What are the best Linux distributions for Gnome Shell?

If you want to be at the crest of the wave with Gnome, then there is nothing but Fedora. See More

Top Pro

Bleeding edge Gnome

Top Con

Wayland does not work with Prime/Optimus

On a pc with hybrid video, you must use Gnome on Xorg to let the Prime or Optimus technology work. See More

CromulentCromCruach's Experience

Fedora is the best ... and no problem with upgrading. I love Fedora, you can also have Korora 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 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

cosmo's Experience

There's more overlap between Fedora developers and GNOME developers compared to any other distro. See More

Top Pro

Fast performance

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

SmartProserpina's Experience

Fedora with Gnome DE works great out of the box and now with the option of third party repositories it removes many previous hurdles. See More

Top Pro

Fast and stable updates

Top Con

Slow

It is quite slow on some computers. See More

Yukito Kunisaki's Experience

GNOME 40 is absolutely mind-blowing and integrated so well in Fedora. 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

Has lots of stuff you don't need

Fedora is very bloated and has lots of stuff you don't really need and that are hard to remove (for example, SELinux). See More

SophisticatedAngelia's Experience

optimized for great performance and stability See More

Top Pro

Less Bloatware

Fedora comes with only very basic applications preinstalled, as compared to distros like Ubuntu. This lets you install only the few other applications that you may need, and helps keep the distro less bloated by unwanted applications. See More

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

PowerfulTyphon's Experience

I'm using it for development for 2 years and it's pretty OK. I have used extensively Ubuntu and KDE Neon before. I'm using Linux as my primary operating system for the last 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

Window button

I don't like the fact that windows button are not shown by default. See More

DynamicPhorcys's Experience

im love teck tenx See More

Top Pro

Linus Torvalds' distro of choice

Source. See More

Top Con

Controlled by big corpos

Top Pro

Strong commitment to free software philosophy

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

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

Unstable

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

Top Pro

Frees developers from some backward compatibility restraints

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

Top Con

VirtualBox additions can't be installed out of the box

Some further dependencies needs to be installed before. Simply to just have support for higher resolutions than 1024x768. See More

Top Pro

Very good integration with Flatpak and Snap Packages

Top Pro

Create user after the installation

Very good for selling PC‘s with Fedora. See More

Top Pro

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

Top Pro

Minimalist GNOME

Fedora Workshop does not come with bloatware. It is a minimal GNOME installation, which makes it very simple and nice to use out of the box. See More

Top Pro

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

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

Top Pro

Huge array of binary packages ready to install

Top Pro

Best for users with old PC's but still need new software.

There are many Distros that are lighter than Fedora but don't support newer packages out of the box, their repos contain older packages but Fedora provides the latest, always. See More

Top Pro

The best choice for sysAdmin and developers

Nearly flawless, perfect performance and consistency with development and operational software. See More

Arch is a rolling release distro. See More

score 93 · Answer 2

Arch

Top Pro

Always up to date

Top Con

Manual install process

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

cosmo's Experience

Arch has provided me the best GNOME experience due to the extensive customization available with the distro. When I'm feeling lazy, Antergos GNOME and Manjaro GNOME are simply wonderful as well. Nothing beats rolling release! See More

Specs

Based On:NONE

Release Schedule:Rolling

Default Desktop Environment:N/A

There are no extra packages. See More

Top Pro

Minimal

Top Con

Not ready out of the box

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

s twenty's Experience

It isn't for Liinux beginners, but it provides a truly customizable system, and following the Arch Way to set up your system will teach you A LOT about how your system actually works. Also, no bloat! Only LFS and Gentoo or other source-based distros can provide this level of customization. Documentation is so good, I often refer to it even when on a different distro. See More

Top Pro

Great and extensive documentation

The Arch Wiki is one of the most comprehensive and complete wiki. A great source of documentation for any kind of problems. See More

Top Con

Hard to install/configure

CommunicativeOcypete's Experience

Arch is the best See More

Top Pro

Cutting edge rolling release

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

Top Con

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

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

MB PRO TECH's Experience

It is a great distro for everything it offers as a whole. The great wiki, speed and community See More

Top Pro

Excellent documentation

Arch's goal of simplicity means there's usually one preferred way to get things done - through organized and well documented configuration files. This focus, combined with the community's recognition that configuration files can be intimidating, has resulted in excellent documentation that's accessible to newcomers, and very instructive about how Linux actually works. The documentation is often so thorough that, when searching for solutions to problems while using other distributions, such as with video card drivers, oftentimes you'll find the most effective solution in the Arch Linux wiki or on the forums. See More

Top Con

Updates can break things

While most updates are safe, some can create incompatibilities with other installed packages. Proprietary drivers tend to be, sometimes, difficult to update (depending on your setup). 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

Instability can be an issue

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

Top Pro

Arch Linux Wiki

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

Top Con

Not for the faint of heart

You need to be very careful with updates. See More

Top Pro

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

The Arch methodology doesn't usually work well with Gnome

Many aspects of arch feel like they are naturally at odds with the ways you're supposed to use Gnome, such as working with packages. See More

Top Pro

Arch Linux Archive lets you choose your own update schedule

Despite being rolling release Arch Linux lets you be flexible about your update policy. If distro repos moved forward, but you don't want to update, you can temporarily switch to Arch Linux Archive, which stores repo snapshots across time. Later, when you're ready to update, you switch back to bleeding edge. See More

Top Con

Rolling release requires bandwidth

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

Top Pro

You actually learn a LOT of the inner workings of your OS

Since you do everything by hand and a LOT of it, you actually learn very useful things even for other distros. See More

Top 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

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 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

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

Highly egotistical community

Top Pro

Biggest software repository (AUR)

The AUR (Arch User Repository) is a community-based repository containing a lot of software and scripts, easily installed. See More

Top Pro

With Arch you have a "real - vanilla" Gnome version

Top Pro

Fast and simple package management

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

Top Pro

A package for almost everything

If you need to install something, chances are someone in the Arch community has already made a package for it. This makes it incredibly easy for you to install and maintain all of the non-media content on your computer. See More

Top Pro

It is Linux at the core

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

Top Pro

Good overall system quality

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

Top Pro

Helpful for understanding how Linux is installed

Arch does not come with an automatic installation process. The user is expected to walk through the installation steps published on the Arch wiki. This is very useful if, later, something happens to the installation as the user will be more familiar with the foundational steps required to get a full blown Arch installation working. See More

Top Pro

An opportunity to improve

The process of learning to setup and use Arch will improve your skills with Linux and computers in general. See More

Top Pro

Great hardware support

Out of the box Arch comes with great hardware support. See More

Top Pro

Good for ricing for r/unixporn

Top Pro

You actually learn a LOT of the inner workings of your OS

Since you do everything by hand and a LOT of it, you actually learn very useful things even for other distros. See More

Top Pro

Easier to review the distributions packages

Unlike other some distributions, it's super simple to review the packages you download on the official arch repos or arch user repository. See More

Top Pro

Completely signed repos by default

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

Top Pro

Helpful 3rd Party installers

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

Top Pro

Excellent package management with the AUR

The AUR is a repository with a very extensive catalog 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 useful. See More

Top Pro

No restrictive handholding, pure control over everything

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

Top Pro

Simplicity is absolutely the principal objective behind Arch development

The design approach of the development team focuses on elegance, code correctness, minimalism, and simplicity, and expects the user to be willing to make some effort to understand the system's operation. See More

Top Pro

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 distros like Debian/ Mint/ Ubuntu failed to detect and work with all hardware. See More

Top Pro

Stripped down to the bone

Since it's stripped down, it's fast and you don't have to deal with bloatware. See More

Top Pro

Experts working on the packages

Providers only provide the basic system and do a great job doing so. While with AUR people who actually use the packages, provide and maintain them. They CARE about making them work. See More

Top Pro

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

Multilib support is just around the corner

Just uncomment the according entries in the pacman.conf. See More

Top Pro

Incredible educational value

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

Top Pro

Easier to review the distribitions 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

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

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

Highly customizable

Taylor the system to your needs. See More

Top Pro

Highly reliable upgrades

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

Top Pro

Great for low performance hardware

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

Highly reliable and stable build

See experts working on the packages and upgrades. Given Arch splits the load among people who care and have the experience, the overall setup is very stable and reliable, even though very broad too. See More

Top Pro

Great security out of the box

Even a default Arch setup offers great security with the minimum number of open ports and very little information on the system for outsiders. See More

Top Pro

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

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

No need for external repos

The default and community repo of Arch Linux are so vast, that there is barely any need for additional software sources. And if there is, the additional software can be added to AUR, which results in the need actually growing the Arch repos. See More

Top Pro

Low maintenance

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

Top Pro

Ultimate mid-range OS for Tinkering

If you like to tinker with things and see how they work you don't get much better than arch linux unless you commit to building your own kernel and using flags manually when installing your packages. See More

Top Pro

Helpful 3rd-party installers

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

Here are the details of it. See More

score 102 · Answer 3

Manjaro

Top Pro

Arch without hassle

Top Con

Can still be unstable

cosmo's Experience

This is the distro that made me learn to love GNOME with it's absolutely beautiful default configuration. The GNOME experience out of the box is simply unparalleled by any other distro. See More

Specs

Based On:Arch Linux

Release Schedule:rolling

Default Desktop Environment:XFCE, KDE Plasma, GNOME

Init-System:systemd

Since it is based on Arch Linux. See More

Top Pro

One of the most responsive GNOME experiences

Top Con

Same cons that apply to Arch Linux

s twenty's Experience

Unstable, weird dev team, and like most overly customized Gnome desktops, a terrible representation of what Gnome is. Just use Arch or EndeavourOS. Avoid like the plague, especially ifyou actually like Gnome. See More

Top Pro

Stable and consistently up to date

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

Top Con

You can't change the default theme in certain applications

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

AwareMneme's Experience

Smooth experience, never had a problem to-date. See More

Top Pro

Arch User Repository access

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

Top Con

System tools are poorly designed

Basic system utilities, such as the Manjaro updater script, purposefully perform very dangerous operations that break designed functionality in order to do things properly. See More

BrightAiakos's Experience

Very flexible distro. The software manager is excellent. Also, the available software developed by the community covers EVERYTHING. Go for it. It will also give easy access to GNOME desktop which in my view is the most modern desktop in computing today. See More

Top Pro

Stable and doesn't have package linking issues

Top Con

Imcompatible with Arch User Repository and archlinuxcn

Because Manjaro packages are not synced with Arch, using AUR or archlinuxcn could break dependencies. See More

HilariousTusholi's Experience

Option to use vanilla gnome with no branding or pre-set options See More

Top Pro

Very close to the bleeding edge

Top Con

Bad Dependencies

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

OptimisticNgintaka's Experience

smooth See More

Top Pro

Installation is a breeze

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

Top Con

Slightly bloated

There is a minimal LTS version for those who don't like bloat. See More

HumbleIdunn's Experience

I have played with other Distros but I always comeback to Manjaro Gnome. See More

Top Pro

A rolling-release distribution

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

Top Con

Poor security design

Certain security functions (password generation in calamares, for example) have been designed and implemented by people with absolutely no security background, leading to serious security flaws. See More

Top Pro

Excellent graphical package manager (Pamac)

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

Top Con

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

The Manjaro unstable repository syncs with the Arch stable repository and if any package has moved, it gets moved to stable. The issue here is that this is not done frequently, which means that Manjaro may be getting package updates much later than Arch. See More

Top Pro

Based on Arch and user friendly

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

Top Con

New packages and security updates are held for testing longer

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

Top Pro

Good documentation and forum

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

Top Con

Very slow development for 32-bit hardwares

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

Top Pro

Improved stability due to a longer testing period for new packages

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

Top Con

Nothing new

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

Top Pro

Lower system usage compared to other distros

Top Con

Weekly manual updates

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

Top Pro

Support for multiple kernels

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

Top Pro

Uses low memory

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

Top Pro

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

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

Top Pro

Friendly community

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

Top Pro

Repos and packages Arch doesn't normally have

Top Pro

Different editions to select from + Manjaro community

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

Top Pro

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

Also available as independent variants. See More

Top Pro

Very good looking desktops

All desktops look good by default. See More

Top Pro

Steam installed by default

Top Pro

Deepin desktop environment is a worthy attraction

Based On:Mandrake Linux>Mandriva

score 32 · Answer 4

Mageia

Top Pro

A control center that has been consistent over many years

TolerantPereplut's Experience

11 ans.... See More

Specs

Release Schedule:9 Months

Default Desktop Environment:KDE, Gnome, Xfce, Custom

Init-System:systemd

Has nice gnome theme, it looks really good. See More

score 137 · Answer 5

Pop!_OS

Top Pro

Nice gnome theme dy default

Top Con

Dual booting on Legacy BIOS is not supported out of the box

Dual booting on Legacy BIOS requires a few extra steps. See More

s twenty's Experience

So much gnome tweaking, you're not really running Gnome anymore, you're running Pop_Shell. That's fantastic if that's what you want, but it doesn't belong on a list of Gnome distros. See More

Top Pro

Pop! makes GNOME look really good

If you're a fan of flat desktop interfaces reminiscent of Material design on Android, you'll like the theme that comes as a default in Pop! OS. The desktop and title bars all use a bright turquoise theme that makes the interface feel happy and borderline retro-chic. I found it to be like something you'd find printed on a ringer t-shirt. See More

Top Con

Not remotely a default Gnome configuration

Pop_OS runs Pop_Shell, which is really cool and works well, but it's very different from a default Gnome experience. Not a big deal, but it doesn't belong highly ranked on a list of Gnome systems. See More

ChattyAkras's Experience

The POP installer is the best I have used. See More

Top Pro

Made by a hardware seller

System76 is a hardware company. It configures machines to ship with Linux pre-installed. This means its entire business model centers around delivering a quality desktop Linux experience. As a result, the company pours more attention onto the desktop. It can fix visual issues and may be able to provide a smoother overall experience than you would have installing a different version of Linux on your machine yourself. Providing Pop!_OS also empowers System76 to make certain fixes for users directly rather than having to coordinate with Canonical or the broader Ubuntu community. See More

Top Con

Not remotely a default Gnome configuration

Pop_OS runs Pop_Shell, which is really cool and works well, but it's very different from a default Gnome experience. Not a big deal, but it doesn't belong highly ranked on a list of Gnome systems. See More

GenerousErsa's Experience

The only distro that wouldn't give me any problems apart from some tweaks in gnome shell. I liked Manjaro but it gave me problems from the beginning, so i choose Pop Os over Fedora (vanilla experience, too much tweaking) Ubuntu and Manjaro as stated above. See More

Top Pro

User-friendly installer

The visually appealing and easy to use installer makes dual booting as easy as it can be. See More

Top Con

Proprietary Gnome Tweaking, must install extensions to change basic settings like accent color or themes

CapableMethe's Experience

I've been using pop for over a year now. Sometimes I hop off to use Fedora or MX but... I always come back to pop. It is based on Ubuntu but it is NOT Ubuntu. See More

Top Pro

A separate NVIDIA version

Most linux distros seem to hate Nvidia's graphics cards e.g. Fedora and OpenSUSE. System76 have decided to be kind. They have decided to form a good relationship with Nvidia fans and Nvidia itself. By creating a separate installation media that is dedicated for providing support to Nvidia's graphics cards. Even going as far as putting Nvidia's driver updates on Pop!_Shop for users to easily access and install. See More

Top Con

Dual booting on Legacy BIOS is not supported out of the box

Dual booting on Legacy BIOS requires a few extra steps. See More

CoherentSzelanya's Experience

Pop!_OS is perfect because all the software you could ever think of is at your fingertips in Pop!_Shop. I do not reccomend it for Legacy systems because Dual boot does not work out of the box See More

Top Pro

Good for modern, low-end PCs

Most Linux distros like Ubuntu or Fedora, always lags a bit while using but with Pop!_OS, it's really stable and faster than other distros, I really recommend this. See More

Top Con

64-bit only

Some older PCs still have 32 Bit processors. This limitation will be a major con for those who use an older PC since they will not be able to install, run it in a VM or live media. See More

DynamicGelos's Experience

Pop!_OS was my first introduction to GNU/Linux and as of writing this, System76 will soon be releasing what seems like a major overhaul as well as Gnome 40 on the horizon. This is honestly a great distribution for beginners who don't know much, if not anything, about Linux, or just want to use a working system. It has great out of the box hardware and software support. They've also gone to great lengths to customize this distribution, it's not just another Ubuntu reskin and it shows that they care about their product. They not only test this distribution on their own hardware but also on other hardware so users really know that this will work, they've even delayed updates because they found bugs and that's important for a stable system. Most interesting to me though is about the developers, System76. For Linux to start getting out to the consumers I think pushing hardware with it preinstalled is an important factor and currently a monumental task. System76 is doing something important and progressive for our operating systems, hopefully people will open their eyes. See More

Top Pro

Uses latest drivers

Works perfectly with Steam and doesn't drain battery so much while running 4K vids See More

LinuxUser119's Experience

Most Linux distros like Ubuntu or Fedora, always lags a bit while using but with Pop!_OS, it's really stable and faster than other distros, I really recommend this. See More

Top Pro

Auto-tiling

Pop!_OS has an active auto-tiling feature, which greatly increases productivity. See More

Mahmoud ahmad's Experience

Amazing OS. Works out of the box, no driver fuss for NVIDIA users, an all-around great distro and desktop environment, though may be unfamiliar to new users. It's Ubuntu based, but it doesn't include Snaps which is a huge bonus. See More

Top Pro

Ready to play games, out of the box

If you still miss how easy it was to just click-install and play games in Windows, Pop! will give you that similar expectation. See More

DelightfulBalor's Experience

Stock GNOME, very clean See More

Top Pro

Optimized for modern hardware

Whereas normally, to use a brand new computer with a Linux OS, you would typically try to use unstable and sometimes buggy drivers - or struggle without hardware support until a stable release comes along. See More

Top Pro

Nice working App Shop

Top Pro

It just works out of the box

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

score 85 · Answer 6

Debian

Top Pro

Very stable

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

Specs

Based On:NONE

Release Schedule:approximately every 24 months

Default Desktop Environment:GNOME

Debian runs standard Gnome, XFCE, KDE - it doesn't use its own special desktop environment, which means that users benefit from the work of the whole Linux community, Debian developers can focus on the distribution itself, and any support for your desktop environment on other distributions should work on Debian as well. See More

Top Pro

Standard vanilla Linux desktop

Top Con

No default support for non-free hardware

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

Top Pro

Highly secure system

Known for being consistent in maintaining a highly secure system. Several other popular distros use Debian as a base or core for their own Linux OS, the security being one of the main factors why it's so commonly used. See More

Top Con

Stable release contains extremely outdated packages

If you want the newest packages, you'll have to do a minimal installation of Debian stable then upgrade to testing or unstable by editing the repositories. Save yourself time and install a distro that is rolling release by default. See More

Top Pro

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

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

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

Ridiculous package splitting

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

Top Pro

Rolling or Release based

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

Big open-source project

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

Hard to configure

After the initial installation, which is quite simple, it may be hard to configure Debian. Things like printers for example, are notoriously hard to set up on Debian. 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

Widely supported

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

Supports SecureBoot

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

Top Pro

Strict seperation of non-free software

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

Top Pro

Great choice for returning Linux users

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

Top Pro

A real installer

Unlike other distributions that just extract their Live image, Debian offers a real traditional and modular installer to customize the installation. 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

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

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

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 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

Well-working team

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

Korora has its own installer, which beginners can handle too. See More

score 41 · Answer 7

Korora

Top Pro

Easy to install

Top Con

No longer developed

Developers are having a "break" which started on May 2 2018. The latest release is version 26. See More

Specs

Based On:Red Hat Linux>Fedora

Release Schedule:Point (6 Months)

Default Desktop Environment:Gnome

Top Pro

More user-friendly than Fedora

Korora has some useful third-party software pre-installed and is configured for immediate use. See More

And therefore slow. See More

score 55 · Answer 8

openSUSE

Top Pro

Stable, broad feature set, well tested

Top Con

Bloated

ResoluteMomus's Experience

Most stable distro listed here. Based on SLES. Has a lot of packages, and big community. See More

Specs

Based On:SLS>Slackware>Jurix>SuSE Linux

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

Default Desktop Environment:Plasma, GNOME, Xfce, LXQT, NONE

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

Top Pro

"Tumbleweed" Rolling Release

Top Con

Startup takes a long time

Buster Blue's Experience

Gnome feels weakly integrated into OpenSuse, like an afterthought. See More

Top Pro

Very stable

Top Con

Slow OS

IndustriousVucubCaquix's Experience

OpenSUSE Leap 15.1 with Gnome 3 is the most stable distro I've found at this time. I can run all the software I want to run with it, both Open Source and Proprietary. It has run for many months now on my desktop without any problems or lockups. 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 Con

No live disks

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

Some clear differences from other Linux distros

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

Top Pro

Probably the best KDE desktop experience

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

Top Con

Outdated Gnome version in Leap

In Leap 42.3, you have Gnome 3.20 while the last available version is 3.26. Also about 18 months of delay. See More

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 Pro

Enterprise grade configuration management tooling (YaST)

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 Pro

YaST

Best administration and setup tool. 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 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

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 Pro

Good integration with Gnome

In Leap OpenSUSE, Gnome, however with a quite outdated version, is quite well integrated and very stable. See More

Maybe because it's a relatively new project still in its infancy and this may be fixed in the future, but Budgie is not very customizable. You can only change the theme and wallpaper. See More

score 30 · Answer 9

Solus

Top Pro

Rolling release

Top Con

The default desktop environment is not very customizable

niingu's Experience

Awesome. See More

Specs

Based On:Scratch

Release Schedule:Rolling

Init-System:systemd

Package Manager:eopkg package manager (PiSi fork)

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

Top Pro

Stable

Top Con

Little amount of software

Top Pro

Responsive

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

Top Pro

Modern desktop environment

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

Top Pro

Easy installation

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

Top Pro

Great package management

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

Top Pro

Most stable Rolling Release Distro

Top Pro

Exclusively for desktop systems

Top Pro

Seamless Packages

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

Top Pro

Default experience is clean and easy

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

Top Pro

Built from scratch

All free editions only offer Windows XP, 2000, and 7 and Gnome 2. You have to pay $9-10 in order to get Unity (Ubuntu) and Mac OS X themes. See More

score 28 · Answer 10

Zorin OS

Top Pro

Stable

Top Con

Limited desktop styles in Free Version

C_Corp2k2 R's Experience

Worked nicely on my ancient laptop, now I can play unreal tournament 2004 on my dell xps gen 3 See More

Specs

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu LTS

Release Schedule:Point (2 Year)

Default Desktop Environment:Gnome / Xfce

Zorin includes look changer and theme changer. See More

Top Pro

Bundles tools for changing the look and feel of the distribution

Top Con

Paid

The Zorin OS developers say: "Would you like to pay lots of money to buy additional layouts when you already have enough?" See More

Ondra Kalousek's Experience

Bad theme See More

Top Pro

Ubuntu-based

Zorin is compatible with Ubuntu's sizable repositories of Free Software. See More

Top Con

Bad icons

CharmingBoann's Experience

Better for those who migrate from Windows See More

Top Pro

Good selection of pre-installed software

New users may be unaware of what software is available for Linux, but Zorin includes a good selection for everyday tasks out of the box. See More

Top Pro

Low resources consumption

Top Pro

Partial Windows compatibility

Zorin includes WINE and PlayOnLinux to run many Windows applications and games. See More

Top Pro

Ubuntu got too big

Using too much resources. See More

Top Pro

Zorin Connect

Allows syncing notifications with your phone. See More

Top Pro

Good Selection of pre-installed software

New users may be unaware of what software is available for Linux, but Zorin includes a good selection for everyday tasks out of the box. See More

Top Pro

Real Desktop OS for real users

This a distribution any kind of user, even for those who have no time to spend on twicks. It is ergonomic, it has a wonderfull design, easy installation, plenty of software to install and the most important "it just works". See More

Top Pro

Installer can set up dual boot

Top Pro

Windows desktop style

The desktop UI was made to resemble Windows 10, but alternative settings are available. See More

Top Pro

Accessibility features

As of 18.04 LTS, Ubuntu comes with a tailored Gnome DE by default. See More

score 87 · Answer 11

Ubuntu

Top Pro

Custom Gnome desktop

Top Con

Random system errors may pop up

However this can be disabled / uninstalled. See More

CreativeMarohu's Experience

Because Unity desktop was dropped with version 17.10, I considered leaving Ubuntu after nearly 10 years. Glad I didn't. GNOME is a bit clunky, but features the flat, material design that is more efficient and easier on these old eyes. Creation of the ISO and installation is straightforward and only takes a few hours, mostly unattended. Great OS... with one glaring exception. For some inexplicable reason, the devs dropped the desktop from the Launcher, and there's no way to place it back there. Really disappointing because it takes a 3-key shortcut to get to the Desktop (Ctl-Super-D).. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian Stable(core) Testing/Unstable(universe/multiverse)

Release Schedule:Point (5 Year LTS / 6 Month Releases)

Default Desktop Environment:GNOME

As the most popular Linux distribution, there's a wide range of sources for support online if you ever need help, including the Ubuntu Wiki, Ubuntu Forums and the Ask Ubuntu Stack Exchange site. See More

Top Pro

Lots of support

Top Con

Canonical does not respect Ubuntu users' preferences

In 2012 it became impossible in Ubuntu to move the close-window-button back to the upper-right corner of the window, where it always was before. To the questions of their users Canonical replied that they know better than users where it would be convenient for users to have the close-window-button. See More

Francisco García's Experience

I used for 12 years. Esay to install, good performance, a lot of help un internet See More

Top Pro

Just works out of the box

Lots of support for hardware, lots of pre-installed software, and a smooth install process means less time downloading drivers, less time digging through configuration files, and less time deciding on software to use just to get up and running. It also means less time digging through forums looking for support. See More

Top Con

Splits the Debian community

The most packages are imported from Debian but Ubuntu uses own bug trackers and develops its own patches. See More

CuriousMors's Experience

using it four years. I always come back to Ubuntu Gnome. See More

Top Pro

Wide range of software out of the box

The default apps available in Ubuntu cover the gamut of most anyone's needs. From music, video or office applications Ubuntu has an app that will cover the users needs. See More

Top Con

Binary incompatible to Debian

Ubuntu releases are based on Debian testing/unstable, however, unlike other Debian-based distributions they are not binary compatible due to different libc versions, so you can't install Debian packages in Ubuntu and vice versa. See More

Raghu Ranganathan's Experience

Ubuntu has only become better after the community decided to drop Unity and reinstate GNOME as the desktop environment. Although GNOME is slightly unfriendly to beginners, it is clean and well made, with many well-furnished features to boot. It's styled in a dark theme, material design-esque, and is very visible at low brightness. GNOME integrates very well with Ubuntu due to the very similar design philosophies that the two share. An enormous set of beginner-friendly tools, clean UI and full-fledged accessibility make this combo one of the best.. See More

Top Pro

Has a clean Gnome Interface

Gnome has lot of extensions available and can be custmoized rather easily. See More

Top Con

Canonical (author) is proprietary

Canonical is focused on making money so you can see many proprietary offers by them and the OS has built-in trackers (Amazon). See More

DelightfulUnut's Experience

Ubuntu is VERY good! Ubuntu is recommended for all! See More

Top Pro

Simplicity

Ubuntu is designed to be used by everyday people. Because of that, Ubuntu has tried hard to make a user interface that's intuitive and looks pleasant and clean. See More

Top Con

Redundant

With the removal of Unity, there is no point in choosing Ubuntu over Debian anymore because everything else is imported from Debian to Ubuntu. See More

SpiritedLaverna's Experience

18.04 LTS is a good experience ... and Ubuntu maintains to update Gonme in the next releases ... and maintaining the LTS release at the same time, in coordination with the Gnome devs ... See More

Top Pro

Looks good

Ubuntu looks clean even when running from a LiveCD. See More

Top Con

Unstable

Some people pointed out that updating Arch is a high risk affair. And one should carefully read forums before doing it. The same is true about Ubuntu. Making system updates (like it was with 10.04 to 11.04) that screw so many things up became a routine. Even LTS releases should not give confidence that it will work. See More

Top Pro

Good PPA repositories available

PPA repositories allow you to install the latest version of your preferred software while keeping the rest of the operating system "stable". See More

Top Con

Software can be outdated, if not severely outdated

If you try to download "unpopular" software, you may find you're downloading a version that's several years old. See More

Top Pro

Dedicated software center

The Ubuntu Software Center offers a GUI interface for installing new apps which is extremely easy and welcoming for beginners to Linux. But it should not be used by more advanced users since the method of installing through the terminal is much faster and easier after one is used to it. See More

Top Con

Custom PPAs required for most software

To get the most software available, user must add several PPAs to the system. That has major problems: 1) Terminal recommended for adding a PPA, which can scare away users 2) A PPA can potentially distribute malware by creating a "newer" version of a package than available in other PPAs, such as the Linux kernel. 3) PPAs must be recreated and re-added with every major system update See More

Top Pro

Flexible

The setup for personal use is simple enough for anyone to achieve, and can easily be modified to act as a server. Programs and all features are easy to find and use, and first-timers can easily pick up on how to use it. See More

Top Con

No rolling release

New Ubuntu versions are released two times a year, during this period almost all software receives only security updates and minor bug fixes. See More

Top Pro

Great Long Term Support release schedule (2 years)

This allows for users to always have a new supported release available without long unkown wait times in between. See More

Top Con

Tracking

As of 18.04 the package ubuntu-report tracks the users' system info. See More

Top Pro

Good UI for small monitors

Becaue the menu usually is in the title bar and the launcher auto-hides, the whole screen can be used by an application. See More

Top Con

Extremely un-customizable

Top Pro

Company behind it

This means that the system must run well, otherwise they will lose money. There is no better incentive! See More

Top Con

Doesn't shutdown/standby properly on Lenovo laptops (b, e & g series)

Top Pro

Use it on almost any device

Not just for laptops - Ubuntu was designed with tablets and touchscreen devices in mind, and with phone support on the way. Ubuntu also has Long Term Support releases, as well as a version oriented toward servers, so you can use the same OS at work or on mobile as you do on your desktop. See More

Top Con

Company stays behind it

Top Pro

Unified search

Type any query into the Dash Home, and search will look through files, stores and web-pages to find what you are looking for. See More

Top Con

Not so strong at all

Top Pro

Has a clean Gnome interface

Gnome has lot of extensions available and can be custmoized rather easily. See More

Top Pro

Stable

It‘s one of the most stable Linux Distros. See More

Top Pro

Cares about stable drivers

Top Pro

Perfect for collaboration on open source projects

This is probably the best option when collaborating on open source projects in hardware. This is mostly because packages and tools are readily available via software center. See More

Top Pro

UTF-8 is the default character encoding

Beginning with Ubuntu 5.04, UTF-8 became the default character encoding, which allows for support of a variety of non-Roman scripts. See More

Top Pro

Runs 95% out of the box

Based On:Debian Stable>antiX

score 9 · Answer 12

MXlinux

Top Pro

Reliable

CulturedParjanya's Experience

Very awesome See More

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:Xfce

Init-System:SysV

OS Family:GNU/Linux

Top Pro

Stable

You can generally never run "Linux" binaries without patching them or starting up an FHS sandbox. Some build scripts just won't work. See More

score 3 · Answer 13

NixOS

Top Pro

No package dependecy hell

Top Con

Difficulty running software that's not packaged

Specs

Based On:Independent

Release Schedule:Fixed

Init-System:SystemD

Package Manager:Nix

Top Pro

No package conflicts

Top Con

Beginners Linux users may not want to learn Nix Expression Language to customize more advanced installs