Do you have a distro testing computer?

MurphCID · Post by **MurphCID** » Wed Jul 06, 2022 9:50 am

As it says, do you have a computer (either a laptop or desktop) that you use to test/play with/experiment with other distros?

msseufert · Post by **msseufert** » Wed Jul 06, 2022 10:02 am

"I have several"

To be pedantic, I have a VMWare ESXi server with lots of RAM and drive space that I run several VMs from. Some testing, some permanent.

ivar · Post by **ivar** » Wed Jul 06, 2022 10:02 am

I have a couple, I have a couple different SD cards for my raspberryPi 4 , and also a Intel NUC running virtualbox for testing purposes.
Neither of them have seen much use the last couple months though..

MurphCID · Post by **MurphCID** » Wed Jul 06, 2022 10:12 am

My old Darter Pro was mine for a long time, but it would only run certain distros. So I found an el cheapo T480S on Amazon and it will be my new distro testing laptop. I am looking forward to playing around with it.

Hoser Rob · Post by **Hoser Rob** » Wed Jul 06, 2022 10:25 am

Nope. I used to distro hop but not for some time. Especially since I eventually learned that there isn't nearly as much difference between them as you think. After all, they all use basically the same components. There's very little difference in speed (assuming the same hardware and DE) except for boot times, which doesn't concern me that much. It's mostly about support for me ... most of the many distros out there have little to none, which makes them unusable. That's why I always say the only good distros for beginners are Ubuntu and Mint.

However, I can't see moving away from Debian based systems because I'm so used to the packaging system.

Portreve · Post by **Portreve** » Wed Jul 06, 2022 10:35 am

"I use a VM for this" should be an option on the poll, because that's normally how I would play with another distro before putting it on bare metal.

MurphCID · Post by **MurphCID** » Wed Jul 06, 2022 11:24 am

I forgot to add that option, sorry. As for packaging systems, the Fedora/Red Hat "dnf" seems almost the same as the Debian "apt" system. So it should not be too horrible to play with.

AndyMH · Post by **AndyMH** » Wed Jul 06, 2022 12:17 pm

I have 4 x T430, no I can't justify that many. My 'development' T430 has mint installed on an msata SSD, I have another SSD in the main bay that is used to test other OS.

Post by **JosephM** » Wed Jul 06, 2022 12:18 pm

All 3 of my systems are for testing distros. All for testing different versions of Linux Mint under different hardware

I do occasionally install something else under another partition just to see how they are doing something.

all41 · Post by **all41** » Wed Jul 06, 2022 1:40 pm

Of course not!

: pin.png (29.05 KiB) Viewed 1870 times

smawgmaw · Post by **smawgmaw** » Wed Jul 06, 2022 1:58 pm

I have a couple with differing hardware that I like to "test" different distros on to see how each pc handles them and how well they handle them before I do a hard install in my main laptop.

Termy · Post by **Termy** » Wed Jul 06, 2022 2:09 pm

Yes, but a virtual machine, for helping people here, testing my programs, adventuring in different environments, etc. I'd like a separate physical machine for this purpose, but it's unnecessary and takes up a lot of room for no real gain, unless I needed to test hardware, specifically.

MurphCID · Post by **MurphCID** » Wed Jul 06, 2022 2:51 pm

I just don't get the same feel for an OS except on physical hardware. I know VMs are great, but my quirk is to use hardware.

MurphCID · Post by **MurphCID** » Wed Jul 06, 2022 2:51 pm

all41 wrote: ⤴Wed Jul 06, 2022 1:40 pm Of course not!
pin.png

LOL, so how many DO you have....?

RollyShed · Post by **RollyShed** » Wed Jul 06, 2022 5:52 pm

I have access to plenty of computers that I could use for distro "fiddling" but don't. Why would I? Mint does the job without any problems.

mediclaser · Post by **mediclaser** » Wed Jul 06, 2022 5:52 pm

I used to test distros in VMs, but eventually switched to a dedicated machine setup with mutiple hardrive partitions to host multiple distros.

I learn more about how distros exactly behave using this new method compared to just VMs.

all41 · Post by **all41** » Wed Jul 06, 2022 6:38 pm

MurphCID wrote: ⤴Wed Jul 06, 2022 2:51 pm
all41 wrote: ⤴Wed Jul 06, 2022 1:40 pm Of course not!
pin.png
LOL, so how many DO you have....?

I have a hot-swap sata bay so can boot as many as wanted.
Mint's, MX21, and Kubuntu are more often used.
I try to keep an open mind

AwesomeOpossum74 · Post by **AwesomeOpossum74** » Wed Jul 06, 2022 7:33 pm

I don't do much distro testing or hopping these days, having found happiness with LMDE. But should I ever, I have a "test" partition should I want to dual-boot a test distro on my laptop. Mostly, however, I just spin up a VM.

Petermint · Post by **Petermint** » Wed Jul 06, 2022 11:01 pm

You mean there are other distributions?

I tested some on a spare Raspberry Pi and always found the Pi OS tasted best. The Pi makes testing as easy as inserting a different microSD card. No need for spare hardware.

LM does everything I want on Intel/AMD. The alternatives might do one thing better but the reviews and screenshots usually show a few things worse. Appimage and PPAs remove the need for bleeding edge distributions. When I set up a server, I use a full GUI OS as it is just easier and has no effect on performance. No more Debian on 26 CDs.

In the last 100 years (in technology years), the only problems were Wifi chips and Nvidia. It was faster to fix them in LM than to install a different distribution.

Marie SWE · Post by **Marie SWE** » Thu Jul 07, 2022 12:29 am

I have two little older Lab-computers.. one HP-desktop(i5 2gen) and one HP-laptop(i5 2gen).. but i do not use them for distro-testings..
I use them for testing/recreating different scenarios for support or evaluation or to dissect/hack/infect/analyze OS's, Virus, malware..
a few times to test some Linux hacks that are unsafe or not recommended so it doesn't do anything if it goes bad... No virus or malware things the last five years though...
I do have use them for distro-testing ones.. or wait, two times..
one was just before I went over to debian and the debian test was on the laptop.. and one time pop_os on my desktop just because a friend said pop_os had soooo good support for old Nvidia drivers.. witch it didn't

Only windows has good backward compatibility for old hardware.(Exception for the rule, win11 if you don't hack it first to run w11 on old hardware)

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