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What are the best Linux distributions for misanthropes?

131

Options
Considered

1.4K

User
Recs.

May 22, 2022

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

The Best 2 of 131 OptionsWhy?

Best Linux distributions for misanthropes	Price	Based On	Default Desktop Environment
93 Devuan GNU+Linux	FREE	Debian	Cinnamon, KDE Plasma, LXQt, MATE and XFCE
90 Linux Mint	Free	Debian>Ubuntu LTS	Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce
89 KDE Neon	FREE	Debian>Ubuntu LTS	KDE
89 MX-Linux	FREE	Debian Stable>antiX	XFCE
88 Peppermint Linux OS	FREE	Debian	Xfce

Devuan GNU+Linux

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Top Pro

It's Debian

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

Top Con

Difficult to install on non-free hardware

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

UpbeatAlpheus's Experience

Devuan Beowulf 3.1.0 has been a fast, stable, and responsive disrto. I did the net install method on my thinkpad and everything has worked from day one with no errors, hiccups, or workarounds. I did install spectrwm window manager because that is my favorite and all works well. The xfce desktop that is the default is also flawless on my system, I came from Arch linux and thought I might miss the latest versions of software but I have not noticed any difference in use or workflow. I use the Runit init system on my setup and it has been flawless. Devuan Beowulf 3.1.0 boots fast and seems well thought out and polished. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian

Default Desktop Environment:Cinnamon, KDE Plasma, LXQt, MATE and XFCE

Release Schedule:Long-term support (stable edition) and rolling release (testing and unstable editions)

Origin:Worldwide

Top Pro

Stability

Top Con

Impossible 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) it's 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

No systemd (pro for some individuals)

Top Pro

Excellent for normal people

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

Top Pro

Debian without systemd

Top Pro

Very secure

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

Linux Mint

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Top Pro

Complete and stable

It's based upon Ubuntu LTS or Debian. It depends on which one you select - Linux Mint or Linux Mint Debian Edition. The Debian Edition is even more stable. See More

Top Con

System updates can lead the system to being unstable

While a new installed system is stable, after an update, there is a slight chance of something not working. See More

KnowledgeableCacoch's Experience

Perfect for regular users See More

Specs

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu LTS

Default Desktop Environment:Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce

Init-System:Systemd

Package Manager:Debian Package Manager

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 Con

The Linux Mint website once provided spyware

The website for Linux Mint was hacked in 2016 and its download links led to a modified ISO, which contained spyware. See More

Top Pro

Has more desktop options

You can choose between Cinnamon, MATE and XFCE. See More

Top Con

Upgrade process between version can be painful

The Linux Mint team offers a method to upgrade the OS between versions but they tend to recommend clean installs, which isn't always suitable for everyone. However, following the upgrade process currently is less than straightforward and is easily capable of leaving your system in a confused state. 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

Top Con

Does not handle multiple languages well

Top Pro

There is a "system restore" tool to restore the OS if something breaks

This tool backs up the core OS files to an external drive with an option for full encryption. See More

Top Con

Limits to the support of propriatary hardware drivers

Mint has limited support for older graphics cards beyond the generic nouveau driver, and some software (like Stremio) only works with official Nvidia drivers (for example). See More

Top Pro

Dedicated upgrade process

The Linux Mint team is very dedicated to upgrading and improving Mint, to the point where the releases are fairly predictable. They are also dedicated to their users, meaning that they are responsive to critiques, suggestions, etc. See More

Top Con

Mint 19 forces unwanted updates

Since version 19 Mint adopted Windows 10's policy to force the user to install unwanted updates and even if the user deselects them and marks them not to be installed, they're still being installed. See More

Top Pro

Not from a big company

Linux Mint is not Canonical, while based upon Ubuntu. See More

Top Con

Too many kernel crashes

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 Con

Political

Clement Lefebvre, the lead developer of Linux Mint said “I don’t want any money or help coming from people who support the actions of the Israeli government.” See More

Top Pro

The OS is great for both beginners and advanced users

The OS has different update settings for different users and has easy manual within the OS. See More

Top Con

The Update doesn't work sometimes

Sometimes the update failed to configure a package. See More

Top Pro

Supports proprietary software

Linux Mint does maintain a free software environment, however, it does offer full support to proprietary software (Chrome, Skype, Teamviewer). See More

Top Con

Outdated software centers

Many of the offered options are older versions. See More

Top Pro

Good community support

There are several different ways to get support for this distribution, including the forums, their IRC channel, or their github repositories if you think their software isn't behaving as it should. See More

Top Pro

Easy installation and configuration

Linux Mint uses the same installer as Ubuntu. It is very easy to use for beginners, and also allows more advanced users to choose their own partitions. Linux Mint's Cinnamon desktop is highly customizable and can be made to look however preferred. See More

Top Pro

Provides LTS (long term support) versions

Long Term Support versions are versions of software that are continuously updated for an extended period of time, even after newer versions are launched. LTS versions will typically get feature additions and enhancements for an extended period of time, then security updates up until its End of Life. An LTS release should typically be considered good for at least 5 years. See More

Top Pro

Political

Clement Lefebvre, the lead developer of Linux Mint said "I don’t want any money or help coming from people who support the actions of the Israeli government". See More

Top Pro

The easiest option ever

The distro is the easiest operating system to run ever. See More

Top Pro

2016 hack listed here as a Con, was very quickly dealt with and is a non-issue over 4 years later

Top Pro

Popular

Linux Mint is currently the most hit page on DistroWatch. Because of its popularity, long-term support is pretty guaranteed. See More

Top Pro

Low learning curve to go from installation to advanced configuration

Mint is extremely easy to install, and with community support, easy to move onto adjusting the OS to meet your specific needs. The vast majority of instructions for undertaking configuration work and are easy to understand. See More

Top Pro

Mint 20 will actively avoid the Snap landmine planted by Canonical in Ubuntu 20.04

129 Other Options Considered

KDE Neon

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Top Pro

Configurability

KDE Neon uses KDE as its desktop environment, which is highly configurable, but also has great defaults. See More

Top Con

Steep learning curve for beginners

It's a really sparse, bare-bones system, no automatic driver install for example. It can be quite hard for someone not used to Linux. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu LTS

Default Desktop Environment:KDE

Init-System:Systemd

Package Manager:Debian Package Manager

Top Pro

The best looking Linux OS

It really is a great and stunning looking OS. See More

Top Pro

Works well on low-end computers

Top Pro

Works out of the box

Since it's built on the strong Ubuntu base, KDE Neon works seamlessly with a huge variety of hardware. See More

MX-Linux

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Top Pro

Good MX Tools and Package Installer

MX Linux comes with its own set of tools called MX Tools, designed to make life easier for users. See More

Top Con

Only one Desktop Environment

This is no longer true as KDE Plasma is currently supported, and there is also a choice for using Fluxbox. See More

KnowledgeableCacoch's Experience

The best See More

Specs

Based On:Debian Stable>antiX

Default Desktop Environment:XFCE

Init-System:SysV-init & systemD

Package Manager:Debian Package Manager

Top Pro

Based on Debian

It is based on Debian and not based on Ubuntu See More

Top Con

Is really a combination of two distributions, a command-line distribution and a desktop distribution

This isn't as bad as it sounds. AntiX is a good server distribution that can be extended with MX-linux or not and the two work together harmoniously. However this may not be so apparent to the first-time user or one who doesn't come from a Debian background. See More

AuthenticCethlenn's Experience

Great little stripped-down distro, perfect for the small network services box it runs for me. My only caveat would be that you do need Debian experience to really understand how it is structured. See More

Top Pro

Very stable

Top Con

Installer and configuration tools are different

Installer and configuration tools are different and can take some time getting used to. See More

Top Pro

No systemd

Top Con

Too much preinstalled applications

Top Pro

Lightweight

Top Con

More than 50 tweaking softwares pre-installed

Top Pro

Easy to use

Top Con

10s of media players preinstalled

Top Pro

Easy install

Top Con

Includes non-free drivers

Top Pro

Supports non-free drivers

Top Con

Too much customization

Top Pro

Can also be used as an emergency tool

It has almost all tools to repair non booting systems or recover files & folders and save them on a safe place. And when thought together with it starts quick on live-session. In addition, you can do these with "your own", customized distro (snapshot). See More

Top Con

Old software

Many software applications are older. See More

Top Pro

Live-Session boots fastest after Puppy

After Puppy Linux (which's aimed to run from RAM and which is smaller in size) the second fastest (head & shoulders) booting one (together with the sister project antiX) and also has the option "toram" to run from RAM. Yes, not only when compared to full distros, even far faster than small sized or tiny distros, especially when booted to "live-session", about 2 - 2.5 times faster on an old single core laptop. See More

Top Con

Causes overheating on some hardwares

Other debian based XFCE distros- Xubuntu, Debian XFCE, Devuan leave small footprint on system whereas MXLinux uses too much CPU resources on same system. See More

Top Pro

MX Snapshot: lets you make your own distro

Can create your own ISO (snapshot) and use it either as live-session and install back when needed. With the (pre-installed) Snapshot tool you can easily create an ISO of your running system and then save it to a USB (or other media) and use "your own" distro as a live session or install back whenever you like (even on a different PC with different specs with no issues). You can even give that customized ISO to friends (selecting "non-personal" ISO when creating the snapshot; thus resetting the accounts & passwords and Home folder etc.). Also you can save that ISO directly encrypted via MX Live USB Maker tool. Again, you can install MX encrypted during installation with just ticking a box, no matter if it's the official ISO or your snapshot. See More

Top Con

Remixed Debian testing

It's mainly a Debian stable with some recompiled/backported Debian testing packages. See More

Top Con

Longer boot time

Peppermint Linux OS

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Top Pro

Friendly and helpful forum

Top Con

Web applications

Specs

Based On:Debian

Default Desktop Environment:Xfce

Init-System:Systemd

Package Manager:Debian Package Manager

Top Pro

Fast and light on resources

RAM consumption is the same as LxLE, but more efficient and because of Whisker Menu and other tweaks that let you feel more like we have a XFCE desktop environment, as keyboard shortcuts, for instance, it looks like it's the fastest and lightest, globally speaking. Very good on performance. Download Respin 7 (March 2017), install Libreoffice and then compare, for example, opening Libreoffice Writer inside Peppermint 7, Extix 17.04, Lubuntu 16.10, Xubuntu 16.04, Backbox 4.7, Linux Mint 18.1 Xfce an Mate or Linux Lite 3.4 (and others). Finally, you'll find out that after opening a few apps in Peppermint it remains smooth and light. Nemo file explorer on Peppermint is incredibly faster than on Mint Cinnamon; lx terminal is very fast when opening; updating is fast. And after all this, distro keeps working and working very solidly and consistently along the time. And yet the look and feel of the environment is pleasant. See More

Top Con

Since it is based on Lubuntu, the double click speed needs to be slowed down

It's false that Peppermint 7 is tout court based on Lubuntu. Take a look at this: "Peppermint Seven makes use of the Xfwm4 window manager and Xfce bottom panel in the LXDE desktop environment. This is unlike other Linux distributions that use LXDE as the default desktop environment where it is common to use the Openbox window manager and lxpanel." And more: "Peppermint Seven is built on the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS code base and makes use of its package repositories." Contrarily to other Linux distributions, Peppermint creators never said Peppermint 7 is based on Lubuntu, like LXLE. Using LXDE and being based on Ubuntu is very different from being simply based on Lubuntu. In fact, Lubuntu is not faster than Peppermint and has loads of lacks for a nowadays OS experience. See More

Top Pro

Looks great

The XFCE Whisker menus and dark theme are well designed. Easy to move the panel to the top and add plank on the bottom. See More

Top Pro

Peppermint9 is stable

Peppermint 9OS (32 and 64 bit) has been updated to the Respin PPA. See More

Top Pro

Comes with a variety of helpful tools

Works great with Teamviewer, Synaptic, XNview, KODI, and Pdf-Xchange editor (via playonlinux). Netflix works awesome with Chrome browser. The ICE SSB tool is great for creating web apps that run as if you installed them locally. The Software Boutique (packaged with The MATE Welcome software Center) recognizes all software and installs it with one click. See More

Top Pro

It works well "Out Of The Box"

There are enough useful back end packages installed by default to make the system useable for normal use right after the installation of the base distro. See More

Puppy Linux

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Top Pro

Extremely low minimum system requirements

Puppy Linux requires 128MB of RAM and 333Mhz of CPU, although 256MB of RAM is recommended. See More

Top Con

Smallest software library ever

You can barely find any precompiled packages for Puppy. See More

Top Pro

The whole OS runs off of RAM

Since Puppy Linux is completely loaded and run off of RAM instead of HDD, it's read/write speed is not a factor. See More

Top Con

A bit ugly

Using Puppy makes you feel like you just jumped 20 years into the past. Being that the purpose of Puppy Linux is to run or really low resource machines the software used is often on the older side, which is precisely why it has a 20 year old look. See More

Top Pro

It can be the only distro that works

Sometimes, Puppy Linux is the only distro that works on an old machine: all other distros are more demanding. See More

Top Con

No built in compositing

Being a low resource distro there is zero built in compositing for the JWM window manager. Though one can be added through a bit of work. See More

Top Pro

Designed to run as a live USB/CD

A portable version, that can be carried on a thumb drive without requiring installation, weighs less than 100MB; a Live CD - less than 150MB. You can even save your settings and files for Puppy on the external device/media. Running off a live CD also has security benefits, as your system will reset to the known config after each boot. See More

Top Con

No built-in compositing

Being a low resource distro there is zero built-in compositing for the JWM window manager. Though one can be added through a bit of work. See More

Top Pro

JWM used as window manager

JWM is a low resource window manager that is used in most Puppy Linux installs. See More

Top Pro

Offers a long term support release

Puppy Linux offers an LTS release called Precise. See More

Top Pro

Different distro based versions available

Puppy Linux offers a few different releases. The first is an Ubuntu based release called Tahrpup, by using this version the user is able to take advantage of all software and support from Ubuntu. The second version is called Slacko, which is built upon the Slackware binaries. The third is called Wary and it is built to support older hardware than the rest. And the fourth is called Quirky, which is used as a base to explore new ideas. See More

Top Pro

Linux distro designed for this exact purpose

ArcoLinux

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Top Pro

Blazingly fast

Startup time, shutdown time, everything in between. See More

Top Con

No single ISO

RespectfulCavillace's Experience

Easier to setup and a bit more stable than Arch, but very up-to-date and customisable compared to Ubuntu & Co. Only finding the right ISO is a pain in the backside See More

Specs

Based On:Arch Linux (Rolling)

Default Desktop Environment:Openbox + Xfce + i3

Package Manager:pacman

Top Pro

Easy to isntall desktop environments

Thanks to the manuals provided by the developers it is really easy to install more than 10 different desktop environments that'll work at the same time! See More

Top Con

Small development team

Top Pro

Helps you to become a Arch Linux user

Top Pro

XFCE, Openbox and I3

Finished Product with almost every tool a experienced user will use. See More

Top Pro

Easy to install NVIDIA Drivers

Has option to install NVIDIA proprietary drivers. Runs great. See More

Top Pro

Community support is great

Need to install Discord on cell phone and computer. Fastest way to receive help. Community is mostly European on Discord so getting help at midnight may be a challenge. See More

Top Pro

Learning bash script

Fastest way to reload any Linux desktop is a script that will install all your favorite apps. See More

Top Pro

Easy to install

Unbelievably fast for ArcoLinux with XFCE, Openbox, I3. See More

Artix Linux

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Top Pro

No systemd

Top Con

Few Arch packages might not be available yet

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

Specs

Based On:Arch Linux

Default Desktop Environment:Bash (Unix shell), Cinnamon, GNOME (Testing), i3 (Testing), KDE Plasma, LXDE, LXQt, MATE and XFCE

Package Manager:Pacman

Release Schedule:Rolling release

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 Con

Not a systemd free distro

Their whole system is based on Elogind which provides a large majority of systemd library. They use a different init and service manager, but it's not free of systemd. See More

Top Pro

Rolling distro

Top Con

Not Stable

Top Pro

Lightweight

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

Top Pro

Close to bare Arch Linux

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

Top 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

Void Linux

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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

Not suitable for those new to Linux

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

Specs

Based On:Independent

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

Init-System:runit

Package Manager:XBPS & xbps-src

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

Small amount of packages

Top Pro

Very lightweight

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

Top Con

Not popular

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

Top Pro

Very minimal

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

Top Pro

Friendly forum

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

Top Pro

No systemd

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 Pro

Rolling release

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

Top Pro

Easy to use installer

Unlike its closest competitor, Arch, Void includes a very user-friendly and simple installer in the ISO. 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

PCLinuxOS

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Top Pro

Can remaster the boot DVD

PCLinuxOS has built-in tools for remastering bootable DVD into a copy of current install. See More

Top Con

Installation fails most of the time, error messages, and hard to go to full screen in virtual box

Specs

Based On:Mandrake Linux

Default Desktop Environment:KDE, MATE

Init-System:SysVinit

Release Schedule:Rolling Release

Top Pro

Multiple desktops available

Mate, LXDE, and KDE desktops are available. See More

Top Con

Uses RPM packaging system

Uses the RPM packaging system with APT, rather than the more popular DEB packages. See More

Top Pro

Stable

PCLinuxOS is designed around stability. See More

Top Pro

Excellent hardware compatibility

Comes with nVidia drivers out of the box. Important if the PC has an nVidia chipset. Most Debian based distros don't have nVidia drivers available at install time. LXDE version works well with older hardware. See More

Top Pro

Rolling release

The distribution is continually updated, so there's no need to install OS upgrades by hand. See More

Slackware

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Top Pro

Package management

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

Specs

Based On:Softlanding Linux System

Default Desktop Environment:KDE SC

Init-System:SysVinit

Package Manager:Pkgtool

Top Pro

Stable

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

Top Pro

Strong adherence to UNIX Principals

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 Pro

Ideal to learn more of Linux

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

Top 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 Pro

No systemd

Budgie

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Top Pro

modern design

Top Con

Does not properly support multi monitor

Having two monitors works, but it's not perfect. See More

Specs

License:mainly GPL

Available On:*nix (GNOME)

Programming Language:mostly C

Widget Toolkit:GTK

Top Pro

Can emulate Gnome 2 desktop look

The Budgie desktop can emulate the classic Gnome 2 look. See More

Top Con

Is going to update to Qt

Currently very dependable on Gnome See More

Top Pro

It's minimal and gorgeous

Top Con

Not a desktop environment

It's just a replacement for the GNOME-shell and you still need a GNOME-desktop installed at the same time. See More

Top Pro

Very lightweight

Runs well on low-end hardware and gaming PC’s alike. See More

Top Con

Very hard to install

Installing in distros that are not Ubuntu-based can be hard. See More

Top Pro

It's maintained by a dedicated bunch of folks with an eye for detail

Top Con

Still in development

Budgie is still young and in active development, so it may not be as stable as many other desktop environments. See More

Top Pro

No big memory leaks

It can be run for weeks with no noticeable increase in memory usage. That is a vast improvement over gnome-shell. See More

Top Con

Issues with proprietary drivers and Mutter

Mutter causes issues with screen tearing and microstuttering in most applications especially with NVidia GPUs. See More

Top Pro

Built from scratch and integrates into current technolgies

Budgie is built from scratch to integrate with the Gnome stack, this way hopefully having more stability by utilizing technologies that have a lot of community work already behind them. See More

Top Con

Lacks some basic features

Many things you'd take for granted aren't available in Budgie, like an option for showing windows from all workspaces when alt-tabbing. See More

Top Pro

Many large distros support it out of the box

Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, and Budgie's own Solus all support Budgie. See More

Top Con

Less lightweight than you would expect

Budgie has a nice and simple style, but the memory usage is quite high after booting. Thankfully, the lead developer is working to remedy this. See More

Top Pro

Available from a PPA for Ubuntu

Budgie is available from an official EvolveOS PPA for Ubuntu and its derivatives. sudo add-apt-repository ppa:evolve-os/ppa sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install budgie-desktop See More

Top Con

Sometimes buggy

Budgie can sometimes be buggy. See More

Neptune

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Specs

Based On:Debian Stable

Default Desktop Environment:KDE

Init-System:Systemd

Package Manager:Debian Package Manager

Whonix

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Specs

Based On:Debian

Default Desktop Environment:KDE

Main Usage:Live Desktop, Privacy

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