Your favorite distro?

Alright. I know distro wars are a thing and I’m not trying to start a flame war.

What I would like to hear is what distro y’all currently use, and why you like it.

Personally I like Debian because I’m comfortable using apt, and I’ve been led to believe that the install size is slightly smaller than Ubuntu.

It don’t be like it is until it do.

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Comments

  • Debian or Slackware. I have some storage boxes which run OpenBSD

  • On big servers: Debian, on small servers: Alpine, on desktop: Fedora.

  • beaglebeagle OG
    edited January 2020

    Most often CentOS on servers and Fedora on desktops. Occasionally Debian when the application requires it.

    I'm familiar with CentOS and also because of it's long term support. I know if I install CentOS in a server I don't need to worry about updates breaking anything. It just works.

    Thanked by (1)cybertech
  • CentOS mostly due to years of familiarity + Alpine due to memory. Ideology aside, if you're familiar with one and know how to make it secure and tune the performance, then stick with it unless there's a need to change.

    Thanked by (1)vyas
  • Thanks for sharing, everyone, but I’d also love to hear why you chose that distro.

    And you’re totally right, @tetech.

    It don’t be like it is until it do.

  • I started on Slackware. I moved to Debian as I was dealing with it more and more on servers, and apt-get was so much easier than slackware.

    Thanked by (1)ouvoun
  • havochavoc OGContent Writer

    Ubuntu. Familiarity and lots of tutorials out there for everything

  • I start with Centos. Because the first install guide is using centos 6.
    My first day job, my manager also a cent fans.
    Can't say I love centos, just a tools for me.

    Action and Reaction in history

  • Ubuntu.

    I started with centos but really disliked it because it got outdated packages. That is because centos basically is a fork of rhel from what I understand. It's probably useful for companies seeking for long term support and stable packages.

    Then I started using debian. It's nice but for some reason I like Ubuntu more.
    Ubuntu 14 was already nice but so far I really liked 16 the most. The current 18 is okay.

    Thanked by (1)ouvoun
  • For servers and stability CentOs and Debian. For home use Ubuntu/Mint or Arch based distros. On the road Puppy.

  • CentOS for anything production grade or RHEL(when customer is ready to pay)
    Ubuntu when I want to play with shiny new stuff.

  • MichaelCeeMichaelCee OGServices Provider

    I like Debian.
    If I'm hungry, I use Debiham.
    If the force is strong with me, I use Debihan.

    Thx.

    Thanked by (2)vyas flips
  • My laptop has Windows 10 2020H1. Through Windows Subsystem for Linux, I have:

    • Ubuntu 16 (on WSL1) for website and software development.
    • Debian 10 (on WSL2) for compiling OpenWrt packages.

    On-prem servers are Debian 9 or 10 (armhf), depending on when I installed each node.
    VPS servers are either Ubuntu 18 or Debian 10, depending on RAM (I prefer Ubuntu but it won't install in less than 512MB RAM).

    I stay away from ArchLinux because last time I tried it, the upgrader decides to upgrade libc, and then the node is broken.
    I stay away from CentOS because I hate the name DNF: it means "did not find" in my other hobby geocaching, which is a negative achievement.

    ServerFactory aff best VPS; HostBrr aff best storage.

  • Server2012r2 :3

  • @corbpie said:
    Server2012r2 :3

    Burn the witch!

    Thanked by (1)AlwaysSkint

    It don’t be like it is until it do.

  • Debian - Ubuntu - Mint. Usually the first for server and the last for personal computers. The one in the middle is a courtesy mention.

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  • cybertechcybertech OGBenchmark King
    edited January 2020

    as a hobbyist, started with centos and centos commands now make most sense (perhaps by memory as well). never tried debian, but ubuntu does have some advantage when it comes to installing stuff and updates. cant remember exactly what but it is more complete and "smart" by default than centos.

    however due to limited experience, centos is preferred for stability, webpanel testing, and best of all benching :tongue: it almost always does much better than ubuntu in crunching numbers.

    #centosfolaif

    I bench YABS 24/7/365 unless it's a leap year.

    • Fedora for desktops or laptops.
    • CentOS for long term servers or Fedora for prototyping when I need Linux. I'd like to move more things to Alpine, and I'm curious about Nix. Though both Alpine and Nix have a few blockers that I need to address.
    • FreeBSD for prototyping and servers, whenever I can get away with it.
    • I'm trying to incorporate more OpenBSD into my life, but other commitments get in the way.

    @yoursunny said:
    I stay away from CentOS because I hate the name DNF: it means "did not find" in my other hobby geocaching, which is a negative achievement.

    DNF isn't in 7, and it will answer to yum in 8. You don't even have to see dnf in 8.

    Thanked by (1)cybertech
  • @FlamingSpaceJunk said:
    I'd like to move more things to Alpine, and I'm curious about Nix. Though both Alpine and Nix have a few blockers that I need to address.

    I’ve wondered what I’d miss if I switched from Debian to Alpine. I should look into it.

    It don’t be like it is until it do.

  • @ouvoun said:

    @FlamingSpaceJunk said:
    I'd like to move more things to Alpine, and I'm curious about Nix. Though both Alpine and Nix have a few blockers that I need to address.

    I’ve wondered what I’d miss if I switched from Debian to Alpine. I should look into it.

    It depends on what you need. Alpine has fewer packages because it's a smaller community, and they use musl for their c lib instead of glibc. Which means, compiling from source might be an adventure, if you're into that sort of thing. Most big FOSS things are there, but some smaller things aren't. Commercial stuff certainly isn't.

    It also depends on how you feel about the systemd ecosystem. Alpine is derived from Gentoo, and uses OpenRC instead.

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  • @FlamingSpaceJunk said:

    @ouvoun said:

    @FlamingSpaceJunk said:
    I'd like to move more things to Alpine, and I'm curious about Nix. Though both Alpine and Nix have a few blockers that I need to address.

    I’ve wondered what I’d miss if I switched from Debian to Alpine. I should look into it.

    It also depends on how you feel about the systemd ecosystem. Alpine is derived from Gentoo, and uses OpenRC instead.

    Nearly everything I do on a personal VPS is through Docker containers. I rarely interact with the system at all. So going Alpine might not affect me as much as I thought...

    It don’t be like it is until it do.

  • vyasvyas OG
    edited January 2020

    Started on Redhat 6 , weaved my way around probably every top ten list on Distrowatch over the past decade and a half. Now : Debian on VPS, any variant or fork of Debian on desktop. Locked into using Ubuntu 18.04 for Gridpane subscription. On desktop so far have tried Ubuntu , Ubuntu Mate, ZorinOS, Mint, Bodhi. Prefer the last two, Bodhi still running on my 13 year old Dell Latitude.
    Tested/ tasted Alpine for the first time when I had tried freebox. I personally feel alpine is an acquired taste. I liked it and leave it at that.

  • My journey started on Ubuntu & now headed to Debian.

    Jeez, u geekmates.

  • Linux Mint

    in the past I was more focused on barebone stuff and customizing it myself, but there is no time, Linux Mint is the closest to what I need

    Thanked by (2)AlwaysSkint poisson
  • Servers Centos, workstation Ubuntu LTS.

  • WSSWSS OGRetired

    For smaller, specific tasks, Alpine is great. It's thin and it's just enough to do what it needs to do without any systemd bullshit. Production nameservers in 256MB? Sure, that's more than enough (did it in 64MB back in the early 90s w/o hitting swap, but then again, djbdns was a thing). nsd4 > powerdns > anything > bind

    $ free -m
                  total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
    Mem:            237         126          33           0          77         114
    Swap:           475           1         474
    

    For legacy/web stuff, I run Devuan, because I am so used to debian apache config that even thinking of migrating causes me headaches. It's stable, it does what it needs to, and again, fairly thin with the proper php-fpm config and so forth. 10+ year old Xeon serving a few hundred vanity domains? Load sits under .5 even when it's getting scraped. This is kind of cheating because I KVM everything, and this is from the hypervisor.

    $ free -m
                  total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
    Mem:          24105        7828        3813           0       12463       15884
    Swap:         11443           0       11443
    

    Low RAM? OpenBSD. It just works, and although Theo is the world's biggest butthole, he's given up and admitted that x86 won so hardware support is pretty good. I don't think NetBSD will even boot in 64MB anymore, but I haven't tried recently. I do have a special "virtualization" kernel built for this because it gives me more free RAM, which is a bit important when your VPS has a tenth of the RAM of your router.

    load averages:  0.17,  0.09,  0.02           hostname.goes.here.penis 12:17:13
    24 processes: 23 idle, 1 on processor                         up 52 days, 14:51
    CPU:  0.2% user,  0.0% nice,  0.0% sys,  0.0% spin,  0.0% intr, 99.8% idle
    Memory: Real: 6888K/30M act/tot Free: 28M Cache: 11M Swap: 6264K/697M
    

    Desktop? Void. Shit just works. DJB inspired init system and weird quirks/bugs and a homebrew package manager from a former NetBSD dev, but damn if my 9 year old i7 doesn't fly. Cinnamon w/ 2 heads, Chrome, all of the trimming. Still using about 2G.

    $ free -m
                  total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
    Mem:          15893        1982        3511        1030       10399       12537
    Swap:          7425          20        7404
    

    My pronouns are like/subscribe.

  • FreeBSD is my favorite.

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  • havochavoc OGContent Writer

    @WSS said: For smaller, specific tasks, Alpine is great.

    Alpine is irritating me frankly because it's taking this too far.

    Cutting usability to save megabytes just doesn't work for me in an era where a 16gb vps is LES compliant

  • WSSWSS OGRetired

    @havoc said:

    @WSS said: For smaller, specific tasks, Alpine is great.

    Alpine is irritating me frankly because it's taking this too far.

    Cutting usability to save megabytes just doesn't work for me in an era where a 16gb vps is LES compliant

    You've chosen the wrong distribution. CentOS 7 will probably be happy with 16GB, even if it is a little low on RAM.

    My pronouns are like/subscribe.

  • havochavoc OGContent Writer
    edited January 2020

    @WSS said:

    You've chosen the wrong distribution. CentOS 7 will probably be happy with 16GB, even if it is a little low on RAM.

    LOL no 16 ramses not hdd

    In fairness that was a wicked once off special so calling it LES compliant is a stretch (thanks @nseries)

    Point is ram is no longer in short supply

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