Best and Worst Linux Distros of 2013

[linuxyogi]

Try Manjaro Linux.

+1 for me

I have used Manjaro for almost a year. The problem with Manjaro is its package management. When I tried to install updates they failed to install displaying different errors in individual cases. Then I had to go to its IRC or forums to find a solution.

I also found their repositories to be very unreliable. They remain down very often.

[ajbozdar]

If someone held a gun to my head, it would be a hard choice between Fedora and Ubuntu.

Do you think Ubuntu fulfill engineering thirst? It's hard to program embedded systems using Ubuntu.

[germanix]

Apart from the dbus-deamon bug (100% cpu on startup) in Ubuntu 13.10 I am quite happy with Ubuntu. Tried OpenSuse (KDE)for the first time this year and was pleasantly surprised. Beautifull desktop, very stable, works out of the box. Definitely one of my favorates for 2013

[ajbozdar]

More and more guys are getting interested using OpenSuse. I would like to give a try.

[monkeybrain20122]

I have used Manjaro for almost a year. The problem with Manjaro is its package management. When I tried to install updates they failed to install displaying different errors in individual cases. Then I had to go to its IRC or forums to find a solution.

I also found their repositories to be very unreliable. They remain down very often.

In manjaro I would prefer to use the terminal to update and install stuffs than to use pacmac or octopie. Yaourt is really easy to use and it gives you more info than needed.

[monkeybrain20122]

If someone held a gun to my head, it would be a hard choice between Fedora and Ubuntu.

For me the choice is easy, definitely Ubuntu. I triple boot three linux distros and Fedora is my second system. I like it, but for many things Ubuntu is just so much smoother out of the box. I was trying to get a second compiler and switch between it and the default, in Ubuntu it is so easy (sudo apt-get install and then update-alternatives or use galternatives to switch) In Fedora is is a bloody pain, first have to build it from source (with numerous errors along the way) and then use some obscure script to make the system aware of the second compiler and have to switch at compile time.

My experience of getting gcc 4.4 pretty much sums up my feeling of Fedora vs Ubuntu. Pros: In general much more up to date software in Fedora Cons: limited choices in comparison and it is a lot more hassles to do things outside normal use case in Fedora, it takes more tweakings to get in working shape. The package manager sucks, first thing I do in any Fedora installation would be to remove Packagekit (or it runs in the background ALL THE TIME) and install yumex, but Yumex is still no match for synaptic (or phonon if you use Kubuntu)

And oh selinux is a pain. I don't feel like having to read the long documentation in order and create a syslinux profile to start using the system so I just set it to permissive mode, otherwise it pretty much blocks everything from running. I am not running a server, I am not CIA, I don't need that kind of over zealous security.

So in conclusion Fedora is good for specific purposes but as a general desktop OS it is too inflexible comparing to Ubuntu

[linuxyogi]

I am paranoid about security so I tried Qubes OS once but unfortunately it didn't detect my NIC card.

http://qubes-os.org/trac

Unfortunately they dont maintain an IRC channel. I havent checked if they have a forum.

Its the idea that attracts me.

http://www.rationallyparanoid.com/articles/qubes.html

[Linuxratty]

I usually just use Ubuntu, but I have used fedora in the past and liked it a good bit.

[ajbozdar]

I triple boot three linux distros and Fedora is my second system. So in conclusion Fedora is good for specific purposes but as a general desktop OS it is too inflexible comparing to Ubuntu

I'd like to know how do you triple boot three Linux distros, without losing smoothness. Is it also possible to triple boot having windows as triple? I can't agree more that Ubuntu is the best for family use, but professionally Fedora hits the Ubuntu hard. Fedora is much more productive. Ubuntu mission is to replace Windows. If you talk about errors, and compiler problems then we never left Windows if we never had any problem there. :)

Thanks.

[Hodevah]

I'd like to know how do you triple boot three Linux distros, without losing smoothness. Is it also possible to triple boot having windows as triple? I can't agree more that Ubuntu is the best for family use, but professionally Fedora hits the Ubuntu hard. Fedora is much more productive. Ubuntu mission is to replace Windows. If you talk about errors, and compiler problems then we never left Windows if we never had any problem there. Thanks.

Yes, it is possible to triple-boot without Windows. I have 5 linux distros on my hard drive. I could have kept my prior Windows install but I wanted to completely remove myself from Windows and some of the headaches it brings. Just my 2 cents.