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If you have gained some Linux skills after using Ubuntu for some time, you may try switching to these distributions to explore the world of Linux distributions further.
Ubuntu is one of the best Linux distributions for beginners. It's an excellent platform for people new to Linux. It is easy to install, has tons of free resources available along with a massive list of applications available for it. https://itsfoss.com/distribution-after-ubuntu/
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Discussion: Which Linux Distribution to Use After Ubuntu?
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Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another.
-- H. L. Mencken
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Bot on Saturday March 24 2018, @12:53PM
I stopped using ubuntu by the time they pushed Mono stuff into the default install.
I reverted to debian until I booted jessie beta: wew lads, the first buggy debian, and I have used the powerpc port of debian potato and the alpha ones, and sidux, none approached remotely this level of breakage.
Later I learned why, systemd.
I watched in horror as debian, the universal distro who usually gave you ample ways to come up with a customized set of packages which would make any other sysadmin go WTF, became just another systemd poor imitation of a mac.
Then I learned antix did not like systemd.
OOOH my old eth0 as interface! my old ifconfig up and ifconfig down if the wifi acted up! my old 'you can see the dhcp on the console while booting so "is the network up" is not an equivalent of the shroedinger cat's health!
And its companion MX linux for a more refined, if more systemd libs tainted, desktop.
And to top it all, while debian live died, antix and mxlinux have a lot of stuff to easily remaster your disto or boot different images in the "frugal" fashion pioneered by puppy.
Else try voidlinux, or some guix stuff, or rancheros, or calculate linux, or gentoo, or alpine, or the slackware family.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 24 2018, @01:07PM (1 child)
Fedora 27 Mate/Compiz is pretty close to what Ubuntu 10.04 was before the Unity/Gnome rewrite.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday March 24 2018, @04:22PM
Yup. Unity was the point at which I parted ways with Ubuntu. The wife stayed with Ubuntu for a while longer than I did, but when she decided it was time for a new computer, she just went back to Windows. (Today, she jealously guards her Win7 installation, actively preventing any possible "upgrade" to Win8 or Win10 - I don't know what she's going to do when Win7 is consigned to the dust bin.)
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by noneof_theabove on Saturday March 24 2018, @01:21PM (1 child)
there was a "free cd" version less than 1.0 call Ubuntu.
Loaded it up and looked at the "baby sh!t yellow" screen and put it on a shelf.
In searching for help/fixes on windows I run across more "help me Ubuntu" that anything else.
I'm an founding member of the cctxlug [.org].
Helped members constantly having issues with Ubuntu [one member is a Ubuntu is the greatest].
Still have boxes for Suse 9.0, Mandrake 8.0, Lindows, and many others.
For several years my "tool" of choice has been SolydK [solydxk.com] K=KDE X=XFCE.
Rolling updates, no issues with printers and normal operations.
Would you use a ball-peen hammer to bust concrete?
Would you give a small sized female a 32oz framing hammer to hang a picture?
Everything is a "tool" for our use and sometimes that might even be a single need.
All hale Virtual Machines [vbox for me] as you can have available all the tools you need in one place.
Been a registered Linux User [http://counter.li.org] since 2006.
System AMD 8350, 16gig, 3-2TB drives, dual 24" monitors and nearly a 2 TB of linux VMs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 24 2018, @09:22PM
I've seen Corpus Christi on maps.
(Several of those were hurricane tracking plots.)
What's the best thing about that burg?
Are you still active in the LUG?
Does the LUG still gather in meatspace?
How many active members?
On a particularly well-attended gathering, how many show up?
Ever do|Still doing installfests?
Are those separate from regular meetings?
My first contact with actual Linux users was early in the century at Cal State Fullerton. [oclug.org]
(I find their use of a saturated blue to be unwise as a background for black text.)
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by chewbacon on Saturday March 24 2018, @02:54PM
I used Ubuntu for years, but started having issues on my NAS between systemd and ZFS. 2/3 boots, ZFS wouldn't start because of a dependency failing to fire off first. I gave systemd a good try, troubleshot it for a few weeks. Never figured it out. Too busy between work, kids, and pets to keep up with that shit. Switched to FreeNAS and have 0 regrets.
Day to day... Mac OS. Runs Office, has a shell. What more do I need? It just works and works well.
(Score: 1) by jshmlr on Saturday March 24 2018, @03:48PM
This is just a "me too" reply.
I cut my teeth on Slackware and I still try to keep up to date with its development. However, I haven't used it as my main linux distribution for years as I spend way too much time playing with it and not getting work done. I'm usually running some version of Ubuntu (Lubuntu, at the moment) but I still "play" with a Slackware VM as it's become a hobby laiden with nostalgia.
Need nothing, then see what happens.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Appalbarry on Saturday March 24 2018, @04:43PM (2 children)
Honestly, this is a discussion that was old about ten years ago..... and yes, I couldn't care less about SystemD. And no, I neither read the Man pages, nor yell at other people to do the same. How very 1996. I don't need to out-distro other people to establish my manliness.
Although I tried installing various distros in the early days, usually giving up when X-Windows refused to work for me or my hardware, I did finally settle on Ubuntu after many years of DOS, Windows, and even Apple machines. It was the first distro that just installed and worked, at a time when I knew that I was a finished with Windows. When Ubuntu created the now dead Unity I jumped ship for Mint Cinnamon, which is still my go-to distro on my desktop.
What I've been enjoying on my Dell laptop though is POP!_OS, [system76.com] the Gnome based distro from the people who build the System 76 Linux PCs. It is, they say, designed from the ground up for people who just want to get work done, and I'd say they do a pretty good job of that. The best part is that the default workspace is entirely empty except for the titlebar across the top, and even that is minimal. I don't know whether it's a Gnome thing, or a POP thing, but I find that the environment strongly encourages me to do one thing at a time instead of bouncing around between apps.
Despite the love that some people have for big, complicated "roll your own" type installs, I like a distro that gives me a forehead install. If I can't stick a USB stick into a machine, reboot, and have a functioning system in fifteen minutes I'm not interested. I spent way too many years battling with hardware and software to make them work, or fiddling with jumpers and config files to tweak extra performance or stability. These days I just want something that works and stays out of my way.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 24 2018, @09:30PM
Perhaps things would have gone better if you had tried X Window (no hyphen; no s).
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 24 2018, @11:47PM
Looked at PopOs, sorry to say what I found was a big mess, not a distro.
(Score: 2) by srobert on Saturday March 24 2018, @04:43PM (11 children)
If you're looking to do Linux stuff to train yourself for professional work, e.g. become a system admin, etc, then I'd investigate Arch Linux. It uses systemd (which is an unfortunate reality, but one you'll have to know about. If you're an amateur hobbyist who just wants to learn more about running Linux on your desktop/laptop, then I'd investigate Void Linux.
I'd learn distros in this order:
1. Ubuntu or Mint (which you've done already)
2. Manjaro (but you could probably skip that one)
3. Void or Arch (depending on you're purpose for learning Linux)
4. Gentoo or LFS
(LFS will teach you more that's applicable to Linux generally.)
(Gentoo will teach you to use tools that are unique to Gentoo.)
5. After all that. Learn one of the BSD's (My favorite is FreeBSD)
If you're hardware is supported and you don't need to much binary software that's unique to Linux, (which is a big IF), then you'll find BSD is usually preferable.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday March 24 2018, @06:13PM (10 children)
I think you've got that backwards, chief o_O Void feels waaaay more professional than Arch to me. I'm another Arch-->Void migrant due to SystemD (and not liking Artix or Devuan too much...). Never ever going back. Void even has its equivalent of a ports tree with xbps-src.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by srobert on Saturday March 24 2018, @06:26PM (4 children)
Maybe so. I'm not a pro myself, but the reason I thought "Arch for Pros", was that he'd learn systemd, which is unfortunately, a necessity to learn for the big enterprise distros like Red Hat and CentOS. I love Void Linux. It's the OS on my current main laptop. (Mostly because it has a wifi card that won't run FreeBSD and my eyesight is getting too poor in my old age to open it up and mess with it.) Void is extremely reliable, and the runit system is so easy to set up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 24 2018, @07:20PM (3 children)
If you want to use freebsd, and Linux has the wifi drivers you need, set up passthrough with bhyve to give the service to a Linux vm, set up a proxy, and connect through the vm.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday March 24 2018, @07:30PM (2 children)
Whoa, that works? I always thought that if a device didn't work in the host OS the guest won't know what to do with it either. And, does this passthrough require VT-d/AMD-IOMMU, or not?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 24 2018, @09:41PM (1 child)
http://0xfeedface.org/2014/12/11/FreeBSD-Intel-wifi-via-bhyve.html [0xfeedface.org]
(Score: 2) by srobert on Sunday March 25 2018, @01:20AM
Thanks AC. You've given me something to pursue with that as soon as time permits. The ethernet setup works, so I already have freebsd installed. When time permits I'll investigate this.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 24 2018, @07:09PM (1 child)
It's like you didn't even read the comment you replied to.
He didn't say Arch was more professional, he said that if you want to fix broken linuxes for a living, you'll need experience with the number 1 breaker of linux, SystemD. Arch will give you that unpleasant experience.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday March 24 2018, @07:29PM
Oh, it has. I know SystemD all too well, which is why I'll support it but refuse to use it unless forced.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 24 2018, @10:21PM (2 children)
Can you run Void linux as "live" mode from a USB key? (not just to install with, but to run in live mode
for regular use) The docs for Void are not clear on this -- I'll try a download ...
I prefer to use a "live" distro for internet access as I get a "fresh" system with each reboot.
I have been using a customized (by me) Mageia 5.1 live distro on a USB key for internet access.
(Score: 2) by Zinho on Saturday March 24 2018, @11:49PM (1 child)
I can tell you a method that didn't work for me: LinuxLive USB Creator. Which is unfortunate, since I love it and it's my first choice for dumping an ISO onto a USB key. Void just isn't on their list of supported distributions yet, and its generic config didn't work out for Void on my hardware; your mileage may vary.
Now that you've asked, I'm inspired to check the web for better solutions, and there seems to be one on the voidlinux website. [voidlinux.eu]
I'd volunteer to give it a try, but I have a date with my spouse tonight. Maybe later ;)
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 25 2018, @02:56AM
Just tried the xfce i686 live iso and it works fine as a running distro. (Used dd to copy to a USB key)
For internet access, I use a linux live USB key (read-only image). Then on every reboot I have
fresh system. Not as much need to worry about tracking, pawning, etc.
Find your proper mirror, but I used this:
https://lug.utdallas.edu/mirror/void/live/20171007/void-live-i686-20171007-xfce.iso [utdallas.edu]
Looks pretty stripped down which is good. On my last distro I spent most of my config time
in stripping stuff out.
Will have to learn runit as I don't see standard init runlevels -- only 0 and 6 appear to exist
and a single user recovery mode. I like to use runlevel 3 to boot multi-user without X.
If I need X, then I just use startx.
Looks like standard syslinux to boot, squashfs for initial file system, so I should be able to customize
a live image to my liking and make my own live USB key.
Thanks for the Void Linux suggestion ...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 24 2018, @08:16PM (1 child)
... distro to use:
Slackware
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 24 2018, @11:51PM
The Slackware Ring of Sauron the Mighty? Is there a correlation between Slackware installs and the suicide rate? The problem the new-to-Linux user faces today is simply one of overchoice and the chanting of zealots from the various camps. No wonder Joe Public stays frozen in fear and never leaves the 'safety' of the Windows world.
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Sunday March 25 2018, @03:51AM
Live DVD of the combo here [exegnulinux.net].
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 2) by KritonK on Sunday March 25 2018, @12:40PM
If you want to try something different, try an RPM-based distribution, instead of yet another debian-derived distribution.
I never cease to be amazed by the problems a colleague, who uses Ubuntu, has learned to live with. E.g., he rarely updates the kernel, because he knows that things will break, and that he'll have to look for work-arounds. He always keeps a bootable USB stick around, so that he can boot into his system and fix it, when it does break. Whenever I had to use Ubuntu, I found all sorts of annoyances (no, not differences from what is familiar) that prevented me from wanting keep using it.
If you are using the latest and greatest in Ubuntu, try Fedora or, if you are feeling really adventurous (and have plenty of bandwidth), OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, which, despite being a rolling release, is very stable. If you are using a long term release, try CentOS or OpenSUSE Leap.
(Score: 2) by mechanicjay on Monday March 26 2018, @12:20AM
After Ubuntu? Why even start with that nonsense? Just use OpenSuse and be done with it. It's a very complete and mature distro, easily customized for desktop or headless server duty. OpenSuse Leap for stable stuff, Tumbleweed for bleeding edge nightly rolling release (which is also astoundingly stable). Only sad thing, there is no official Long Term Support branch.
Been a very happy Suse user for 10+ years now. Only Gentoo has turned my head recently
My VMS box beat up your Windows box.