What's your baseline Linux distro to judge all others?

[@hlashflahflhsjfh]

Probably Fedora is the distro I judge others by. Kde and gnome versions are both incredibly complete and stable. Large package repos, bleeding edge sort of but not so bleeding edge as Arch. And they innovate a lot of things that eventually get adopted in the wider linux world.

[@johnishappy]

A lot of people would agree with you about Fedora, I hear how much people like it again and again.

[@hlashflahflhsjfh]

@@johnishappy It's great - Ubuntu is sort of the default reccomendation for 'just works for a regular user' distro but Fedora really should be the default. The Atomic versions are also interesting. Users cannot change any system level files, so in theory nothing should break, and if it does you can just rebase to an earlier build. Once that becomes more user friendly I can see it becoming a big thing for people who just use the stock desktop and run all their apps as flatpaks. You can also switch out different images in the Atomic desktops to basically distro-hop through all the different spins with a few terminal commands and a system restart.

[@hopelessdecoy]

I judge them by use case best examples. Daily Driver= Linux Mint or Fedora Corporate= NixOS Tinker crazy= Arch or Gentoo And that's totally fair, I don't see why comparison is bad.

[@johnishappy]

There's one subscriber who is totally all in for Gentoo. NixOS is on the list to do.

[@angeldude101]

I'd argue NixOS is beautiful for "tinker crazy". Gentoo and Arch let you do some ridiculous things, but it's very easy for things to go wrong. On NixOS? You can do some pretty ridiculous things _and get away with them._ "Oops, I broke my system. Oh well, time to rollback and try again." Even if the filesystem itself gets corrupted and _no_ backed up version can boot, it's usually still possible to backup your config, reinstall from scratch, and pretend nothing ever happened.

[@lucolesco]

@@angeldude101 Once Arch is installed, it is very easy to maintain. That's what Arch users don't tell others.

[@angeldude101]

@@lucolesco If you're not trying ludicrous stunts that is. There's also the rare but not impossible chance of an update breaking compatibility between two packages. (Being able to have multiple versions of the same package helps for tinkering since the version you're tinkering with doesn't need to be the version your system depends on.)

[@colbybraden]

Great video! I've been a Linux user for over 20 years and I like to tinker so Gentoo and Void are my favorites. My wife is using Linux Mint and really enjoys it.

[@johnishappy]

Good stuff!

[@lideruploader6577]

So my grandpa used to say "Well It ain't much but is honest work". I use Debian with XFCE, as my daily driver and it is like my pops. It's simple, and it always works, it may look outdated and old, but is always reliable and gets things done with low resources. None of the other distros would have gone as far as they did if it wasn't for Debian.

[@RetosSpace]

Thank You for this video and all your other videos which i watch!! I'm a 50yo Noob to Linux, 2yrs in, i daily drive a Thinkpad T520 with Mint Cinnamon, T430 with ArcoLinux, Thinkpad X201 with vanilla Arch and a LG C500 with MXLinux, im learning and loving what this Linux thing does for my needs which will be different to the next person. Keep Making Magic with your videos, Greetings from Cape Town, South Africa

[@johnishappy]

One of the things I like about this is "meeting" people from everywhere. I here news from there time to time on the BBC.

[@alliova]

to be honest? i'm not sure i have one at this point. i used mint for 7 months, was pretty happy with it. but i really wanted to use KDE because i like the overall desktop and the ecosystem, so decided to go with a somewhat unpopular choice and switch to opensuse tumbleweed. i like it so far!

[@johnishappy]

Tumbleweed...never even heard of that.

[@alliova]

@@johnishappy it's from OpenSUSE.

[@JeremyLewis-f3z]

and hope your doing well john and good to see you love your videos

[@johnishappy]

Thanks so much!

[@kizersoozie]

Hi John, like you Linux Mint is my current baseline that I use and compare to other distros. I have no intention of ever going back to Windows, and I'm not about to install another Linux distro as the main driver on any of my three systems unless I'm completely happy with it. Having tried 45 different distros over the years, I haven't found one I like better than the current Mint/LMDE 6.

[@johnishappy]

So you like the LMDE 6 the best! It makes sense. You are a master distro hopper, kudos.

[@SirChristoferus]

LMDE is one of my top favorite distributions as well, it combines Mint & Cinnamon’s ease of use with Debian’s great plethora of software packages.

[@MichaelLindorff]

John, my "first love" of Linux distributions -- which happened to be Linux Mint -- was mostly because of stability. I can create -- or should I say recreate -- everything that Mint offers (including the Cinnamon desktop) on any base, like Debian, Arch, Fedora, etc. With the exception of the latest Debian , I had stability issues with all others. So, "no," I think it is quite fair judging them against Mint . I keep trying, which is how I found MX Linux and pure Debian lately, and they stack up real nicely.

[@johnishappy]

I was really impressed with MX Linux, the desktop, clean, great text, contrast etc. I tried the XFCE version and had to say it was great. That was one of my first stops on the Linux distro trail that I'm doing. I love Mint, but MX is really stable and nice as well.

[@warthunder1969]

I agree, Mint sets the bar high but it does a great job - a worthy distro to compare to.

[@warthunder1969]

@@johnishappy MX Linux is good. The nice thing is if you have multiple devices you don't have to choose 1 distro to rule them all

[@davidcave5426]

I"m a LONG time Linux user. My preference is for openSUSE though I started on Corel Linux. I distro hopped a LOT but I'm rather technical and I really like openSUSE's suite of tools. I also used Linux Mint when it supported KDE. Once they dropped support, I switched to Kubuntu and openSUSE. I really prefer KDE as a DE. I still kinda play around with other distros in virtualbox.

[@johnishappy]

Mint should support KDE, but maybe they are pushing just Cinnamon. KDE is really nice but doesn't work well on top of Mint.

[@davidcave5426]

@@johnishappy The technologies are incompatible. That's why they dropped support for KDE. 😥

[@MintHawk]

Great videos, all of them, John. Well, I started off with Ubuntu, of course, back in 2007. Mint was (and maybe still is) the one that I've used most, but I've also stayed for a long time on Mepis which is now the reason I think MX is also great. All of them are...

[@johnishappy]

Well being MintHawk I would suppose so! Yep, they all are.

[@MintHawk]

@@johnishappy You supposed right. It's because of that.

[@YorkshireTea420]

Interesting video and a very valid opinion. For me, I know its very cliche but I have to say Arch Linux is what I compare all others to. Being a "Gen Z" person, very very few people my age use Linux and I used windows until I was shown Linux by a friend and never looked back, tried Fedora, Mint but stuck with EndeavourOS and later Arch once I got my eye in for Linux, mainly using the terminal over GUIs.

[@johnishappy]

Thank you for sharing your experience with Arch Linux! It's always great to hear about different perspectives and preferences in the tech world.

[@davidjones6817]

Hi John, for myself I'd have to say Mx Linux xfce edition notably these days for the snapshot function which for me is a lifesaver.

[@johnishappy]

That's a great distro.

[@krazykat64]

I never really thought about it, but after trying and mostly failing to get a few different distros installed I finally got a working desktop on Debian Woody on a Power Mac G3. I never got the audio working correctly but I could actually use it. Ever since then Debian has always been my fallback when I want to put something that just works for me on a computer, even though it’s changed pretty dramatically in the intervening years.

[@johnishappy]

Debian is the base for a lot of distros, but those distros have refined it.

[@krazykat64]

@@johnishappy It has indeed fathered many, many children, but it’s still my baseline, still my standard of comfort and reliability. I do a fair bit of distro hopping nowadays, but I always have one machine in the house running Debian in the event things go sideways and I just need to get something done. It’s kind of my security blanket.

[@estried86]

Linux Mint based on Ubuntu with the Cinnamon desktop is my favorite. I tried Mint LMDE and had constant network connection issues, and the driver installation isn't as smooth. I also tested Manjaro for a while, it was pretty, but the software manager wasn't good.

[@johnishappy]

Right there with you for the same reasons.

[@julymoe8823]

for me xfce and stable linux is all i need

[@johnishappy]

I really liked XFCE on MX Linux too.

[@Smittron]

I'm starting to really like Debian 12 with the xfce desktop.

[@mikesymanzig6812]

For me it was Linux Mint and Solus, but now I found Fedora Silverblue (modified with CachyOS Kernel) and this is currently the one to judge others.

[@johnishappy]

Another Fedora, the list keeps growing.

[@mikesymanzig6812]

@@johnishappy Silverblue is not new, I think it is already 6 years on the table.

[@BenjaminSchubert6789]

I'm going with opensuse tumbleweed, since I use Suse now for 22 years...

[@johnishappy]

I wasn't aware of tumbleweed, I'll have tot check it out.

[@dragonballjiujitsu]

Honestly as a Mac user as well as a Linux user I always compare the distro to MacOS and none measure up. As for comparing to base Linux distros, its Mint, Zorin or Manjaro KDE. Most distros lag far behind those. In fact the only distros I would consider as actual windows replacements are Mint, Zorin, Manjaro KDE and Ultramarine. Possibly Ubuntu although I cannot recommend it because of snaps.

[@johnishappy]

Obviously Mac users are used to a certain level of experience, but I did find that my daughter's Macs never lasted that long hardware-wise. Not so durable in my humble experience.

[@dragonballjiujitsu]

@@johnishappy I'd say thats very unusual. I have a 2014 MacBook Pro, 2 x 2012 mac minis and a 2009 Mac Pro and they all work like new.

[@hlashflahflhsjfh]

Macbooks between 2016 and 2019 were being shipped with crappy keyboards prone to breaking. But on the whole I've found apple hardware high quality and long lasting. Got 12 years of use out of my last Mbpro.

[@I401]

for me, its kinda weird, as i go straight to the source (Debian, Arch, etc) but for easy installs and for the average user, I look at linux mint overall. However, each distro is best depending on the hardware you have. I was testing mint a week ago, which to my surprise, didn't work well at all, and was quite slow. So I tried manjaro, which was quick and easy similar to how mint did it. Now I've explored arch itself, and also puppy linux. Though i usually save puppy linux for incredibly ancient hardware.

[@drakemallard6100]

Fedora Gnome and Mint Cinnamon, depends on the user profile

[@johnishappy]

Fedora keeps coming up, so does Ultramarine. I think I know where I'm going next.

[@ordinaryhuman5645]

Fedora is my daily driver, so anything else is going to be compared to that. I started with Mint and had issues with gaming, and tried Debian and had similar and different issues depending on the desktop environment. Cinnamon didn't handle games well, and KDE was crashy. Gnome was just right. Fedora with vanilla Gnome just works.

[@johnishappy]

There are so many people who like Fedora, probably more comments like this than any other distro.

[@peterschmidt9942]

John, I think we all start comparing different distros to the one that finally works for us - when you find that ONE that pretty much does everything you want it to. The more distros you look at, the more you realise there's not a lot between 80% of them (especially Debian distros). Its all about finding a balance between faults and usability as Linux isn't perfect either (as much as Linux fan boys will try and lead you to believe). For me it definitely wasn't the first as that was Ubuntu (and I didn't particularly care for it). I must have gone through 30+ distros with different desktop environments before I found "THE ONE" for me - which happened to be KDE Fedora (more specifically Ultramarine). For me KDE is intuitive of how I like to work and Fedora just gives it that stable base - even though its a rolling release (regardless of personal opinions about Redhat's shenanigans). My criteria for a good distro is (in no particular order) - the desktop environment needs to work (I'm not going to use hot-keys to resize a window, can't grab windows at the side, funky mouse movements, displays not working) - it's got to be stable (I don't want docks seizing up/disappearing, icons disappearing, constant crashes or boot issues) - easy to update/upgrade (I don't want a lotto ticket not knowing whether the system will be up again or not after an update) - I prefer distros/DE that have everything included (I don't want to be downloading plugins to I change change a display, file manager option or themes). Its why I'm not a fan of gnome - every functions seems to need a plugin - it HAS to work with networks and storage (I don't want to constantly put passwords in, stuff around with bookmarks not working etc. This is one area Mint Cinnamon falls over) I don't particular care what programs/wallpapers are included as they're easily changed/swapped out generally. Its nice if they include tools with it (like MX Linux, but I don't hold it against a distro if they don't). If it just so happens to have all the stuff I use, then it's a bonus. I'll say it again - using a Linux distro is about balance and how many annoyances you're willing to put up with. Obviously the less the better.

[@johnishappy]

That last line was well said.

[@bkThund3r]

I dunno. I like Mint. I did use MX, Zorin, Tuxedo with KDE/xfce, but Mint just feels right. I start feeling homesick, if that makes any sense, when I use anything other than Mint. Maybe it is my current Mint configuration but I just can't seem to leave Mint.

[@johnishappy]

I love Mint for it's simplicity and well thought out system.

[@oscs4556]

You will always have a bias comparing distributions with your daily drivers. My daily drivers are OpenSuse kalpa and Nixos rolling, but I use Debian as the baseline because it powers the most popular distributions like Linux mint , Ubuntu, mx Linux and so on.

[@johnishappy]

That's a good idea when truly comparing.

[@gorilladev]

I went from Crunchbang to vanilla Debian/sid and have never distrohopped ever since. This was in 2016. Now I mostly look at a original distros not derivatives of others. (see : Void Linux, Solus etc) . And yeah Debian is the baseline.

[@johnishappy]

Crunchbang? I've never heard of crunchbang. See it's those kinds of distributions that I've never heard of that are probably the most interesting and that includes the Hannah Montana OS or red star OS

[@danilaros]

Hi. I’m been a MacOs user for years…one day apple stop support my 2013 iMac with the new Mac OS…I give Linux a try and a never look back, I think that I have luck, I also start with Mint. Is a very good distro but i been a MacOs user for years and I realize that I’m a gnome guy😄 today my benchmark distro is Fedora, it runs perfectly in my iMac.

[@johnishappy]

Interesting, Fedora once again!

[@danilaros]

@@johnishappy if you can give Fedora a try, I think is a good distro, but is so cool that we have so many options in Linux world🙂

[@peterschmidt9942]

I think a lot of Mac guys tend to gravitate towards Gnome, while Windows guys tend to go for KDE or Cinnamon. It must be something about the workings of it because Gnome doesn't gel with me LOL. Glad it helped you rescue to iMac

[@sedrosken831]

Debian is my baseline. There are times I will tolerate distros that are better in some aspects but worse in others, but for me, all roads lead back to Debian.

[@johnishappy]

When it comes right down to it, yeah.

[@DarkusObscurius]

Someday try Arco Linux Cinnamon (yes, arco, it's not a typo), i think you will like it. I use Arco Linux Cinnamon, and i use as a desktop daily driver too, arco is awesome spacially is you use BTRFS and timeshift, 'cause this makes it break proof. The good part of all Arch-based distros (except manjaro) is they all feel like one big distro, if you use Arco so little is different from arch, except the instalation and pre-configuration, it doesn't matter, everything on archwiki or anything arch related will be valid for ya.

[@johnishappy]

It's going to take a little time for me to really understand arch in total.

[@Basserino84]

I've never really had a baseline distribution. I have, however, kept coming back to Zorin (core) and Pop OS. I find those two have what I start with, which is installing KDE plasma and maybe Cinnamon. Mint is OK, but theming wise it has a lot of individualized programs that if you want to diversify the experience, it just looks cluttered and messy. Also, to get my computer and things like USB wifi adapter working, I needed the "Edge" ISO. I usually want a store like app that handles installation and updates on one Window, and GNOME can be buggy to handle windows that have full screen modes (like steam). In that regard, Zorin/Pop have been my least intrusive experiences. Pop's weakness is that random errors will present on boot and shutdown. Tried fedora, but sound was glitchy. Also, a lot of distributions these days want a Wayland server vs an x11 server, which does not perform well for me. Arch I tried a couple variants but never got quite where I wanted them. So an Ubuntu derivative type is perfect for me.

[@johnishappy]

Zorin OS is one of those distros that's looking to make a run at Microsoft directly, no pretense about what they're trying to do and I like that.

[@MrSedeyn]

my base line is debian sid on all my machines, debian normal on raspberry pi 5

[@johnishappy]

It's the natural choice as so many other distros are based on it anyway.

[@flipflopski2951]

MX Linux is my baseline and no other one I've tried measures up. I wanted Mint to be good and I've tried a few times but was always disappointed. I think it's the customization of the Plasma desktop I'm stuck on.

[@johnishappy]

MX is a wonderful surprise.

[@peterschmidt9942]

Same here with Mint. I've tried it a few times over the years and really like the looks, it's inclusions and setup is a breeze. But there's always a couple of issues that erk me about the way they do some things. At the end of the day it's what gets you over the line that counts.

[@daol03]

I use Debian as baseline since 2000 and have not failed me yet

[@johnishappy]

Yeah since 2000, long time.

[@unpotatoedsalmon]

void, It is as a base lightweight yet feature complete

[@johnishappy]

Thanks for your input, looking at Void.

[@felderup]

slackware, for bog standard installs with a decent size of available programs and libraries, it's great. lots of de's to try, the only problem is getting it to install on btrfs properly, it's cumbersome. i'd say, it's also a match for arch, installing software, it's either prebuilt packages or build at install time stuff.

[@johnishappy]

I'm totally uninformed about Slackware, and do you know why? The name...it's the name!

[@felderup]

@@johnishappy yah, new distros have to be above the juvenile naming schemes of the past, all the good ones are taken.

[@JeremyLewis-f3z]

my first was puppy linux back in the early 2000 i would say 2007 or 08 then ubuntu used it for about 1 year ans then kubuntu usrd it foe about 2 years then finally linux mint and still running it on atleast one of my machines......

[@johnishappy]

Interesting journey.

[@NicolasBocquet12]

Ma distribution de base était Ubuntu, avant l'arrivée d'Unity, sous Gnome 2. La suite ne m'a pas plut et j'ai migré vers Linux Mint pour conserver une interface moderne et proche de celle d'Ubuntu sous Gnome 2. J'en reviens donc toujours à Linux Mint également.

[@johnishappy]

Linux Mint est cette distribution fiable qui est si facile et beaucoup de gens semblent y revenir.

[@smudgey5000]

Used to judge based on Windows then that turned into based on Mint then Manjaro and now Fedora.

[@johnishappy]

I think over time people grow and their point of view changes

[@smudgey5000]

@@johnishappy I value stability and not having to reinstall much

[@dsteele27]

For me, it's MX ... that said, i put MX in the upper middle for most things; it's a compromise between super easy and reasonably manipulable for me.

[@johnishappy]

I really like it too, MX is just a well done distro.

[@Naa-ee7nq]

Linux Mint uses a desktop design more similar to Windows all the way from Windows 95 to Windows 7 and which Microsoft themselves have since strangely abandoned. Those are decades of a perfectly good design paradigm that they just abandoned and people born before 1995 or so are likely more accustomed to that paradigm than the newer, smartphone-like, awkward-on-a-desktop-but-trendy "material" design. For Mac users from MacOS X onwards, Ubuntu is closer. I've been a Linux user alongside Windows, Macs and BSDs since around 1993 so, and an Amiga user before that. Perhaps that's why I'm so windows manager-agnostic. These days I'm most comfortable with my own Dwm,+Dmenu+ST setups and things similar to that. But if I have to work on other systems it's not a big deal, I'm pretty used to using these classic Windows-style or Mac style configurations. The most annoying to use by far would be Windows 10 onwards. It's just a mess in every way. My ideal desktops in the 90s were actually BeOS and OS/2. But nowadays where they were different is a bit of an anachronism at least for me, a lot like the AmigaOS setups. Those are single-user setups for the most part that now given the way things have moved would take a lot of adapting to again. They were vastly superior in every way to the Windows 1, 2, 3, 3.11, 95, 98, 98SE family though. PS: Debian and Slackware are the distros I judge others by

[@johnishappy]

You're right about people born before 1995 not liking the smartphone like desktop. I really don't but that generation seems to be comfortable with it.

[@JeremyLewis-f3z]

i went throught a lot of distros my first was Damn small linux then puppy linux ubuntu and my fav and main daily driver linux mint

[@johnishappy]

Mint is a great daily driver.

[@Hiram8866]

I would have to say Void Linux. It's not a beginner distro, it's more of a basic do it yourself experience. But it gives me a chance to see what I want and don't want in my operating system. It is an independent distribution. And no systemd.

[@johnishappy]

So the Void is the open canvas on which to create your OS?

[@Hiram8866]

​@@johnishappyTo an extent yes. The default install includes only the basics. No office suite, no graphical app store. I only installed it to try it, but I've grown to really like it now.

[@JeremyLewis-f3z]

i love mint so much that i have to have it running on something lol im like you john its just is very stable and not reakky buggy at all so i just gotta have it around

[@johnishappy]

Truly stable and reliable.

[@guy_autordie]

3:35 My first distro was Debian, then i Try a x86 version of Solaris, I stayed with FreeBSD on my File server, because "it just works". But My complicated love will be forever with Gentoo. I'm mainly a gamer so I've stayed with windows on my main machine. Thanks to Valve (Steam), I will ditch windows for good. Today I have Win10, truenas core (freebsd), FreeBSD and a gentoo (tinkering machine).

[@johnishappy]

I just haven't liked Windows for so long, and I won't go back for anything. Are you the Gentoo guy I sometimes talk about???

[@jimw7916]

An extremely different distro is makulu Linux.... You might like it

[@johnishappy]

Makulu sounds different, so interesting.

[@jimw7916]

@@johnishappy he's a south African guy living in Vietnam!

[@tachyongti]

Fedora w/ Gnome. any package that's needed, all the current kernels and mesa drivers. super large package repository especially since flatpak is included. uses wayland. semi-rolling release so current but not unstable. brings all the new tech into the world of linux. also has btrfs and dnf5.

[@johnishappy]

Fedora is liked by so many I see in the comments.

[@StevieRayLou]

debian12 has become my daily driver, but I track Mint Cinnamon, Mint MATE, Mint Xfce, KDE Neon, LMDE.

[@johnishappy]

Debian 12 just does everything, that's why I like it.

[@juanroldan4379]

My first distro was Ubuntu. I daily drove Ubuntu for almost 2 years until my boss at that time complained about my weird computer. So for work I had to get back to Windows. My needs have changed. I don't have the job requirements anymore so I can freely use Linux. I've tried other distros but Mint and Ubuntu are still the ones I gravitate back to. I have to confess that I'm a Linux fan and I like just about anything Linux. Even if it isn't the best. I just love having the freedom to use what I want and learning something new all the time.

[@johnishappy]

People have told me that Linux is, "weird" "old school" "bizarre" "amateur" "difficult" "nerdy" none of which are true. I'm so surprised someone like your boss has a total closed mind.

[@Appalling68]

Linux Mint...hands down.

[@johnishappy]

For me too, it presents the OS the way I like it completely.

[@pitape1822]

No need for 11 minutes thoughts about that. My base is Windows 10 LTSC 2021.

[@johnishappy]

There are those who do like Windows 10...

[@pitape1822]

@@johnishappy but my alernate base is Nobrara 😊

[@79Omdus]

Arch all the way!

[@johnishappy]

It seems to me the natural progression is to go from a Debian base distribution to Arch, and a lot of people do. I think it really means that you're getting into the minutia of Linux.

[@remixedcat]

mint linux is solid and stable and easy to use

[@johnishappy]

I obviously agree, love it!

[@Paruthi.618]

mx linux and mint as the base line

[@johnishappy]

And I toss in Kubuntu with what you just said.

[@marekkedzierski8237]

Windows 10?

[@johnishappy]

Is it true that Microsoft is going to stop supporting Windows 10 soon? Or am I wrong about that?

[@marekkedzierski8237]

@@johnishappy Year and a half from now (unless you pay for extra support), not sure why it would affect what I compare Linux distributions to.

[@JeremyLewis-f3z]

you can test them just get you a cheep tedt machine i did

[@johnishappy]

Cheap, cheap...

[@bflmpsvz870]

Mint for desktop, Centos for server.

[@johnishappy]

Love that Mint!!!!!!

[@edsiefker1301]

Debian is the only distro as far as I'm concerned.

[@johnishappy]

The base for many distros.

[@kztuptuo7076]

Slackware and Debian are my base line. And i realy judge all distros by those two. So I think I must sound like total douchebag for some people some times. In some way I "hate" modern distros for lack of flexibility in them, and for that very reason I should not judge any distros. Lets face it for 85% of people slackware is not a system but a horror show. Debian is getting simpler with every edition, but in past it was not so forgiving

[@johnishappy]

All the more reason to try it soon!

[@TheJason13]

Fedora all day!!!

[@johnishappy]

Lots of users love Fedora.

[@stingfiretube]

Arch BTW

[@johnishappy]

A lot of people love Arch as they move along in Linux.

[@archA64]

PopOS

[@johnishappy]

I see why people like it, I used it as a daily driver for a couple of months.