Favorite Linux desktop distribution

How many of you use Linux as upposed to Windows? I don't mean a distro for learning linux, this is more targeted to the people already comfortable with it. I'm not talking about servers or at work, I mean do you use linux on your PC? I recently moved away from Windows on my PC and I haven't stopped at a particular distro so I'm exploring my options. I really like Mint and this may be my final choice but I was wondering what others think and why.

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phonic

Mint for desktop, Debian or CentOS for server.

datgirl

Everything from Ubuntu, Kali, Mint, CentOS, to OpenBSD. ert cetera....

WafflesAndRootbeer

I dig Ubuntu LTS but I'm worried about the direction of the OS given how they are moving away from the common core software that other distros share. I will definitely build a SteamOS box in the next two years and use that for gaming.

vCole

I was using Fedora 19 however I switched to Mint last night.

ally_uk

Desktop Wise I run Mint nice clean interface, easy to run out of the box no messing about, I also run centOS as a dev box, I basically have a archive of all my Linux tutorials on there and I use it to practice with Python and BASH Scripting. Again If I am running services then it would either be CentOS, Ubuntu Server or Debian my personal preference is Centos don't ask me why maybe because I am more familiar with YUM

I see alot of people run Arch, What is so good about it? any good tutorials?

petedude

Tried some more 'buntus today as I might have to downsize the machine I'm running VMs on and I hate dealing with this one particular Eclipse/Unity bug in Ubuntu Desktop.

Lubuntu-- quick, lite, easy but didn't seem to want to install Vbox addons.
Kubuntu-- real purty, but seems to need lots of RAM to work well. Fast once you give it some RAM, though.
Xubuntu-- nice GUI, fast, lite. Seems to be the winner for now.

YLTO

lamha88 wrote: »

I have mint on my laptop, and most of the computers in the Computer Science building at my uni run either Mint or Ubuntu. Mint is pretty user friendly and picks up drivers without an issue. The main problem I have is getting switchable graphics to work on my lenovo Y460.

I have the same laptop as yours. Do you have any idea on how to get switchable graphics to work? It tends to overheat itself and got shut down.

W Stewart

ally_uk wrote: »

Desktop Wise I run Mint nice clean interface, easy to run out of the box no messing about, I also run centOS as a dev box, I basically have a archive of all my Linux tutorials on there and I use it to practice with Python and BASH Scripting. Again If I am running services then it would either be CentOS, Ubuntu Server or Debian my personal preference is Centos don't ask me why maybe because I am more familiar with YUM

I see alot of people run Arch, What is so good about it? any good tutorials?

The selling points of arch are that it's rolling release(no distro upgrades), and it's bleeding edge although there's a stable kernel version if you're not into the bleeding edge stuff. It's also a very minimalistic distro meaning you partition and format your disk from the command line and install the base system with a helper script from the live cd. A base system consists of a terminal and a network connection much like a server in an enterprise environment. The benefit of this is that you become very familiar with everything that's on your system since you installed it yourself. While a lot of people feel like this necessarily gives them more control over there operating system, I wouldn't say any other version of linux takes away that control since they don't prevent you from uninstalling anything. Most mainstream distros just put a lot of junk on your system that you may not want or need. some people will tell you that arch is a distro for people who don't have the time or patience to use gentoo and they may be right. Arch has a wiki on there website that will tell you anything you could possibly want to know about arch.

jmritenour

Fedora 19. I have a Windows 7 installation I boot into to play games, but I'm starting to give PlayOnLinux a try, and a I have a feeling within the next year or 7, the Windows partition will be gone.