Linux flavors - opinions

[MikeB]

Thinking about setting a Linux environment desktop - leaning towards Ubuntu since it’s on the Pi and I already have some some familiarity with it there.

What do you all suggest and why - Pros and Cons.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to respond.

MikeB

[voffka]

Hello Mike,

Probably a good start could be to consult https://distrowatch.com/ and see different reviews. Depending on your level and needs the choice for distro varies.

[xr_a_y]

Hi,

i've always prefer Debian (or Debian like distro), feels more like a server / development system and very stable (even the testing version).
I think Ubuntu is OK nowadays, I use it on some hardware, mostly the newest ones because it often shows a rapid compatibility with new stuff.
In the past I used redhat like distro, mainly centOS and some mandrake a long time ago but I really never liked them, I guess this is only a matter of taste.
I never used slackware stuff ...

Most linux distro are really good today and if you don't target very old hardware debian/ubuntu or redhat/centOS will be really fun to use. For very old hardware you can think about mint, lubuntu, or maybe even build your own gentoo ...

I mean what do you need for a desktop env that one of them won't provide ? You'll get firefox or chrome, vlc, qtcreator, apache or ngnix, ssh, thunderbird, openoffice, ...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... meline.svg

[smatovic]

Thinking about setting a Linux environment desktop - leaning towards Ubuntu since it’s on the Pi and I already have some some familiarity with it there.

What do you all suggest and why - Pros and Cons.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to respond.

MikeB

I can recommend Ubuntu, using it since 2005, previously used Suse and Red Hat.

Pros:
- LTS version with 5 years of updates
- good support via users community
- distro upgrades work fine

Cons:
- sometimes they try to implement their own thingies
- Ubuntu does not follow strictly the open source software approach

--
Srdja

[Dann Corbit]

I use Ubuntu, but one thing about it really bothers me.
You have to jump through hoops in order to get a modern gcc compiler on it.
The one you will collect by installing the standard programming packages is some crusty, ancient 4.xx gcc from a decade ago.
(No, really).
I was able to get 7.xx by looking around and finding an experimental distribution.

The enormous irony here is that I am running gcc 9.xx on my Windows PCs using MSYS2.
And you get it automatically as the native gcc compiler system and not an add-on.

[smatovic]

I use Ubuntu, but one thing about it really bothers me.
You have to jump through hoops in order to get a modern gcc compiler on it.
The one you will collect by installing the standard programming packages is some crusty, ancient 4.xx gcc from a decade ago.
(No, really).
I was able to get 7.xx by looking around and finding an experimental distribution.

The enormous irony here is that I am running gcc 9.xx on my Windows PCs using MSYS2.
And you get it automatically as the native gcc compiler system and not an add-on.

Not sure about your version, but Ubuntu 18.04 offers gcc 4.8, gcc 5 , gcc 6, gcc 7 and gcc 8 for installation:

https://packages.ubuntu.com/bionic/devel/

Code: Select all

srdja@ubuntu:~$ dpkg -l |grep gcc
ii  gcc                                           4:7.4.0-1ubuntu2.3                           amd64        GNU C compiler
ii  gcc-7                                         7.4.0-1ubuntu1~18.04.1                       amd64        GNU C compiler
ii  gcc-7-base:amd64                              7.4.0-1ubuntu1~18.04.1                       amd64        GCC, the GNU Compiler Collection (base package)
ii  gcc-8                                         8.3.0-6ubuntu1~18.04.1                       amd64        GNU C compiler
ii  gcc-8-base:amd64                              8.3.0-6ubuntu1~18.04.1                       amd64        GCC, the GNU Compiler Collection (base package)
ii  gcc-8-base:i386                               8.3.0-6ubuntu1~18.04.1                       i386         GCC, the GNU Compiler Collection (base package)
ii  gcc-mingw-w64                                 7.3.0-11ubuntu1+20.2build1                   all          GNU C compiler for MinGW-w64
ii  gcc-mingw-w64-base                            7.3.0-11ubuntu1+20.2build1                   amd64        GNU Compiler Collection for MinGW-w64 (base package)
ii  gcc-mingw-w64-i686                            7.3.0-11ubuntu1+20.2build1                   amd64        GNU C compiler for MinGW-w64 targeting Win32
ii  gcc-mingw-w64-x86-64                          7.3.0-11ubuntu1+20.2build1                   amd64        GNU C compiler for MinGW-w64 targeting Win64

--
Srdja

[zullil]

I use Ubuntu, but one thing about it really bothers me.
You have to jump through hoops in order to get a modern gcc compiler on it.
The one you will collect by installing the standard programming packages is some crusty, ancient 4.xx gcc from a decade ago.
(No, really).
I was able to get 7.xx by looking around and finding an experimental distribution.

The enormous irony here is that I am running gcc 9.xx on my Windows PCs using MSYS2.
And you get it automatically as the native gcc compiler system and not an add-on.

Works for me: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-toolchain ... buntu/test

[Evert]

I used Gentoo for a long time. It’s neat, portage is a great package manager and you do get to tweak everything. Keeping the ststem up to date became a bit of a chore though (you can mostly put it on a cron job, but still...) and updating outdated systems isn’t a thing. Switching to a new version of gcc is a royal pain because it means your computer spends the rest of the day bootstrapping the compiler and recompiling everything.
I switched to OpenSuSE Tumbleweed a year ago, it’s been good. Everything seems to work fine, and I do like the YaST tool for managing software. I’m not a fan of SuSE’s branding on the desktop though, so I took some time to revert everything to the stock settings. Not sure I like the direction Plasma is developing in, I might switch to something like Xfce for a desktop (I have that set up on my kid’s computer, since it’s too old to run Plasma and I actually like it a lot).
I also have Raspian on my Pi, but the most use it sees is running RetroPi.

[jdart]

I use xUbuntu, which is the Ubuntu distro with the xfce desktop as the GUI. I switched to that when Ubuntu rolled out the widely detested Unity desktop in one of their prior releases. Now xUbuntu is one of several standard supported Ubuntu "flavors" with different GUI options.

I can manage with the other distros such as CentOS and Debian, but admin tools, file locations, etc. are different, so I may fumble around a bit. IMO it's best to pick one you like, whatever that is, and use it enough so you get comfortable.

Re the remark about compilers. Maybe it used to be a problem but now in Ubuntu you can do:

sudo apt-get install gcc-8

and you get the gcc 8.x compiler alongside the system compiler. Just use "gcc-8" to run it. gcc-9 isn't packaged this way yet though.

--Jon

[lucasart]

Thinking about setting a Linux environment desktop - leaning towards Ubuntu since it’s on the Pi and I already have some some familiarity with it there.

What do you all suggest and why - Pros and Cons.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to respond.

MikeB

Noobs use linux mint. it's basically the works out of the box experience, plus al the debian/ubuntu repo.

Geeks use Arch for the opposite reason