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LinuxOpen SourceLaptopsSoftwareOperating System

What are the best Linux distributions for laptops?

44
Options 
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The Best 1 of 41 OptionsWhy?

Best Linux distributions for laptopsPriceBased OnDefault Desktop Environment
93
Manjaro
FREEArch LinuxXFCE, KDE Plasma, GNOME
89
Debian GNU/Linux
Free--
88
Mint
-Debian>Ubuntu LTSCinnamon, MATE, Xfce
85
Arch
FREEIndependentN/A
85
Fedora
-IndependentGNOME
See Full List
93
Excellent

Manjaro

My Recommendation for Manjaro

My Recommendation for Manjaro

Add Video or Image
All
49
Experiences
12
Pros
21
Cons
15
Specs
DebonairDadhikra
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
Marcel “m4rcLs” Siegert
cosmo
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. Manjaro gets package updates a bit later than Arch. See More
Karoly Lonich
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
Specs
Based On:Arch Linux
Default Desktop Environment:XFCE, KDE Plasma, GNOME
Package Manager:pamac
Init-System:systemd
See All Specs
DebonairDadhikra
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
teadan
LovelyJustitia
PopularYopaat
Top Con
•••

Can still be unstable

Here are the details of it. See More
cosmo
cosmo's Experience
It's all the goodness of Arch Linux wrapped and delivered in an easy, breezy package. See More
Chloe Montanez
Aaron Nel
Top Pro
•••

Latest kernels

An arch-based distro which includes the latest kernels which have better hardware support. See More
DebonairDadhikra
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
UnderstandingHuitzilopochtli
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
DebonairDadhikra
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
teadan
FearlessAura
Top Con
•••

Same cons that apply to Arch Linux

Since it is based on Arch Linux. See More
ConscientiousVejovis
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
DebonairDadhikra
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
DebonairDadhikra
Top Con
•••

Nothing new

There is nothing new in manjaro compared to any other arch based distribution. See More
TirelessNehmetawy
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
DebonairDadhikra
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
Marcel “m4rcLs” Siegert
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
AuthenticAsopus's Experience
Probably one of the most unstable Linux distros I've used. See More
EarnestChernobog
DebonairDadhikra
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
Ray
SiamSami
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
Lucas
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
DebonairDadhikra
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
PrincipledHecaterus
Top Con
•••

Slightly bloated

See More
Yukito Kunisaki
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
DebonairDadhikra
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
Ray
Lucifer Morningstar
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
EnterprisingGaleru
EnterprisingGaleru's Experience
Printer Sucks but everything else is ok good luck with cups installation. See More
Ra Onde
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
Daniel Menelkir
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
Eric Waters
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
DebonairDadhikra
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
Xfce4me
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
LovelyJustitia
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
DebonairDadhikra
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
teadan
Daniel Menelkir
Top Con
•••

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

See More
CalmAmm
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
NonchalantPilumnus
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
FearlessAura
Top Con
•••

Redundant

It's just Arch Linux with an easier installer so there is no reason to use it. See More
Paolo
DebonairDadhikra
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
AwareMeretseger
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
MysteryManGuy
Top Pro
•••

Very good looking desktops

All desktops look good by default. See More
WhiteLilac
ArtisticMalinalxochitl
Xfce4me
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
teadan
UnderstandingHuitzilopochtli
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
Lucas
Ra Onde
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
Svjatoslavs Krasnikovs
MotivatedAsclepius
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
teadan
CalmAmm
Top Pro
•••

It adapts perfectly to the PC hardware

Easy to set up, ready to use. See More
FunGamer
Top Pro
•••

Nice looking and easy to install on a flash drive

Easily installed See More
Lucas
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
HideSee All

40 Other Options Considered

89

Debian GNU/Linux

My Recommendation for Debian GNU/Linux

My Recommendation for Debian GNU/Linux

Add Video or Image
All
28
Experiences
2
Pros
17
Cons
8
Specs
Nick May
Top Pro
•••

Very stable

Debian has a Stable branch, where packages are thoroughly tested before release. Furthermore Debian is know to be the definition of stable when it comes to production systems. See More
GutsySpentaArmaiti
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
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
Package Manager:dpkg (Debian Package Manager)
Release Schedule:approximately every 24 months
Official Supported Architectures:amd64 (x86_64), arm64 (aarch64), armel, armhf, i386, mipsel, mips64el, ppc64el, s390x
Main Usage:Universal
See All Specs
Nick May
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
CapableLotan
Top Con
•••

Breaks if you suspend/resume

Breaks when you resume the activity on the system if you use nvidia cards. See More
EmbiggenedBasamum
EmbiggenedBasamum's Experience
I've found Debian highly stable and secure. I love Debian combined with KDE Plasma. See More
Nick May
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
Simona
wolfsnase
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
GutsySpentaArmaiti
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
GutsySpentaArmaiti
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
Nick May
Top Pro
•••

Big open-source project

The Debian project is the biggest open source project with over 5000 active contributors. See More
EmbiggenedBasamum
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
Nick May
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
Daniel Menelkir
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
einabyss
Top Pro
•••

Widely supported

Almost any software that is available for Linux provides a Debian package. See More
Daniel Menelkir
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
wolfsnase
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
Simona
Daniel Menelkir
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
wolfsnase
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
einabyss
Top Pro
•••

Well-working team

The developer works very well so the the code is one of the best written out there. See More
Nick May
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
EmbiggenedBasamum
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
wolfsnase
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
Nick May
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
FunGamer
Top Pro
•••

Great on Raspberry Pi

See More
EmbiggenedBasamum
Top Pro
•••

Rolling or Release based

Every Debian Release can either use a Rolling or Release based model. See More
EmbiggenedBasamum
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
HideSee All
88

Mint

My Recommendation for Mint

My Recommendation for Mint

Add Video or Image
All
50
Experiences
12
Pros
22
Cons
15
Specs
teadan
Zack H
Top Pro
•••

Complete and stable

See More
Zack H
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
ExpertMacCuill
ExpertMacCuill's Experience
Everything works fine, whereas with Debian and Manjaro, either wifi, or bluetooth, or other wasn't working See More
Specs
Based On:Debian>Ubuntu LTS
Default Desktop Environment:Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce
Package Manager:Debian Package Manager
Init-System:Systemd
See All Specs
Monika
FunGamer
Zack H
Top Pro
•••

Quick and easy installation and configuration

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

KDE environment is no longer used

See More
WittyLempo
WittyLempo's Experience
Easy to install, easy to find software (easy Ubuntu package system), easy to update and upgrade. See More
Zack H
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
SiamSami
Top Con
•••

Outdated software centers

Many of the offered options are older versions. See More
GloriousInara
GloriousInara's Experience
Easy to use stable and works good on old laptops See More
Zack H
Top Pro
•••

Good community support

See More
Zack H
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
RespectfulUlanji
RespectfulUlanji's Experience
Very stable and user friendly See More
Paolo
InterestingSet
Top Pro
•••

XFCE support

XFCE aims to be fast and lightweight DE. See More
teadan
ElatedAshaVahishta
Top Con
•••

Nothing new

Just another fork of Ubuntu. Produces nothing that can't be found in another Debian-based distros. See More
WiseThaumas
WiseThaumas's Experience
Good compromise between reliability, customization, low power usage etc See More
Tuvia Tuvia
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
Alex
SiamSami
Top Con
•••

Cheap Windows substitute

Linux Mint tries to be like Windows when it could be different and provide options. See More
CourteousQuirinus
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
FunGamer
Top Pro
•••

Looks good

See More
WittyLempo
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
Yukito Kunisaki
Yukito Kunisaki's Experience
It just works, especially recommended for 32-bit laptop users. See More
Zack H
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
ElatedAshaVahishta
Top Con
•••

Looks ugly

The default theme and wallpaper looks outdated and bland. Luckily that is easy to change in the settings. See More
RationalHlin
RationalHlin's Experience
Quite smooth See More
Zack H
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
Simona
SiamSami
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
HappyPicus
HappyPicus's Experience
So far, so good.! See More
Zack H
Top Pro
•••

Provides LTS (long term support) versions

See More
Zack H
Top Con
•••

Too many kernel crashes

See More
ConfidentNulgupjisin
ConfidentNulgupjisin's Experience
Using since 2006 See More
Tuvia Tuvia
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
Daniel Menelkir
Top Con
•••

The Update doesn't work sometimes

Sometimes the update failed to configure a package. See More
Jesse
Jesse's Experience
Many come from Windows, this feels a lot like it --- KDE does the most but Im not a fan. See More
DecisiveViduus
Top Pro
•••

Pretty desktop

Linux Mint has a quite pretty default desktop. Cinnamon is adopted by other distros also. See More
SiamSami
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
BraveHorme's Experience
from Linux mint 19 the network manager to connect to WI-Fi is spotty at best See More
CommunicativeHuitzilopochtli
Top Pro
•••

Has more desktop options

You can choose between Cinnamon, MATE and XFCE. See More
Daniel Menelkir
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
CuriousRhadamanthus
Top Pro
•••

The easiest option ever

The distro is the easiest operating system to run ever. See More
Nick May
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
Zack H
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
RespectfulUlanji
Top Con
•••

Does not handle multiple languages well

See More
Tuvia Tuvia
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
DecisiveViduus
Top Pro
•••

Not from a big company

Linux Mint is not Canonical, while based upon Ubuntu. See More
teadan
CommunicativeHuitzilopochtli
Top Pro
•••

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

See More
teadan
CommunicativeHuitzilopochtli
Top Pro
•••

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

See More
InventiveErebus
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
Zack H
Top Pro
•••

Popular

Linux mint is currently the most hit page on DistroWatch. Because of its popularity, long term support is pretty guaranteed. See More
Zack H
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
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85

Arch

My Recommendation for Arch

My Recommendation for Arch

Add Video or Image
All
53
Experiences
8
Pros
29
Cons
15
Specs
Endi Sukaj
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
Endi Sukaj
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
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:Independent
Default Desktop Environment:N/A
Package Manager:Pacman
Init-System:Systemd
See All Specs
Endi Sukaj
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
Francisco
Aaron Nel
Top Con
•••

Not ready out of the box

You have to install your day-to-day software requirements manually. See More
cosmo
cosmo's Experience
Always up to date, and incredibly stable for a rolling release distribution. See More
Endi Sukaj
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
Endi Sukaj
Top Con
•••

Instability can be an issue

See More
DedicatedBachue
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
Endi Sukaj
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
Endi Sukaj
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
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
Monika
Endi Sukaj
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
Daniel Menelkir
Top Con
•••

Systemd

Uses systems which makes it incompatible to the UNIX-world. See More
MerryVaisravana
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
Endi Sukaj
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
Endi Sukaj
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
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
PersistentNiamh
Top Pro
•••

Arch is the best!

#!/bin/sh echo "Arch is the best!" See More
Endi Sukaj
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
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
Endi Sukaj
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
Endi Sukaj
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
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
FearlessAura
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
SiamSami
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
Monika
1Mark
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
Nick May
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
SensibleBanebdjedet
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
Daniel Menelkir
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
Endi Sukaj
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
Endi Sukaj
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
Endi Sukaj
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
Endi Sukaj
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
PersistentNiamh
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
Endi Sukaj
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
FearlessAura
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
Endi Sukaj
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
Paolo
cosmo
Top Pro
•••

Helpful 3rd party installers

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

Incredible educational value

Arch gives great insight in the inner workings of operating systems, computers and data manipulation. See More
João Neves
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
PersistentNiamh
Top Pro
•••

It is Linux at the core

This distro is barebones enough to make a new distro from. See More
SensibleBanebdjedet
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
FearlessAura
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
Monika
SensibleBanebdjedet
Top Pro
•••

Highly customizable

Tailor the system to your needs. See More
Endi Sukaj
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
SensibleBanebdjedet
Top Pro
•••

Great for low performance hardware

Arch Linux works quite well with low performance hardware like netbooks. See More
DeterminedIpabog
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
FearlessAura
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
FearlessAura
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
PersistentNiamh
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
PersistentNiamh
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
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85

Fedora

My Recommendation for Fedora

My Recommendation for Fedora

Add Video or Image
All
34
Experiences
7
Pros
18
Cons
8
Specs
GutsySpentaArmaiti
Top Pro
•••

Fast and stable updates

See More
UpbeatNammu
Top Con
•••

Not for low frequency CPU (Netbooks, old computers)

See More
WittyLempo
WittyLempo's Experience
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
Specs
Based On:Independent
Default Desktop Environment:GNOME
Package Manager:RPM Package Manager, DNF package manager
Init-System:Systemd
See All Specs
Chloe Montanez
Top Pro
•••

Bleeding edge

Now it has Wayland by default, you have basically the latest of everything in Linux. See More
WhiteLilac
WittyLempo
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
MightyCliodhna's Experience
Very good, and variety apps for beginner... See More
ArticulateKotys
Top Pro
•••

Strong commitment to free software philosophy

See More
Daniel Menelkir
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
Elias Van Ootegem
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
Chloe Montanez
Top Pro
•••

Lots of packages available

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
Chloe Montanez
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
ArticulateKotys
ArticulateKotys's Experience
xmonad runs flawlessly on my laptop See More
Chloe Montanez
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
SiamSami
Top Con
•••

Slow

It is quite slow on some computers See More
AwesomestGebeleizis
AwesomestGebeleizis's Experience
neat, simple, quite stable See More
Kristaps
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
Kristaps
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
OptimisticBuarainech's Experience
Great user experience, even for a newbie old-laptop-user. See More
Chloe Montanez
Top Pro
•••

Stable under Gnome and KDE

See More
Daniel Menelkir
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
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
Kristaps
Top Pro
•••

Integration with GNOME

It perhaps has the best integration with GNOME (GNOME software works out of the box). See More
Kristaps
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
GutsySpentaArmaiti
Top Pro
•••

Fast performance

See More
ImmaculateDiana
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
Kristaps
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
GutsySpentaArmaiti
Top Pro
•••

Very good integration with Flatpak and Snap Packages

See More
ImmaculateDiana
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
Kristaps
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
Kristaps
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
ImmaculateDiana
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
Elias Van Ootegem
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
Sandaru Jayasekara
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
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83

Pop!_OS

My Recommendation for Pop!_OS

My Recommendation for Pop!_OS

All
15
Experiences
1
Pros
11
Cons
3
SupportiveHunCame
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
Monika
SupportiveHunCame
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
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
Quentin Fan-Chiang
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
ReliableAsclepius
Top Con
•••

Not for low spec computers

See More
NobleStataMater
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
Alex
ThriftyDhakan
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
Alex
ThriftyDhakan
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
DevotedSirona
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
IngrownMink4
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
MemorablePhylonoe
Top Pro
•••

User-friendly installer

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

Nice gnome theme dy default

Has nice gnome theme looks really good. See More
NobleStataMater
Top Pro
•••

Tiling Support

Enhanced support for windows tiling using Pop shell on top of Gnome. See More
Monika
SupportiveHunCame
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
ThriftyDhakan
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
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82

Solus

My Recommendation for Solus

My Recommendation for Solus

Add Video or Image
All
29
Experiences
3
Pros
18
Cons
7
Specs
Alex
MethodicalAjbit
Top Pro
•••

The most stable rolling release distro

See More
SiamSami
Top Con
•••

The default desktop environment is not very customizable

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
cosmo
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
See All Specs
cosmo
Top Pro
•••

Responsive

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

Not much software

There is not much software available. See More
SupportiveFukurokuju
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
cosmo
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
Daniel Menelkir
Top Con
•••

An upgrade breaks the system quite often

See More
MerryNebethetepet
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
cosmo
Top Pro
•••

Rolling release

See More
gaspacchio
Top Con
•••

A bit unstable on some laptops

See More
cosmo
Top Pro
•••

Modern desktop environment

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

Software a bit slower to launch than for other distributions

See More
cosmo
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
SiamSami
Top Con
•••

No USB Image writer

See More
cosmo
Top Pro
•••

Built from scratch

See More
cosmo
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
cosmo
Top Pro
•••

Exclusively for desktop systems

See More
Monika
abdulocracy
Top Pro
•••

Great package management

The software center makes it really easy to install the latest software. Including third party software. See More
cosmo
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
niingu
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
WittyAlala
Top Pro
•••

Lightening fast boot time

See More
Nedas Kuzas
WittyAlala
Top Pro
•••

Rolling Release Model

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

Most stable Rolling Release Distro

See More
The Bushcamper
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
The Bushcamper
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
The Bushcamper
Top Pro
•••

Friendly towards proprietary codecs, firmware and drivers.

So you won't have to enable PPAs or extra repos for that. See More
The Bushcamper
Top Pro
•••

Rock-solid Distro

Very stable and well curated. See More
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80

Endeavour OS

My Recommendation for Endeavour OS

My Recommendation for Endeavour OS

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All
22
Experiences
3
Pros
17
Cons
1
Specs
niingu
Top Pro
•••

Cutting edge rolling release

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

Same Cons that apply for Arch Linux

See More
Eric Waters
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
Init-System:Systemd
See All Specs
niingu
Top Pro
•••

Arch Linux Wiki

Being an "easy to install version of Arch" means it is exactly easy to use the famous Arch Wiki! See More
Yukito Kunisaki
Yukito Kunisaki's Experience
Not ready yet. Still feeling buggy everywhere in this distro. See More
niingu
Top Pro
•••

Great for low performance hardware

Easy on the specs and still blazingly fast. See More
niingu
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
niingu
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
niingu
Top Pro
•••

Great XFCE implementation

Their use of themes and configuration look great! See More
niingu
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
DreamerTashmetum
Top Pro
•••

Not based on Ubuntu

See More
niingu
Top Pro
•••

Good overall system quality and performance

Lean, fast and surprisingly stable. See More
Eric Waters
niingu
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
niingu
Top Pro
•••

Fast and simple package management

There can only be one Package Manager (pacman) ;) See More
niingu
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
niingu
Top Pro
•••

Great hardware support

See More
niingu
Top Pro
•••

Helpful community

Great team of developers and excellent forum support on their official website. See More
niingu
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
niingu
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
LivelyTaranis
Top Pro
•••

Great community

See More
LivelyTaranis
Top Pro
•••

Lightweight

See More
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80

MX-Linux

My Recommendation for MX-Linux

My Recommendation for MX-Linux

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26
Experiences
6
Pros
11
Cons
8
Specs
x.
Top Pro
•••

Lightweight

See More
Daniel Menelkir
Top Con
•••

Too much customization

See More
RespectfulMerope
RespectfulMerope's Experience
Best live/portable usb software in the industry. See More
Specs
Based On:Debian Stable>antiX
Default Desktop Environment:XFCE
Package Manager:Debian Package Manager
Init-System:SysV-init (default) & systemD
See All Specs
x.
Top Pro
•••

Easy install

See More
ProductiveOkuninushi
Top Con
•••

Only one Desktop Environment

See More
Yukito Kunisaki
Yukito Kunisaki's Experience
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
LuckyTepoztecatl
Top Pro
•••

Very stable

See More
Monika
Top Con
•••

Remixed Debian testing

It's mainly a Debian stable with some recompiled/backported Debian testing packages. See More
KindGerra
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
DeterminedFurrina
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
SupportiveAntheia
Top Con
•••

Installer and configuration tools are different

Installer and configuration tools are different and can take some time getting used to. See More
ResourcefulBerstuk
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
x.
Top Pro
•••

Easy to use

See More
Monika
KindGerra
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
DeterminedSilenus
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
x.
Top Pro
•••

Supports non-free drivers

See More
Daniel Menelkir
Top Con
•••

More than 50 tweaking softwares pre-installed

See More
FriendlyAthena
FriendlyAthena's Experience
Super-Fast, works good, Debian stable/ Xfce yearly versions. See More
DeterminedFurrina
Top Pro
•••

Based on Debian

See More
Daniel Menelkir
Top Con
•••

10s of media players preinstalled

See More
x.
Top Pro
•••

No systemd

See More
Daniel Menelkir
Top Con
•••

Too much preinstalled applications

See More
KindGerra
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
KindGerra
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
KindGerra
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
HideSee All
--

PsychOS

My Recommendation for PsychOS

My Recommendation for PsychOS

All
2
Pros
1
Specs
teadan
HappyHymenaios
Top Pro
•••

No fuss, just works

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
Specs
Based On:Devuan
Default Desktop Environment:XFCE
Package Manager:Debian Package manager
Init-System:SysVinit
See All Specs
Hide
--

NixOS

My Recommendation for NixOS

My Recommendation for NixOS

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All
10
Experiences
1
Pros
4
Cons
4
Specs
TruthfulFuxi
Top Pro
•••

State of the art package manager

Atomic non-destructive upgrades / rollback of a system upgrade / declarative reproducible system configuration / unprivileged installation of packages / transparent source or binary deployment. See More
Simona
Daniel Menelkir
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
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
Init-System:Systemd
Release Schedule:Point or Rolling
Official Supported Architectures:amd64, i386
See All Specs
Simona
.
Top Pro
•••

Reproducible system

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
Monika
Eric Waters
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
Monika
.
Top Pro
•••

Robust

Packages don't break after a NixOS upgrade as they are prone to with other distros (especially Arch). See More
Simona
TEJAS SHETTY
Daniel Menelkir
Top Con
•••

A configuration change might end up bricking your system

See More
.
Top Pro
•••

Minimal

You can start with a minimal environment and add packages and software to suit your needs as you go along. See More
Simona
TEJAS SHETTY
Paolo
Top Con
•••

Not popular

It's not a popular Linux distribution. See More
HideSee All
67

openSUSE Leap

My Recommendation for openSUSE Leap

My Recommendation for openSUSE Leap

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All
21
Experiences
2
Pros
11
Cons
7
Specs
JollyTethra
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
SiamSami
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
JollyTethra's Experience
Blood free bleeding edge. OpenSUSE Tumbleweed is stable but up-to-date. YaST makes admin easy. See More
Specs
Based On:Jurix>SUSE
Default Desktop Environment:Plasma, GNOME, Xfce, LXQT
Package Manager:RPM Package Manager, zypper
Init-System:Systemd
See All Specs
Duncan
JollyTethra
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
Siamsami Ratul
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
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
metalbote
Top Pro
•••

Very stable

Stable, reliable, rock solid. See More
Siamsami Ratul
Top Con
•••

Short lived distro

Every release lasts 18 months only before needing a major upgrade. See More
metalbote
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
SiamSami
Top Con
•••

Old kernel by the Leap version

Kernel in Leap 42.3 is in version 4.4, that's pretty old. See More
metalbote
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
SiamSami
Top Con
•••

Complex permissions policy

See More
metalbote
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
Daniel Menelkir
Top Con
•••

Bloated and slow

See More
Nenad Jelic
Top Pro
•••

Fast

Applications feel fast. See More
Simona
SiamSami
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
Nenad Jelic
Top Pro
•••

YaST

Best administration and setup tool. See More
Simona
Duncan
Top Pro
•••

Tons of community packages

Easily searchable via here. Everyone can branch and update packages via here. See More
PersonableJuturna
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
PersonableJuturna
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
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--

Peppermint OS

My Recommendation for Peppermint OS

My Recommendation for Peppermint OS

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All
13
Experiences
5
Pros
6
Cons
1
Specs
Monika
JM80
CulturedArke
Top Pro
•••

Much better on old laptops than most distros

The only distro that is "faster" would be Puppy Linux Slacko. See More
Eric Waters
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
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
Package Manager:Debian Package Manager
Init-System:Systemd (not in Devuan base)
See All Specs
Jo Lux
Top Pro
•••

Friendly and helpful forum

See More
LivelyLuna
LivelyLuna's Experience
Easy to use! See More
Monika
JM80
CulturedArke
Top Pro
•••

Fast and light on resources

RAM consumption is the same as LxLE, but more efficient and because of Whisker Menu and other tweaks that let 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
ExpertGersemi
ExpertGersemi's Experience
Fast and Ligthweight, based on Debian See More
Monika
CulturedArke
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
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
CulturedArke
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
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
Monika
Paolo
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
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--

Zorin

My Recommendation for Zorin

My Recommendation for Zorin

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15
Experiences
1
Pros
12
Cons
1
Specs
Simona
WonderfulEnlil
sripwoud
Top Pro
•••

Very appropriate for beginners who want to start with Linux

It has a simple GUI, wich is easy to use and very intuitive. See More
Zack H
Top Con
•••

Limited desktop styles in Free Version

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
DedicatedSaubarag
DedicatedSaubarag's Experience
My windows 10 on a new computer was working, and couldn't reinstall. The Zorin was one I had on an old laptop. Now I can go online again. See More
Specs
Based On:Debian>Ubuntu LTS
Default Desktop Environment:Gnome / Xfce
Package Manager:Debian Package Manager
Init-System:Systemd
See All Specs
Zack H
Top Pro
•••

Good selection of pre-installed software

Zorin includes a good selection for everyday tasks out of the box. See More
C_Corp2k2 R
Top Pro
•••

Ubuntu-based

Zorin is compatible with Ubuntu's sizable repositories of Free Software. See More
sripwoud
Top Pro
•••

Stable

See More
C_Corp2k2 R
Top Pro
•••

Low resources consumption

See More
Zack H
Top Pro
•••

Bundles tools for changing the look and feel of the distribution

Zorin includes look changer and theme changer. See More
WonderfulEnlil
Top Pro
•••

Installer can set up dual boot

See More
C_Corp2k2 R
Top Pro
•••

Windows desktop style

The desktop UI was made to resemble Windows 7, but alternative settings are available. See More
PrudentSerket
Top Pro
•••

Zorin Connect

Allows syncing notifications with your phone. See More
PrudentSerket
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
C_Corp2k2 R
Top Pro
•••

Accessibility features

See More
Zack H
Top Pro
•••

Partial Windows compatibility

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

feren OS

My Recommendation for feren OS

My Recommendation for feren OS

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2
Pros
1
Specs
Monika
SpontaneousWurugag
Top Pro
•••

KDE desktop

The KDE desktop environment is the default, which is very stable and just great. See More
Specs
Based On:Debian>Ubuntu>Linux Mint
Default Desktop Environment:KDE
Package Manager:Debian Package Manager
Init-System:systemd
See All Specs
Hide
64

KDE Neon

My Recommendation for KDE Neon

My Recommendation for KDE Neon

All
8
Pros
6
Cons
1
Specs
NonchalantBastet
Top Pro
•••

Configurability

KDE Neon uses KDE as its desktop environment, which is highly configurable, but also has great defaults. See More
DynamicOmoikane
schlaumeier
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
Package Manager:Debian Package Manager
Init-System:Systemd
See All Specs
NonchalantBastet
Top Pro
•••

The best looking Linux OS

It really is a great and stunning looking OS. See More
PrincipledTashmetum
IngeniousPolymatheia
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
MotivatedKurdalaegon
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
GenuineGaia
Top Pro
•••

Lean install

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

Gentoo Linux

My Recommendation for Gentoo Linux

My Recommendation for Gentoo Linux

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16
Pros
11
Cons
5
Daniel Menelkir
Top Pro
•••

Portage's emerge is powerful

See More
CapableLotan
Top Con
•••

Not beginner-friendly

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

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

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