Ask HN: Most stable Linux distro for desktop use | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Most stable Linux distro for desktop use

14 pointslogn27 comments

After years of stability using Linux I've run into many problems lately. Wifi crashes after suspend, LVM fails at boot, printer drivers failing, PulseAudio crashing... and this is on several different distros. Which distro has proven the most stable for you?

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Canonical puts a lot of time and effort into making Ubuntu "just work" for most non-corner cases. That's the one I recommend to people as a "baby's first linux" even though I personally run Debian.

Debian Stable is of course rock-solid but it's also often sporting fairly old versions of software (firefox, etc) which can be offputting to the novice. Sid is my daily driver but I'm comfortable with things not working for short periods of time.

Unfortunately Canonical has stopped putting that time and effort into the desktop OS and is instead concentrating on mobile/tablet "convergence".

Fortunately it's still a very stable desktop environment.

Source: It's my everyday OS.

Just wait until 16 is released and they switch over the desktop repos to their in house package system for phones: Snappy.

That said, existing Ubuntu releases that still use Debian style packages are what I'd recommend (and what I use) too.

Snappy is the shark that Fonzie is jumping over.

Happy days started to suck long before that point, but it was definitely the best time to jump ship if you hadn't already.

Don't listen to these people; Ubuntu/Fedora/Etc are _garbage_ by default, and have been for years.

You're having issues with PulseAudio, systemd, and NetworkManager. Use a distribution that doesn't use these, or one that makes it easy to remove them.

Calculate Linux[0] is the easiest base with which to yank these tumors out of your life, because it has eudev and OpenRC installed by default. Easy to install, and simple to maintain. it's Gentoo, but without all that building of source, and only a 15-minute install. it's simple to install JACK[1], Cadence[2] and wpa_gui after you rip out NetworkManager and PulseAudio (or if you need skype, make PA the slave of JACK).

Second place goes to KXStudio[3], but only because it's an outdated (good) debian/ubuntu core, and uses JACK/Cadence by default. Third place is Void, which, while technically freer (and has LibreSSL!), is not as easy an install as KXStudio or Calculate. All are nice and stable, though.

After removing PulseAudio and NetworkManager from your computer, you'll be astounded at how stable linux is again.

0. http://www.calculate-linux.org/main/en/download

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBD-wsMiZCk

2. http://gpo.zugaina.org/media-sound/cadence

3. http://kxstudio.linuxaudio.org/

Fedora 21 through 23 has worked well so far. All of my peripherals work well on my ThinkPad X1 Carbon (3rd gen). The community is quite easy to join if you need to submit bugs or ask for help.

I've had zero PulseAudio issues even with creating multiple monitoring devices, a USB DAC and a USB webcam with audio support.

Which wifi cards are you using? Broadcom can be a bit of a pain, but the Intel chips are fairly easy to get working.

I've been using Fedora full time for the last 6 years (since 14 I think) and it has been pretty good. Haven't used any other distro much though so no real comparison.

Definitely agree that Broadcom wifi (what I have now) is a pain - occasional kernel upgrades kill wifi, when reinstalling I never remember which combination of kmod/akmod things I need. That is the only real complaint though.

Fedora 23 has been spectacular. I'm tired of the whole Unity, Mir direction that Canonical is taking.

F23 has played well with uefi + gpt on outdated hardware.

I run Ubuntu on my 'not doing much other than youtube and paying my bills' computer. (I also choose to reinstall the whole OS every major release (+ 1 month for those 'day 0' issues to be fixed)).

I have debian on my NAS and 'stable' backup box. I keep this thing rock solid.

If I actually want to do anything crazy, I'll either whip up a VM or I have a clunker of a laptop I keep around for experimenting and other things (along with other single board computers).

My two cents in keeping something stable is don't do anything to it. Keep it as vanilla as possible unless you are 100% sure what you are doing.

Ubuntu works pretty well. Debian is solid too. Buying a computer that is meant and certified for Linux use is probably a wise investment.

You touch an intersting point: Linux reliable computer maybe a stronger point than the distro. I had a toshiba that took weeks to find the actual way to make the soundcard works... and so the ATI graphics card... and the headphone jack did just mute the sound but didn't get music from it. On the other hand the thinkpad x200 and x220 I got need zero work to "just work" beside the trackpoint. My Asus ROG have also work without any extra work from my side. Maybe a good rule of right hand would be to stick to intel wireless/cpu/graphics (no nvidia, no ati). Dell and system76 also sell linux compliant machines. Last but not least; tangent but if you change the requirement to stable *nix machine you can get a mac.

Ive been using ubuntu nearly 10 years as my primary os on every my servers and desktops, they really came a long way. We hated eachother bigtime, however if you decide to get on well with each other somethings may be unseen. However ubuntu is a great os and still my number one, and i love unity(really). Also the ubuntu comunity definitely rocks. You can find nearly everything's .deb packages, you'll have apt which is one of the main reason why i still use this os. It's dead simple. But if you really need low hardware and high performance i think you really take a look BSDs. However you need an os that runs well, is sufficient for doing internet tasks, can handle your scripting things, can do developping stuff, etc... go debian derivatives (ubuntu, mint,...)

Mint is pretty solid out of the box, better than Ubuntu imho.

You could also go the other route, install ubuntu server or something and install x, your preferred window manager and all that stuff yourself. Have been running a desktop setup like this for 3/4 years now and never had any issues other than having to reconfigure some *cked up X settings after dist-upgrade.

I second Mint. Been using it for the last 4 years.

I would actually suggest Kubuntu 15.04. I just actually tried it last night and its fantastic. https://www.kde.org/workspaces/plasmadesktop/

although I can't really comment on stability, just commenting for desktop use.

I use Debian on my old Thinkpad T61 beater. I use it for everything. Coding, browsing and multimedia. I am no power user so it kind of just works. My wife is using Debian on desktop as well and for years now has been no-fuss-it-just-works...so I recommend Debian.

I need a very light OS to run my CAE program and Lubuntu is the best.

Although I touch the point of a linux "known to work" machine below, what are the odds that is not linux but a problem with hardware? memory would be my first guess. Also, may you want to share more information about your set up? machine, specs? UEFI can play a big role on your problems.

Archlinux isn't the most STABLE, but I've had less problems with it than any other distro. Rolling Release is a godsend, and the wiki provides excellent documentation. Just don't be put off if your told to RTFM when you ask a question.

There hasn't been one of these for a long time.

I gave up and switched to OS X and BSD for my Unix needs.

openSUSE Leap: https://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Leap

Bonus: openSUSE Build Service (OBS): http://openbuildservice.org/about/

Lubuntu if you want something lightweight

Second Lubuntu. Installed to breathe life into an old af Toshiba laptop. Stable, fast, no bloat.

Debian.

OpenBSD

CentOS

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