Original question by @POTOOOOOOOO@reddthat.com
My distro is the best because I customized it to my needs. Also because I used it for so long that I know how to do almost anything on it.
Hannah Montana Linux
No further arguments needed.
The one, the only, the legend…
What made Hannah Montana Linux so good (as a joke, and as a distro), was that it was actually good. XD Good fun. Good stuff. :D
I use Arch, btw, but I don’t consider it the best (yes I do.) I could easily transition to Fedora, for example (I would never do that,) and be completely happy (I would rather continually hit my head with the metal stapler gun on my desk.)
Does what I want and gets out of my way.
As it should.
NixOS. My entire config is source-controlled and I can easily roll back to a previous boot image if something breaks like cough Nvidia drivers. I also use it for my home router and all self-hosted services.
maniacally laughs while trying to avoid eye contact with 19k lines of nix config
Out of all the ways that I have tried in the past, to reproduce not just the initial state, but also the ongoing changes of a disto (ansible, saltstack, chef, bunch of Shell scripts) — nix is by far the shortest. With all of these technologies I would never have dreamed to do this for a single Maschine. But now it’s not only possible, but actually gasp enjoyable!
Mind you, if that is not the problem you want to solve, maybe install just the nix package manager in addition to your distribution, and learn to enjoy it without having to run your whole distribution this way.
You misunderstand! It has also turned into basically a hobby (and recently, a job, lol) to manage nix configs.
Those 19k lines are clean, well-structured and DRY, and do describe every little thing about ca. 30 machines.
I do not consider Arch the best. Artix is better because is is systemd-free. I have not switched yet.
(And there’s obarun, joborun, nemesis, shebang… er, and others out in the wild too that I forget… )
(I use an Artix stratum btw.)
Yeah. Considering Devuan over Debian for the same reason.
@bold_omi why are you looking for a distro that is systemD-free?
SystemD is bloated. Also, the age verification BS and acceptance of genAI commits are disqualifying.
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It would be awesome if it came with a KDE desktop environment.
If ZorinOS shipped without the Snaps, it might become my go-to, even though it’s Gnome. They did a wonderful job of customizing it with extensions to make it more like a classic desktop experience.
Do things not work out of the box on debian?
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All the good parts of Ubuntu have long since been integrated upstream. And Debian’s release cycle has increased a lot so you’re not stuck with old versions anymore.
CachyOS with NiriWM. Cachy is Arch with none of the install drama. The performance tuning makes it blazing fast on older hardware. Installs with no bloat.
Niri is superior to Hyprland in my opinion because it’s a scrolling tiling WM that is super intuitive and fast.
For server workloads, however, not much beats pure Debian. It’s stable, well supported, and has a huge package library.
I run CachyOS on my PC and Debian (12/13) on my servers. Everything you say is dead on.
Perfect set up for me.
Using Linux is not a dick measuring contest (and man I hate these threads asking “why is your distro the best?” - it feels like trolling and sowing division and grief to me. A bit like asking a mother “What is your favorite child?”.)
Ah, so you think your distro’s not the best. (jk).
As a recovering/relapsing distroholic, I feel like these threads are great for discovery. (And whimsical fun. Because you’re right, that it’s not a contest. So knowing this, can engage with the question playfully.)
Me linux distro is not the best. “The best” varies from person to person and also in accord to different positions in time.
Yup. To me, IRIX was the best, until I found GNU+Linux in late 2003 and becoming a windows refugee, not to IRIX, but to, not just GNU+Linux, but all freedom respecting operating systems and their distributions, and the potential of what they could become, as I and many others attempt to learn them, and help contribute to them. Many more itches to scratch yet. The best is yet to come, for each and all. :) Or so the philosophy inspires and aspires.
[PS… Oh I so would love a FOSS IRIX… a free software [“open source”] multi-arch IRIX revival though… beyond just NekoWare and whatever else is scattered around.]
[PPS, oh, and varies computer to computer too… I don’t use the same distro everywhere. Sometimes even several distros on the same computer. Quite right to point out the folly of the notion of there being a one-true-way “best”.]
Because it was my first distro that got me away from Windows. And yes, it’s Mint.
You mean my distros?
Different distros are the best for different purposes.
My Fedora is the best for my laptop because it just works and all the hardware is supported.
My Arch is the best because it’s a super fine tuned setup that prevents distractions and doesn’t waste memory or CPU doing things I don’t care about.
My mint is the best because it’s simple, stable, beautiful out of the box.
My debian is the best because servers are no nonsense.
My puppy Linux was the best when I was a developer for the distro because it was the smallest lightest and fastest distro I’ve ever used.
Etc.
Bazzite just works, it runs every game I have with zero fuss, it’s easy to run Windows programs / emulators / local LLMs, AND it’s basically unbreakable.
I can’t claim it’s the best, but it’s the best for me right now.
On a gaming laptop I’m using Aurora because KDE Plasma btw (:
Bazzite has a KDE version too. I think it is more popular then the GNOME version of bazzite actually. At least according to the results of the latest steam survey
Yep I use KDE-flavored Bazzite and actually forgot GNOME was even offered! It works deliciously. Came over from Windows last winter finally and boy, the UI alone is just so much nicer.
I had avoided KDE for years due to some multi-screen resolution issues back in the day.
I’d be running gnome, and install a half dozen plugins to make it look and feel closer to Windows It was just a personal preference. Every other update some plugin I was using would be broken. I’d replace it with another plug-in or uninstall it and wait for a fix. Fight fight fight fight fight fight. Some number of years later I tried KDE again, and I realized that it did exactly what I was trying to do in Gnome but it did it out of the box.
I don’t have anything against Gnome. The same way I don’t have anything against OS X’s “window manager” or even Windows 11’s “window manager” they’re just not my preference.
Bottom left navigation, thin, stacked app indicators, bottom right tray. Fractional scaling, widgets.
i’m using Alpine, but I’m not considering it as the best. It’s minimal, no bloat and doing all what I want.
I’ve been running Ubuntu Studio for almost a decade, but I’m pretty fed up with it. Maybe I’ll switch to Arch. I dunno. Having a turnkey media production distribution was handy. It did audio well. But with pipewire, that seems redundant now.
For your curiosity,
There’s also decibellinux. (Formerly known as Gentoo Studio) [Edit: aw. https://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/decibellinux.org?proto=https is currently down. … It’ll be back again.]
It’s not a full studio, just audio production focused (… so install GIMP, MyPaint, Blender, Inkscape, KDENLive, freecad, etc etc etc as needed).
Install as a stage4 gentoo install, following its instructions. It’s a little more fiddly and involved than Ubuntu Studio, offering all the gentoo advantages, like useflags, better availing more fine grain choice, and a little more opportunity to learn more about the system.
… As well as being great for [audio] creative tool discovery, and convenience of having [nearly] all the tools out of the box, just like Ubuntu Studio.
