LinuxOperating SystemDistributions

What are the best Linux distros?

8

Options
Considered

33

User
Recs.

6 mins

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

8 Options Considered

8 Options Considered	Price	Default Desktop Environment	Release Schedule
-- Fedora	-	Gnome Shell	6 Months
-- Debian GNU/Linux	-	CLI, GNOME(Xfce on non-Linux Ports)	2 Years / Rolling
-- Manjaro Linux	-	XFCE, KDE, Gnome, Budgie, Cinnamon, Deepin, i3, LXDE/lxqt, and MATE	Rolling Release
-- Arch Linux	-	CLI	Rolling
-- Deepin	-	Deepin Desktop Environment	Rolling release

Fedora

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Top Pro

Backed by the biggest Linux kernel contributor

Fedora is backed by RedHat, the biggest Linux kernel contributor in the world. Using a distribution made by RedHat means that it will be fine-tuned to work as efficiently as possible since it's made by the same people who work extensively on the kernel and know its ins and outs. See More

Top Pro

Focuses on innovation

By using bleeding edge software, Fedora allows for innovation to take place by testing out things which other distros are not willing to try due to fears of having instability issues. See More

Top Pro

Integration with GNOME

It perhaps has the best integration with GNOME (GNOME software works out of the box). See More

Top Pro

Frees developers from some backward compatibility restraints

Fedora has a relatively short life cycle: version X is supported only until 1 month after version X+2 and with approximately 6 months between versions this means that a version of Fedora is supported for approximately 13 months. This promotes leading-edge software because it frees developers from some backward compatibility restraints. See More

Top Pro

Spins and Labs

Spins are images with a different WM/DE, and Labs are filled with a specific theme of packages. See More

Top Pro

Fast and stable updates

Top Pro

Strong commitment to free software philosophy

Top Pro

Can still be installed in a bad sector on the hard disk

Top Pro

Fast performance

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:Gnome Shell

Release Schedule:6 Months

Init-System:Systemd

Package manager:rpm

See All Specs >

Debian GNU/Linux

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Top Pro

Comes with over 37,500 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 37,500 packages (software that is precompiled and ready to be installed on a local machine) -- all of them for free. See More

Top Con

No default support for non-free hardware

Non-free hardware will not work upon install of Debian and the user will need to search out the correct non-free software to install in order to make them work. This can be difficult if one of the things not working is the WiFi connection. See More

Top Pro

Very stable

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. 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

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

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

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

No choices

Debian basically doesn't give you any choices: for example it is very hard to use a different Sound system than ALSA like OSS4, and the same goes for different init systems. See More

Top Pro

Rolling or Release based

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

Top Con

You have to dig deep for non-free

There is an unofficial ISO with non-free drivers for my laptop wifi card, but they make you look hard and dig deep to find it. I would have tried Debian a lot sooner had they made it easier to find. See More

Top Pro

Standard vanilla Linux desktop

Debian runs standard Gnome, XFCE, KDE - it doesn't use its own special desktop environment, 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 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

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 Pro

Well-working team

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

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 Pro

Extremely 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

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:CLI, GNOME(Xfce on non-Linux Ports)

Release Schedule:2 Years / Rolling

Init-System:Systemd(SysVinit on non-LinuxPorts)

Package manager:dpkg

See All Specs >

Manjaro Linux

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Top Pro

A rolling-release distribution

Manjaro uses a rolling release method for all updates, so once a system is installed, as long as the user regularly updates there is no need to re-install. See More

Top Con

Can still be unstable

Here are the details of it. See More

Top Pro

Arch User Repository access

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

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 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 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 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

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:XFCE, KDE, Gnome, Budgie, Cinnamon, Deepin, i3, LXDE/lxqt, and MATE

Release Schedule:Rolling Release

Init-System:Systemd

Package manager:pacman

See All Specs >

Arch Linux

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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

Not ready out of the box.

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

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

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 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

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

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 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

Helpful 3rd-party installers

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

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

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:CLI

Release Schedule:Rolling

Init-System:Systemd

Package manager:pacman

See All Specs >

Deepin

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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

Not based on Ubuntu

Some people don't like Ubuntu nor its derivatives. 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

Blur and transparent design

Deepin has a blur and transparent design throughout the OS, which makes it one of the most beautiful Linux distros. See More

Top Pro

Company behind it

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

Top Pro

Best for daily use

Top Pro

Easy to install

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

Supports Flatpak

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

Rolling release

It is a rolling release Linux distribution which is quite popular these days. See More

Top Pro

Great design to the app store

The app store is gorgeous. 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

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

Based on Debian

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

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

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

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

Very stable

Even though it is based on Debian unstable, it is still pretty stable and you will hardly ever get a dependency issue. See More

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:Deepin Desktop Environment

Release Schedule:Rolling release

Init-System:Systemd

Package manager:dpkg, apt

See All Specs >

Kubuntu

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Customizable

You can easily adjust the workspace to your needs. See More

Top Con

Often unstable

There have been several bugs reported. Some of these bugs are: shutting down randomly, refusing to boot, refusing to shut down, menus may act strange, icons may disappear, etc... See More

Top Pro

Full featured desktop environment that is actively developed

Unlike some abandoned, unfinished distros, Kubuntu is up to date and offers a fully functional desktop environment that targets workstation users. See More

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:KDE

Release Schedule:2 Year LTS/6 Months Releases

Init-System:Systemd

Package manager:dpkg

See All Specs >

Ubuntu

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

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

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

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 Con

Random system errors may pop up

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:GNOME(various editons with MATE, Xfce, LXDE and other)

Release Schedule:5 Year LTS / 6 Month Releases

Init-System:Systemd

Package manager:dpkg

See All Specs >

Linux Mint

Top Pro

Compatibility with Debian and Ubuntu software builds and repositories

Mint gains a very strong package ecosystem and software manager of Debian, including more than 30,000 packages available from the Debian repositories. See More

Top Pro

Complete and stable

Top Pro

Already functional out-of-the-box

Mint comes bundled with software for browsing the web, editing pictures, browsing files, watching videos and even a full office suite (LibreOffice). An average user can use Mint right away after a fresh install, using all the software that comes with the distribution to complete most of their daily tasks. See More

Top Pro

Familiar user interface

Mint is highly recommended for both users coming from Windows, as well as users coming from Ubuntu, but unhappy with Ubuntu's recent, rather dramatic interface changes. Mint provides an updated interface with a look and feel similar to Gnome 2, with an application menu reminiscent of the Windows 7 Start Menu, with categorization and search. See More

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce

Release Schedule:2 Year LTS / 6 Month Release

Init-System:Systemd

Package manager:dpkg

See All Specs >

33 Community Recommendations

+11

Request recommendations from the community

InsightfulFufluns

Contributor for 2 months

1

Total
Recs.

135

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Karma

Debian GNU/Linux

Recommended 2 months ago

it is mother of all distros

Install and forget

Contributor for 8 days

5

Total
Recs.

0

Total
Karma

Recommended 6 minutes ago

Backed by the biggest Linux kernel contributor

Contributor for 8 days

5

Total
Recs.

0

Total
Karma

6 minutes ago

Not ready out of the box.

Contributor for 5 months

3.2K

Total
Recs.

378K

Total
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Recommended 6 days ago

PhilosophicalAstraea

Contributor for 6 days

74

Total
Recs.

195

Total
Karma

Recommended 6 days ago

Full featured desktop environment that is actively developed

Contributor for 13 days

1

Total
Recs.

10

Total
Karma

Recommended 13 days ago

Excellent documentation

Cutting edge rolling release

A package for almost everything

As slim or copious as you want it

No restrictive handholding, pure control over everything

Fast and simple package management

Simplicity is absolutely the principal objective behind Arch development

Excellent package management with the AUR

Helpful community

Stripped down to the bone

Not ready out of the box.

Contributor for 15 days

2

Total
Recs.

0

Total
Karma

Recommended 15 days ago

Backed by the biggest Linux kernel contributor

Integration with GNOME

Frees developers from some backward compatibility restraints

Fast and stable updates

Focuses on innovation

Strong commitment to free software philosophy

ThoughtfulTaronhiawagon

Contributor for 15 days

1

Total
Recs.

0

Total
Karma

Recommended 15 days ago

Focuses on innovation

Can still be installed in a bad sector on the hard disk

GutsyTriptolemus

Contributor for a month

1

Total
Recs.

0

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Recommended a month ago

GutsyTriptolemus hasn’t added their experience, pros or cons to their recommendation.

Contributor for a year

41

Total
Recs.

560

Total
Karma

Debian GNU/Linux

a month ago

No default support for non-free hardware

Ridiculous package splitting

Old software is not useful, but is stable

Internal quarrels harm the project

You have to dig deep for non-free

Currently displaying 1 out of 33 total recommendations.

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