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Ask HN: What Linux OS are you using for development and/or general use?

9 points by gatherhunterer ↗ HN
After the recent debacle with MacOS Catalina (I know, I should not have upgraded so soon) and some lesser-known issues such as crashes when waking from sleep when an external monitor is attached and failing to recognize external drives, I have decided to start "shopping" for a new operating system. IDE support is important but that is an easy box to check. I would also like support for video codecs as well as DRM-restricted video support and a healthy community of developers.

Most importantly, these Catalina issues have called attention to how little (if any) documentation there is for Apple software. Even the bug discussions are an anonymous void of complaints that are hard to follow. The responses are ordered by a "helpfulness" score so it takes some time to discern who is responding to whom. Good documentation and a more conventional discussion board would be very helpful.

I have started with Ubuntu 19.10 and it seems to do what I want it to do and I have had no issues so far. However, there is a lot to do with the customization options of Ubuntu and Ubuntu is just one of many available Linux operating systems.

I would appreciate input from anyone who has worked with a Linux OS as their daily driver.

7 comments

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eindiran
For a long time I did the distro hopping thing, before realizing it is pretty pointless (even if it is fun). Find one that works for you and stick with it. I'd recommend Ubuntu or Fedora (although I haven't used Fedora for the last 2 years or so) in a work environment, and maybe add Arch to the mix for a non-professional environment. Most of the feel of the OS is defined by the package manager + the desktop environment, so just choose a pair that you like and see if there is a well supported distro that has both (or just install the DE over the base distro).

For example, Xfce is a great DE that's available for Arch/Fedora/Ubuntu. If you have Xfce as the DE, the three distros will feel pretty similar aside from package management, so you'd just choose whether you like pacman, dnf, or apt better.

bediger4000
Arch. You stay on the bleeding edge for both security updates, and compiler and interpreter updates. Between the base/extra/community repositories, the AUR and the Arch wiki, you get reasonably good software and advice on what to do and how to install it.
apotatopot
After 11 years using and working with Linux, I settled on Slackware for my desktop, Debian for laptops.

Slackware because it's secure, stable, and I don't get caught up in all the silly gui changing and whatever that I used to. It's helped me learn a ton and comes with everything I need. Also, I like supporting the older distros.

Debian for most of the same reasons, but a little better support. Plus, it's all free software (with access to non), which I feel is important.

[dead] JohnClark1337
I use Linux Mint on my computer at home. It seems to support the hardware pretty well. The Cinnamon desktop environment is pretty nice and by default reminds me a lot of windows, however you can customize it how you want. Elementary OS is pretty and looks a lot like MacOS. I used Arch for a while and may go back to it again at some point, but right now I'm happy with just having something stable and unchanging.

the main thing I look for now is a distro that won't require a lot of tinkering if I ever feel like reinstalling it for whatever reason.

jjjbokma
Ubuntu 19.04 in a VM running on top of macOS.
catacombs
I distro hopped for a while before finally settling on Arch. I like how much control it gives me. Installation is a bit of a pain but, after doing it for several computers, the process gets easier.
ntw1103
I have been using Lubuntu 18.04 for a little over a year on my laptop. I chose it over other distros, as I didn't want to waste time looking for solutions to problems. Finding solutions to most problems, or desires for Ubuntu is pretty easy. I spent a couple weeks configuring everything the way I liked. I use KDE most of the time.

For IDE, I use https://vscodium.com/ For mdeia playback, I mostly use MPV https://mpv.io, except for DVDs, I use VLC for those. It takes a little setup(but a quick search can tell you how), but I use NTFS, exFAT,and ZFS. External drives haven't been an issue. I would recommend it, as the documentation is easy to find, so you don't waste time.