What are the best operating systems for advanced users?

Default Desktop Environment:NONE

Init-System:OpenRC

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

Top Pro

Fully customizable

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

NonchalantManat's Experience

Gentoo Linux is the best, most powerful, and most controllable operating system I have ever used. I would not recommend it for a laptop unless the laptop has powerful enough specifications to handle compiling certain programs, or the owner has enough time to spare to let it compile programs slower. 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

Not beginner-friendly

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

Top Pro

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

No default installer

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

Top Pro

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

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

Top Con

Somewhat outdated solutions

While being outdated per se is virtually impossible for a rolling-release distro with a large community, a large portion of said community sticks to outdated solutions.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 Con

Some packages are outdated/unmaintained

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

A very large collection of software is available

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

Top Pro

Gentoo does not impose a standard look-and-feel

Top Pro

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

Portage's emerge is powerful

Top Pro

Live USB installation

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

Top 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. See More

OpenBSD has a reputation for security that's well-earned. They don't enable services by default unless the user wants them, they have a transparent process, and highly reviewed programming. See More

score 21 · Answer 2

OpenBSD

Top Pro

The most secure OS of all time

Top Con

Lacking Hyper-V support

Not good for running in a Windows Hyper-V virtual machine. See More

GloriousHanXiangzi's Experience

The best OS overall: clean, tidy, adheres to unix standarts, secure, trouble-free See More

Specs

Based On:Research Unix>Berkeley Software Distribution>

Package Manager:OpenBSD package tools

License:BSD, ISC and other permissive licenses

Source model:Open source

Just keep pressing enter for 8 mins and get a well setup system. Upgrading is one command, also across versions. So easy to automate if need be. See More

Top Pro

Easy to install and maintain

Top Con

Many programs are not available

Devraza's Experience

Couldn't install anything, and nothing would run, either. Bad ARM support, too. See More

Top Pro

Excellent documentation

Everything is included when you install it. There are mans called 'intro' and 'afterboot.' Logging in you are greeted with welcoming mail and system news. Even a typo in the man-pages is considered a bug and they are ostensibly reviewed. See More

Top Pro

Stability

Top Pro

Correctness

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

score 34 · Answer 3

Arch Linux

Top Pro

Excellent documentation

Top Con

Instability can be an issue

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

Devraza's Experience

It was extremely minimal, quick, and customisable. Worked well on my Raspberry Pi 400 and gave me the control I needed. Would recommend if you're looking for a lightweight linux Distribution with up-to-date software. See More

Specs

OS Family:GNU+Linux

Init-System:Systemd

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

As slim or copious as you want it

Top Con

Manual install process

CompetentKrotos's Experience

This OS is the best. When things go wrong, search and you find a solution. If you like learning what makes what tick in your system, Arch is for you. See More

Top Pro

No restrictive handholding, pure control over everything

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

Top Con

Works only on AMD64

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

Top Pro

Cutting edge rolling release

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

Top Con

Documentation only makes sense if you know how to adjust it

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

Top Pro

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

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

Highly customizable

Tailor the system to your needs. See More

Top Con

Occasional upstream package bugs

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

Top Pro

Arch Linux Wiki

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

Top Con

Not for the faint of heart

You need to be very careful with updates . See More

Top Pro

Fast and simple package management

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

Top Con

Lost its way

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

Top Pro

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 Con

You have to install everything by hand on a command line

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

Top Pro

Excellent package management with the AUR

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

Top Con

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

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

Top Pro

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

No graphical installer

Although some derivatives such as Manjaro and ArcoLinux exist. 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 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

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 Con

Highly egotistical community

Top Pro

Completely signed repos by default

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

Top Con

Not really for desktop

More like for posting screenshots on Reddit. 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 Con

Uses Systemd

Top Pro

Great for low performance hardware

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

Top Con

Rolling release requires bandwidth

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

Top Pro

Can edit any configuration file

Its as customizable as LFS and can handle any type of configuration if the architecture supports it. See More

Top Con

Multiple Aur helpers

Arch has strict reasoning behind what goes into the official repositories accessible by pacman. As a result, many other projects end up in the Arch User Repository (AUR). Effectively using Arch, and getting easy access to all of the available software, means either manually downloading and installing from the AUR, or installing an AUR helper - these work alongside the main package manager (Pacman), but are a bit less standardized or heavily supported. See More

Top Pro

Good for ricing for r/unixporn

Because of how customisable Arch Linux is (you start out with just a terminal), you can easily choose whatever desktop environment (or window manager!) you want. Combined with the documentation available on the ArchWiki, 'ricing' (customising your graphical environment to your preference) is easy. See More

Top Con

Not so great overall

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

Top Pro

Highly reliable upgrades

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

Top Pro

Great hardware support

Out of the box Arch comes with great hardware support. 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

Multilib support is just around the corner

Just uncomment the according entries in the pacman.conf 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

Vast variety of use and purpose

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

It is Linux at the core

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

Support for a large variety of hardware

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

Top 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

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

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

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

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

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

Helpful 3rd-party installers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

score 20 · Answer 4

Artix Linux

Top Pro

Rolling distro

Top Con

Few Arch packages might not be available yet

Specs

Based On:Arch Linux

OS Family: GNU/Linux

Default Desktop Environment:Bash (Unix shell), Cinnamon, KDE Plasma, LXDE, LXQt, MATE and XFCE

Package Manager:Pacman

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

Top Pro

Close to bare Arch Linux

Top Pro

No systemd

Very fast and good. See More

Top Pro

Lightweight

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

Top Pro

runit

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

Top Pro

Flexibility

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

Top Pro

No systemd

With the focus on "Stability", Slackware has a way of accumulating ANCIENT software. See More

score 19 · Answer 5

Slackware

Top Pro

Strong adherence to UNIX Principals

Top Con

ANCIENT Software in the repos

wolfsnase's Experience

Installation is straightforward. The installer doesn't install tons of crap software you don't use anyway, instead you can start with a quite clean system. Be warned that the package management system doesn't track and manage dependencies. You have to sort out problems that arise from i.e. missing libs on your own. Which sounds a bit harder than it actually is. Slackware comes with a BSD-like init system. Personally, I prefer Sys-V-Init. Anway, Slackware stands like a rock from day one against the Systemd craze -- most probably you'll never have to deal with the systemd craze here. The Slackware community consists of seasoned users that are friendly and helpful. See More

Specs

Based On:Softlanding Linux System

OS Family:GNU+Linux

Default Desktop Environment:KDE, Xfce, NONE

Init-System:SysVinit

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

Top Pro

Stable

Top Con

Not User Friendly

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

Top Pro

Ideal for learning more about Linux

Top Con

Niche/small community

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

Top Pro

No systemd

Top Con

Narrow repos

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

Top Pro

Ideal to learn more of Linux

Top Con

Very slow release cycle

Hasn't updated in 3+ years. See More

Top Pro

One more distro which is init based

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

Top Con

Dependency issues

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

Top Pro

Oldest surviving Linux distro

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

Top Con

No hardened out of the box

Compiled binaries are not built with stack-protector, PIE or hardened ELF flags. Also Linux kernel is not hardened by default with PaX or grsecurity patches. No apparmor, no firewall enabled by default. See More

Top Pro

Package management

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

Top Con

Large size live ISO

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

While the whole system can be configured using a declerative file with sufficient privileges. Users can install any package in their own local profile with a single command without root. See More

score 7 · Answer 6

GNU Guix

Top Pro

Secure rootless instalation

Specs

Based On:N/A

Default Desktop Environment:GNOME

Init-System:GNU Shepherd

Solves modern problems of software management in one concise, coherent, and fully integrated system. See More

Top Pro

A trully advanced operating system.

Top Pro

Atomic package management without bloated init/supervision systems

For those with a clear focused concept of what is wanted, after building, the build can be replicated in a blink on countless machines. Both GUIX and shephard are complex but also a breath of fresh air. See More

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

score 13 · Answer 7

Parabola GNU/Linux-libre

Top Pro

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

Top Con

Serves no purpose

Specs

Based On:Arch Linux

Default Desktop Environment:LXDE

Init-System:Systemd or OpenRC

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

Top Pro

Protects your freedom, certified free by the FSF

Top Con

Not really free

Top Pro

Option to use OpenRC or Systemd

Top Con

Not compatible with AUR

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

Top Pro

Very secure

Top Con

Incompetent developers

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

Top Pro

Based on Arch Linux

Top Con

Small repositories

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

Top Pro

Has its own repos

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

Top Con

Same cons that apply to Arch Linux

Top Pro

Can be migrated from Arch Linux without a CD/USB

Top Con

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

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

Top Con

Very few packages

Since this is completely "free", you won't find many packages available, so there isn't a lot you can do with Parabola. See More

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

score 9 · Answer 8

NixOS

Top Pro

Reproducible system

Top Con

Documentation is not good

A lot of the documentation of various functions is buried on the source code, their respective manuals, or non-existent. The documentation, the conventions, and the scattered toolchain really made searching for stuff easily missable. See More

Specs

OS Family:GNU+Linux

Init-System:Systemd

Package Manager:Nix Package Manager

Release Schedule:Point or Rolling

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

Top Pro

State of the art package manager

Top Pro

Robust

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

Top Pro

Minimal

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

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

score 23 · Answer 9

Void Linux

Top Pro

BSD-like improvements with Linux

Top Con

Not suitable for those new to Linux

You get an installer and several other features, yes, but you still need knowledge of the command line on Linux for system maintenence such as updates, and the like. If you still want to try it, the xfce4 build is the way to go. See More

CredibleVesta's Experience

Minimal, fast, and customisable. Has a ton of packages too. See More

Specs

Based On:Independent

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

Init-System:runit

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

Top Pro

Xbps (X Binary Package System)

Top Con

Nvidia CUDA cumbersome to setup

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

Devraza's Experience

The most lightweight Linux distro I've enjoyed. With a system requirement of 96MB of RAM, and 600MB of hard drive space, on top of not having the mess of systemd, it's the go-to linux distribution for those with old/low-end hardware. Additionally, you get official ARM support, with raspberry pi 4,3,2 and 1 images, with ARM versions 7, 6 and aarch64. Worked best on my Raspberry Pi 4, and makes a great daily driver. Stable, too. See More

Top Pro

Rolling release

Instead of getting major releases every 6 or so months, updates are available whenever new software is released, making updates fast (just run the update command every day, takes about ~10 seconds). See More

Top Con

Poor video performance with AMD gfx cards

While you can easily get the latest VLC thanks to Void being a rolling distro, video performance is abysmal, at least for those with AMD cards. See More

vlnux's Experience

Fast and easy to set up 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 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

Runit is fast and easy to configure

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

Top Pro

Very lightweight

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

Top Pro

Very minimal

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

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

Many packages

There are some packages in official repos, that may be found only in AUR. 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

Updated version of IceCat included in the default repositories

GNU IceCat is available and updated. See More

Top Pro

Friendly forum

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

Top Pro

Raspberry Pi Support

Void Linux, with runit and a low memory requirement, runs beautifully on any Raspberry Pi (they ship official builds for the Pi 4, 3, 2, and 1). Void Linux runs especially well on the Pi 400. See More

Top Pro

Excellent on old hardware

Base system requires at least 96 MB of RAM, and doesn't limit you like with Puppy Linux. See More

Top Pro

No systemd

Uses runit instead of systemd. See More

Top Pro

ARM builds

Official armv6, v7, and aarch64 (armv8) builds are available from the download page. See More

Top Pro

Runit init system is very fast

As compared to systemd on most distros, like Arch and Ubuntu, runit is much more simple, and can half boot up/shutdown time. See More

Default Desktop Environment:Anything is possible

score 7 · Answer 10

Qubes OS

Top Pro

Allows you to easily compartmentalize different applications using virtualization

See here. See More

Specs

Based On:Fedora

Top Pro

Allows using different OS seamlessly using virtualization

Top Pro

Whonix out of box

score 7 · Answer 11

CRUX

Top Pro

Very BSD/UNIX-like

Top Con

Some ports fail to compile, even while using depinst

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:NONE

Init-System:BSD-style initscripts

Nice if you want to learn some stuff about Linux. See More

Top Pro

Learning

Top Con

KISS

You have to do everything by yourself there are no helpers. See More

Top Pro

Ports

It uses the BSD ports system as package manager. See More

Top Pro

Very BSD-like

Top Pro

Ridiculously light and fast

score 5 · Answer 12

Alpine Linux

Top Pro

Small in size

Specs

Based On:LEAF Project

Init-System:OpenRC

It's a very useful learning experience; showing the user what is required and in what order, to obtain a running Linux system - from the inside out. See More

score 7 · Answer 13

Linux From Scratch

Top Pro

For those who wonder what it takes to create an actual Linux distribution

Top Con

Takes a while to create the system. Only for those people who would like to create their very own distribution, or just to understand what makes a Linux system tick.

Linux From Scratch, requires the user to download and compile, all the various required system libraries and programs in a ch-rooted environment. This is usually done from within an existing and already running Linux system. This is not really a con, just a note to the new user. See More

Specs

Based On:N/A

Init-System:SysV-init

It is stable like Debian. See More

score 8 · Answer 14

Devuan GNU+Linux

Top Pro

Stability

Top Con

Difficult to install on non-free hardware

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

Specs

Based On:Debian

Default Desktop Environment:XFCE

Init-System:SysVinit, runit or OpenRC

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

Top Pro

It's debian

Top Con

No systemd

Top Pro

Init based

Isn't based on systemd which can spread malware into your system. See More

Top Con

Impossibe to install on non-free hardware

Unlike Debian, Devuan offers no unfree install media so if your system needs unfree drivers(eg a laptop or a tablet) its nearly impossible to install devuan on it. See More

Top Pro

Most decent look amongst other XFCE distros

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

Top Con

Fragmentation

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

Top Pro

Very secure

More secure than Debian, because it doesn't use Systemd. See More

Top Pro

Excellent for normal people

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

score 5 · Answer 15

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed

Top Pro

Large amount of software

Top Con

Complex multimedia codecs and plugins installation

Specs

Release Schedule:Rolling

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

Top Pro

Tumbleweed + OpenSUSE Build Service

Top Con

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

Top Pro

Stable

Top Con

Little / no third-party support

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

Top Pro

Good selection of preinstalled applications

Top Con

Packman repository has to be added to have good software support

Top Pro

User friendly + good support

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

Top Con

Slow and painful unfortunately, especially compared to other modern distros

Top Pro

Easy installation and cutting edge apps

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

score 4 · Answer 16

Haiku

Top Pro

Runs perfectly on old hardware

Top Con

Unfinished

Specs

OS Family:BeOS-like

License:MIT

Widget Toolkit:Interface Kit

Programming Language:C++, C

Top Pro

Only needs 512 MB RAM

Top Con

UI quite different to other OSes

Top Pro

Beta has been released

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

Top Con

Small community

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

Top Pro

Stability

Top Con

No one uses it

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

Top Pro

Wicked fast

The code makes a more efficient use of the hardware. It is wicked fast on a virtual box, not even bare metal. See More

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

score 10 · Answer 17

Debian GNU/Linux

Top Pro

A lot of ways to install software

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

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:GNOME

Init-System:Systemd

Known for being consistent in maintaining a highly secure stable release.. 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

Highly secure system

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 unstable by editing the repositories. Save yourself time and install a distro that is rolling release by default. See More

Top Pro

Well-working team

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

Top Con

No default support for unfree drivers

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

Top Pro

Comes with over 55,500 maintained and precompiled 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 (please note that debian splits every software into many packages so the real number is probably more ~10-15.000 which is still huge.) See More

Top Con

No default support for non-free hardware

Non-free hardware will not work with the default set of CDs so the user must download a seperate image with non-free software: https://wiki.debian.org/Firmware 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 good choices of fresh desktop environments

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

Top Pro

Very stable

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

Top Con

Some weird/unnecessary dependencies

Some dependencies are not understandable, i.e. k3b depends on systemd. When installing software, you should keep an eye on the 'recommended' packages or your system becomes bloated, partially with crap software. See More

Top Pro

Easy to find help with any problem

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

Top Con

Ridiculous package splitting

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

Top Pro

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 Con

Adopted Systemd as init system

It's still possible to run Debian with the Sys-V-Init but you will have to jump through some loopholes and you will run into problems with sysv-init sooner or later. I.e, when trying to install k3b, the well known CD/DVD burning software, apt says that k3b depends on systemd. See More

Top Pro

A real installer

UNlike other Distributions that just extrat their LIve image, Debian offers a real traditional and modular installer to customize the installation. 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

Supports SecureBoot

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

Top Con

Outdated kernel of the live system

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

Top Pro

Great choice for returning Linux users

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

Top Con

Not designed for general desktop usage

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

Top Pro

Standard archives

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

Top Con

Breaks if you suspend/resume

Breaks when you resume the activity on the system. See More

Top Pro

Rolling or Release based

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

Top Pro

TUI installer

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

Top Pro

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 Pro

Big open-source project

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

Top Pro

Rolling or release based

Every Debian release can either use a rolling- or release-based model. See More

Top Pro

Debconf

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

Top Pro

Apt-build

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

Top Pro

Strict seperation of non-free software

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

Top Pro

The Debian Social Contract

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

Top Pro

Unique release cycle

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

Top Pro

Great 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

Install and forget

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

Vanilla packages

Packages are not customized like in other Linux distros. See More

Top Pro

Many ports

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

Top Pro

Widely supported

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

Top Pro

Inconsistent init systems

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

Top Pro

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

... But has not that small amount of bugs from 2016-2017 year for long term. See More

It is a real UNIX system and not a clone. See More

score 6 · Answer 18

FreeBSD

Top Pro

Real UNIX

Top Con

Installing with "software source code ports" and software packages can not be mixed

Holo Deck's Experience

Would always prefer it for anything else than your daily desktop. See More

Specs

Based On:Research Unix>Berkeley Software Distribution>

OS Family:UNIX (BSD)

Default Desktop Environment:NONE

Init-System:BSDinit

It uses a much cleaner userland than those GNU+Linux distributions. See More

Top Pro

Secure and stable

Top Con

Not for everyday use as a Desktop

Top Pro

Large repository of precompiled packages and highly customizable ports

Top Con

Hardware support is lagging

Top Pro

No GNU userland

Top Pro

FreeBSD handbook

Up to date and well documented manual. See More

Top Pro

BSD license

No Copyleft. See More

Top Pro

Easy to install

Want Debian's stable base and Arch's pacman for bleeding edge packages? Want the security of Qubes OS and Gentoo's portage? With the correct setup all this can be achieved. See More

score 6 · Answer 19

Bedrock

Top Pro

Pick and choose what you want from other distros

Top Con

Often increases boot times

Since Bedrock has to load the strata before handing control to the chosen init system, it can make booting your machine take longer. See More

Cakedy Cake's Experience

Though I see the benefits of Bedrock Linux, I found it harder to install than Gentoo and/or LFS. I might try installing it again in the future but my current distribution is good enough already. See More

Specs

Based On:N/A

Init-System:N/A

Package Manager:N/A

Bedrock can be challenging to setup properly with the correct strata. See More

Top Pro

Choose your package manager

Top Con

Difficulty setting up

Top Pro

Choose your init system

Top Con

Not found on Distrowatch

Bedrock Linux isn't included on Distrowatch. See More