What are the best Linux distributions for KDE Plasma 5?

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

Arch Linux

Top Pro

Excellent documentation

Top Con

Not ready out of the box

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

satan_accomplice's Experience

As a novice user, It took me a week to install barebone OS. I learned many things on the way and I created my own documentation for installing this os on my PC. See More

Specs

Based On:Independent

Default Desktop Environment:N/A

Release Schedule:Rolling

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

A package for almost everything

Top Con

Instability can be an issue

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

CharmingChernobog's Experience

Great Distro with KDE 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

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

James Nealon's Experience

Fantastic rolling release schedule. See More

Top Pro

Cutting edge rolling release

The latest version of the software and the OS itself. See More

Top Con

Not for the faint of heart

Arch only holds your hand a little bit of the way. While documentation is great, you are expected to know what you're doing. The result is that when you find the solution for a problem on a forum or elsewhere, the response may be completely over your head. If you're not well-versed in Linux, what would be a minor issue on another distribution can become a drawn-out research project on Arch, as you learn all the inner workings of the operating system, until you understand it well enough to solve your problems yourself. See More

DependableIzanagi's Experience

Top! See More

Top Pro

Highly customizable

Taylor the system to your needs 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

FunPaidia's Experience

It just gets my job done. Using KDE along with constant switching to GNOME and sometimes even Deepin is hassle free in Arch. Developing for Qt5, you'll find Arch+KDE is the perfect combo. 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 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

Rachel Hutzley's Experience

A customisable distro for a customisable desktop 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

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

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

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

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 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

Manual install process

Installing archlinux must be done manually from the command line. 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 Con

Pacman is a slow package manager

Compared to other distribution packages the extracting of a pacman package archives is taking ages. See More

Top Pro

Vanilla

Learn about Arch, learn about Linux. What works for Arch, works for many other distros too. See More

Top Con

Highly egotistical community

Top Pro

Fast

Top Con

Lost its way

It aimed to be KISS but it has lost its 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

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 Con

Not really for desktop

More like for posting screenshots on Reddit. 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

No Graphical Installer

although some derivatives such as Manjaro and ArcoLinux exist See More

Top Pro

Good overall system quality

QoL of Arch is generally good. You get something more consistent and doable in Arch than you would get with most other OSes. See More

Top Con

Works only on AMD64

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

Top Pro

Great for low performance hardware

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

Top Con

Systemd

Uses systems which makes it incompatible to the UNIX-world. See More

Top Pro

It is Linux at the core

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

Top Con

Requires expert Linux and command-line knowledge 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

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 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

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

Uses Systemd

Top Pro

Incredible educational value

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

Top Con

Bleeding edge design

The rolling release schedule, and the perhaps eager decisions in arch packages can make building software outside of repositories very difficult. 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 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 along side the main package manager (Pacman), but are a bit less standardized or heavily supported. See More

Top Pro

Arch is the best!

#!/bin/sh echo "Arch is the best!" 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

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

Highly reliable upgrades

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

Top Pro

Huge repositories

Although Arch Linux only comes with around 10,000 packages, you can use the Arch User Repositories (AUR) which will add over 50,000 more packages. See More

Top Pro

Low maintenance

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

Top Pro

Easier to review the distributions packages

Unlike other some distributions, its super simple to review the packages you download on the official Arch repos or Arch user repository. 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

Vast variety of use and purpose

With it's vast repos, Arch offers tons of applications for all kinds of use. 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

Simple by design

Arch linux is actually incredibly simple. Its really just a partition scheme, package manager, Linux kernel, file system, systemd and the bare minimum of utilities needed to easily set up your hardware. This makes it super simple to build your desired system using binary packages because there no bloat getting in your way when installing or configuring packages. See More

Top Pro

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

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

Every Arch user just screams "I use Arch btw" at you

It is a literal sausage fest of teens using install scripts and posting on reddit and that's what makes it so fun to bully Arch users. See More

Uses the stable Ubuntu long-term release as its core, packaging the best software fresh from the KDE Community. See More

KDE Neon

Top Pro

Solid core, latest features

Top Con

Uses PackageKit

It uses Discover as its package frontend, which uses PackageKit, but PackageKit does not support all Apt/dkpg features and your system will bloat over-time. See More

DebonairPtocheia's Experience

Nice distro for on a laptop or notebook! I know what I'm talking about. I have used different distro's with KDE for more than 30 years, now. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu LTS

Default Desktop Environment:KDE

Release Schedule:Semi-Rolling

KDE Neon uses KDE as its desktop environment, which is highly configurable, but also has great defaults. Correct. Lots of Desktop variations and Great wallpapers. See More

Top Pro

Configurability

Top Con

Uses the Ubuntu Repositories

So it just a repack, it also means that all packages are built with GNOME features which adds additonal GTK/GNOME dependencies. See More

LogicalAntevorta's Experience

All work, updates daily basis. The best KDE distro what I found yet. Rock solid. See More

Top Pro

Based on Ubuntu

It is based on the rock solid base of Ubuntu and all the goodness of KDE. See More

Top Con

Official live support channels are difficult to reach and limited.

Official support is available on telegram, matrix and IRC, which many people don't use and support there is sparse, especially for specific issues. See More

ConfidentCermait's Experience

Have used it and loved it since well over a year ago. The combo of clean KDE, built on Ubuntu and with rolling release fixes for the KDE parts has been great for me. See More

Top Pro

Frequent bug fixes

Rolling release with fixes every few weeks instead of the traditional model of waiting months (or a year+) for a new release. See More

Top Con

Binary incompatible to Debian

It is like Ubuntu binary incompatible to Debian, so you can't install Debian packages on KDE Neon. See More

ReceptiveProphasis's Experience

Easy, reliable. Just works. Thanks to KDE, my old Canon MP640 printer and scanner were easy to install and operate - unlike Linux Mint! See More

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

Top Con

Limited Apps

Neon is a showcase for all things KDE. So Popular GTK programs are omitted by default. See More

Craig Williamson's Experience

I have an Asus ZenBook Flip UX360UAK and KDE Neon recognizes more of the hardware than other distros (e.g. hardware volume buttons on the side of the device). Once Wayland support is improved (non-integer desktop scaling) and the Ubuntu LTS base is improved then KDE Neon will be an almost perfect distro. See More

Top Pro

It's about as close as you can get to being an official KDE distro

KDE as it should be from the KDE Community. See More

Top Con

Only for 64 bit PCs

Available only for 64 bit architecture. See More

ReveredEtugenEke's Experience

The fact that it does not install every piece of additional software is actually a good thing. I like the idea of being able to choose different applications for different systems that I use on a daily basis. See More

Top Pro

Works well on low-end computers

Top Con

Not very stable

Audio is kind of wonky. If you have multiple amplifiers to use via USB or TOS, it's kind of a pain switching between them. Gnome handles this better. See More

Peter J. Mello's Experience

If your primary concern in picking a distro is to always be using the latest array of software within the KDE Plasma ecosystem, I can't imagine that a better option exists than Neon, KDE's own spin upon the venerable Ubuntu LTS releases. Updated almost daily with the cutting edge of KDE packages and the Qt framework, it is growing into a viable alternative to Kubuntu for those who desire a KDE desktop environment with widespread package support. See More

Top Pro

Barebone install

KDE neon - a minimal default plasma 5 install without the usual bloat and customization. See More

Top Con

Very buggy

Running KDE Neon, VLC crashes, the wallpaper changer does not work properly. There are too many issues to fix. See More

Geoff Clements's Experience

Lots of desktop crashes. Some apps from the Ubuntu repos don't work. See More

Top Pro

Flattest learning curve for windows users in terms of desktop environment.

Most like windows, but with way more effects. See More

Top Con

Barebones install

Not a very significant con, but it could have a bit more installed by default (LibreOffice, etc) to make it more usable out of the box. Luckily, if you're missing something you need you can easily install it from the software center. See More

Alvaro Carmona's Experience

It is just beautiful. However it is a bit slow. See More

Top Pro

Lots of support from 3rd parties/the web.

New users will find answers to their questions quickly. The official documentation is great. 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

IndustriousSharraItu's Experience

Great flow and kde desktop integration See More

Top Con

The logout greeter keeps crashing

The logout greeter keeps crashing over and over again, making it impossible to reboot the system in the normal way. The only way the user can do that is by the so called "cold restart". This problem exists in all KDE distros with Plasma 5 and it was never fixed. See More

InventiveIlmr's Experience

Best ever! See More

Top Con

Based on Ubuntu LTS

It is based on Ubuntu LTS and it doesn't come with cutting-edge apps. It's not a distro, it's a package archive with the latest KDE software on top of a stable base. While they have installable images, unlike full Linux distributions they're only interested in KDE software. No rolling support, it's a package archive with the latest KDE software on top of a stable base. Unlike rolling distros only the KDE software will be updated continuously. See More

PoisedXiwangmu's Experience

Comes as a bare bones KDE distro which is fine if you have only to a fey key packages to customise it to your taste, simple, uncluttered, easy to update and maintain what's not to like.... See More

Top Con

Quite buggy compared to opensuse

ResponsiveLaverna's Experience

I have used lots of different Linux distros, these include: KDE neon, Ubuntu, demon Linux, parrot home, void Linux and a few more although I want to try out arch so far neon is my favourite by far See More

Steven Dietrich's Experience

Very fast and stable. See More

ToughElectra's Experience

La mejor, rapidez y poder. See More

SuccessfulChthonius's Experience

I use it as my main desktop. Quick setup instruction here https://masonbee.nz/kde-neon-making-my-perfect-desktop/ See More

ArtisticIdiyanale's Experience

very good, stable and easy to configurate See More

AffableLeiGong's Experience

Surprisingly lite, considering it is a Plasma Distro and very stable. See More

R Harrington's Experience

I've used it, and think it's a great OS for KDE. It's been a great intro. See More

PowerfulBasmu's Experience

I'm working with KDENeon the last 2 years and i am completly satisfied See More

CompassionateCihuatecayotl's Experience

the best distro See More

CaringStilbon's Experience

Stable. Current. And it is KDE. See More

SplendidChaxiraxi's Experience

Repository software is very current. On old machine (nine year old, first generation i5 650), it has been stable. The sound needed some tweaking and Pavu volume control had to be installed to switch from headphones to external speakers. See More

AwareLulal's Experience

it is stable, no crashes, am using it on my old pc and it is super lightweight See More

Holo Deck's Experience

I tried it in the past and I couldn't find anything special about it. Also I don't see any point why it calls itself the KDE distro - it is just an old ubuntu release with a recent KDE release on top. What really sucks for me is that neon is no independent Distribution because it uses the ubuntu repository instead of creating their own set of packages that focus on Qt/KDE - so you have packages like Inkscape or Chromium built with plenty of gnome features that make no sense for KDE. I think everyone who does not instantly need the latest KDE release should try a Debian/Devuan testing/unstable release instead and if you dont care about debs and want to go fully KDE/Qt try Gentoo/Funtoo, Chakra or KaOS. See More

IntuitivePolyhymnia's Experience

Works very well in general. I like the ease of use and customizability of KDE Plasma 5. However, because it is based on Ubuntu 18.04, it suffers from a DNS issue that has yet to be fixed. I end up restarting the systemd-resolved service multiple time a day. See More

GregariousIlabrat's Experience

Awesome "distro" See More

MagicalHorkos's Experience

the best See More

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

Debian GNU/Linux

Top Pro

Very stable

Top Con

No default support for non-free hardware

FunMyesyats's Experience

I've tried over a dozen different distros over the past 20 years and keep coming back to Debian. It's simply the most flexible and most reliable GNU/Linux distro out there. It takes some time to become accustomed to "the Debian way", but once you do you come to realize the Debian way is the right way. See More

Specs

Release Schedule:approximately every 24 months

Package Manager:dpkg (Debian Package Manager)

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

Main Usage:Universal

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

Highly secure system

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

PrivateOtso's Experience

Very Stable distro even in testing release... 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 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

PrivateAwilix's Experience

Been relying on Debian for desktop, laptop, mediacenter for over 10 years. I've tried other distros mainly to get access to newer applications or newer versions of the KDE desktop but always experienced more problems than it was worth. It's not perfect, but Debian is hands down the best Linux distro for all but the most inexperienced users. There's a reason why the majority of other distros out there are based on Debian. 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

Outdated kernel of the live system

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

RationalApedemak's Experience

Excellent See More

Top Pro

Rolling or Release based

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

Top Con

Buggy and non-user friendly

You need to know almost as much as Arch and deal with documentation not as good as the Arch wiki in order for Debian to work. 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

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

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

Breaks if you suspend/resume

Breaks when you resume the activity on the system if you use nvidia cards. See More

Top Pro

Has a real installer

Unlike the most Distributions that just unpack a predefined base system, Debian uses a real plugin-based installer that allows you to modify the installation. 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

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 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

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

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

Big open-source project

The Debian project is the biggest open source project with over 5000 active contributors. 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

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 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 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

Changes from one version to the next are not always well documented

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

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 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

Unique release cycle

The most Lnux 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 > stable) 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

The Debian social contract

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

Top Pro

Widely supported

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

Many ports

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

Standard archives

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

Comes with over 55.500 packages

Because of its popularity, Debian has a lot of applications available which range from productivity programs to business software, games and development tools. It comes with over 55.500 packages (software that is precompiled and ready to be installed on a local machine) -- all of them for free. See More

Top Pro

Values excellence rather than quick hacks or cut & paste culture

Top Pro

Emphasizes a balance between ethics, freedom, and flexibility/practicality

Top Pro

Easy to find help with any problem

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

Top Pro

Unique release cycle

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

If you're a fan of Debian based distros and KDE, you'll love feren OS. Set up was a breeze and the customisation is nearly endless. Installing packages couldn't be easier and memory consumption is quite low considering how full-featured feren OS is. I've had just very minor issues pop up (dummy output shortly after install) but that was easily remedied. Would highly recommend. See More

Feren OS

Top Pro

Rock solid KDE distro

Top Con

No wifi drivers out of the box

If you are a wifi user then you have to install mirrors to get the internet working for you, otherwise good distro. See More

DebonairMictlantecuhtli's Experience

Excellent defaults and usable right from first login. Easy on the eyes with the default theme. One of the few Linux distributions I would rank at the top for usability and user=friendly. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu>Linux Mint

Default Desktop Environment:KDE

Init-System:systemd

Package Manager:Debian Package Manager

It can run live with YUMI and unetbootin, but install failed with both of those. Loaded it with Rufus and it finally installed properly. See More

Top Pro

Great very stable distro, accesses and successfully installs many packages due to its being built on top a secure rich Debian base

Top Con

Temperamental about installers

SharpAbgal's Experience

I like Feren OS for the fact it is stable and based on Debian the oldest distro and most stable OS out there. See More

HilariousEurotas's Experience

pleasing, flexible appearance See More

CheerfulVenilia's Experience

Very stable easy to configure most things are easy to install and many debian packages available and not just KDE packages. See More

NeighborlyHebat's Experience

I've thoroughly enjoyed using feren OS since day one. It is very similar to Kubuntu in many ways, but the added features is what made me make the switch. KDE is the main prerequisite for me personally and feren OS implements it perfectly. The setup is extremely simple and the rolling updates are seamless with update manager. I would highly recommend for anyone looking for a beautiful KDE distro. See More

This might be a systemd issue or OpenSUSE specific, but changing certain text files does not update things. They must be edited in YaST, or in /etc/sysconfig/ See More

openSUSE

Top Pro

Great KDE integration

Top Con

Some clear differences from other Linux distros

Jarl Gjessing's Experience

I have used SuSE/openSuse from SuSE 2.0 that is way back! Then SuSE got bought and openSuse came to earth, in the beginning very good. But as time passed on, it got worse and worse, and now.. I would say unsuable. I've desperatelly tried to get it to work for real with the leap version, but honestly too much is broken :-( Crashes all around 3.rd party packages won't install grub fails again and again (depending on what machine I install on) and the list goes on. openSuse - spend more time on stabilizing and less time on all kinds of small apps that unmaintained apps that people do not use anymore. See More

Specs

Based On:Jurix>SUSE

Default Desktop Environment:Plasma, GNOME, Xfce, LXQT

Release Schedule:Point (1 year minor releases, 3 years major releases)

openSUSE has an unmatched stable and efficient upgrading process. Both removing and adding new repos, or editing existing ones, run smoothly. See More

Top Pro

Stable and efficient upgrading process

Top Con

Connecting to the WiFi can be difficult for an average user

TallRugiewit's Experience

Very professional and rpm based stable and secure and a good looking KDE Desktop which works really reliably for me. My personal favbourite. See More

Top Pro

Easy installation and administration

openSUSE makes use of a GUI tool called YaST to install and setup an openSUSE system. YaST is very easy to use and makes the process of installing and maintaining an openSUSE installation a breeze. See More

Top Con

YAST not intuitive at all

On the surface YAST looks simple enough, but inside can be as complicated as a WindowsOS registry. Using YAST is not user-friendly for beginners. See More

InfluentialBangputys's Experience

Gives a very stable, integrated KDE experience See More

Top Pro

Very stable

Top Con

Packman repository has to be added to have good software support.

SpiritedArgestes's Experience

It was good but I knew what I was getting into. If you're new to Linux or even just to openSUSE, you will need to do some research about openSUSE before installing, not that it is hard or anything, but certainly is different than other Linux distributions and you could benefit of researching those differences before thinking of using openSUSE. See More

Top Pro

Probably the best KDE desktop experience

Both Gnome and KDE desktop options are well polished to fit with the openSUSE theme and environment, so either desktop is a great choice. See More

Top Con

Too many crashes

Applications crash way too often. See More

AffableGuanyin's Experience

I use OpenSuse since 10.0 version both with others systems (Windows, Ubuntu, Mandriva, Fedora, Mageia, LinuxMint...) See More

Top Pro

"Tumbleweed" Rolling Release

Regular and easy upgrades to stable and well tested software. See More

Top Con

Bloated and slow

BT-7274's Experience

YaSt is the best system config tool, See More

Top Pro

Computer management

yast is fantastic, on the Linux side - what else is there?? This is the tool I mis the most ! See More

Top Con

polkit config is obscure

And even when relaxed kept demanding the root password for network change. See More

PersistentWaramurungundi's Experience

I have had a great experience with openSUSE, I find it stable and reliable with pretty much all the software I need. Its easy to up grade and just works ! See More

Top Pro

One-click install

Much better system then other distros for installing any package. It is as simple as clicking on one button and typing in your password. Adds a repo to your system keeping everything updated at the same time. See More

Top Con

Little Apache software, and no repo to make installation easy

You are left on your own, with a very convoluted web of symlinks for any Java software. While you can install httpd and there is a Yast2 GUI to run it, and you can install Tomcat, you are on your own for the rest of Apache. Given the huge range and high quality of most Apache projects, this makes setting up servers in particular dependent on the developers. openSUSE should have a standard (i.e. non community) repository of current Apache projects, including Hadoop, and should develop/adept Yast2 GUI controls. See More

ClassyDelbaeth's Experience

Must better and more stable than Neon Yast has no comparison See More

Top Pro

Offers rock-stable Leap and rolling Tumbleweed variants

It gives you a choice between stability and bleeding edge. See More

Top Con

Short lived distro

Every release lasts 18 months only before needing a major upgrade. See More

CreativeWerethekau's Experience

OpenSUSe and KDE are just made for eah other. See More

Top Pro

Reliable

The packaging team is dependable resulting in system updates that come in a timely fashion and systems which rarely, if ever, break due to packaging. The versions of software that are selected and the configuration of them is typically extremely high quality. See More

Top Con

Startup takes a long time

Top Pro

Amazing choice for both newbies and power users

OpenSUSE is very easy in terms of installing packages, administration and customization, yet very powerful in the same. Every user should find his own piece of cake in this OS. See More

Top Con

Software resources could use improvement

Its software resources are still a few steps behind the populous Arch User Repository (AUR). Not really a con, but there's room for improvement. See More

Top Pro

One-click install

Much better system then other distros for installing any package. It is as simple as clicking on one button and typing in your password. Adds a repo to your system keeping everything updated at the same time. See More

Top Con

Limited community support

The community is fairly small, and there is no indication on the forums regarding when a issues will be solved. See More

Top Pro

Supports RPM packages

Popular format shared with distros like Fedora, RHEL, Scientific Linux, Mageia etc. See More

Top Con

Patterns are too big

By default if you decide not to personlized your installation, openSUSE will install patterns, which are metapackages on other distribution, but they are too big and might download a lot of packages you don't want or need. See More

Top Pro

Extremely reliable

The packaging team is dependable resulting in system updates that come in a timely fashion and systems which rarely, if ever, break due to packaging. The versions of software that are selected and the configuration of them is typically extremely high quality. See More

Top Con

Poor support for nVidia drivers in Tumbleweed

No native driver support and nouveau may be broken, especially for KDE, and not suitable for some GPUs. See More

Top Pro

Dedicated professional community

Directions on other desktop Linux's often force you to use GUI packages or have steps that introduce security issues. OpenSUSE has a professional community and directions are usually geared toward GUI and CLI with similar steps. See More

Top Con

After choosing shutdown it does NOT shut the computer down, only logs out

Top Pro

Updates use delta rpms

Per default suse uses delta-RPMs for updates which are much smaller than full packages. See More

Top Con

Old kernel by the Leap version

Kernel in Leap 42.3 is in version 4.4, that's pretty old. See More

Top Pro

Zypper and Yast2 give you incredible power and ease of use for installing and maintaining software

But with great power comes great responsibilities. It can be a challenge, even with an excellent package search tool (which tells which repo has the specific version — including community packages) to get some software to work. There needs to be better community packaging requirements and checks. If you put a piece of software in your community repository, you should either provide (and maintain) dependencies or be sure that your packages work with mainstream repositories. KDE is the biggest challenge. The mainstream openSUSE repos don’t do a great job of including all of the KDE packages, and often there are version incompatibilities which result in KDE not starting or crashing. While it seems obvious, you need to install ALL KDE components which use the same version of the core KDE components. You cannot mix and match, and small version incompatibilities can wedge your system. If you stay out of the community repos this isn’t an issue, but some people in the community repos feel that you should have access to the latest and greatest release without considering what will run without needing to install all of your KDE from a community release. That said, if you stick to the core openSUSE repos, you can easily add the additional repositories (and there are a lot of them) pretty safely with confidence that whatever you install will run. Yast2 provides a reasonably powerful GUI on top of Zypper. Zypper isn’t all that hard to learn to use, but you lose the browsing ability you get with the GUI. If you need to install software from non-openSUSE repos (e.g. RPMs) it usually works, provided that dependencies are the same version which is in openSUSE repos. Compiling from source is just like any other distro. Usually, it works pretty well, and it is relatively easily to add any missing dependencies using Zypper without leaving BASH. See More

Top Con

Grub failures again and again

openSUSE has a huge problem making GRUB work, more than most other distributions out there. They SHOULD focus on this since this completely destroys the experience with the distro. See More

Top Pro

Easily get packages from other sources

SUSE Build Service offers packages from the same sources as Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, SUSE Linux Enterprise and other distributions. This is the most underused package tool in Linux today. See More

Top Pro

Fast

Applications feel fast. See More

Top Pro

Convenient package management with Zypper

Fast, reliable, powerful and almost impossible to leave a broken system. The Yast interface will also give you access to a Zypper GUI if you are uncomfortable with the command line. See More

Top Pro

Offers rock-stalbe Leap and rolling Tumbleweed variants

It gives you a choice between stability and bleeding edge See More

Top Pro

Outstanding community support

OpenSUSE has a VERY active user community. Questions on forums are generally answered in minutes. See More

Top Pro

Convenient package management with ZYpp

Not the conventional package manager with a GUI but since you get to know it you can have full control over packages. Fast, reliable, powerful and almost impossible to leave a broken system. See More

Top Pro

Firewall is super easy to configure

It is trivial to manage the firewall with the GUI. You can even choose to open/close SSH during installation. See More

Top Pro

User selected packages during intallation

Being able to select one by one what packages you want before installing, leaving a very personalized system. See More

Top Pro

Very easy (but not as easy as it used to be) installation

Yast does a good job w/ initial installation and set up. It used to be simple—far easier than installing Windows 10. It is a bit more clunky, and the key options when setting up (e.g. UEFI) are not present, which can lead to booting problems esp. dual booting w/ Windows 10. Also, WiFi isn’t easily configured w/ set up which leads to problem when you are doing a network installation. Huge selection of software. With Yast2 all you need to do is check a box, and in the background the fantastic Zypper package manager figures out conflicts and dependancies. See More

It is a bit bloated to many web browsers, text editors out the box. A simple customize menu's for all 3 desktops would have been nice. See More

ArcoLinux

Top Pro

Helps you to become a Arch Linux user

Top Con

A bit bloated

Predrag Rodic's Experience

Great system. Arch Linux with some good polish and curated software repositories. See More

Specs

Based On:Arch Linux (Rolling)

Default Desktop Environment:Openbox + Xfce + i3

Package Manager:pacman

Price:FREE

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

Top Pro

Easy to install

Top Con

Small development team

Top Pro

Easy to install, handles system memory well, and a great way to learn Arch Linux

Incredibly fast, easy to install, tons of software pre-installed and easily installs more. See More

Top Con

No single ISO

Top Pro

Blazingly fast

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

Top Con

Multiple types makes new user confused

Due to multiple types, new user might get confused and leave this all along. See More

Top Pro

Multi-Window-Manager ISO available

ArcoLinuxB-Xtended gives you 7 of the most popular window managers in a single ISO. All beautifully configured out of the box. See More

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 Pro

XFCE, Openbox and I3

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

Top Pro

Learning bash script

Fastest way to reload any Linux desktop is a script that will install all your favorite apps. Keep this file on a USB stick, update for any distro from Ubuntu, Fedora or even Arch Linux back to your favorite apps in minutes. See More

Based On:SLS Linux>Slackware>SuSE>openSUSE

GeckoLinux

PCLinuxOS

Top Pro

Stable OS with leading edge applications

Top Con

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

Daniel Presley's Experience

My distro of choice. It just works. See More

Specs

Based On:Mandrake Linux

Default Desktop Environment:KDE, MATE

Release Schedule:Rolling Release

Init-System:SysVinit

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

Excellent hardware compatibility

Top Con

Uses RPM packaging system

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

InquisitivePhorcys's Experience

Una distro grandiosa! la he utilizado durante años y tiene una detección de hardware excelente y un software siempre actualizado. See More

Top Pro

Rolling distribution

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

Top Con

Can not be rolled back if something breaks when rolling

Damian Nik's Experience

Not the best implementation of languages See More

Top Pro

Very fast boot

LearnedMars's Experience

Using it for years and the best did find. See More

Top Pro

Easy to install, fast install.

Top Pro

Excellent community to answer questions

Top Pro

Multiple desktops available

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

Top Pro

Can remaster the boot DVD

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

Like Debian every Devuan install can either be rolling(oldstable,stable,testing,unstable) or release(jessie,ascii,beowulf,ceres) based. See More

Devuan GNU+Linux

Top Pro

Rolling or Release based

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

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

You can install different init-systems (currently with ascii SysVinit and OpenRC are available). See More

Top Pro

Init freedom

Top Con

Only for x86

Devuan is only available for Intel x86-based PC's (namely i586+ and amd64). See More

Top Pro

Binary compatible with Debian

Devuan is fully binary compatible to debian. It also has one compatible release for every Debian release(oldstable, stable, testing, unstable). See More

Top Pro

Init based

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

Top Pro

Very secure

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

Top Pro

Debian without systemd

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 Pro

Stability

It is stable like Debian. See More

Top Pro

Excellent for normal people

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

Top Pro

It's debian

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

Latest version software often means quick bug fixes, more useful features. For example, for a daily user of TeX, the latest TeX distro is a must. It's also useful to be able to use recent external hardware such as USB Wi-Fi dongles or printers. See More

Fedora

Top Pro

Frequent updates to latest versions of software, so quick security and other bug fixes

Top Con

Controlled by big corporations

RespectableVellamo's Experience

Stable, good software selection, customizable, easy to set up. See More

Specs

Based On:Independent

Default Desktop Environment:GNOME

Release Schedule:Point (6 Months)

One of the best KDE distros. Latest plasma in repo at the time of writing this (5.10.5). Easy to install and maintain. See More

Top Pro

Very stable

Top Con

Dnfdragora needs work

As the default package installer, this piece of software needs a lot more polish. It's not explicit in saying things are installed, more granularity in package selection is needed, and the ability to move columns around to see if you're installing the correct version. See More

StrongDerzelas's Experience

Many people tell that ubuntu is the gateway to linux for beginners ,but I just do not support that.This is my personal recommendation to every newcomer to check fedora.I agree that the anaconda installer confuses you in case of dual boot(I did dual boot two times every time watching youtube which is not complete and I had to find my way out) but in case of single boot it is fine.The pro is the integration with GNOME ,the best of the distros I used till date.It is not very stable like debian. You will get no bloatware and pure GNOME EXPERIENCE.And now the filesystem changed to BTRFS which is a pro for managing snapshots and easy memory management. See More

Top Pro

Fast performance

Top Con

Updating to a new release can be problematic

While there are a few tools on offer that will upgrade an old Fedora release to the newest, there can often be problems with these methods. Some that may not even crop up at first but will show later down the road. Being that upgrading can be an issue, it can be exacerbated by the fact that Fedora updates every six month, which means twice a year there is a risk of completely borking ones install. See More

Tuncay Çam's Experience

perfect choise for kde. See More

Top Pro

Fast and stable updates

Top Con

Proprietary drivers are unsupported

Fedora does not support proprietary drivers, meaning that users may have problems with a lot of hardware when using Fedora. The software to make that kind of hardware work can be installed, but it can be done only through third-parties and it's not easy for the average user. See More

satan_accomplice's Experience

GNS3 installation is broken in Rehat based distros and fedora is pretty much like Redhat with a rolling release. It has not been fixed since 2016 and Redhat calls itself an enterprise-driven Linux for stability. They can their own container solution but they won't even look at this deal-breaking bug. Community driven Linux distros handle stuffs much better than fedora/ Rehat. 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 Con

Unstable

Some packages may break, because there isn't an option to test them before rolling them out. See More

WonderfulKarewit's Experience

For some weird reason installer always crashes at random time See More

Top Pro

Strong commitment to free software philosophy

Top Con

Optimus support is straight terrible

Running on a laptop with Optimus GPU or the driver for your powerful GPU is not gonna happen. See More

SplendidGaia's Experience

10 years 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 Con

Slow

It is quite slow on some computers. See More

ArtisticIdiyanale's Experience

nah better neon 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 Con

Not for beginners

It is not a user-friendly distro like ubuntu, PCLos. You will be required to learn a lot of commands even for simple activities. See More

Top Pro

Linus Torvalds distro of choice

Top Con

Focused on binary release debian and worse at source build infrastructure

Arch provide simple and effective buildpkg script and it just works. See More

Top Pro

Huge array of binary packages ready to install

Top Con

Too many changes to upstream packages leading to a "Fedora way" of doing things

Linux should be linux, but Fedora is constantly introducing breakage and changes which move things in the wrong direction and make things worse for everyone. See More

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

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

Reborn's dedicated repo has some extra packages that are difficult to find elsewhere, in addition to the official Arch repos, community repos, and the AUR. See More

RebornOS

Top Pro

Good repo

score 108 · Accepted Answer

Gentoo Linux

Top Pro

Fully customizable

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

SpontaneousPaivatar's Experience

Top notch. 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

Since everything must be compiled it takes a lot longer to update

And if you have to update the kernel or some heavy software like Chromium it can takes hours if not more on weaker hardware. See More

Top Pro

Freedom

You are free to do whatever you want with it. As a result, its configuration reflects your unique taste and personality. See More

Top Con

Has no live images with graphical interface

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

Top Pro

Portability

There are many architectures available for Gentoo : i386, x86-64, PowerPC, PowerPC 64, sparc, DEC Alpha, ARM, MIPS, PA-RISC, S390, IA-64, sh, m68k.. See More

Top 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

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 Con

Customized package installation can take a long time and cause installation failures

The Gentoo package management system allows you to configure what compilation flags packages should support - i.e. specific processor flag support (SSE, SSE2, etc.), -O1, -O2, -O3 optimization, etc. If you accept one of the default flags, Gentoo downloads binaries from the server. However, if you decide to optimise, it can and will download all source packages and start compiling allthe programs and libraries on your system. If your chosen flags don't work with a particular library, installation will fail. See More

Top Pro

Portage's emerge is powerful

Top Pro

Can be officially systemd-free

Gentoo's default init system is OpenRC. Gentoo also officially supports systemd-free Gnome and udev. Users are free to choose any init system they want. See More

Top Pro

Documentation and community are second to none

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

Top Pro

Gentoo does not impose a standard look-and-feel

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

Live USB

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 process of punishing yourself to a compile install. You also get a cool neofetch logo (: See More

Top Pro

Bullying Arch users

That's about it, you just get to make fun of them for using Arch instead of Gentoo because they don't have a good enough CPU to reasonably compile FireFox in a couple of hours. See More