Ask HN: What Linux distro to install? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What Linux distro to install?

11 pointslawgimenez50 comments

I’m about to receive an old Windows laptop and decided to reformat and install a Linux distro. Most of my experience on Linux is mostly Ubuntu and I am not sure if this distro is still recommended today.

I am thinking Kali Linux right now but maybe too much for myself. I am thinking of a distro that should be lightweight and runs well on old laptops. And a user interface that is not confusing. Thanks for the answers!

Edit:

The model is Dell Inspiron 5459 14-inch HD Intel Core i5-6200U/8GB/2GB AMD Radeon R5 M335/Windows 10.

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> I am thinking Kali Linux right now

Kali themselves say that you should not pick it for this:

> it is NOT a recommended distribution if you’re unfamiliar with Linux or are looking for a general-purpose Linux desktop distribution for development, web design, gaming, etc.

https://www.kali.org/docs/introduction/should-i-use-kali-lin...

Other than that, counter question: How much time did you spend to decide between windows home, pro, enterprise, ltsc, ...? Probably none, because for your use case it does not matter. Same for linux distros. For your use case any of them will work just fine and feel pretty indistinguishable.

Some comments:

- If you pick debian the default installer does not support some hardware (e.g. most wifi) on purpose for freedom reasons. Use the installer with support instead https://cdimage.debian.org/images/unofficial/non-free/images...

- Fedora has to obey more laws than ubuntu (canonical headquarters are on some British island). As a consequence you probably want to add rpm fusion for some more video codecs etc.

- Ubuntu is probably a fine choice. Releases are named year.month, e.g. 22.04. The evenyear.04 releases are supported for a long time and can directly upgrade to evenyear+2.04. For all other releases you are supposed to upgrade every 6 months. Upgrades are usually completely unproblematic and quick.

- On any phone you install software by opening your app store and picking what you want. Same for linux. Sideloading stuff from (random) websites like on windows is possible, but try not to. Similarly, if a website tells you to compile stuff just ignore that (unless you also commonly compile software on windows?).

The answer depends on who's going to use the device.

I personally like Debian because it has support for the prehistoric computers and of course because it was the first Linux distro to be in space.

But honestly with Linux distros it really doesn't matter what you choose, just pick one and if you find something that you don't like and can't fix because of the distro that you're on (which seems quite unlikely to ignorant me) just change distros.

Regarding lightweight, for that you should be more careful to not select a desktop environment that's to heavy. The two that I've used because they're light are xfce and lxde.

I'm currently running Debian + lxde on my Intel Atom N270 laptop, although I've been on lxde for only about two years before that I've been in xfce for probably a decade.

I don't know in what shape Kali Linux is today, but many years ago when I used it, it's main purpose was "hacking" and was quite system heavy, I wouldn't really recommend it unless you really need the tools that come with it and even that's not really a good reason since you can just install those tools on any other distro.

The distro and DE that I suggested are for really really low end old computers. If yours is more capable you could pick a more modern looking DE.

I've heard good things about Linux mint, Ubuntu is always a stable option, but yeah, just roll a dice install one and you'll see what you actually need and what you don't. I think you'll find quite quickly that it doesn't really matter what distro you're running and fall in love with the one that comes with the prettiest background image ^^.

Have fun on this wonderful journey~!

Thank you for the detailed answer! I will be the one using it, I'm a mobile dev and early in my career I mostly use Ubuntu installed with Eclipse IDE before I transitioned to Android Studio.

But I also code some scripts on Python and Go for some of my hobby projects.

Android studio works very well on Debian. Also works well on Pop!OS.

Kali Linux is not secure for general-purpose use, you should never use it for such. Just try Debian "with nonfree firmware" and make sure that every piece of hardware is properly supported. If you run into hardware issues, you can try Fedora or perhaps Arch.

I always say Mint. It just works. Or Kubuntu. Fedora really looks like it might be the up and coming next big thing someday.

I would not really suggest Ubuntu. Mint is based on it, and compatible, without Snapcraft or GNOME.

I don't see any reason to actually install Kali as a daily driver OS. It's not meant for that, so I don't see how it would do as well as something purpose built.

Then again, my rule with computers is generally to ignore any tech that's not in the first page of Google, to avoid all the usual software incompatibilities and sometimes lack of dev resources that go with anything obscure.

If this won't be your main computer, or privacy is your top priority, you might want to try out something more specialized or novel.

Your hardware is good enough to run any Linux distribution out there.

The question is what your use case is and what is your level of proficiency using Linux.

Linux Mint, Elementary and Pop_OS provide good install experience, easy of usage, low maintenance and good performance.

Contrary to popular wisdom, Ubuntu still is a good option.

If you need more flexibility than the alternatives above, go with Debian.

Have been rocking Elementary for a few years now as my main Linux desktop. It has some quirks here and there but most of them are probably User Error to be honest. It's basically Ubuntu++

I don’t know but I think fedora, archlinux, Debian, Ubuntu are all user friendly considering the amount of docs available and the fact that probably being an old laptop it is already fully configured on the get go, also probably it depends more on what you run on the distro more than the distro itself, try xfce or lxde first and see how it performs

Pop_OS by System76 is really good. It works flawlessly and is actually enjoyable to use. It was my daily OS for a while until I met a Macbook M1 Air.

If you could install Pop on a M1 Macbook Air (no VM/bare metal) you would never look back.

I second that. For me PopOS desktop is perfectly balanced between usability and simplicity. The have optional tilling and stacking wm, virtual desktops, ability to shrink/disable gnomes enormous window titles, simple dock, per monitor scaling, and more

First ... it doesn't matter what distro you pick - they're all "good" [enough]

Second ... unless you're planning to learn cybersecurity, pentesting, etc, why would you want a security-focused distro like Kali?

Third ... while they'll all run whatever desktop environment you want, it's probably going to be a lot easier to install a distro wherein you select the experience you want in the process

Fourth ... go with what you know ... unless you really want to learn a new distro, just run what you know :)

{Yes - I know what I'm about to post is NOT "Linux" ...but if you're wanting to learn something new and/or have some nostalgia for the late-90s/early-00s, read on}

I absolutely LOVED BeOS back in the day

Though I understand why Apple chose to buy NeXT instead of Be in the 90s, I wish they'd bought both - NeXT to get Steve Jobs and NeXT's way of managing apps (where they're all self-contained directories) and Be to get far more intelligent (for lack of a better (and subjective) term) OS structuring

The BeOS API guide was a dream to work with

Native TCP/IP inter-process messaging, microkernels, Unix-esque (without being "Unix") directory trees, a positively lovely UI (tabs before tabs were "cool"), interapplication object embedding (that no one (not even Android or iOS/iPadOS with their widgets) has yet to accomplish (don't get me started on OLE from Microsoft - a brilliant idea, but stuck at the data level, and never the application level)), insanely-fast startup and formatting (even on janky, old hardware) ...

The OSS reimplementation is called Haiku: https://haiku-os.org

If you're looking for either a walk down memory lane, or the opportunity to learn something different and "new", try it out :)

AMD graphics gives you more choices. I quite like Pop!OS despite the stupid name. Ubuntu without some of the cruft and Nvidia card support is good, not that you need it.

Debian is what I usually reach for though. If you are doing development work on that laptop, debian is pretty hard to beat.

Edit: as others mentioned, download the debian installer with non-free firmware, otherwise its a bit painful on most laptops.

I've heard about Pop!OS, looks heavy though with all the fancy UI/icons/assets, etc.

No matter which distro you pick the DE is trivial to change; just install a new one and select it the next time you log in. If you want something super light you can even just use a WM like FVWM or CWM.

The main criteria for a distro you should have are:

1) Is the libc (and other libraries) compatible with my software? (closed software will need (possibly 32 bit) Glibc which excludes eg. Alpine.)

2) Are the packages I want available and up to date?

3) Do the attitudes of the maintainers seem good? (they shield you from nasty software and determine a lot about how the distro works.)

4) Do I like the configuration of things that are harder to change (package manager, init system, hotplug deamon, display manager, standard root dirs etc.)

Note that in general supported devices don't really change between distros. That depends on the kernel (which they all share) firmware (which they all mostly share) and mesa (which they all mostly share.) Nvidia might be the only exception since they tend to not publish driver sources.

>4) Do I like the configuration of things that are harder to change (package manager, init system, hotplug deamon, display manager, standard root dirs etc.)

Gotta say - if you're worried about the package manager, init system, hotplug daemon, standard root directories, etc ... you should be building your own distro from scratch :)

None of those things matter from a technical standpoint (I know - people miss init.d, but I have yet to hear a real reason as to WHY they miss it (beyond the, "well in MY day we walked uphill on broken glass in the snow both ways - and we LIKED it!" responses))

You're not even going to see differences in standard root directories unless you're looking for /etc/httpd and you need to go to /etc/apache2 instead (I've been running Ubuntu on my servers for a few years, and still manage to try to cd into the RHEL/CentOS structure sometimes ... but that's easy enough to correct when you get the error message reminding you you're not on Red Hat anymore) - but how often are you really monkeying around where the specific directory structure even matters?

Some of the defaults for systemd can be pretty annoying. Killing tmux when you end your session is something Pop OS still does for example. SysV init kind of sucked but I think OpenRC is legitimately better than SystemD. Each new version of SystemD brings new brokenness that you don't necessarily expect, the result is a broken platform.

>You won't even see the structure of the root directories

The software you use will though. If you're running non-free software it will probably depend on a specific structure.

But yeah I build my own distro because I can't stand the opinions other distro maintainers have.

>The software you use will though. If you're running non-free software it will probably depend on a specific structure.

In 25+y I can say I've NEVER seen this

Not. Even. Once.

If a product as required a specific set of directories (I'm looking at you Opsware/HP/Microfocus SA[S]) ... just make them and move on

Otherwise? Since I first installed Red Hat 3.3 in the mid/late 90s, I've not seen a single piece of software care about where it went :)

Because most of the distros you use have the same structure. Just because most distros won't violate this doesn't mean some (Guix for example) won't.

Again - the location of stuff doesn't matter :)

It does when the elf interpreter is looking for it.

>2) Are the packages I want available and up to date?

This is the only factor that you might want to consider (ultimately, it's what pushed me from RHEL/CentOS to Ubuntu ... fresher PHP packages for a handful of websites I or friends run on my webservers)

If it's a desktop distro, they're all going to be "available and up to date" (that - or you've got a dead distro) :)

Yes, its a bit gimmickey. But the install experience is good. It plays nice with secure boot too.

I've been running it on an Acer Nitro 5 with Nvidia graphics and its been really solid with all my dev tools on it (vscode, android studio, jetbrains, .NET, node, python etc)

> And a user interface that is not confusing

That's a subjective condition that only you can judge. Try out different desktop environments and their UIs from https://distrotest.net/index.php.

OpenSuse

Do you want a Rolling Release distro? OpenSuse Tumbleweed DO you want a stable distro? Opensuse Leap.

I stopped doing distro jump when I decided return to OpenSuse, since then, has been my default distro in personal laptop and workstation laptop.

I truly recommend this.

Self Service: https://distrochooser.de

PS: I have heard about it, but not used it personally. Please use it with your own judgment.

Why not try a couple?

It takes 15 minutes to download, image, and install a distro. And only another 15 to figure out if you like it.

I would try a couple different flavors of the same distro and a couple different distros in the same flavor.

Soon you will be able to answer that question for yourself and others.

Yeah that is my plan. I'm leaning on arch and debian + xfce.

Arch is too manual for me. I use Manjaro and love it. Absolutely trouble-free distro. Never had the much-claimed "rolling releases are going to prevent your machine from rebooting one day".

In fact the only problem I had with it for years was the upgrade if OpenSSH that removed support for certain crypto algorithms. And that's not the fault of the distro.

> old Windows laptop

I'd suggest Lubuntu. https://lubuntu.me/

I have it running pretty well on a laptop that's close to ten years old.

Ubuntu is still one of the top distros for overall compatibilitiy and ease of use.

Since you're using Linux just to use Linux, you might want to try more technical but fun distros like Fedora.

Try all the ones that interest you, stick with what you like. After distrohopping for a while I landed on Fedora. I prefer it slightly to OpenSUSE but that is a good option too.

The Question Impossible! (a.k.a) How long is a piece of String?

The Answer is; The one that works for both You and your Hardware.

I have used Mint and Ubuntu. I recommend Manjaro KDE. All the benefits of rolling releases, but still stable.

Fedora 36 or an LTS Ubuntu. Depends on if you want the latest packages or a super stable base.

I don't know why anyone would use anything other than Ubuntu on a daily-driver laptop.

no info on capabilities list

" an old Windows laptop "

is it just it, so wont be power enough to run Win 10?

is ISP connection good/execellent ?

no -> keep on Debian base

yes -> set up Arch base

  this'd be Artix, the best of Arch based OS
  no systemd much better than it either openRC, runit or s6

Sorry, I have updated the post to include the laptop model. It is a Dell Inspiron 5459, 8GB Memory.

still no info for 'is ISP connection good/excellent ?'

if yes just install Artix

good, kind, execellent guys work hard to convert all systemd to lighter more efficient daemon of it

I am on fiber connection, and I'm leaning on Arch. Thanks to you!

https://iso.artixlinux.org/isos.php

if u, i may have time to help solve each other; budikusasi@gmail.com

I have tried Xubuntu for a very long time without any problem.

Why ubuntu would not be recommended today ?

Fedora or Ubuntu. Flip a coin.

arch or alpine edge. the rest are too annoying.

Annoying how?

- inability to install recent versions of software with distro package manager

- pstree has too much stuff in default install

- lack of recent kernel

- lack of good wiki

Fedora

Debian all the way.

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