Distro hopping

[balayya]

did some distro hopping and finally back to mint again

tried
zorin OS: DE keeps crashing randomly
elementary : annoying as you cant install .deb files easily as in linux mint
antergos : not sure about this , but i dont like yogurts
debian : wireless driver issues and hardware doesnt work out of the box
manjaro deepin : buggy
deepin : buggy

[sammiev]

Been distro hopping for more than 10 years now. More choices now than there was back then.

My equipment must be very compatible as I had very little problems.

If had to choose between Deb and RPM, I prefer Deb.

[balayya]

Hi Sammi
true , too many choices , what distros have you tried

[Hoser Rob]

did some distro hopping and finally back to mint again

tried
zorin OS: DE keeps crashing randomly

Zorin is poorly maintained and has useless support. Never install a distro (or even any complex apps) without looking at the support forum etc. This is Linux so you'll likely need it. ESPECIALLY with noobs.

elementary : annoying as you cant install .deb files easily as in linux mint

The only reason for this is that they don't install gdebi by default. This can happen in any distro and if you don't know enough to just install gdebi you probably should not be installing anything from .debs except for something like Chrome.

antergos : not sure about this , but i dont like yogurts

Don't know anything about this one.

debian : wireless driver issues and hardware doesnt work out of the box
manjaro deepin : buggy
deepin : buggy

It's not unusual for driver/hardware issues to arise with ANY distro. A quick peek at any distro support forum will support this. Debian is NOT noob suitable. And Manjaro isn't particularly buggy.

If anything there are definitely too many distros, and most noobs should avoid them because they have little tech support. Ubuntu and Mint are the only distros I'd recommend to noobs like yourself. Period.

[sammiev]

Hi Sammi
true , too many choices , what distros have you tried

Hi, Best answer would be most.

[Portreve]

I really, really like Debian. However, one issue of late for me is they have out-of-date Android tools (ADB and Fastboot) which directly impact me because modern Android devices need sparse image support, which the supported version does not, itself, support.

I used to like Fedora, but the problem is it and too many other distros out there just aren't stable enough. Typically, the OS itself is stable, but apps crash, and sometimes the OS itself crashes, and in my experience, Debian and Debian-based distros are MUCH better behaved in this regard.

[balayya]

did some distro hopping and finally back to mint again

tried
zorin OS: DE keeps crashing randomly

Zorin is poorly maintained and has useless support. Never install a distro (or even any complex apps) without looking at the support forum etc. This is Linux so you'll likely need it. ESPECIALLY with noobs.

elementary : annoying as you cant install .deb files easily as in linux mint

The only reason for this is that they don't install gdebi by default. This can happen in any distro and if you don't know enough to just install gdebi you probably should not be installing anything from .debs except for something like Chrome.

antergos : not sure about this , but i dont like yogurts

Don't know anything about this one.

debian : wireless driver issues and hardware doesnt work out of the box
manjaro deepin : buggy
deepin : buggy

It's not unusual for driver/hardware issues to arise with ANY distro. A quick peek at any distro support forum will support this. Debian is NOT noob suitable. And Manjaro isn't particularly buggy.

If anything there are definitely too many distros, and most noobs should avoid them because they have little tech support. Ubuntu and Mint are the only distros I'd recommend to noobs like yourself. Period.

ouh! , i guess everyone was a noob at somepoint , and there is nothing wrong in trying other distros , thanks for your recommendations though

[Citizen229]

I consider distro hopping a feature. Its a perk you cannot get with Apple or Microsoft.

i have found any distro that is buggy and unstable, install their XFCE version. XFCE makes any distro a good distro for stability and usability.

[Arch_Enemy]

I really, really like Debian. However, one issue of late for me is they have out-of-date Android tools (ADB and Fastboot) which directly impact me because modern Android devices need sparse image support, which the supported version does not, itself, support.

I used to like Fedora, but the problem is it and too many other distros out there just aren't stable enough. Typically, the OS itself is stable, but apps crash, and sometimes the OS itself crashes, and in my experience, Debian and Debian-based distros are MUCH better behaved in this regard.

Arch can be fairly stable. The problem is the Rolling Release 'feature'. You get everything working, and then do that 5th update.

I finally figured out, once you get everything working just the way you want it, break the updater, and NEVER do an update!

Never, ever do another "rolling release" model again, except as a toy.

[samriggs]

I love hopping around and have done so for years but finally settled down on two.
Mint cinnamon for stability and manjaro xfce for latest and greatest.

I hate doing reinstalls so I prefer rolling releases, which is why I went with manjaro for that, plus besides debian based, arch is tied with my favorite two bases to work with.
debian is just a bit outdated for what I need though for work. (and I don't want debian experimental or testing, done that in the past, I just use arch based for that stuff).
I tried antergos awhile back but prefer manjaro over it, plus if I was going to use antergos I would just go pure arch instead which I love but not as stable as manjaro for my liking.

But distro hopping is one of the great things linux offers, your not stuck with one flavor for everyone.

[Hoser Rob]

... I used to like Fedora, but the problem is it and too many other distros out there just aren't stable enough. ....

I tried Fedora on my netbook for a bit. It has things to recommend it but it was buggy.

The rpm package manager was broken. The people at their support forum thought it was my fault for not reading all the bugzillas. I am NOT kidding.

My reply went something like: "do you really think I'd be stupid enough to install a Linux distro knowing the package manager was frakking broken? So long, idiots."

Plus I could not shake the feeling that if you're using Fedora you are just a Red Hat beta tester in the devs' view.

[samriggs]

The rpm package manager was broken. The people at their support forum thought it was my fault for not reading all the bugzillas. I am NOT kidding.

My reply went something like: "do you really think I'd be stupid enough to install a Linux distro knowing the package manager was frakking broken? So long, idiots."

thanks for the laugh

I tired fedora a couple of times in the past, wasn't a fan of it myself, but not to have a working package manager is insane for any distro, espcially one as big as fedora.

EDIT: fixed quote

[Portreve]

The rpm package manager was broken. The people at their support forum thought it was my fault for not reading all the bugzillas. I am NOT kidding.

My reply went something like: "do you really think I'd be stupid enough to install a Linux distro knowing the package manager was frakking broken? So long, idiots."

thanks for the laugh

I tired fedora a couple of times in the past, wasn't a fan of it myself, but not to have a working package manager is insane for any distro, espcially one as big as fedora.

Um... I didn't say that.

However, I happen to like the word "frak", being an Original BSG fan, so... it's all good, man.

[Arch_Enemy]

I love hopping around and have done so for years but finally settled down on two.
Mint cinnamon for stability and manjaro xfce for latest and greatest.

I hate doing reinstalls so I prefer rolling releases, which is why I went with manjaro for that, plus besides debian based, arch is tied with my favorite two bases to work with.
debian is just a bit outdated for what I need though for work. (and I don't want debian experimental or testing, done that in the past, I just use arch based for that stuff).
I tried antergos awhile back but prefer manjaro over it, plus if I was going to use antergos I would just go pure arch instead which I love but not as stable as manjaro for my liking.

But distro hopping is one of the great things linux offers, your not stuck with one flavor for everyone.

I really like Arch (except installing...I don't like to think that hard) but I've had it blow up too many times. Luckily I have a "/" partition and a "/home" partition so reinstalling isn't an issue.

It's just that reinstalling was usually taking place when my manager called and said, "Can you take a look at...?" Last one he said, "go back to Windows, or get something stable"

I have a Manjaro install to play with. The only problem I have is I'm not a programmer, and installing from YAOURT can be perplexing. PacmanXG used to have a nifty feature: when installing from the AUR it would bring up it's own 'terminal' window, and it would offer the option to edit the install script. If it bombed you could reinstall it, edit the package script and usually get it to install. Neat. But not for a production system.

PacmanXG is unmaintained and 32 bit only, and won't install on Manjaro. Yet.

[samriggs]

sorry about that Portreve forgot to get rid of all the quote marks I fixed it.

I have a Manjaro install to play with. The only problem I have is I'm not a programmer, and installing from YAOURT can be perplexing. PacmanXG used to have a nifty feature: when installing from the AUR it would bring up it's own 'terminal' window, and it would offer the option to edit the install script. If it bombed you could reinstall it, edit the package script and usually get it to install. Neat. But not for a production system.

PacmanXG is unmaintained and 32 bit only, and won't install on Manjaro. Yet.

I install through pamac for all the AUR I want and can also do it through pacman using yaourt if I want to go that route also both ways use a terminal window to do it with, but with pamac it's just easier, plus it has a good search function built in for all repositories, including aur.
I use a 64bit so both ways are maintained now and work just fine.
When I used pure arch I just did it through the terminal using pacman or just build the packages I wanted from scratch if I was ify about the aur one.

[Arch_Enemy]

sorry about that Portreve forgot to get rid of all the quote marks I fixed it.

I have a Manjaro install to play with. The only problem I have is I'm not a programmer, and installing from YAOURT can be perplexing. PacmanXG used to have a nifty feature: when installing from the AUR it would bring up it's own 'terminal' window, and it would offer the option to edit the install script. If it bombed you could reinstall it, edit the package script and usually get it to install. Neat. But not for a production system.

PacmanXG is unmaintained and 32 bit only, and won't install on Manjaro. Yet.

I install through pamac for all the AUR I want and can also do it through pacman using yaourt if I want to go that route also both ways use a terminal window to do it with, but with pamac it's just easier, plus it has a good search function built in for all repositories, including aur.
I use a 64bit so both ways are maintained now and work just fine.
When I used pure arch I just did it through the terminal using pacman or just build the packages I wanted from scratch if I was ify about the aur one.

Using the script and a "local" repository always threw me for a loop! I did get a couple things installed but it gave me a headache doing it. Never got the hang of it. I did get pretty adept at editing the install scripts from AUR, even when the original package was no longer available. I'd just point to the other source and either change the check sum or skip it. I don't do anything critical and ain't afraid of being hacked, so I didn't care. I keep nothing on my computer but music and pictures.

[rick gen]

There are too many distros and everyday or week there's a new one being introduced. It feels like someone from the basement discovered how to assemble Linux pieces together, give it a distro name, then wants you to try it out. I'm in no way debasing the effort. I just have to wonder what about maintaining it like updates for bugs, security, overall health, etc., which require at least full-time workers like Mint have. In summary, it requires trust. How do I even know it's a distro for hacking purposes? Things like that... You have to have recognized, dedicated people like Clem of Mint.

[KBD47]

I think distro hopping is educational for those new to Linux. I learned a lot by doing so for my first few years using Linux. In many cases you eventually you settle down to one or two distros you feel most comfortable with. For me that has been Debian and Debian-based distros which I consider Ubuntu-Mint.

[flagbear]

RE: "debian : wireless driver issues and hardware doesnt work out of the box"

I have to disagree with someone with probably more knowledge than me but who generalizeed that this problem occurs broadly. It is worse in the case of debian because at least up until late 2016 you had to search for and offload to USB the two wireless drivers and then load them during installation. If this is not done correctly you won't have wifi out of the box. Most distros including Mint take care of this by providing wifi drivers out of the box.

I also have done several installations of manjaro after enjoying it in live session and in each case the install, which did populate my hard drive, did not boot. Granted, I might have repaired this with enough messing around with grub but it is the only install, not counting chakra, where I have had that problem.

This is based upon having successfully installed dual boot different spins of Fedora, virtually all the 'buntus, different Arch installer-distros, different OpenSUSE DE setups, some BSD, Mandrake, etcetera.

Mint is the most user-friendly full-featured xfcw distro IMHO, and Cinnamon is so much nicer than Unity. My only gripe is that I like various search engines which are not appearing in the drop down to add to Firefox default SE list, despite that both Mint and Firefox instructions tell me that they will. That is a minor issue, and at this point Mint xfce is my preferred distro, even with 8 GB RAM, which is enough for CInnamon.

[MintBean]

I've hopped around a few distros over the years.

Started with Ubuntu for a couple of years then went back to Windows for the games. This was around a decade ago and there were hardly any commercial games on Linux.
Didn't return to Linux for quite a while, eventually dual booting with Mint around 3 years ago. Would have been back sooner but couldn't get anything to install on my laptop in the intervening years; or at least not with WiFi.
Soon dropped Windows and I've tried Antergos, Manjaro, MX-16, Solus, Bodhi, Deepin, Zorin and Elementary. For me, only Antergos and Manjaro were anywhere close to Mint but a part of that is probably down to the Cinnamon desktop which just does things the way I like. In the end I decided Antergos and Manjaro would only ever be something to play with for me as whilst I liked the more up-to-date software and packages, I never felt confident enough that the rolling releases wouldn't be corrupted after and update to leave Mint behind.

I'm done with the hopping for now, at least until the next shiny thing comes along.....