What are the best Linux distributions for laptops?

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

Top Pro

Arch User Repository access

Top Con

Can still be unstable

Here are the details of it. See More

Karoly Lonich's Experience

I've tried several distributions even before and after I've used Manjaro but it still beats all the others. The community is awesome. 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

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". I am sure hardened Linux pros may find a way to change this, but for the rest of us, it renders an otherwise nice distro a no-go. See More

TirelessNehmetawy's Experience

Using many live distros I found many struggled with identifing hardware and configuring all to operate properly on my HP Pavilion x360 Convertible. The ACL295 sound always a hang up. Of all installed the Majaro community offered the right answer with the first answer and it was simple change of model Id in the options statement in alsa-base.conf file. Then it worked fine. Stable with no glitches, it just works like you need it to. 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

Same cons that apply to Arch Linux

Since it is based on Arch Linux. See More

UnderstandingHuitzilopochtli's Experience

fast, modern, sleek and good looking, faster updates yet stable, aur+snap+flatpak+app image support on demand, low resource usage, good community , free and user friendly 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

Nothing new

There is nothing new in manjaro compared to any other arch based distribution. See More

ConscientiousVejovis's Experience

I'm 78, been Distro Hoping for years. Gone from Ubuntu to Peppermint ,Solus to Arch based Distro Hoping to find a place to stay. Moved sideways to Endeavour at moment,but have a spare SSD loaded with Manjaro KDE for when I'm bored with that. l Love KDE Manjaro . Way out of my depth but enjoy the moment I finally understand something new. Thanks to all who have made retirement a happier place with your hard work and skills. Foggy78. See More

Top Pro

Latest kernels

An arch-based distro which includes the latest kernels which have better hardware support. See More

Top Con

Calls itself "stable," but actually just holds Arch Linux repositories back for a week

Lucas's Experience

Manjaro gives access to the arch user repository without a lot of the hassle usually associated with Arch. In my experience, it can still sometimes be less stable than, say, Ubuntu, but I have found it worth the trouble. 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 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

AuthenticAsopus's Experience

Probably one of the most unstable Linux distros I've used. 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

Bad way of handling dependencies

Manjaro is based on Arch linux. Arch linux and its derivatives have a bad way of handling dependencies - it does that by installing a whole another program containing the required dependencies. See More

Yukito Kunisaki's Experience

The performance is simply way worse than what you can achieve in Arch Linux especially on lower-end laptops. And the package repositories are just a mess IMO. See More

Top Pro

Uses low memory

By using XFCE or KDE (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 Con

Slightly bloated

EnterprisingGaleru's Experience

Printer Sucks but everything else is ok good luck with cups installation. 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

Often breaks grub

Installing Manjaro can make Ubuntu go missing. Linux Kernels were updated and Ubuntu reappeared after running grub-update. See More

Eric Waters's Experience

An easy install and an unbloated base make for a pleasent overall experience. There's not a lot of extra nonsense in the base install - just the core desktop environment you've chosen, and a few apps for common tasks - you can even leave out the Office Suite during install, which is great if you don't use one. The community is more friendly than the Arch one (which can be a little bit clannish and quick to RTFM you), and the whole experience is stabe out of the box. Also, in my experience over four different Arch based distros, Manjaro is by far the best for gaming. I have no idea why it works better; it just does. 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 Con

Installation is extremely buggy

There's no easy way to switch from local keyboard layout if non-Latin installer language is selected. See More

LovelyJustitia's Experience

Manjaro never worked on my Lenovo laptop. I tried installing three different times and it would always eventually break, though for different reasons each time. 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 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

CalmAmm's Experience

Until now, it's the only distro that works on my laptop without any problem with the hardware. My laptod is a HP Pavillion of 2014. 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 Con

Redundant

It's just Arch Linux with an easier installer so there is no reason to use it. See More

Top Pro

All major desktops can be directly installed from official repositories

This includes less common ones like budgie, lumina, lxqt, deepin, enlightenment etc. Also available as independent variants. See More

Top Con

Daily manual updates

Since it is rolling release, it needs updates nearly every day, 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

Very good looking desktops

All desktops look good by default. See More

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

Latest yet stable

Manjaro is based on rolling release model, but still manages to provide a stable environment due to its careful examination before updates. See More

Top Pro

Steam installed by default

Manjaro comes with Steam installed so you can get logged in and go right to installing games. More info here: https://manjaro.github.io/homepage/public/features/usercases/gamers/ See More

Top Pro

Gives a new life to old machines

The Manjaro was tested for the last two months on a VAIO series F (VPCF2), a machine built on 2011/2012 wich chip Nvidia and blueray with 8gb of ram. This machine was built for Win7, at a point had Win10 and ran ok but with the latest updates went from decent running to non-usable when is not very slow. So Manjaro is allowing to make the most of this machine in every aspect. The applications run smoothly. The machine is used for programming (LAMP STACK), as stream client (Netflix, amazon prime, Spotify, etc) and server (OBS), virtual meetings with zoom, google meets, and eventually some videogames with steam. Two months on it and till now just a couple of hiccups due to the lack of knowledge on the system otherwise... working like a charm!... See More

Top Pro

It adapts perfectly to the PC hardware

Easy to set up, ready to use. See More

Top Pro

Nice looking and easy to install on a flash drive

Easily installed See More

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

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 77 · Answer 2

Debian GNU/Linux

Top Pro

Very stable

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

Yukito Kunisaki's Experience

Everything in Debian is getting more and more outdated nowadays, even in Debian Testing, a lot of useful packages are missing or too far behind. Even an average laptop users will find it hard to use Debian packages properly. See More

Specs

Based On:NONE

Default Desktop Environment:GNOME

Package Manager:dpkg with apt, aptitude or apt-build

Debian offers stable and testing CD images specifically built for GNOME (the default), KDE Plasma Workspaces, Xfce and LXDE. Less common window managers such as Enlightenment, Openbox, Fluxbox, GNUstep, IceWM, Window Maker and others can also be installed. See More

Top Pro

Wide choice in desktop environments

Top Con

Breaks if you suspend/resume

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

EmbiggenedBasamum's Experience

I've found Debian highly stable and secure. I love Debian combined with KDE Plasma. 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 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 you need to install testing directly. See here. See More

Top Pro

Easy to find help with any problem

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

Top Con

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 the biggest open source project with over 5000 active contributors. See More

Top Con

Not designed for general desktop usage

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

Top Pro

Standard 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

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

Widely supported

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

Live install images for CDs, DVDs and USB thumb drives

Debian releases live install images for CDs, DVDs and USB thumb drives, for the i386 and amd64 architectures, and with a choice of desktop environments. These Debian Live images allow the user to boot from a removable media and run Debian without affecting the contents of their computer. See More

Top Con

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

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

Well-working team

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

Top Pro

Install and forget

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

Top Pro

A lot of ways to install software

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

Top Pro

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

Highly secure system

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

Top Pro

Great on Raspberry Pi

Top Pro

Rolling or Release based

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

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

score 152 · Answer 3

Mint

Top Pro

Quick and easy installation and configuration

Top Con

Linux Mint tries to force people to use less powerful custom package management system

The custom package management system is slow, frustrating, and forces you to select and install one package at a time. Can't select a whole load of packages and then run the installations in one go. They've also blocked certain powerful features of synaptic, the default Ubuntu/Debian package management application. See More

WittyLempo's Experience

Easy to install, easy to find software (easy Ubuntu package system), easy to update and upgrade. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu LTS

Default Desktop Environment:Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce

Everything works fine, whereas with Debian and Manjaro, either wifi, or bluetooth, or other wasn't working See More

Top Pro

Complete and stable

Top Con

KDE environment is no longer used

ExpertMacCuill's Experience

Top Pro

Compatibility with Debian and Ubuntu software builds and repositories

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

Top Con

Outdated software centers

Many of the offered options are older versions. See More

RespectfulUlanji's Experience

Very stable and user friendly See More

Top Pro

Good community support

Top Con

Security may be an issue

Linux Mint by default does not have auto updates turned on for important packages such as xorg or the kernel, thus leaving users with potentially insecure software. See More

GloriousInara's Experience

Easy to use stable and works good on old laptops See More

Top Pro

XFCE support

XFCE aims to be fast and lightweight DE. See More

Top Con

Nothing new

Just another fork of Ubuntu. Produces nothing that can't be found in another Debian-based distros. See More

RationalHlin's Experience

Quite smooth See More

Top Pro

The OS is great for both beginners and advanced users

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

Top Con

Cheap Windows substitute

Linux Mint tries to be like Windows when it could be different and provide options. See More

CourteousQuirinus's Experience

To use a cliche, it just works. The outdated software can be a problem, but usually you can install something more up to date if you wish. See More

Top Pro

Looks good

Top Con

Overdependent on Ubuntu

They have tried to address this with a Debian-based release, but generally, packages, updates and even full upgrades follow Ubuntu slavishly. See More

WiseThaumas's Experience

Good compromise between reliability, customization, low power usage etc See More

Top Pro

Already functional out-of-the-box

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

Top Con

Looks ugly

The default theme and wallpaper looks outdated and bland. Luckily that is easy to change in the settings. See More

Yukito Kunisaki's Experience

It just works, especially recommended for 32-bit laptop users. See More

Top Pro

Familiar user interface

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

Top Con

Upgrade process between versions can be painful

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

ConfidentNulgupjisin's Experience

Using since 2006 See More

Top Pro

Provides LTS (long term support) versions

Top Con

Too many kernel crashes

HappyPicus's Experience

So far, so good.! See More

Top Pro

Supports proprietary software

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

Top Con

The Update doesn't work sometimes

Sometimes the update failed to configure a package. See More

Jesse's Experience

Many come from Windows, this feels a lot like it --- KDE does the most but Im not a fan. See More

Top Pro

Pretty desktop

Linux Mint has a quite pretty default desktop. Cinnamon is adopted by other distros also. See More

Top Con

Many proprietary (closed-source) packages

By default, Linux Mint includes almost all the proprietary packages just to improve the user experience. See More

BraveHorme's Experience

from Linux mint 19 the network manager to connect to WI-Fi is spotty at best See More

Top Pro

Has more desktop options

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

Top Con

Political

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

Top Pro

The easiest option ever

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

Top Con

The Linux Mint website once provided malware

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

Top Pro

Dedicated upgrade process

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

Top Con

Does not handle multiple languages well

Top Pro

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

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

Top Pro

Not from a big company

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

Top Pro

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

Top Pro

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

Top Pro

Low learning curve to go from installation to advanced configuration

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

Top Pro

MATE desktop (as an option)

MATE is a classic desktop as opposed to the newer "Unity" desktop. For people who prefer the classic style this is one of only few modern distributions with still active MATE desktop development. See More

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

score 121 · Answer 4

Arch

Top Pro

Fast and simple package management

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

Ray's Experience

Simple, lightweight, and functional. Arch offers great control and doesn't get in my way of doing things, although it can be a pain to get stuff right sometimes. ArchWiki is also amazing. See More

Specs

Based On:NONE

Default Desktop Environment:N/A

Package Manager:Pacman

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 Pro

Cutting edge rolling release

Top Con

Not ready out of the box

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

cosmo's Experience

Always up to date, and incredibly stable for a rolling release distribution. 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 Con

Instability can be an issue

DedicatedBachue's Experience

it was amazing with how it works, it runs smothly on my old crusty computer, better than than windows 10 or the pro 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

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

Yukito Kunisaki's Experience

Due to the memes everywhere on Arch that is misleading, a lot of people that never used Arch are criticising it for some arbitrary reasons. It's absolutely one of the easiest distro to use, especially with the AUR packages. 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. See More

Top Con

Systemd

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

MerryVaisravana's Experience

used SwagArch simple fast installer! Jumped right into kill apps and pacman -Syu... Put openbox on system killed xfce... Just quick way get past install time.. Can't get around install time without a GUI installer.. Installed Arch Linux from terminal 18 times best I could do was 12 mins. Nothing like rolling past install and get to the meat of Arch Linux.. 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

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

GraciousRongo's Experience

Há mais de 15 anos utilizo distros baseadas em Debian. Até que um dia resolvi instalar Manjaro, gostei muito. Criei coragem e instalei Arch Linux, não saio mais. Muito bom o gerenciador de pacotes, seus repositórios estão sempre atualizados. Gosto de Rolling-Release. See More

Top Pro

Arch is the best!

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

GloriousParthenope's Experience

Could minimal install for as per your own mind. Ofcourse "WIKI" and "AUR". You could follow many different configuration you like: https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/search?q=flair_name%3A%22Screenshot%22&restrict_sr=1 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

PioneeringAsag's Experience

Arch is probably really good if you're a Linux pro. I installed it based off a recommendation of a friend, but even months down the line I couldn't get it to work nicely with my hardware. Try Manjaro instead for great Arch software without the hassle. 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

Package manager is so naive

For example, it doesn't allow you to purge (remove package and it's configuration files). 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 Con

Not so great overall

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

Top Pro

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

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

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

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

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

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 Con

Problems with driver/kernel/gpu consistency

Arch has no proper desktop support, you must craft your system together. Things may work for the first but generally it takes days to configure a stable and working system. This is NOT ideal for a desktop user. See More

Top Pro

Minimal

If you need something, you should install it. It has nothing as default and you can build your system from zero. See More

Top Con

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

Helpful 3rd party installers

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

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

It is Linux at the core

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

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

Tailor the system to your needs. See More

Top Pro

Support for a large variety of hardware

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

Top Pro

Great for low performance hardware

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

Simple by design

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

Top Pro

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

On avarage 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

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

Stable, and its great to be able to easily switch and adapt to Red Hat or CentOS. If you want to get Red Hat Certification, for example. I recommend the Security "lab" as well. See More

score 92 · Answer 5

Fedora

Top Pro

Fast and stable updates

Top Con

Not for low frequency CPU (Netbooks, old computers)

WittyLempo's Experience

Specs

Based On:Independent

Default Desktop Environment:GNOME

Package Manager:RPM Package Manager, DNF package manager

Fedora repos + REMI + RPMFusion, and now Microsoft is developing software for RedHat, which is available for Fedora as well. You can also add repos for CentOS, OpenSuse; and somehow Arch people like Fedora people, so aur repo also works perfectly. See More

Top Pro

Lots of packages available

Top Con

Dependent on Red Hat , dnf/rpm package ecosystem

Similar to Mint's dependence on Ubuntu, Fedora is dependent in many ways on Red Hat. It's hard to tell for sure, but Fedora's obviously better funded than most all "free beer" distros, and it's pretty obvious where that money is coming from. See More

MightyCliodhna's Experience

Very good, and variety apps for beginner... See More

Top Pro

Bleeding edge

Now it has Wayland by default, you have basically the latest of everything in Linux. See More

Top Con

Windows-like system updates

Huh? Ever since, say, Fedora 20ish, updates on the dozen compters I administer just work. I run a command (or use GUI) and the update to new fedora happens. See More

ArticulateKotys's Experience

xmonad runs flawlessly on my laptop 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

Gnome maybe too simplistic for some people

You cannot really customize gnome to look like other things, and gnome nautilus is still too simple, it does not have enough features. Also, there is no icon by default on Desktop, that bothers some people. See More

Elias Van Ootegem's Experience

It's my go-to distro for my work laptops. Installs fast & easy, there's tons of RPM's with up-to-date packages available, and there's more than enough tools out there so I can quickly set up my environment and get cracking in no time. rpm/yum/dnf as a tool still has its quirks/faults, but the binary diff packages are a really neat feature, which can cut down on download/upgrade time quite significantly. This is especially useful on a laptop where disk space, and (battery) time can sometimes be factors (e.g. quickly need to patch/update a package on the move, a well kept diff/cache can bring downloads down from 100Mb to less than 20!). Haven't had a single hardware compatibility problem in the last 4 years (working with at least 7 laptops over the same period of time). Though anecdotal, I've not heard of any unsupported hardware from anyone I know who runs fedora. I have always waited a bit to upgrade to the next version (~1 month) because the brave souls that venture out to do this first often do encounter some issues. See More

Top Pro

Strong commitment to free software philosophy

Top Con

Slow

It is quite slow on some computers See More

AwesomestGebeleizis's Experience

neat, simple, quite stable 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

OptimisticBuarainech's Experience

Great user experience, even for a newbie old-laptop-user. See More

Top Pro

Stable under Gnome and KDE

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

AuthenticHothr's Experience

As my first Linux experience, I find Fedora Linux easy for first time set-up, easy to maintain, while allowing for one to get used to the system, by not having a front end for everything, and having many guides terminal based on the Fedora Magazine website, as opposed to using the software GUI manager. 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

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

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

Bug reporting and fixing

It is easy to report a bug in Fedora, The developers follow it up and fixes are released quite fast. Community involvement in the process is commendable See More

Top Pro

Very good integration with Flatpak and Snap Packages

Top Pro

Easy to install a new window manager

You can just dnf a window manager, like KDE, Bhodi, Pantheon etc., and then switch between them in Gnome Login. If you don't like gnome login, you can dnf another login manager - literally plug and play. See More

Top Pro

Leading edge of innovation yet surprisingly stable

Despite being on the innovation edge, Fedora has been surprisingly stable in the past few years, See More

Top Pro

Frees developers from some backward compatibility restraints

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

Top Pro

Better battery life

Red Hat engineers have implemented some tweaks on the more recent versions of Fedora to lower the power consumption. See More

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

Spins for various desktop environment work well

Fedora Spins work quite well and availability of updated respins, every fornight or so, are an added advantage. See More

Top Pro

Spins and Labs

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

Top Pro

Binary diff packages

The binary diff packaging is nifty. Saves having to download things you already have for every upgrade, especially good when upgrading system on battery power, or on slow (dodgy) public wifi. See More

Best live/portable usb software in the industry. See More

score 58 · Answer 6

MX-Linux

Top Pro

Lightweight

Top Con

Too much customization

RespectfulMerope's Experience

Specs

Based On:Debian Stable>antiX

Default Desktop Environment:XFCE

Init-System:SysV-init (default) & systemD

Useful MX Tools, for newer users to Linux that doesn't wants to know any behind the curtain stuff, this distro just works. See More

Top Pro

Easy install

Top Con

Only one Desktop Environment

Yukito Kunisaki's Experience

Top Pro

Very stable

Top Con

Remixed Debian testing

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

KindGerra's Experience

I use it on my 9 year old laptop and it runs awesome. It may not be flashy, but its got Widows 10 beat hands down, and thats what i got it to replace. I installed it and was up and running with very little linux experience....and its rock solidly reliable. No issues in 3 months. See More

Top Pro

Good MX Tools and Package Installer

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

Top Con

Installer and configuration tools are different

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

FriendlyAthena's Experience

Super-Fast, works good, Debian stable/ Xfce yearly versions. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

Top Con

Causes overheating on some hardwares

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

ResourcefulBerstuk's Experience

I've been using it for over a year and it's still rock solid. It doesn't break at all. But software versions are older although you can get newer ones via flatpaks in MX-software-center. See More

Top Pro

Supports non-free drivers

Top Con

More than 50 tweaking softwares pre-installed

DeterminedSilenus's Experience

in my opinion somewhat similar to linux mint, but with a plasma dektop. runs smoothly and is very stable, also lightweight, 10/10 would install again See More

Top Pro

Based on Debian

Top Con

10s of media players preinstalled

Top Pro

No systemd

Top Con

Too much preinstalled applications

Top Pro

Can also be used as an emergency tool

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

Top Pro

Live-Session boots fastest after Puppy

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

Top Pro

MX Snapshot: lets you make your own distro

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

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

score 48 · Answer 7

Pop!_OS

Top Pro

A separate NVIDIA version

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

MotivatedBarastyr's Experience

I used to constantly distro hop because I couldn't get the NVIDIA drivers to work on my laptop. Thankfully, Pop OS solved that problem. If it ween't for this, I would've stayed on Windows. 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 Con

Not for low spec computers

Top Pro

Battery Life

System76 battery management helps squeeze out extra battery life for laptops and it plays well with TLP as well. See More

Top Con

OEM trust issues with adopting for their own hardware

Made by System76 there's always a shadow of doubt if their distribution could change from freemium to charging if their distribution gets popular as stated for JioBook. See More

Top Pro

Beginner-friendly

Best distribution to convince switching to Linux itself from either Windows or even macOS whether as an artist with DaVinci, enthusiast like gamers or generic users with Office Apps. See More

Top Pro

Stability

I have a work desktop that has been running Pop!_OS for months, 24 hours a day, and it has been rock-solid stable. 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 Pro

User-friendly installer

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

Top Pro

Nice gnome theme dy default

Has nice gnome theme looks really good. See More

Top Pro

Tiling Support

Enhanced support for windows tiling using Pop shell on top of Gnome. 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. It's like something you'd find printed on a ringer t-shirt. 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

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 65 · Answer 8

Solus

Top Pro

The most stable rolling release distro

Top Con

The default desktop environment is not very customizable

cosmo's Experience

Probably the absolute best desktop distribution available for x86_64/AMD64 computers. It's got everything: rolling release, heavily optimized, beautiful, and easy to use. See More

Specs

Based On:Scratch

Package Manager:eopkg package manager (PiSi fork)

Init-System:systemd

Release Schedule:Rolling

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

Top Pro

Responsive

Top Con

Not much software

There is not much software available. See More

SupportiveFukurokuju's Experience

Solus Gnome is shockingly stable and everything just works. If you can live with what's in the repository, then you will be very happy with this distro See More

Top Pro

Heavily optimized

Ikey, the lead developer, used to work for Intel on the Clear Linux project, and he has brought with him many unique and powerful optimizations previously limited to Intel's custom distribution. See More

Top Con

An upgrade breaks the system quite often

MerryNebethetepet's Experience

first distro working out of the box as it should work (incl. Nvidia Optimus card), and very responsive (Budgie), too. Never broke so far, also convenient for beginners See More

Top Pro

Rolling release

Top Con

A bit unstable on some laptops

Top Pro

Modern desktop environment

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

Top Con

Software a bit slower to launch than for other distributions

Top Pro

Stable

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

Top Con

No USB Image writer

Top Pro

Built from scratch

Top Con

Limited to the x86_64/AMD64 architecture

If you want to use this distribution on anything else, you're out of luck. See More

Top Pro

Exclusively for desktop systems

Top Pro

Great package management

The software center makes it really easy to install the latest software. Including third party software. 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

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

Lightening fast boot time

Top Pro

Rolling Release Model

Which means you don't have to suffer from version to version updates that can break it. See More

Top Pro

Most stable Rolling Release Distro

Top Pro

Well curated software

The software is well curated in the repos, you have access to flatpaks and snaps, so virtually, all the software you'll ever need is there for you. 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

Friendly towards proprietary codecs, firmware and drivers.

So you won't have to enable PPAs or extra repos for that. See More

Top Pro

Rock-solid Distro

Very stable and well curated. See More

Exactly as Arch - allows users to stay on the most up-to-date versions of the software they are using. See More

score 51 · Answer 9

Endeavour OS

Top Pro

Cutting edge rolling release

Top Con

Same Cons that apply for Arch Linux

Eric Waters's Experience

I used Endeavour for a few weeks, and it was a really nice experience. It's essentially just Arch Linux with a (much) easier and faster install. Hardware detection works well, and the installed system is about as slim as you can get. Uses the yay pacman wrapper by default, which is great if you're already familiar with pacman (the package manager, not the completely awesome classic arcade game). Their inbuilt XFCE theme is gorgeous as well. See More

Specs

Based On:Arch Linux

Default Desktop Environment:Budgie, Cinnamon, Deepin, GNOME, i3, KDE Plasma, LXQt, MATE, Xfce

Package Manager:pacman

Being an "easy to install version of Arch" means it is exactly easy to use the famous Arch Wiki! See More

Top Pro

Arch Linux Wiki

niingu's Experience

Easy install with Calamares installer and a beautifully themed XFCE desktop. Built for speed! This is THE best Arch distribution - a perfect replacement for Antergos. And it will become even better in short time. See More

Top Pro

Great for low performance hardware

Easy on the specs and still blazingly fast. See More

Yukito Kunisaki's Experience

Not ready yet. Still feeling buggy everywhere in this distro. See More

Top Pro

As slim as you want it

Based on Arch, Endevour OS keeps its core repositories slim and free of unnecessary dependencies. The distro comes with no bloatware, only the necessary packages. The repositories are nearly as full as those of Ubuntu, while they are often more up to date. See More

Top Pro

Great XFCE implementation

Their use of themes and configuration look great! See More

Top Pro

Stripped down to the bone

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

Top Pro

Not based on Ubuntu

Top Pro

Good overall system quality and performance

Lean, fast and surprisingly stable. See More

Top Pro

Easy installer

Uses the Clalamares installer (the same one used by Manjaro and several other Arch-based distros), which is straightforward, fast, and easy to use. See More

Top Pro

Fast and simple package management

There can only be one Package Manager (pacman) ;) See More

Top Pro

AUR support

One of the best reasons to use an Arch based distro. You can find almost every package there is in the Linux world! See More

Top Pro

Great hardware support

Top Pro

Helpful community

Great team of developers and excellent forum support on their official website. See More

Top Pro

No restrictive handholding, pure control over everything

The user can do whatever he wishes because the distro IS Arch - with and easy installer and great themes. See More

Top Pro

Support for a large variety of new hardware

Rolling release means newer, up to date, mesa and kernel versions able to handle newer hardware with better performance! See More

Top Pro

Great community

Top Pro

Lightweight

A lot of the programs are already set up for you. Just boot it and go. This is definitely one of the better SHTF distro's. See More

score 20 · Answer 10

PsychOS

Top Pro

No fuss, just works

Specs

Based On:Devuan

Default Desktop Environment:XFCE

Package Manager:Debian Package manager

Init-System:SysVinit

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

score 36 · Answer 11

KDE Neon

Top Pro

Configurability

Top Con

Steep learning curve for beginners

It can be quite hard and overwhelming for someone not used to Linux. Some things may be off and users may have to dig in the settings to turn something on or off, which may off-put them. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu LTS

Default Desktop Environment:KDE

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

Top Pro

The best looking Linux OS

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 Pro

Newest KDE Plasma Version

As the official OS of the KDE project it has the newest versions of the KDE Plasma desktop environment See More

Top Pro

Works well on low-end computers

KDE Plasma has recently received updates that make it very lightweight, with RAM usage on boot ranging from 390MB to 700MB See More

Top Pro

Lean install

Comes with a small amount of preinstalled packages, making it take up less resources. See More

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

score 43 · Answer 12

openSUSE Leap

Top Pro

Easy installation and administration

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

JollyTethra's Experience

Blood free bleeding edge. OpenSUSE Tumbleweed is stable but up-to-date. YaST makes admin easy. See More

Specs

Based On:SLS>Slackware>Jurix>SuSE Linux

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

Package Manager:rpm with zypper

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

Amazing choice for both newbies and power users

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

IntellectualTakhar's Experience

Great choice if you want a rolling release with all preinstalled, Yast is great if you need a manager for a DE besides Gnome See More

Top Pro

Very stable

Stable, reliable, rock solid. See More

Top Con

Short lived distro

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

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

Complex permissions policy

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

Bloated and slow

Top Pro

Fast

Applications feel fast. 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

YaST

Best administration and setup tool. See More

Top Pro

Tons of community packages

Easily searchable via here. Everyone can branch and update packages via here. 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

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

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

score 13 · Answer 13

Gentoo Linux

Top Pro

Portage's emerge is powerful

Top Con

Not beginner-friendly

Specs

Based On:NONE

Default Desktop Environment:NONE

Package Manager:Portage

Init-System:OpenRC

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 Pro

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

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 a pony art, you 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

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

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

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

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

Can be officially systemd-free

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

Top Con

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 Pro

Gentoo does not impose a standard look-and-feel

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 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

Fully customizable

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

Top Pro

Documentation and community are second to none

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

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

score 89 · Answer 14

Ubuntu

Top Pro

Simplicity

Top Con

Canonical (author) is proprietary

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

cosmo's Experience

Ubuntu is a server distribution trying to be a desktop distribution, and it shows. Updates are sparse and difficult compared to similar desktop distributions like Solus, Manjaro, and Antergos. The use of novel and niche software is similarly difficult. See More

Specs

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

Default Desktop Environment:GNOME

Package Manager:Debian Package Manager, Snap Store

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

Security and privacy issues arising from integration with proprietary services

For example, unless disabled, Ubuntu will send your searches off to Amazon's servers and intrusively suggest products on the desktop itself. See More

HonorableTepeyollotl's Experience

easy to use and a lot of info when things go wrong See More

Top Pro

Very stable

LTS version of Ubuntu has a 5 year guaranteed updates and is ensured by Canonical so, you don't have to worry about system breaking and stuff like that. See More

Top Con

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

IntuitiveKinieGer's Experience

Very nice, customizable and stable distro. A lot of functions out of the box. 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

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. UPDATE on 19.04 close button is back on top right corner See More

The Oracle PhD's Experience

Ubuntu is the best distribution ever, it helps beginners to know more about Linux by using easy GUI of Ubuntu 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

Splits the Debian community

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

Jesse's Experience

With 19.04 it's incredibly faster, very good with Tweak UI a must have. Customize everything. 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

Tends to do its own thing

Ubuntu has a user interface that is specific to Ubuntu and is now working on its own display server. It also tends to have configuration that is done slightly different (and arguably more beginner friendly) than elsewhere. So while this is a great Linux distribution in its own right, it might not be the first choice for someone wanting to learn Linux itself. See More

PowerfulAglibol's Experience

stability continued support & vast repositories See More

Top Pro

Stable

It‘s one of the most stable Linux Distros. 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

DazzlingMacCuill's Experience

Rumored to sell personal data, SJW infested See More

Top Pro

Looks good

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

Top Con

Random system errors may pop up

Top Pro

Backed by a company

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

Top Con

Company stays behind it

Top Pro

Just works out of the box

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

Top Con

Software can be outdated, if not severely outdated

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

Top Pro

Great Long Term Support release schedule (5 years)

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

Top Con

Fixed release model

Major updates to the OS are limited by Ubuntu's fixed release model. While this might make sense for a server distribution on a production system, this makes very little sense for a desktop distribution on a personal computer. 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

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

The rugged G series with the AMD Ryzen seven does not have support for the adjustable fan speed feature

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

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

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

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

Includes adware

Advertisers pay to have their links or software preinstalled. Like the links to Amazon installed by default in the dock. See More

Top Pro

Cares about stable drivers

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

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

Relatively high system requirements

The default Unity desktop environment is a resource hog which requires hardware accelerated graphics rendering in order to run smoothly, making out of the box Ubuntu unsuitable for low end systems and older hardware. Even mildly aged hardware, you'll get far better performance out of a lighter desktop environment like LXDE or XFCE. 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 Con

Unity and other Ubuntu-specific software is problematic

Unity is awesome and user-friendly at many places. But it's not customizable at much extent. Getting rid of it can be either not possible or very problematic. Same is true about other Ubuntu-specific software. A lot of things don't work as expected. Even though the repository is based on Debian, some ways to do stuff don't actually work. It's better usually to use GUI whenever possible, than to manually edit files. This is frustrating. 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

Unity offers very limited customizability

The Unity desktop environment is practically non customizable with the user only being able to change certain themes and icons and adding a dock. See More

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 Con

Unity interface might be confusing for new users

Unity does not align itself with the normal desktop paradigm and thus has a bit of a confusing UI in comparison to the norm of a Windows user. See More

Regular and easy upgrades to stable and well tested software, thanks to http://open.qa See More

score 16 · Answer 15

openSUSE Tumbleweed

Top Pro

Most stable Rolling Release

Top Con

Packman repository has to be added to have good software support

Specs

Based On:Jurix>SUSE

Release Schedule:Rolling

Origin:Germany

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

Amazing choice for both newbies and power users

Top Con

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

Top Pro

Stable

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

Top Con

Slow and painful unfortunately, especially compared to other modern distros

Top Pro

Tumbleweed + OpenSUSE Build Service

Top Pro

Tons of community packages

Easily searchable via https://software.opensuse.org Everyone can branch and update packages via https://build.opensuse.org 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 Pro

Rolling release with access to rebuilt NVIDIA drivers

https://news.opensuse.org/2017/09/20/new-repository-caters-to-tumbleweeds-nvidia-users/ See More

Top Pro

A large amount of software

Top Pro

Easy installation and cutting edge apps

Very fast and good. See More

score 13 · Answer 16

Artix Linux

Top Pro

No systemd

Top Con

Few Arch packages might not be available yet

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

Specs

Based On:Arch Linux

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

Package Manager:Pacman

Release Schedule:Rolling release

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

Top Pro

Close to bare Arch Linux

Top Pro

Rolling distro

Default Desktop Environment:Openbox

score 8 · Answer 17

BunsenLabs Linux

All

1

Specs

Based On:Debian Stable

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

score 18 · Answer 18

NixOS

Top Pro

State of the art package manager

Top Con

Documentation is not good

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

Eric Waters's Experience

This is a newer flavor of Linux that has a lot in common with Arch in that it's not beginner friendly and the community can be a bit rough around the edges. The concept is great, and if you're comfortable fixing most stuff through your own research, it's worth a try. Atomic updates mean rollbacks are simple, as is reproducing a system, so if an update causes problems, you can fix it with a single terminal command. Not for the faint of heart, however. Not to put too fine a point on it, if you're looking for a Linux distro on Slant, this might not be the right one for you. I low-key love it, though. See More

Specs

Package Manager:Nix Package Manager

Release Schedule:Point or Rolling

Main Usage:Reproducable System Configuration

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

Top Pro

Reproducible system

Top Con

Not the most friendly community

The community can be a bit standoffish and a little full of itself. Always make sure you've read any and all man pages and wikis before asking for help. See More

Top Pro

Robust

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

Top Con

A configuration change might end up bricking your system

Top Pro

Minimal

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

Top Con

Not popular

It's not a popular Linux distribution. See More

The only distro that is "faster" would be Puppy Linux Slacko. See More

score 24 · Answer 19

Peppermint OS

Top Pro

Much better on old laptops than most distros

Top Con

Uses Nemo as a file manager istead of PCManFM

Despite having a LXDE desktop, Peppermint has made the weird decision to use Nemo as the default file manager, even though it wasn't designed for this environment and is a bit heavy for a lightweight DE. None of the other element come from Cinnamon, so the choice is just bizarre. See More

CulturedArke's Experience

after using linux lite (can't remember ver. but is the most recent) and peppermint 8 on a hp pavilion ze 2000 with amd semprom mobile +3000 single core at 1.8 ghz with 1.5 gb ram ddr-1 , broadcom wireless , and ati xpress m200(?) with shared memory of 256mb bios ver 27, I have found that ubuntus do not have wireless drivers, mephis and debian lxde or lfce are hard to operate and linux lite, even though it works out of the box, is much SLOWER on my old laptop than peppermint 0S 8. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian and Devuan

Default Desktop Environment:Xfce

Init-System:Systemd (not in Devuan base)

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

Top Pro

Friendly and helpful forum

LivelyLuna's Experience

Easy to use! See More

Top Pro

Fast and light on resources

ExpertGersemi's Experience

Fast and Ligthweight, based on Debian See More

Top Pro

Comes with a variety of helpful tools

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

Eric Waters's Experience

This used to be one of my favorirtes for laptops - the ICE webapp system allows you to install web pages as native apps, and it works really well. Otherwise, it was essentially LTS Lubuntu. Then they changed the file manager to Nemo for some unknowable reason, and now I'm kinda on the outs with it. Nemo is a fine file manager in Cinnamon, where it's directly integrated, but it's a bizarre choice in a LXDE environment (what, exactly, is wrong with PCManFM?), and is heavier than it should be on a lightweight system. ICE is great, but minimal should mean minimal, not minimal except, of all things, a heavyweight file manager. See More

Top Pro

Looks great

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

ThoughtfulAglaophonos's Experience

I was able to give an old laptop a second life. Very easy to use, as it was my first experience with Linux. The Peppermint community is extremely helpful and patient. See More

Top Pro

Peppermint 7 is stable

Peppermint 7OS (32 and 64 bit) has been updated to the Respin PPA. Kernel updated to 4.9.24 on 23-April -2017 with no issues and all software still runs great. See More

The KDE desktop environment is the default, which is very stable and just great. See More

score 11 · Answer 20

feren OS

Top Pro

KDE desktop

Specs

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu>Linux Mint

Default Desktop Environment:KDE

Init-System:systemd