Which Linux Distro

[kopite]

Hey all,

I've been using Linux in a server environment for years and dabbled a couple of times with a linux desktop but never really stuck with it long enough.

The past couple of days I was a bit bored so Installed Ubuntu on my desktop in a dual boot set up but I'm starting to get a bit frustrated with it. It seems really bloated with all the stuff included as standard and I was thinking of trying some other options.

Someone has suggested Mint but I was wondering what other ppl think

[virtuo]

I'll second giving Mint a spin. I put it on a low powered desktop for my Dad and he loves it. Nice and light and fairly easy to use. Definitely worth a shot.

[Dooms]

Mint is my desktop of choice over Ubuntu these days

[aidanjt]

Xubuntu is based on XFCE (more like classic Gnome 2), and Lubuntu is based on LXDE which is even more lightweight. There are other even lighter weight standalone window managers as well, and unofficial Ubuntu spins of those, too.

[Bagnaj97]

The problem with Mint is that they don't officially support upgrading between releases. Afaik it usually works, but the official line is that you should re-install. If you want to stay in Debian based land, perhaps give Debian itself a go? On the desktop Debian Testing is probably the way to go - a reasonable mix of stability and up-to-dateness.

If you're feeling more adventurous you could take a look at Arch. Your worry is that Ubuntu feels bloated, Arch starts off very minimalist and gives you more control over what's installed. It's also rolling release so there's no need to re-install it and you've pretty much always got the latest versions of things.

[Goobley]

I seem to recall not having any issue upgrading from mint 14 to 15, but with separated /usr, /, and /home partitions what is lost in reinstalling from scratch can generally be regained via apt in just a few minutes. As a person who uses linux for day to day life and C++ I've found mint to be the second best distro I've used due to it being nice, simple and solid. Cinnamon in particular is good from my point of view.

The best distro I ever used was Arch but I recall it took me a good week to get it set up how I wanted it and I don't have time to do this on my current computer at the moment, so mint fills in quite nicely.

[kopite]

I've used debian a few times and used to always run it for my server. The thing is There seems to be a better community around ubuntu nowadays and it seems a bit more up to date. I know Debian is all about the stability

Linux voice did an analogy of Arch saying its like going Base jumping. You get everything you need to gether and just go for it and your never sure how its going to turn out. It might be a good little side project to have a mess with but for my main rig I reckon it might be too much of a ball ache.

It's sounding like mint is the dogs danglies then. is cinamon the Desktop of choice then?

[Dooms]

Think its worth trying both to see what you prefer but my vote goes for Cinnamon

[peterb]

I suggest that it isn't the distro that is the issue, but the desktop environment. Most of the linux distro kernels are similar so it comes down to which desktop environment is bundled with which distro.

I find xfce (on Fedora) to be a very useable system, as was Gnome 2 - which I still use on an older machine. There are some other lightweight but capable desktop environments, and MATE - spawned from and similar to Gnome2 might be worth a look.

[suedenim]

Another vote for Mint - I found the least difficult distro to get use to coming from a Windows background.

[meggiedude]

You realise you are going to get every flavour of Linux voted for in this thread - from all the hardcore Linux dudes.

Mint I would say is a good option - but what I might like desktop look'n'feel - you might not.

[kopite]

Well Using Mint now and so far so ubuntu

bit less guff installed as standard which I`m liking so far.

[Zeven]

Well Using Mint now and so far so ubuntu

bit less guff installed as standard which I`m liking so far.

If you decide to go distro hopping, give Manjaro a go. It's pretty much the rolling release version of Mint in that it's dreadfully easy to use and on a rolling release cycle. Very good for gaming!

[kopite]

Well about 2 days after changing to mint I hopped over to Debian.

Had some messing getting graphics to work properly and pick up both monitors but its working so far.

Only problem I have is that Steam OS doesnt seem to play nice with 64bit wheezy and full screen youtube is choppy