Still using Windows 7. Testing windows 10. Linux question.

[DA_TriggR4Ruger]

I have several computers I'm running, and it's been several years since I have played with Linux. What is the current best distro?

I gotta recertify some stuff coming up pretty soon and I want a good version to play with.

I hear Ubuntu is good... What makes it good and or better than the rest? I tried Manjaro but didn't get into it much...

 

[Salmoneye]

Ubuntu is heavy on libs (libraries), but slack on apps (applications)...It is also fairly good with hardware support...

That means that there are a lot of supporting files, but not many things that actually do 'work' for you right out of the box...

The effect is that you can add programs without having to find all the support files the 'program' needs to run...Adding programs is fairly simple and straightforward...

IMNSHO, there are better 'right-out-of-the-box' distros that will serve 95% of the computing public...Over the years I have found that a vast majority of the people who 'use' a computer, want it for checking eMail, doing a little surfing, and keeping track of recipes, taxes, etc...

Just about any modern Linux distro covers all those bases...

Try Mint...Heck, try a bunch of live CD distros...

I used to love Mepis, but it has not been in development for a while...Another I have not played with in a while that I used to like is PCLinuxOS...

One Live CD I always seem to come back to is Puppy...Small, boots fast, and has the ability to leave a small 'save' file on a Windows machine so that subsequent boots are fast, and retain any settings from before...A multitude of community supported versions...One should work for almost any PC made in the last 15 years...

http://distrowatch.com/

 

[DA_TriggR4Ruger]

Thanks for the info! And for the link. I've been intending to check out Fedora and Mint as well.

 

[BucolicBuffalo]

I was also a Mepis user. Switched to Linux Mint. Latest version was a painless installation. I do it as a dual boot usually but haven't been into Windows in years on this box. Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon is what I use on this machine. I was also a KDE fan in the past. But Cinnamon has been great.

Additional programs I use, which you can download from the repositories. Abiword. I use LibreOffice for the suite, but Abiword converts my documents to PDF's no problem. K3b. Audacity. Adobe Reader. Totem, or Videos. GIMP. Sound applet.

I have multiple sound cards and printers, for various reasons. I have nearly 300Gb of FLAC music files on other hard drives in the system. Created and edited with Audacity from vinyl records. I play back though a DAC with a tube into my old McIntosh MAC1900 receiver. It's been flawless.

If you are like most Linux users, you will play with several distributions before finding one that just suits you.

 

[Pat-inCO]

I was looking for a Linux distro for a friend that is not too technical. Mint
was excellent for him. I tried it for a year and am now back on Ubuntu
(14.04).

The switch back was not for a problem, but rather that the guys at System76
only load Ubuntu on new systems (bought a laptop and desktop).

Looking at both, I see no real problem either way. Personal preference is for
Ubuntu because I find it a little easier to work in terminal mode. Read that
as I'm lazy and don't want to go back and research any differences between
the two, and I have a lot of things set up for Ubuntu.

 

[wheelgun1958]

I'm running mint on my laptop. I have ubuntu on the desktop but mint seems to run smoother for me. I'm not a computer geek by any means, just want internet access and simple computing tasks.

Microsoft is the devil.

:twisted:

 

[Pat-inCO]

Microsoft is the devil. :twisted:

Is or is from? 8)

 

[noquarter]

I have been using Ubuntu exclusively for 6 years. Unless you are a computer game player, Linux is a good move (IMO). The more technical knowledge you have the more you will appreciate what Linux offers, but the modern distros are easy for the average user to install and run. My home network includes 2 desktops, 1 laptop and an Android tablet. Also a WD 2T NAS device for backups. It just works, it's stable (I worked in a shop where we used a Linux server for hardware design and testing and only rebooted it once in 7 years of 24/7 operation - because the hard drive failed), you don't have to go through virus checks every time you boot, lots of free software, etc. As someone else mentioned, download and burn the live CDs for the different distros and try them to see what you like.

 

[DA_TriggR4Ruger]

I don't do much gaming anymore... Some Diablo 3 and Guild Wars 2, some Skyrim... Ok I still enjoy surviving the zombie apocalypse in Left 4 Dead 2. Windows is valid on my gaming desktop. Considering the purchase of a gaming laptop. I am enjoying mint. But not much gaming support.

 

[wheelgun1958]

I don't do much gaming anymore... Some Diablo 3 and Guild Wars 2, some Skyrim... Ok I still enjoy surviving the zombie apocalypse in Left 4 Dead 2. Windows is valid on my gaming desktop. Considering the purchase of a gaming laptop. I am enjoying mint. But not much gaming support.

Have you downloaded Wine? It's a windows emulator allowing many windows programs to run.

 

[DA_TriggR4Ruger]

I've heard of it. I'll check it out. Wonder how it handles gaming.

Also wondering about actual virtual environments. Like virtual machine or something, that will actually allow an installation of Windows.