If not Ubuntu ~ which distro?

[sports fan Matt]

If ya'll don't use Ubuntu (with the many flavors) what distro do you use? So far I have Mint running on two laptops for the aesthetics. I like the look of Vera and while I CAN change the layout, I feel like Mint suits me better so far. Anyone feel the same about snaps?

[Rubi1200]

I don't think there is a right or wrong answer to this (at least I hope not). I have used many distros over the years, too many to recall at the moment.

I would say that right now one of my favorites is Bodhi Linux, which I have running on a 1GB Intel Atom netbook.

I also like using ArcoLinux, Fedora, Debian, and I keep coming back from time to time to the very first distro I ever tried, Knoppix.

[guiverc]

I don't think I get through a single day without touching at least two operating systems.

Most of my time each day will of course be spent on my primary desktop, which is dual boot, and contains Ubuntu development release (ie. mantic currently), and has the dual boot option being the current LTS (ie. jammy or 22.04).

Today, and in fact most of the last almost two weeks I've been using the Ubuntu Desktop (GNOME), however my install was a Lubuntu system (ie. LXQt) initially, on which I added Xubuntu-desktop (Xfce), the Ubuntu-desktop (GNOME) that I'm currently using.. ie. is a multi-desktop system (multiple DEs or flavors co-exist on the same install)

The machine I'm using now, that I use 1-3 hours a day runs Debian testing (ie. trixie currently). I'm logged into KDE Plasma currently, though its not my usual desktop (this system is actually more bloated than my primary machine, with >20 different DE & WM options at login to choose from).

The machine I usually touch last in the day is another Debian system, but it's a stable system, but I've also used a laptop today for awhile and it was a jammy/22.04 system (using Lubuntu from memory; but I consider Lubuntu a Ubuntu system anyway; it'll have multiple desktops installed too, most my systems are)

I'm very much stick to Ubuntu & Debian for what I use (I have other systems, but they're rarely used). I started using Debian GNU/Linux before the Ubuntu project actually started; though didn't start using Ubuntu until 2010 - so was rather late to Ubuntu.

(I've used RedHat/Fedora awhile, was using OpenSuSE for many years - Ubuntu replaced those.. and have always had a thumb-drive with Knoppix on it !)

[lpoli]

After years of testing and deploying many distros (mostly Debian based, and FreeBSD), I've found a solid solution in Mint with XFCE for desktop and Ubuntu Server for this purposes.

The reasons, respectively, are because of the styling and the stability and support.

[TheFu]

If ya'll don't use Ubuntu (with the many flavors) what distro do you use? So far I have Mint running on two laptops for the aesthetics. I like the look of Vera and while I CAN change the layout, I feel like Mint suits me better so far. Anyone feel the same about snaps?

I separate the idea of distro from the gui. The GUI is just another program to be loaded, configured, selected. The OS is not the GUI.

Most of my systems are running ubuntu server. No GUI. Some of these are VMs while others are LXC containers.

Some systems run debian without any GUI.

Some systems run Ubuntu Server with a light window manager setup. I got tired of the bloat from all the DEs. They load 50 huge GUI programs that I'll never use, seldom the GUI programs I prefer.
My main desktop is a Linux Mint 21.1 with the GUI removed, rather has fvwm installed as the Window Manager. It is light, fast, completely customizable and I don't have to relearn the wheel every 2 years because some GUI program manager got a hair in their **** about "new" or "change" being better.

I still remember running Linux in 4MB of RAM systems using 20MB of storage AND having a great GUI. The idea that a system needs GB of RAM and 35GB of storage to be useful is slightly offensive. More code means more bugs. Every programmer knows that. If the code is 100x larger, then there are 100x more bugs.

I have great dislike of snaps, except for very specific needs, which I generally don't have. Until there is local control over the constraints applied, snaps will be something that I avoid. This was THE primary reason I moved to Linux Mint. IT wasn't the GUI. It wasn't dislike of APT or Canonical. It was the strong push, nearly mandated use of snaps, that forced me to switch.

I'd hoped that lxd under Debian would be my way out. I really like lxd, but Canonical runs that project and only releases it as a snap package. Just this week, Canonical announced they were pulling lxd back from F/LOSS and going to do development in-house. https://www.phoronix.com/news/Canonical-Pulls-In-LXD That move is very concerning.

The Linux Containers project announced today that the LXD project is no longer part of them but Canonical has now moved from the source repository from the LXC Git repository to under Canonical's GitHub account. The LXD website is also no longer to be on LinuxContainers.org but will be under Ubuntu.com. Canonical is also taking control of the LXD YouTube channel, LXD community forum sunset in favor of Ubuntu Discourse, and the LXD CI infrastructure will move under Canonical management.

https://linuxcontainers.org/lxd/ has a different statement, but basically the same. Seems that Canonical wants LXD under their control and might be trying to de-FLOSS it.

[exploder]

Debian 12. Problem free, stable and no snaps!

[CharlesA]

I'm running Debian on all my Linux boxes unless I specifically need Ubuntu for something.

[Dennis N]

I keep and use 4 top-tier distros on this computer (multi-booted) and only use the Gnome Desktop. There are pros and cons for each. In no particular order.

1) Fedora
2) Manjaro
3) Ubuntu
4) Debian (newly added).

[DuckHook]

I'm going to approach your question from a slightly different angle:

I've tried out so many distros over the years (decades even? yeesh!) and I like pretty much all of them. I still play with a few from time to time in either VMs or containers. I've settled on Ubuntu for all of my boxes not because it is inherently "superior", but only because of the following:

1. I'm completely familiar with it, so it is very comfortable: like a pair of old well‑loved slippers.
2. I have come to rely on LXD which is most completely implemented and documented in Ubuntu.
3. Because of its popularity, it is easy to find help in the form of tutorials, examples, blogs and, not least, these forums.

None of these considerations are deal breakers. It wouldn't take me long to get comfortable with another distro, LXD is available in many other distros, and distros like Arch have even better technical documentation and support.

If Ubuntu should do something that really offends me, I would not find it difficult to migrate to another distro. That's one of the most valuable and wonderful aspects of the Linux ecosystem that we don't appreciate enough—that we are not locked in to any one company—unlike those poor proprietary addicts who must suffer major withdrawal pain to make such switches.

To be frank, I've never understood the overwrought, even vehement disagreements among Linux people over which distro is "better". To me it's like getting all bent out of shape about whether a Ferrari, Maserati or Lamborghini is better. Compared to driving around in a Microsoft Chevy, such disagreements are surreal.

[lammert-nijhof]

I'm from May 1945. Ubuntu forever. My Host OS is a minimal install of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and I run all stuff in Virtualbox VMs:

- Xubuntu 22.04 LTS for all communication apps with snaps for WhatsApp, Skype and Messenger.
- Ubuntu 16.04 ESM exclusively for banking (encrypted by VBox) running the latest stable snaps for Firefox and LibreOffice (Calc). Ubuntu 16.04 already had snap support out-of the box.
- Ubuntu Studio 20.04 LTS for multimedia.
- Ubuntu 22.04 LTS for try-outs and experiments.
- Windows XP Home to play the wma copies of my CDs and LPs.
- Windows 11 Pro just in case

For distro try-outs I have the following VMs; Linux Mint, Zorin OS; Manjaro; Fedora; OpenSuse Leap and Debian 12.0.

As a collector I have all Windows releases between 1.04 (1987) to Windows 11 Pro (2023) and all Ubuntu LTS releases from 6.06 LTS to 22.04 LTS; the first 4.10 and my first 5.04. I also try the development edition of Ubuntu and some flavors and I run the snap based immutable Ubuntu Core 22.04 prototype in a Virtualbox VM too