What is the best laptop OS?

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Here’s the Deal

The Best 1 of 62 OptionsWhy?

Best laptop OS	Price	Based On	Default Desktop Environment
91 Arch	-	Independent	N/A
88 Fedora	Free	Independent	GNOME
88 Manjaro	-	Arch Linux	XFCE, KDE Plasma, GNOME
82 Gentoo Linux	-	-	-
80 MX Linux	-	Debian Stable>antiX	XFCE

See Full List

61 Other Options Considered

Fedora

Top Pro

Good balance between up to date packages and stability

Not as cutting edge as Arch but not as stale as Debian. See More

Top Con

Uses Systemd

Muhammad Shammaas's Experience

It was the best os I every used even though the installation was kind of hard. See More

Specs

Based On:Independent

Default Desktop Environment:GNOME

Package Manager:RPM Package Manager, DNF package manager

Release Schedule:Point (6 Months)

See All Specs

Top Pro

Fast and stable updates

Top Con

Unstable

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

PersistentDelbaeth's Experience

Best os ever See More

Top Pro

Backed by the biggest Linux kernel contributor

Fedora is backed by RedHat, the biggest Linux kernel contributor in the world. Using a distribution made by RedHat means that it will be fine-tuned to work as efficiently as possible since it's made by the same people who work extensively on the kernel and know its ins and outs. See More

Top Con

Problematic on Apple hardware

Worked on MacBook Pro ca. 2014 but doesn't on anything later other than under a VM. See More

ComposedBarraiya's Experience

I've been using Fedora for more than a decade. Although the update cycle is shorter than others, I know we can get the same reliability on every platform and that makes taking new applications or services to production easy. The spins and labs let our team have a common system underlying the feature set which helps our overall productivity while letting us have a development environment that suits each of us. We use RHEL in production. See More

Top Pro

Spins and Labs

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

Top Con

Not for beginners

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

deleted's Experience

It just works without restricting the user, and it respects your freedoms. 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

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 months, which means twice a year there is a risk of completely borking one's install. See More

HelpfulCreidhne's Experience

Consistent desktop experience with near first-party support. See More

Top Pro

Strong commitment to free software philosophy

Top Con

Slow

It is quite slow on some computers. See More

LoyalUaIldak's Experience

Install, boot, login, GO! No need to spend too much time in awkwardly customizing everything. It is quite user friendly since the implementation of GNOME40 and onward. JUST WORKS! 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

Wayland does not work with Prime/Optimus

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

EncouragingSogbo's Experience

Great, fast and simple OS See More

Top Pro

Fast performance

Top Con

Loss of performance in GNOME version

Because of Gnome integration, not made for light stuff. See More

Julen Rubio's Experience

Easy installation of Nvidia drivers and Steam See More

Top Pro

Frees developers from some backward compatibility restraints

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

Top Con

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

LoveableCariocecus's Experience

Large repositories, runs smooth on KDE and GNOME, many development packages for mingw, fast kernel updates. Most stable distro I ever used. Everything just works as expected without ANY issues. Also very minimal with the net installer. See More

Top Pro

Create user after the installation

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

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

ThoroughMithra's Experience

Mainly a "plug and play" distro. Standard repos are really good and well curated, and there's also RPMFusion for a huge array of very well curated packages that work perfectly fine with each version. Extremely stable, mostly "bleeding edge" packages that produce an extremely polished and also innovative desktop distribution. The go-to for developers, and a really good distro for gaming. See More

Top Pro

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

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

Top Con

Weird mouse behavior

Even adjusting settings doesn't help to get rid of it. See More

Top Pro

Backed by one of the biggest Linux kernel contributors

Fedora is backed by RedHat, the 2nd biggest Linux kernel contributor in the world. Using a distribution made by RedHat means that it will be fine-tuned to work as efficiently as possible since it's made by the same people who work extensively on the kernel and know its ins and outs. See More

Top Con

Not meant for desktop

Fedora is upstream of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It's meant to be used for development to keep the server operating system stable. It's basically a live testing environment, not a desktop operating system for average use. See More

Top Pro

Rpm based

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

The best choice for sysAdmin and developers

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

Top Pro

Huge array of binary packages ready to install

Top Pro

Linus Torvalds distro of choice

Top Pro

Very good integration with Flatpak and Snap Packages

Top Pro

Nice setup process

Easy to understand plus automatic partitioning available for full installs. See More

Top Pro

Linus Torvalds' distro of choice

Top Pro

Neat Layout and compatible with Tweeks

With Fedora, you get a neat easy to get use to system that is compatible with Gnome Tweaks See More

Top Pro

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

See All

Manjaro

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

Can still be unstable

Here are the details of it. See More

CoherentCantzicnal's Experience

Came to Manjaro from Fedora, before that Ubuntu, before that Mandrake, before that Unix....Works well, fairly light on resources. See More

Specs

Based On:Arch Linux

Default Desktop Environment:XFCE, KDE Plasma, GNOME

Package Manager:pamac

Release Schedule:rolling

See All Specs

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

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 than Arch. See More

LoyalSuurToll's Experience

After 4 years of using Linux Mint/Cinnamon, I switched to Manjaro/KDE out of curiosity and because of installation problems. I really like now Manjaro. I liked Mint for its simplicity and many good features, and I recommend it for Linux beginners. Yet Manjaro is superior in many ways. Its installer is excellent. The rolling concept is more convenient for me. The package management of both is very good, but Manjaro's updates are much more up to date and come sooner. The system settings are much more detailed. And finally the use of Activities - about super virtual desktops - is really top notch. Of course, Mint has some positive elements that I sometimes miss. I'll mention one: when a window's header somehow slides in under the panel (I use the panel on top), you can Alt-click anywhere to grab the window. jBalint See More

Top Pro

Has access to the AUR

In addition to the Manjaro package repository, you can connect to the Arch User Repository, which has thousands of packages. See More

Top Con

Slightly bloated

Peter J. Mello's Experience

I think it's important to note that the question asked here is for simply the best desktop OS available, not the easiest or most polished or the one with the most diverse software ecosystem. Any of those qualifiers might force someone to concede the point to Microsoft or even a more mainstream Linux distribution like Ubuntu or Mint, but in their absence I believe Manjaro wins the day. It's a great deal more friendly than Arch and certainly the fastest OS I've used, but make no mistake, this is a power users OS that requires everyone to don their "big boy parts" at the door. If you can handle that, then welcome aboard the pleasure cruise of operating systems. See More

Top Pro

Based on Arch and user friendly

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

Top Con

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

HarmoniousKyrbas's Experience

I've been around the Linux family of operating systems for quite some time but none have kept me locked down to it (in a good way of course) for a long as Manjaro. From the moment i first booted up Manjaro Gnome 17.0.5, I knew i had found what I was looking for. Stable, fast and pretty. And its Manjaro. Need I say more? 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

Uses Systemd

aaanadie's Experience

Perfect balance between latest software and stability, very user friendly. See More

Top Pro

Uses low memory

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

Top 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

Balázs Nyúl's Experience

I love the stability and the freshness of this distro. I'm using it both at work and at home. 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

Same cons that apply to Arch Linux

Since it is based on Arch Linux. See More

VivaciousYucahu's Experience

Reliable and quicker all round See More

Top Pro

Great performance

Manjaro put low load on RAM. It shows fast response and great performance. See More

Top Con

Bundled with proprietary software

This OS comes with Steam pre-installed and might include freeoffice in the future See More

DreamerKuu's Experience

The best overall linux distribution out there. 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

It's Archbuntu

DevotedKekui's Experience

More stable than other distros. Multifunction Canon Printer/scanner worked. Networked to windows pc public folder. See More

Top Pro

All major desktops and even less common once like budgie, lumina, lxqt, deepin, enlightenment etc can be directly installed from official repositories

Also available as independent variants. See More

Top Con

Bad way of handling dependencies

Manjaro is based on Arch linux. Arch linux and its derivatives has a bad way of handling dependencies. To handle dependencies, it installs a whole another program which contains the required dependencies. See More

PracticalLiber's Experience

Great Distro. 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

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

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

New packages and security updates are held for testing longer

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

Top Pro

Different editions to select from + Manjaro community

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

Top 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

Top Pro

Very good looking desktops

All desktops look good by default. See More

Top Con

Bad Dependencies

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

Top Pro

Arch User Repository access

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

Top Con

No gfvs pre-installed

So no Trash (and possibly smartphone file system access via USB) support. See More

Top Pro

Good documentation and forum

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

Top Con

Very slow development for 32-bit hardwares

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

Top Pro

Well-rounded set of features for daily use

Out of the box Manjaro comes with a well-rounded set of applications for average daily use. See More

Top Con

Nothing new

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

Redundant

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

Top Pro

Access to AUR, Snap and FlatPack

You can download from Official repository but, as an easy option, you can acces to AUR, Snap and Flatpack repos. Really simple and efficient! See More

Top Con

Don't use Manjaro if you're not familiar with Arch

A good way to break your system, too simple to install aur package, a nice place for unstable updates... Not really made for newbies. See More

Top Pro

It looks good and feels good to use.

It's a system that is easy to get into and learn a little about using terminal, and also has a graphical software centre. @78yrs I can use a Podcasts saying "I use Arch" Luv it See More

Top Pro

Steam installed by default

Top Pro

Deepin desktop environment is a worthy attraction

See All

Gentoo Linux

Top Pro

Full control of the software

Top Con

Not beginner-friendly

You have to read a lot of instructions to start, even if you are familiar with Linux. See More

DreamerKuu's Experience

Truth to be told, gentoo is for extreme enthusiasts. There are very few cases in which it can be actually worth all this compiling setting up mess. See More

Top Pro

Freedom

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

Top Con

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 by optimized to any given CPU by using proper compile flags

Since everything is being built on your PC you can tune the code to make use of your CPU. See More

Top Con

No default installer

Installation must be done manually by following instructions in the handbook. See More

Top Pro

Easy to patch any modify

Every package can be patched by placing patch files to specified directory. See More

Top Con

Too hard

Top Pro

Fully customizable

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

Top Con

Somewhat outdated solutions

While being outdated per se is virtually impossible for a rolling-release distro with a large community, a large portion of said community sticks to outdated solutions. For example, Gentoo's primary init system is OpenRC, which is cumbersome and awkward to use and provides little control over the system. While you can just choose systemd, it will require some tinkering. Other examples include stubbornly declaring an initramfs a last resort and an "oh my god 1337 H4XX0RZ surely have nothing better to do than trying for a month to exploit some vulnerability to steal my pony art, I have to fortify so hard my performance and ease of use will suffer" 90s security mentality. Because of just how much freedom Gentoo provides you with, this usually isn't a big deal though. See More

Top Pro

Portability

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

Top Con

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

Gentoo does not impose a standard look-and-feel

Top Con

It consumes a lot of CPU

No matter how good your processor is, Gentoo Linux will continue to consume your processor to the fullest. Especially when downloading packages, it is extremely slow because it consumes a lot of CPU. See More

Top Pro

Documentation and community are second to none

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

Top Pro

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 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

Portage's emerge is powerful

Portage is a package management system with a huge amount of options and features. 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 Pro

Live USB

See All

MX Linux

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

More than 50 tweaking softwares pre-installed

DreamerCreidhne's Experience

I use MX Linux as my daily driver. I even put it on my GitHub as the base for my own distro. 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

Top Pro

Based on Debian

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

Top Con

Too many preinstalled applications

ProductiveOmeteotl's Experience

I use it after years of distrohopping See More

Top Pro

Easy install

Top Con

UX is terrible

StrongPandia's Experience

Easy install. Lots of tweaks on the menu for those wanting to avoid the CLI. Examples are gpg key fix, boot repair, and even an ISO maker of your current setup for backups retaining user setups if you choose. Even though having older software is usually a con, it makes moving data to other distros/machines easy. Super friendly forum. Can install Windows Manager Fluxbox or IceWM. Can change DE to Budgie, Gnome, KDE5, LXDE, or Mate with just 2 clicks in the package manager. Wanting more current software, one only needs to click to the other tabs and enter the search. Option at boot to boot with systemd if you want. Kernel changes are simple on the favorites tab of the package manager. Runs cool. See More

Top Pro

Can also be used as an emergency tool

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

Top Con

Too much customization

Top Pro

Very stable

Top Con

Old software

Many software applications are older. See More

Top Pro

Lightweight

Top Con

Only one Desktop Environment

Top Pro

Easy to use

Top Pro

MX Snapshot: lets you make your own distro

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

Top Pro

No systemd

Top Pro

Supports non-free drivers

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

Multiple Desktops

Budgie, Gnome, KDE5, LXDE, and Mate are on the first tab of favorite packages when opening the package manger. Just click and install. See More

See All

Mint

Top Pro

Easy installation and configuration

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

Top 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

ResponsiveAkras's Experience

Amazingly natural for Windows users. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu LTS

Default Desktop Environment:Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce

Package Manager:Debian Package Manager

Release Schedule:Point( 2 Year LTS / 6 Month)

See All Specs

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

DeterminedMielikki's Experience

printers are automatically correct and working, unlike with arch. 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

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

PerseveringTyphon's Experience

Every time I used this OS, I felt comfortable, because you can modify every setting with a GUI. See More

Top Pro

Provides LTS (long term support) versions

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

Top Con

Looks ugly

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

One Design LLC's Experience

Could not install Mint successfully. I encountered an error. 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

Poor documentation

Documentation for Mint is not very convincing. See More

PoliteKulla's Experience

Great stable desktop. I use this at work because of stability and at home becuase of customization. I've put this on older computers for friends who find it very easy to adapt to to from windows due to the interface design and built-in apps and tools. I'm a server/network admin with a 3 monitor setup and have found Mint to be ready to go out of the box and able to support whatever I throw at it. See More

Top Pro

Stable

Top Con

Bloated

Mint is very bloated. A basic installtion consists of a huge number of packages. Which adds to upgrades too. See More

GregariousBangputys's Experience

Easy to use and supports olds computers with low hardware capabilities. Best distro for new migrated windows users. See More

Top Pro

Stable for work

The amount of tools for Mint makes it one of the best OSs for any workstation. Supports 3 monitors easily and looks great in the process. See More

Top Con

Mint 19 adopted Microsoft's policy of forcing their users

Mint 19 adopted Microsoft's policy to force their users to install things they don't want and there's absolutely no option to cancel the installation of the unwanted package. Starting with kernel 4.15 the user has to install a CPU microcode and is given no option to cancel that. And it seems they have no intention to give up that policy. See More

PassionateNjirana's Experience

Smooth sailing throughout the installation to every day computer use and needs. Never locks p or crashes. Have been using this distro since it's inception. See More

Top Pro

The OS is great for both starters and advanced users.

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

Top Con

Cheap Windows substitute

Mint tries to be like Windows, where it could be different and provide options. See More

DependableHeracles's Experience

Learning curve is short. Stability is not an issue, if you understand that installing untested kernels or software is your responsibility. Most distributions recommend testing your hardware with the "live" disc to gauge stability before preforming an install and understand that not all computer configurations work with all "live" disc. See More

Top Pro

Complete and stable

Complete and stable See More

Top Con

Slow especially on older hardware

TruthfulAcmon's Experience

good UI, User friendly See More

Top Pro

Good community support

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

Top Con

Heavy on resources

Mint puts way more load on RAM than many other distros. See More

ReceptiveWaygl's Experience

Using linux mint cinnamon as my main desktop OS for about a year was a nice experience. It's simple, stable and fast. See More

Top Pro

Cinnamon desktop environment (as an option)

They say Cinnamon is a little slower than the other DEs and they may be right. But Cinnamon compensates this flaw with absolute freedom of what you can do with it. It's so highly customizable that you can change it in such a way that no one else would know this is Cinnamon, except for you. 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

HilariousEndursaga's Experience

Incerdibly user friendly and intuitive. A great option for windows refugees. 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

Systemd

PrincipledNammu's Experience

works on new and old laptop and desktop See More

Top Pro

The easiest option ever

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

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. See More

ShojiVR's Experience

Rivals Ubuntu on Popularity Due to Cinnamon Dekstop Environment (Similar to Windows UI) and include 3rd party apps such as Flash, Java, etc See More

Top Pro

Simple and fast updates

The system bar has an icon that shows whether your packages are up to date, which leads to the update manager that explains what the updates are for. See More

Top Con

Limits to the support of propriatary hardware drivers

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

MemorableDumakulem's Experience

I have used linux for a long time, first install was Suse 7.3 (2001) the manuals weight 4 lbs, Then 10.0 (2005) the manual dropped to just one 276 page. [I still have both]. I moved on to Ubuntu, I till have disc for v 10-16.04 which I have on one computer and v10 on my netbook. I have Mint 19 on (2) towers and a (1) notebook. I just installed Fedora workstation on that I will dual boot with mint 19. Additionally I have Microsoft win 98 (games), win 7 (Theater) and win 10 (Business) I have been building, fixing and selling computers since 1984 www.ctjohnson.com. I strongly recommend Linux Mint as the best choice for the newbie because it is the simplest for some one familiar with MS XP to use See More

Top Pro

Has more Desktop options

You can choose between Cinnamon, MATE and XFCE. 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

PatientHunBatz's Experience

Needs a little bit of customization but is really OK! One problem = Systemd. 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

Cinamon environment is not beautiful and in the same time KDE environment is no longer used

Top Pro

Has access to Ubuntu's repositories

Mint has access to Ubuntu's large repositories of free software. See More

Top Con

Lags and Freezes in most GUIs

After testing 3 different versions of Mint, all three showed lags and actually froze every single time upon opening applications. 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

Top Con

No AUR

Without AUR you have to resort to heavily bloated snaps for which sandboxing instead of increased safety (there is already firejail for that!) just results in poor system integration. Otherwise you can also try compiling stuff from the sources, which may be time consuming and with the slow update cycle of debian based distros may experience problems satisfying dependencies. Most of the systems that promise to be easy for windows users are just one big marketing con, whereby especially in case of mint the main point is a DE, which is: Ugly Ships with most other distros or can be easily installed there. Another one might be stability, but again, the update cycle is very much of an overkill, negatively impacting safety and UX. Generally speaking, if anything it would rather discourage many newcoming Windows users. Even privacy-wise it isn't the best pick, see above. 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

Deceiving

Makes newbies believe it's like Windows and easier to use than other distributions, just because it looks a lot like Windows. Also it makes users believe, that looking like Windows is a unique feature. See More

Top Pro

System Restore was a good idea, but it's not done well

Requires an external hard drive with a Linux partition. See More

Top Pro

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

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

Top Con

Narrow range / not versatile

Mint is pretty much for basic average desktop use only and doesn't support many purposes or platforms like servers or Raspberries, or provide any relevant benefits for other purposes like development. 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

All desktop environments look nearly the same

Mint has no range and doesn't address different taste. All GUIs look the same. See More

Top Pro

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

Top Con

UI glitches

Mint show a number of UI glitches. Even more so with their very own Cinnamon. See More

Top Pro

Not from a big company

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

Top Con

Upgrade process between version can be painful

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

Top Pro

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

Top Con

Does not handle multiple languages well

Top Pro

Has more desktop options

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

Top Con

Slow

Mint boots and responds quite slowly, compared to other distributions. See More

Top Con

Too many kernel crashes

Top Con

Wish there was a vanilla GNOME version

GNOME can easily be installed, but an out of the box GNOME install for a laptop would be nice. See More

See All

Devuan GNU+Linux

Top Pro

Debian without system d

Top Con

Impossibe to install on non-free hardware

Unlike Debian, Devuan offers no non-free install media so if your system needs non-free drivers (e.g., a laptop or a tablet) its nearly impossible to install Devuan on it. See More

PatientHunBatz's Experience

Well, it's Debian. I love Debian, but use Systemd. Devuan fixes this, but I can not install my RTX 2080 Ti or GTX 1080 ... (I'm kidding, I can not install my GT 1030. F * cking poverty). See More

Specs

Based On:Debian

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

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

OS Family:GNU/Linux

See All Specs

Top Pro

Init based

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

Top Pro

Very secure

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

Top Pro

Most decent look amongst other XFCE distros

Default XFCE theme is unique of all the XFCE distos including MXLinux, Xubuntu etc. See More

Top Pro

It's Debian

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

Top Pro

Stability

It is stable like Debian. See More

Top Pro

Excellent for normal people

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

See All

Artix Linux

Top Pro

No systemd

Top Con

Ugly UX

PhilosophicalMengPo's Experience

this thing is very fast to boot, shutdown, reboot. That'll be due to an init that works efficiently, is very stable and also more secure than sysd. Apart from that, you can add the arch's repo's if you want and install from aur. This is fundamentally non-sysd Arch, so like Arch, better. (there is a base .iso that's about the same to install as Arch's is, but with sysd stuff taken out and replaced with runit/s6/s66/dinit init stuff instead). 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

See All Specs

Top Pro

Lightweight

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

Top Con

Risky/difficult migration

Somehow a fault of bad developers' practices, who often make their software unnecessarily dependent on systemd; but as much as it is technically possible to migrate, it may prove difficult or risky, especially for unexperienced users, even with the provided documentation on the Artix's website, which also clearly advises against it. Backing up your package list and then restoring them is also a no-go if you want to avoid rolling back to shitstemd accidentally so you have to manually select what to reinstall. See More

CromulentNinkilim's Experience

Artix Linux is the renewed and best version of Arch Linux. So if you like Arch Linux, I recommend you to try Artix Linux. It's pretty fast, but that depends on your setup. Artix Linux does not use systemd. I quite liked this one. I find systemd pointless. Even Suckless in charge of the DWM project agrees, I can link http://suckless.org/sucks/systemd/ See More

Top Pro

Close to bare Arch Linux

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

Top Con

No systemd

Top Pro

Supports runit

Artix actively supports the runit init system known from Void Linux (equally besides the OpenRC init system known from Gentoo). See More

Top Con

It's not professionally made and bugs are consistent

It doesn't take long to realize that this distribution is in a very raw state. It lacks polish from every side you look. See More

Top Pro

Supports OpenRC

Artix actively supports OpenRC, which is a very fast init system. See More

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

Top Pro

Flexibility

You can have a functional system in less than 10 mins using GUI installer OR you can do it "the Arch way" . See More

Top Pro

Rolling distro

Top Pro

Supports dinit

Artix actively supports dinit. See More

Top Pro

Compatible with Arch Repositories

It is fully compatible with almost all packages from community, extra, multilib and AUR. See More

Top Pro

Supports S6

Artix actively supports the s6 init system. See More

See All

Void Linux

Top Pro

Very lightweight

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

Top Con

Not popular

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

Specs

Based On:Independent

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

Package Manager:XBPS & xbps-src

Release Schedule:Rolling

See All Specs

Top Pro

Xbps (X Binary Package System)

A brand new package manager that is fast, full-featured, and tailored specifically for Void Linux. See More

Top Con

Not suitable for those new to Linux

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

Top Pro

Easy to use installer

Unlike it's closest competitor, Arch, Void includes a very user-friendly and simple installer in the ISO. See More

Top Con

No packages

Void developers refuse to package brave. See More

Top Pro

Runit init system

An init system with the "do one thing and do it right" mentality. Void Linux does not support systemd. See More

Top Con

Poor video performance with AMD gfx cards

While you can easily get the latest VLC thanks to Void being a rolling distro, video performance is abysmal, at least for those with AMD cards. See More

Top Pro

BSD-like improvements with Linux

Full support for LibreSSL, an OpenSSL fork focused on maximizing security. The xbps-src package builder works in a similar manner to BSD's ports collection. See More

Top Con

Small amount of packages

Top Pro

Musl image available

Musl libc is lighter and faster than bloated glibc. Musl has been argued to be more secure overall than glibc also. See More

Top Con

Slower than pacman

Top Pro

Friendly forum

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

Top Con

Nvidia CUDA cumbersome to setup

If your using a Nvidia card with programs that require CUDA for fast rendering (Blender), you can expect some trouble getting it to work as it's not included with the Nvidiadriver of the nonfree repo. See More

Top Pro

Very stable

Top Pro

Xbps-src

Xbps-src is a source packages collection which is pretty similar to FreeBSD's ports and may replace AUR for Void users. See More

Top Pro

Cool Neofetch logo

Neofetch looks good. See More

Top Pro

Rolling release

Top Pro

Many packages

There are some packages in official repos, than may be found only in AUR. See More

Top Pro

Updated version of IceCat included in the default repositories

GNU IceCat is available and updated. See More

Top Pro

Very minimal

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

Top Pro

Different DE's live ISO's are available

Arch Linux doesn't make ISO's with different DE's. One need to manually install it through CLI version. But Void which is competitor of Arch, provides a wide range of DE's ISOs. See More

See All

Garuda Linux

Top Pro

Super fast

Uses vram, and a zen kernel. See More

Top Con

Bloated

See the comparison of gaming performance of this supposedly gaming-optimised distro and manjaro. Manjaro performs better in almost every category. All that eyecandy isn't really worth it when you have 1,5k GTK 3/4 themes available as of 21/02/2022 and you can also obviously theme virtually anything else cause this is GNU/Linux! See More

PerceptiveNgariman's Experience

Growing Fastly See More

Specs

Desktop Environments:x11

Top Pro

Themes

The dr460nized KDE theme is awesome. See More

Top Con

Needs a lot of RAM

Minimum is 4GB, for most Linux distributions it's 2GB or less. See More

RespectfulGleti's Experience

Beautiful window transitions, gaussian blur on terminal, fish shell (my favorite shell) installed by default with a beautiful prompt, window buttons that remind me of mac os... See More

Top Pro

Easy entrance to Arch Linux

Filled to the brim with lots of quality-of-life changes and optimizations that are simple enough for long-time Windows, long-time Mac users, and Arch newbies to understand. Though, it also leads to bloat or not necessarily helpful extra software. If you're not into the "bloat" added in, try checking out the barebones version, you'll need to know a lot of things bout Arch to fully use barebones. See More

PrudentRheda's Experience

not bad but the package installer can get a little bit grumpy in sandisk installer See More

Top Pro

Highly customized interface

You already have most of the customization done for you out of the box. See More

Top Pro

Nice UI

Comes with a good UI with almost all DEs. See More

See All

Ubuntu

Top Pro

Suitable for desktop use and as a complete programming environment

Top Con

Tracking

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

One Design LLC's Experience

Ubuntu was nice. Great UI and layout, but had a few slow moments, especially because of my much older hardware. Budgie is my favorite. See More

Specs

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

Default Desktop Environment:GNOME

Package Manager:Debian Package Manager, Snap Store

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

See All Specs

Top Pro

Large repositories

As one of the most popular Linux distributions, Ubuntu has free sotware repositories of considerable size and quality. They're also kept reasonably up to date. See More

Top Con

Bloated

Being a full-featured desktop OS with many pre-installed programs (with their needed dependencies), Ubuntu is one of the most bloated linux-based desktop OS's. See More

HumblePeitho's Experience

Highly customisable without breaking all the system; there’s almost always a way to go back whence needed. See More

Top Pro

Great support

It's easy to find solutions online. See More

Top Con

Heavy, and therefore slow, on older computers

SharpVulturnus's Experience

It has inbuilt compiler for c,c++,python.So that one can use it without installing.. It's Font "Ubuntu" is also nice.. See More

Top Pro

It just works

Ubuntu works out of the box and it is easy to use. If you do not like tweaking your box, Ubuntu is a good solution. See More

Top Con

Canonical (author) is proprietary

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

ConsiderateCicolluis's Experience

Ubuntu 20.04 is stable. Very fast and have a large community. See More

Top Pro

Debian-based

Ubuntu is based on the pretty stable and respected Debian Linux distribution. Debian has one of the better package management systems, and all of Debian's package management tools work in Ubuntu. 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

PowerfulSuleviae's Experience

It is really good that you can find support online,it is friendly for a first-time linux user and it has a great programming environment See More

Top Pro

Both productive and simple

Not minimal but okayish in terms of power and simplicity. Also debian based Ubuntu is more stable that RedHat based alternative's. Backed by Canonical, security and updates are guaranteed. See More

Top Con

Relatively high system requirements

The default GNOME 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

PersonablePuhaorangi's Experience

Easy to setup and use, free, has more advanced development tools by default as well. See More

Top Pro

Very stable

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

gokul govinthan's Experience

ubundu is a live os or not See More

Top Pro

Looks good

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

Top Con

Deletes manually installed packages upon upgrade

Upon upgrade Ubuntu cleans old packages, including manually installed packages that are still maintained and available in the repos. It doesn't allow to choose single packages. You can either remove all or none. See More

NicePaidia's Experience

Easy to install and maintain. See More

Top Pro

Large collection of free and high quality software

Top Con

Canonical does not respect Ubuntu users' preferences

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

ResponsiveEidothea's Experience

Fantastic 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

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

ShojiVR's Experience

GNU Grup v2.2 beta cause windows loader error See More

Top Pro

Cares about stable drivers

Top Con

A tweaked Gnome version

Instead of original Gnome desktop with Ubuntu you get a tweaked Gnome and most of the tweaks makes user experience worse. See More

Top Pro

Great Long Term Support release schedule (2 years)

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

Top Con

Random system errors may pop up

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

Treats desktop like a testing environment

Examples are Unity vs. Gnome, X vs. Wayland, Software Center vs. Software Boutique, apt vs. snap. 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

Forces unsupported upgrades

By removing old repos, Ubuntu forces people to perform unsupported upgrades. See More

Top Pro

Company behind it

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

Top Con

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

Stable

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

Top Con

Market share vs. benefit

Canonical only cares about market share. They are all over the place and have no particular advantages for the users in either of the fields. Like desktop, server, cloud, mobile (touch), ARM. 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

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

Developed by major company - Canonical...

Linux distros are great but what happens when the developers just choose to abandon their hobby project? Take Antergos for example, one day super polished desktop OS, the next day the lead developer just throws it in! It's better to use a Linux distribution that has financial backing at-least. Ubuntu, Fedora, Opensuse, Elementary OS... See More

Top Con

Terrible design

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

Splits the Debian community

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

score 469 · Accepted Answer

Arch

Top Pro

With AUR you are almost guaranteed to get the software you need

Pretty much every software built for Linux finds its way in Arch User Repository ( AUR ). Makes finding and getting cliche software a lot easier and quicker! See More

Top Con

Difficult to install

You need to read the Arch Wiki and determine how you want your system to work. There is no one-size-fits-all graphical installer. See More

Muhammad Shammaas's Experience

too hard See More

Specs

Based On:Independent

Default Desktop Environment:N/A

Package Manager:Pacman

Release Schedule:Rolling

See All Specs

Top Pro

Uses one of the best package managers

Arch has pacman--definitely one of the best available package managers, arguably better-liked than even Debian's well-respected apt. See More

Top Con

Not ready out of the box

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

TrustingCarmanor's Experience

arch is the best See More

Top Pro

You make your box what you want it to be

Arch is extremely customizable so you can make it look and work pretty much as u want. Be it Desktop Environment, Window Manager, Boot manager, or anything. Customizability is one of Arch's greatest strengths. It's like a piano, it have a beginning and an end, but possibilities are endless. 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

SuccinctAtai's Experience

Been using Arch for about a year. It can be supremely stable and very fast on the same hardware compared to other distributions. It can also be a massive pain in the back side. I like it better than Debian and I’ve been on Debian for 11 years. See More

Top Pro

You can choose your own desktop and window manager

You can make your desktop what you want it to be. Light-weight or fully featured one. See More

Top Con

Not for the faint of heart

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

Electrux Redsworth's Experience

Delightful experience to have Arch on desktop. Best features of linux along with the latest kernels and packages. Plus, it teaches a lot about Linux OS as well! See More

Top Pro

Rolling release system

Updates are continuously delivered and installed as needed. There are no numbered releases of Arch, so you get updates as soon as developers publish them. 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

One Design LLC's Experience

I could not understand the installation process for Arch. It booted into a Grub screen with no commands or instructions on what to do right after. 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

No Official Graphical Installer

There is no official graphical installer for Arch. Anarchy Linux is an unofficial graphical installer for Arch. There are also Arch derivatives such as Manjaro and ArcoLinux that have graphical installers. See More

JJC 133's Experience

I have used Linux for two years and this this the OS I keep coming back to. See More

Top Pro

Very stable

By default, only the bare necessities are installed, so there is very little running that can crash. Also, pacman gives you full control of what packages are updated and when. See More

Top Con

Highly egotistical community

DreamerUttu's Experience

It's really badly documented. In my opinion, Gentoo's AMD64 Handbook has a much better layout. At least you don't have to go through literal dozens of redirects just to figure one thing out. Then, there's the terrible people in the community. In the forums, people can get ridiculed for asking so-called "stupid questions". That sounds more like "bullying" than "community", but I'll leave that for you to decide. And finally, there's the problem of accidentally bricking your system by trying to upgrade packages. What the heck? 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

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

CaringYeomra's Experience

Using Arch for a decade. I have tried many OS. I always come back there. You get what you want it's limitless. No more no less. There is as many Arch environnements as Arch users to fit every needs. No bloat, unless you wished. Bleeding edge softwares, Kernel control, faster than light, super stable. The AUR is a beauty. Probably the most powerful OS out there. Oh yes and I almost forgot... It's free. See More

Top Pro

Fast, high performance

Tried and tested, Arch is the fastest daily use distro in both average daily tasks as well as boot time. 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

TrustworthyChukwu's Experience

Arch is capable of anything with its super fast pacman and flexible arch user repository. See More

Top Pro

Vanilla packages

Packages that come with software are easily available. See More

Top Con

Configurations are required to make it work like you want it to

Arch comes in a very barebones form ( literally just console at first ). You are required to install everything that you want. Some packages are also required to be configured by yourself to make them as you would like them to be. Arch Wiki does help a lot with this though. See More

ExceptionalAtlacoya's Experience

Arch install with Antergos simplify the process. See More

Top Pro

Stripped down to the bone

Since its stripped down. its fast and you dont have to deal with bloatware. See More

Top Con

Prone to breaking

Arch Linux installations can break after installing updates which requires manually typing commands in a TTY to fix it. See More

EnchantingErlik's Experience

Not that hard to install/maintain if you read the wiki. Lightweight. Pretty hot. See More

Top Pro

Great learning experience

Arch provides top insight into the operating system and how everything works together. Thus providing a great option to go from beginner to advanced with little hassle. Also without too much waste of time (for example compared to Gentoo, where everything has to be compiled from scratch). As a matter of fact it provides a lot of insight on the way operating systems work and are stored in general. Not only Arch or Linux. See More

Top Con

Not really for desktop

More like for posting screenshots on Reddit. See More

ExpertPhantasos's Experience

Use it about 2 years and i don't want to hear about windows and hackintosh anymore. See More

Top Pro

Lightweight

Arch starts out in CLI and you only install what you really need. Therefore it uses less storage and can be set up to be easy on resources. See More

Top Con

Uses Systemd

Why Systemd is horrible can be found here and here. You can't change to not using it. See More

DazzlingPhantasos's Experience

Amazing See More

Top Pro

Fast and simple package management

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

Top Con

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

NonchalantGanymede's Experience

Absolutely positive experience if you are comfortable with command line 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

Instability can be an issue

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

TrustworthyAnteros's Experience

no 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

No support for multiple versions of the same package

In development sometimes there is a need to switch between different versions of the same package. In mainstream distributions such as this this is often solved ad hoc by each package. However there are systems that support such use case at the first place. See More

Top Pro

It is Linux at the core

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

Top Con

Occasional upstream package bugs

Most package maintainers look for issues that the packages might have ispecifically for arch. Which means if a package has a bug that applies to all linux distros regardless of the flavor, the maintainer may not be able to: A) catch it before pushing a update or B) have to wait for the packages developers to fix it. This is a minor issue because most issues are often patched before the end of the day if many users rely on it, or if its a less used package there will be specific troubleshooting instructions on the arch site. See More

Top Pro

Excellent package management with the AUR

The AUR is a repository with a very extensive catalogue of build/install scripts that are contributed by users. While these scripts are inherently less secure than conventional packages maintained by a distro's authors, it's still way easier to verify the security of install scripts than it would be to write them yourself. It's very usefull. See More

Top Con

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

Arch knowledge works for other distros

Since Arch is very vanilla and provides a vast range of applications and tools, what you learn with Arch and read in the Arch Wiki works with many other distros too. 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

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 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

On average only 1 manual intervention needed a year now

The comments about issues with upgrades are over exaggerated. Those comments assume that : A) They happen often, B) you are using a specific package with an issue, C) that package maintainers can't release a patch to the package that will work around the issue for you, and that D) Manual intervention or system recovery from such issues is hard to fix. On average once or twice a year a user may have to cut and paste some commands in the terminal to fix an issue, but that's about it. Additionally any system recovery required from such missed interventions is easy, just follow the wiki and make a live USB if you're using a desktop or laptop. 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

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

Works only on AMD64

It is the only official supported instruction set of CPUs. 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

Pacman is a slow package manager

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

Top Pro

Highly customizable

Taylor the system to your needs. See More

Top Pro

Simplicity is absolutely the principal objective behind Arch development

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

Top Pro

Completely signed repos by default

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

Very versatile

You can use Arch on your PC, notebook, Raspberries, bay tail devices, as daily operating system, as server operating system, as operating system for your media player, your firewall, your router, you can install it natively on your tablet, security experts can add BlackArch functionality,... See More

Top Pro

Good overall system quality

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

Top 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

Huge Repositories

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

Top Pro

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 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

Vast variety of use and purpose

With its vast repos, Arch offers tons of applications for all kinds of use. See More

Top Pro

No need for external repos

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

Top Pro

Great for low performance hardware

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

Top Pro

Helpful 3rd party installers

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

Top Pro

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

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

Low maintenance

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

Top Pro

Incredibly easy to manage

Arch is very simple to maintain, backup and in rare cases repair and recover. For example, the manual to recover your boot manager is already in the install guide! See More

Top Pro

Highly reliable upgrades

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

Top Pro

Ultimate mid-range OS for tinkering

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

Top Pro

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 Pro

Highly reliable and stable build

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

Top Pro

Great hardware support

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

Top Pro

Good for ricing for r/unixporn

Top Pro

Fully modular

You can add or remove DE's, WM's, or login managers. All without breaking your system, some other distros can't say that. See More

Top Pro

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

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

Top Pro

Easier to review the distribution's packages

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

Top Pro

Experts working on the packages

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

Top Pro

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

Multilib support is just around the corner

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

Top Pro

Works very well for beginners

Top Pro

It is as you want it to be

You can configure it to be just a tty remote machine server with just one simple task and nothing more. But you can also configure it to be the fancier OS never seen not even in Matrix. Arch Linux is what you want it to be. See More

Top Pro

Arch Linux Archive lets you choose your own update schedule

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

See All

What is the best laptop OS?

The Best 1 of 62 OptionsWhy?

Arch

My Recommendation for Arch

My Recommendation for Arch

With AUR you are almost guaranteed to get the software you need

Difficult to install

Uses one of the best package managers

Not ready out of the box

You make your box what you want it to be

Manual install process

You can choose your own desktop and window manager

Not for the faint of heart

Rolling release system

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

Excellent documentation

No Official Graphical Installer

Very stable

Highly egotistical community

A package for almost everything

Documentation only makes sense if you know how to adjust it

Fast, high performance

Too many package upgrades that require manual intervention

Vanilla packages

Configurations are required to make it work like you want it to

Stripped down to the bone

Prone to breaking

Great learning experience

Not really for desktop

Lightweight

Uses Systemd

Fast and simple package management

Fragile packages

Arch Linux Wiki

Instability can be an issue

No restrictive handholding, pure control over everything

No support for multiple versions of the same package

It is Linux at the core

Occasional upstream package bugs

Excellent package management with the AUR

Rolling release requires bandwidth

Arch knowledge works for other distros

Problems with driver/kernel/gpu consistency

An opportunity to improve

Multiple Aur helpers

On average only 1 manual intervention needed a year now

Lost its way

Helpful community

Works only on AMD64

As slim or copious as you want it

Pacman is a slow package manager

Highly customizable

Simplicity is absolutely the principal objective behind Arch development

Completely signed repos by default

Support for a large variety of hardware

Very versatile

Good overall system quality

Helpful for understanding how Linux is installed

Huge Repositories

Rolling updates

Simple by design

Vast variety of use and purpose

No need for external repos

Great for low performance hardware

Helpful 3rd party installers

Great security out of the box

Flexible upgrades

Low maintenance

Incredibly easy to manage

Highly reliable upgrades

Ultimate mid-range OS for tinkering

Minimal

Highly reliable and stable build

Great hardware support

Good for ricing for r/unixporn

Fully modular

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

Easier to review the distribution's packages

Experts working on the packages

Supports various desktop environments and window managers