One of the things I liked most about Ubuntu is that the installation process is incredibly easy and everything "just works". Does anyone know a good alternative?
I'd love to go all in on Alpine, but using it on the desktop doesn't exactly spark joy.
"Just works" type desktop: Don't use linux. Personally, Arch is my go-to desktop and IMO if you can't deal with that, just use macOS or something. There's lots of things that don't "just work" on Linux even today. Bluetooth audio for example has a lot of problems and those will be present cross-distro.
The distros have less and less meaning nowadays, they're just what software is shipped in repos and initially. Ubuntu does a lot of custom shit so you want to stay away from them. Debian is constantly out of date but if you don't mind that it's still a solid distro. Fedora has always been pretty good as well but imo is straight up worse than Arch for sort-of-the-same philosophy.
> "Just works" type desktop: Don't use linux.
That's why I preferred Ubuntu, it felt like a good compromise between a Linux system and ease of use (or rather ease of setup).
> Just use macOS or something. There's lots of things that don't "just work" on Linux even today.
That's actually what I'm currently doing, for pretty much that exact reason.
That said, I really want to switch to Linux as my primary OS again, I guess I'll give Arch a try.
> The distros have less and less meaning nowadays.
That's a good point.
Why? Could you point me to some other straws I've missed?
> Most likely you haven't used Ubuntu for a very long time.
It's true that Ubuntu has not been my primary OS for a while, perhaps I should've been more clear.
I _am_ still using it on various laptops and servers (and have been meaning to switch back to it for daily use), which is why I'm annoyed at the prospect of having to deal with finding an alternative.
Though I switched to FreeBSD myself for my desktop.