Yes, to be fair, I haven't really used openSUSE for a few years. I don't know what it's like today, but I see it's still high in the ratings (#10, for what those are worth), so it's worth at least considering.
Linux distributions
- Thread starter Redglyph
- Start date
I use ubuntu for a singular reason (well two reasons); the primary reason is they now bundle zfs with their kernel. There is a big debate around mixing zfs with linux since zfs has its own license (sun open source license) and the purist would argue is it not a license compatible with the whatever the newest version of gnu gpl license.
zfs has a lot of the features i look for in a file system including:
block checksum (brts offers this feature)
reliable flixible raid (brts still has issue in this area)
snapshot support (kind of clumsy to use compared to netapp)
(prior to ubuntu bundling in zfs i had to download the kernel sources and build new kernel to run zfs - quite doable but a pia).
While bit error in files is extremely rare (it can happen due to bad cable or similar); what still happens is bad blocks. The typical response to a bad block is to zero the block out or replace it with a zero block that is good. zfs can catch these errors and i you run a version of raid that offers redundancy repair it. Native linux does offer raid in a couple of forms via mdraid and lvm but they do not offer block level checksum. Of course you could mix mdraid with brts (or can you?) if you don't trust brts native raid service.
--
Also i find ubuntu easy to use and i've been using it for years so i know how to setup things up (i run xfce window manager not gnome - i did run gnome prior to the move to gnome3 which i dislike).
-
Having said all of this there are many options with many champion of those options - none is defacto right.
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2021
- Messages
- 292
- Joined
- September 26, 2007
- Messages
- 3,469
I think the best argument to use Ubuntu is just that it's the most popular desktop Linux by far, and that logic largely carries over to Mint as well since it's an Ubuntu derivative. Although if you know that you'll eventually be working primarily with Red Hat Enterprise / CentOS / Alma / Rocky, then you'd be better off using Fedora and learning the way things are done there.
BTW, I use Xfce as well. Previously used KDE for about 20 years (~1997-2017), but it just got too buggy and bloated, had to move on from it. Absolutely can't stand GNOME 3.
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2007
- Messages
- 3,469
I'm a happy Xfce user, too. KDE was nice and I still like it, but it's so heavy.
- Joined
- September 26, 2007
- Messages
- 3,469
If it was just for the bloat, I would have stayed with KDE. Once bugs started never getting fixed, particularly some that affected me, I had to bail. The final nail in the coffin was when I had a short discussion over email with one of the main KDE devs, which came about because of one of the bugs I'd filed. He told me he was quitting the project literally the next day because he no longer believed in the quality or direction of Qt5...
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2007
- Messages
- 3,469
Now then. My last months went for finding the ideal Linux distro for me, as my decade long toxic marriage with Windows must come to an end.
Personally, I have three Linux distros:
My next experiment would be playing games of Fedora Kinoite via flatpakked Heroic and Steam. For that I must take a deep breath and try to install the dreadful official nVidia drivers first, as Fedora Kinoite comes with the open source Nouveau driver.
Honestly, tinkering with Linux feels like I'm back in the 90's in a good way: total control over my system, exactly as I did in the DOS/Win3.1/Win95 era.
Personally, I have three Linux distros:
- Fedora Kinoite as my daily driver (managed to install my client's quirky VPN, yaaay!)
- PopOS as the gaming distro (mainly for supporting nVidia out of the box)
- Arch vanilla as the tinker distro (to learn Linux blackbelt) 120 processes, 300 packages, cca 500 Megs of system ram usage, and I still have a fully functional i3 desktop baby!
My next experiment would be playing games of Fedora Kinoite via flatpakked Heroic and Steam. For that I must take a deep breath and try to install the dreadful official nVidia drivers first, as Fedora Kinoite comes with the open source Nouveau driver.
Honestly, tinkering with Linux feels like I'm back in the 90's in a good way: total control over my system, exactly as I did in the DOS/Win3.1/Win95 era.
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2008
- Messages
- 824
- Joined
- September 26, 2007
- Messages
- 3,469
Installing the NVIDIA drivers on Fedora is extremely easy if you use the RPM Fusion repository. Basically two dnf commands, one to enable the two RPM Fusion repos, and one to install the NVIDIA driver and associated packages.
Don't know much about Kinoite, but I guess there's an extra step for it?
Enabling the RPM Fusion repositories
Third party repositories There are a number of third-party software repositories for Fedora. They have more liberal licensing policies and provide software packages that Fedora excludes for various reasons. These…
docs.fedoraproject.org
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2007
- Messages
- 3,469
Thanks for the info! As Kinoite uses rpm-ostree instead of plain rpm, this should be just this simple. There are two quirks though:
1. enable the Fusion repos for rpm-ostree. Should be easy enough.
2. check proper CUDA usage, else my battery will be drained in minutes (vanilla Kinoite intel gpu + nouveau gives me about 2.5hrs of battery life in mixed usage).
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2008
- Messages
- 824
nvidia is readily available with ubuntu - just do an apt-get on the driver to install it. Still it isn't perfect. Frequently the code that uses the nvidia library (X) and kernel level driver will get out of sync and the screen resolution will break until you reboot. Definitely a pia in that aspect for folks that dont' reboot often. ati driver seem to work better as i haven't rebooted in a year now; BUT ati has its own flaw - the current one is a kernel crash on screen wake up so i have that feature turned off until my next reboot as it should be fixed now.
Hum.... yea there are issue with linux but i can't say windows is much better after all when is the last time you went years without a reboot in windows. I remember once i went 5 years without a reboot.... oh well.
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2021
- Messages
- 292
Yes, that's right, hence my PopOS gaming distro setup. Problem is, I am not a huge fan of Ubuntu (desktop) and GNOME.
I was thinking on setting up a lean and mean vanilla Debian distro without the Ubuntu bloat, but too lazy for that
(Arch is my current tinker playground)Also, GNOME used to be such a resource hog. Aas said earlier, XFCE would be better for a lean system, but Fedora/Kinoite thankfully installs a minimal KDE, which rocks!
( Note to self: does Fedora/Silverblue install a minimal GNOME too? If yes, I might want to check it out )
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2008
- Messages
- 824