packages are not currently tracked). See More

Top Con

It has a lot of weird code

Ajay Kumar Rawani's Experience

Awesome ! See More

Top Pro

Manjaro provides its own distribution-specific tools such as the Manjaro Hardware Detection (mhwd) utility, and the Manjaro Settings Manager (msm)

Run automatically during the installation process, it allows for Manjaro to work fully on your system 'straight out of the box', without the need to manually identify and install the necessary drivers or to manually edit the appropriate configuration files. Also usable via the terminal after installation, the features of the mhwd command include: The choice of free (i.e. open-source) or non-free (i.e. proprietary) drivers Identification and listing (general or detailed) of your system's hardware Identification and listing (general or detailed) of installed drivers Listing of available drivers for installation (free and proprietary) Support of hybrid graphics cards (e.g. Nvidia Optimus) Easy removal and installation of drivers (selected automatically, or you can identify and choose your own) See More

Top Con

Uses systemd

Top Pro

All major desktops and even less common ones like Budgie, Lumina, LXQT, Deepin, Enlightenment, etc. can be directly installed from official repositories

Also available as independent variants. See More

Top Con

Redundant

It's just Arch Linux with an easier installer so there is no reason to use it. See More

Top Pro

Friendly community

If you ask questions of users in their forums or on other platforms, they are willing to help you. Also according to the developers, they are open to new ideas in order to make the distro better. See More

Top Con

Bad dependencies

This is similar to the mac0S experience in that you're not allowed to remove plank. See More

Top Pro

Stable and consistently up to date

Manjaro receives regular updates, but more importantly these updates are stable. The updates are rolled out, which means you can easily update the software without needing to re-install. See More

Top Con

It's Archbuntu

Top Pro

Uses low memory

By using XFCE (or LXDE, Fluxbox, supported by community) as the default desktop on an install, Manjaro is able to have a low memory footprint. See More

Top Con

Same cons that apply to Arch Linux

Since it is based on Arch Linux. See More

Top Pro

Good documentation and forum

The Manjaro community is very helpful, and there are lots of tutorials. See More

Top Con

Nothing new

There is nothing new in Manjaro compared to any other Arch based distribution. See More

Top Pro

Gnome is more stable than KDE on Manjaro

Top Con

Bad Dependencies

This is similar to the mac0S experience in that you're not allowed to remove plank. See More

Top Pro

Installation is a breeze

Calamares installer and MHWD is the reason why this distribution is good for desktop user- friendliness! Audio codecs, latest packages,latest kernel and easy upgrade to the latest build makes it the best choice for new users. See More

Top Con

Slightly bloated

Top Pro

KDE has low resource usage

With KDE Plasma 5 Manjaro uses c.a. 450 MB at the start, 900 MB when you run Firefox. See More

Top Con

You can't change the default theme in certain applications

Although it is possible to change the default dark theme, this has no effect on Firefox, which appears to have the dark theme "hard coded". Hardened Linux pros may find a way to change this, but for the rest, it renders an otherwise nice distro a no-go. See More

Top Pro

Very good looking desktops

All desktops look good by default. See More

Top Con

No gfvs pre-installed

So no Trash (and possibly smartphone file system access via USB) support. See More

Top Pro

Different editions to select from + Manjaro community

You can choose between different Manjaro editions which have their own change in features, and there is also Manjaro community editions where the community can make their own changes. See More

Top Con

Nothing new

There is nothing new in Manjaro compared to any other Arch based distribution. See More

Top Pro

Steam installed by default

Top Con

Very slow development for 32-bit hardwares

ArchLinux-32 community maintain their forums every day. They upload new ISO's every month. But Manjaro-32 community upload new ISO's in every 6 month. And provide only a DE-mate. See More

Top Con

Weekly manual updates

Since it is rolling release, it needs updates nearly every week, which (though are checked for automatically) must be manually downloaded, confirmed and installed. That may annoy or scare off many new users. See More

Top Con

The Manjaro unstable repository is slow to sync with the Arch stable repository

The Manjaro unstable repository syncs with the Arch stable repository and if any package has moved, it gets moved to stable. Manjaro gets package updates a bit than Arch. See More

I very like it. the fact that is a stable rolling release let you be painless on every upgrade and you don't need to be worried after a major upgrade. The fact that void haven't systemd is beautiful and runit work well. I prefear s6 and there is a way you can put into it. xbps isn't much beautifull like any otherone tell. for example apk is better. But pachage management is really the best. My system never broked itself. xbps is also a younger project that i think will be upgraded to became the really best. Another good feature is that with xbps-src you can compile flawless. I think that this is the best Linux distro. See More

score 34 · Answer 2

Void Linux

Top Pro

Rolling release

Top Con

Still few packages

FunTjilbruke's Experience

Specs

Based On:Independent

Package Manager:XBPS & xbps-src

Init-System:runit

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

Top Pro

No systemd

Top Con

Not suitable for those new to Linux

César Brun's Experience

I've been running the glibc x86_64 version for a few months. A clean and no frills distro targeted for the minimalist, the hacker enthusiast and all that suckless scene kind of thing. A carefully curated selection of tools can be seen on their news page. Highly recommended to check it to see if this distro speaks to you. By contrast, big proprietary programs, especially of the consumer kind, doesn't work very well. Stuff like Spotify, Steam, or Nvidia drivers. They are not packaged with the same care and there is not much interest for it by the maintainers for it to be fixed. 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

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

PrinceKael's Experience

Hands-down the best rolling distro I've tried. Simple, secure and with the unix philosophy in mind. 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

No support for systemd

Void uses runit, not systemd. See More

InsightfulMammetun's Experience

Love it. By far my favorite distribution. 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

Slower than pacman

Top Pro

Independent distro

Not based on other distributions. 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. See More

Top Pro

Friendly and active community

The community on irc and the forum is friendly with a lot of knowledge. See More

Top Pro

Lightweight

A lightweight distro that can run on almost anything and yet still retains many features and ability to configure everything. 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

Multiple Architectures

Supports architectures such as x86, x86_64, i686, armv6, armv7, aarch6 which other distributions may not support. 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

Very minimal

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

Top Pro

Cool Neofetch logo

Neofetch looks good. 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

Install binary packages or from source

With XBPS users can install packages via binaries or build from source (either natively or cross-compiled). 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

Saves old kernels

Void keeps older versions of the Linux kernel on your system so if an upgrade doesn't go well you can easily switch to the older kernel. If upgrade goes well you can remove old kernels with vkpurge. See More

From latest Wacom pads to obscure wireless cards in laptops Arch's hardware support has been and continues to be good. It has worked on laptops where other leading distros like Debian/ Mint/ Ubuntu failed to detect and work with all hardware. See More

score 28 · Answer 3

Arch Linux

Top Pro

Support for a large variety of hardware

Top Con

Hard to install

If you want to install Arch Linux, you need some knowledge in batch. See More

Gheorghe Ungureanu's Experience

All packages on Arch have the latest version of the stable release of the package. This means Arch Linux is the first distribution to get all the bug fixes. This makes it incredibly stable. See More

Specs

Based On:Independent

Package Manager:Pacman

Init-System:Systemd

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 Pro

Fast and simple package management

Top Con

Packages lack flexibility, include every dependency possible

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

Has history of unreliable system upgrades

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

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 documentation

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

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

Great for low performance hardware

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

Top Con

Not ready out of the box

You have to install your day-to-day software requirements manually. See More

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

Manual install process

The installation process for Arch Linux is not as streamlined as it is in other distributions. You have to install the OS, Desktop Environment, Network software and configure everything by yourself. 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 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

Good for ricing for r/unixporn

Top Pro

Simple by design.

Arch linux is actually incredibly simple. Its 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 Pro

Highly reliable upgrades

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Low maintenance

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

Incredible educational value

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

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 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 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 Pro

Highly customizable

Tailor the system to your needs. 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 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 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 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

Multilib support is just around the corner

Just uncomment the according entries in the pacman.conf. 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

Vast variety of use and purpose

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

Top Pro

Great hardware support

Out of the box Arch comes with great hardware support. 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

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

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

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 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 Pro

Helpful 3rd-party installers

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

Top Pro

It is Linux at the core

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

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

score 28 · Answer 4

openSUSE Tumbleweed

Top Pro

Stable

Top Con

Packman repository has to be added to have good software support

Specs

Based On:Jurix>SUSE

Init-System:Systemd

Origin:Germany

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

Tumbleweed + OpenSUSE Build Service

Top Con

Complex multimedia codecs and plugins installation

Top Pro

Easy installation and cutting edge apps

Top Con

Little / no third-party support

Top Pro

Open QA testing

Probably most stable rolling-release distribution due to automatic testing through QA. See More

Top Con

Slow and painful unfortunately, especially compared to other modern distros

Top Pro

Good selection of preinstalled applications

One can select which packages to install even during graphical installation. See More

Top Pro

User friendly + good support

Active and friendly user community, updates come fast. See More

Top Pro

A large amount of software

Top Pro

YaST is best administration tool

It uses Unstable per default so it is still some kind of stable since all dangerous packages are tested in experimental first. See More

score 7 · Answer 5

Siduction

Top Pro

Updates are slow, but stable. It is based on Debian after all.

Specs

Based On:Debian Unstable>Aptosid

Package Manager:Debian Package Manager

Init-System:systemd

which gives you debian specific tools like: apt, aptitude, debconf or the alternatives aystem. See More

Top Pro

Debian based

Top Pro

Secure Boot support

It supports secure boot which is great for LiveCDs and dual boot systems. See More

Top Pro

Fully debian compatible

It is fully compatible to debian sid/unstable. See More

Package Manager:eopkg package manager (PiSi fork)

score 19 · Answer 6

Solus

Top Pro

Very modern user interface

Top Con

Slow development

niingu's Experience

Awesome! See More

Specs

Based On:Scratch

Init-System:systemd

Budgie has a lot of bugs on old hardware and doesn't have very clear settings. See More

Top Pro

Most stable Rolling Release Distro

Top Con

Heavy, buggy and inconsistent DE

Ajay Kumar Rawani's Experience

Awesome ! See More

Top Pro

Stable

The system itself is very stable. All packages in the repository seem to be carefully picked, well prepared and run stable. See More

César Brun's Experience

Buggy and extremely old on a macbook 2.1. See More

Top Pro

Works well on not very powerful computers

On a Dell 11 3162 (not the fastest computer with a celeron and 2GB of ram) Solus works well for example. See More

Top Pro

Seamless Packages

It may not have the most obscure packages, but the packages it does have is a good number of everything a Linux user needs. Gamers, developers, desktop users, etc. all have the necessary packages and then some. The packages themselves are integrated perfectly and are very well updated. See More

Top Pro

Great package management

The software center makes it really easy to install the latest software through Snappy and Flatpak. Including third party software. See More

Top Pro

Rolling release

Top Pro

Exclusively for desktop systems

Top Pro

Modern desktop environment

The default desktop environment used by Solus is called Budgie and is quite nice and minimalistic. See More

Top Pro

Responsive

System boots quickly and stays responsive. Does what operating system should do, and does it really well. See More

Top Pro

Built from scratch

Top Pro

Easy installation

The installation procedure for this distribution is quite simple. It's GUI based and all you have to do is to follow the instructions given by the installation window itself. See More

Top Pro

Well curated software

The software is well curated in the repos, you have access to flatpaks and snaps, so virtually, all the software you'll ever need is there for you. See More

Top Pro

Default experience is clean and easy

The default desktop experience on the Budgie version is very clean and streamlined. Although the Budgie DE isn't the most customisable, but it's customisable enough for me to recreate the desktop style of ElementaryOS with the dock and bar at the top. See More

Top Pro

Friendly towards proprietary codecs, firmware and drivers.

So you won't have to enable PPAs or extra repos for that. See More

Top Pro

Lightening fast boot time

Top Pro

Rolling Release Model

Wich means you don't have to suffer from version to version updates that can break it. See More

Top Pro

Rock-solid Distro

Very stable and well curated. See More

Debian has a very flexible and customisable installation process. While many users choose to simply download and install a pre-built "live" installation, it is not only possible but quite easy to build a system from the ground up, installing only those packages that you need. This can be achieved by using the "mini" ISO to kickstart the installation of a bare-bones system, and then use apt to download your desktop of choice (KDE in my case), without all the bloatware that normally comes with it (ie utilities and tools you don't need or want). Using this method, you can create a KDE-based Debian system (basic OS only, with a web browser thrown in for good measure) that is about a third of the size of the "live" CD - about 850MB, compared to about 2.6GB for the "live" CD. This also results in a faster boot time, and a more snappy and responsive system. See More

score 8 · Answer 7

Debian Sid GNU/Linux

Top Pro

Very easy to customize the installation

Top Con

Software in "Stable" distribution tends to be outdated

Debian Stable (while certainly living up to its name) tends to have software that is older and often out of date. As a new release of Stable is brought out only once every 2 years or so, this can result in users being unable to access new features in certain applications (eg web browsers). This can be mitigated by installing and using the "Testing" distribution instead, or even the "Unstable" distribution for those who just wanna watch the world burn. :) Unfortunately, these distributions (especially Unstable) tend to be buggier, and just aren't as smooth and trouble-free as Stable. See More

Specs

Package Manager:dpkg (Debian Package Manager)

Release Schedule:approximately every 24 months

OS Family:GNU/Linux

Official Supported Architectures:amd64 (x86_64), arm64 (aarch64), armel, armhf, i386, mipsel, mips64el, ppc64el, s390x

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 Pro

Very stable

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 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

Release Schedule:monthly updated (rolling)

score 8 · Answer 8

Archman GNU/Linux (Arch based)

Top Pro

Handy, easy to install, effective, has a variety of sessions

Specs

Based On:Arch Linux

Init-System:SystemD

OS Family:Linux

Same problem with language pack, work fine with english, but with another language may be problematic. See More

score 9 · Answer 9

Deepin

Top Pro

Includes both Windows and macOS style interface

Top Con

Pretty laggy

Damian Nik's Experience

Specs

Based On:Debian

Package Manager:Debian Package Manager

OS Family:GNU+Linux

Official Supported Architectures:amd64

Deepin OS supports Flatpak. It also has some Flatpak programs installed by default. See More

Top Pro

Supports Flatpak

HealthyScylla's Experience

Not a rolling release distro... why is it on this list? See More

Top Pro

Very stable

Since it is based on Debian Stable, it is pretty stable and you will hardly ever get a dependency issue. See More

Top Pro

Blur and transparent design

Deepin has a blur and transparent design throughout the OS, which makes it one of the, if not the, most beautiful Linux distro. See More

Top Pro

VLC media player works without any issue

In some cases, VLC media player has some problems with Ubuntu or Ubuntu-based Linux distros. That isn't the case with Deepin. See More

Top Pro

Automatically cleans package cache

Deepin automatically cleans package cache. Cleaning package cache is a good thing as it will make the OS much faster and lighter. See More

Top Pro

Excellent apps

Having Deepin installed also means you have thousands of quality apps to choose from. The apps which come with installation will suit your needs to browse the Internet, listen to music, watch videos, talk with friends, editing documents or simply any task you want to do at home or in your office. See More

Top Pro

Great design to the app store

The app store is gorgeous. See More

Top Pro

Enjoy the simplicity of Deepin's desktop

The desktop interface and apps feature an intuitive and elegant design. Moving around, sharing and searching etc. has become simply a joyful experience. See More

Top Pro

Launches programs faster

Programs load and launch faster in Deepin than other Linux distributions. It takes only about 3 seconds to launch Chrome. See More

Top Pro

Easy to install

Installing Deepin OS is very easy. Even easier than installing Ubuntu! See More

Top Pro

Company behind it

The Wuhan Deepin Technology is behind this Linux distribution. See More

Top Pro

Great support for graphics cards

Deepin OS includes a program called "Deepin Graphics Driver Manager" which can easily install a good driver for the graphics card. See More

Top Pro

Includes a lot of packages in the official repository

The official repository of deepin OS includes over 73,000 packages. See More

Top Pro

Quite lightweight

Deepin 15.7 is lighter than Windows 10 and Ubuntu. See More

Top Pro

Gives warning messages when upgrading packages using apt

Deepin uses their own modified version of apt. When there is a distribution upgrade available and if we try to upgrade by running "sudo apt upgrade", then this modified version of apt gives this warning message, "DDE programs will work abnormally if run this command. Run sudo apt dist-upgrade or sudo apt full-upgrade instead." See More

Top Pro

Has their own tool kit

They have their own tool kit called "Deepin Tool Kit". And they themselves uses it. See More

Top Pro

Can be made to look like Windows easily

By default, Deepin looks kinda like macOS but it can be made to look like Windows by right-clicking on the dock and changing the mode from "Fashion Mode" to "Efficient Mode". See More

Top Pro

Exciting applications

It has some exciting applications, such as Deepin Graphics Driver Manager which can easily change between free and proprietary drivers without any issue. See More

Top Pro

Supports snaps

It supports snaps. Which makes this operating system even more stable. See More

Top Pro

Rolling release

Deepin is a rolling release Linux distribution. Which is quite popular these days. See More

Top Pro

Not based on Ubuntu

Some people don't like Ubuntu nor its derivatives. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

It's very easy to use. You can easily uninstall a program by going to the menu then right-clicking on the preferred app and selecting "Uninstall" option. See More

Top Pro

Well-designed in every detail, developers have a professional aproach to the system

Deepin has a sane default set of apps including custom apps of their own design that gives the distro a very consistent look and feel. By working with the community on these tools as well as custom translations there is a great sense of polish when using it that is not often seen when using such a new desktop environment. See More

Top Pro

Based on Debian

It is based on Debian which is the best Linux distribution for desktops. See More

Top Pro

Has its own toolkit

It has its own toolkit called "Deepin Tool Kit". And the maintainers themselves use it. See More

Top Pro

Seemless transition form Windows to Linux

Easy to install, comes with default packages to typical needs e.g. Chrome, WPS office, System Monitor and a bunch of multimedia utilities. Its easy to install and uninstall applications, it has a great app store and is fast. On same laptop run much faster than Windows 10 did. See More

Top Pro

Best for daily use

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

score 5 · Answer 10

Gentoo Linux

Top Pro

Gentoo does not impose a standard look-and-feel

Top Con

Not beginner-friendly

LikablePhlegethon's Experience

Possibly the most stable rolling release distro currently available as of 2019. 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

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

Documentation and community are second to none

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

Top Con

Has no live images with graphical interface

Full installation is hand-made with a CLI (Command-Line Interface) See More

Top Pro

Portage's emerge is powerful

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

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. 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

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

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 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 Pro

Fully customizable

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

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

Live USB

From SELinux to PaX to AppArmor to ... The wiki has got you covered. See More

score 4 · Answer 11

Hardened Gentoo

Top Pro

Comprehensive hardened guide in wiki

Top Pro

Control

Fine Tailored Control of every single package. See More

Top Pro

Init system

Gentoo is powered by openrc, which is a very powerful init system. See More

Top Pro

Great community

Gentoo community is very friendly. See More

Top Pro

Rolling release

Gentoo stays very close to the upstream. See More

Top Pro

Fully customized kernel that prevents server-side malwares with SSO mechanisms

Out of CentOS /RedHat/Fedora a hardened kernel is very easy to make. See More

Top Pro

Supports custom hardened kernels

Your only real options for a widely supported hardened distro are the Red Had distros (Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora) of which Fedora is your best bet for a desktop , or Gentoo. You can make a hardened kernel in Gentoo while stripping unnecessary features, creating a much smaller attack surface, and using in-kernel mitigations others don’t. See More

Top Pro

Stable

Gentoo is unbreakable. It's easy to break distros. Gentoo package manager would rather complain a lot than let you break your system. See More

Based On:SLS Linux>Slackware>SuSE>openSUSE

score 2 · Answer 12

GeckoLinux

score 1 · Answer 13

Manjaro ARM

Based On:Archlinux ARM

score 1 · Answer 14

Zorin OS

Top Pro

Stable

Specs

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu LTS

Package Manager:Debian Package Manager

Release Schedule:Point (2 Year)

Init-System:Systemd

Zorin is compatible with Ubuntu's sizable repositories of free software. See More

Top Pro

Ubuntu-based

Lightweight and only the packages you want are installed. See More

score 4 · Answer 15

ArcoLinuxB

Top Pro

Light

TactfulDirawong's Experience

Tested a bunch of them. Arco Linux has a great advantage. You can set what you want with very simple scripts or you can choose one of the Arco Linux B versions with all the juice in. See More

Specs

Based On:Arch

Default Desktop Environment:Xfce, Openbox, i3, GNOME, Deepin Desktop Environment, Cinnamon, Budgie, bspwm, awesome, MATE, KDE Plasma