Which distro do you use as a daily driver?

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majpooper
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Re: Which distro do you use as a daily driver?

Post by majpooper »

t42 wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 7:15 am
majpooper wrote: Wed Apr 07, 2021 9:50 pm The only catch is that I am going with Debian 11 which is still in testing rather than 10 which is stable
I'm too using Cinnamon on Debian 11 Bullseye - from July 2016 and it's working flawlessly since then. After these five years I can confirm that Testing is a new Stable. In a few month this installation can go Debian 11 Stable or Debian 12 Testing, depending on the sources.list content. Based on my experience I will remain on Testing Bookworm.
You do make a good point - Bullseye is near the end of a very long testing cycle. I do like that Debian is arguably one of the most if not the most stable linux OS distros. Certainly Mint is extremely stable as well and does provide a little more up to date versions of software packages. But Debian+Cinnamon to me is the best of both worlds.
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Re: Which distro do you use as a daily driver?

Post by MurphCID »

Is Debian Testing stable enough for daily use? I know it is not Sid, but by the time Debian stable is released, it is so outdated. Also how do you install Cinnamon in Debian? Can it use flatpaks?
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Re: Which distro do you use as a daily driver?

Post by t42 »

MurphCID wrote: Tue Apr 13, 2021 7:08 am how do you install Cinnamon in Debian?
There is a cinnamon image + non-free. For testing change sources.list repositories to testing after installation and update.
debian-live-10.9.0-amd64-cinnamon+nonfree.iso
from cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware
-=t42=-
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Re: Which distro do you use as a daily driver?

Post by defonotme »

Linux Mint Cinnamon, however I've tried many distros and Fedora, Manjaro and Ubuntu were my favourites, however Mint was always better, so that's what I'm using now! :)
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Re: Which distro do you use as a daily driver?

Post by majpooper »

MurphCID wrote: Tue Apr 13, 2021 7:08 am Is Debian Testing stable enough for daily use? I know it is not Sid, but by the time Debian stable is released, it is so outdated. Also how do you install Cinnamon in Debian? Can it use flatpaks?
You are correct by the time it goes stable it can be a bit dated - stable as a rock but dated. That is why I went with Bullseye 11 rather than Buster 10 to get version 4 of cinnamon rather than the old version 3. So far for about the last month or so Debian 11 has been running fine on two laptops and a PC - mind you, I am a general user and using these systems in exactly the same way I was using LM 19.3 Cinnamon - same apps just a lot less bloat. On the big powerful systems slight but not a significant performance difference - definitely a difference on the lower powered systems and allows me to have the stuff I like (Cinnamon, nemo gnome-terminal). The nice thing is I don't have to go through all the hassle of trying to purge the system of crap I don't want or need except for one thing - I do remove the Debian default Xsession.

During the installation you can choose your DE, so you can choose Cinnamon but I don't like that either because Cinnamon has a lot of "extra stuff" that comes with it if you do it that way.

I start with a Debian 11 netinst .iso (minimum CD) and choose only to install

Code: Select all

system-utilities
Then I have to build from scratch literally everything. Debian, of course, has the apt repositories - so that is where I start from.

The approach I have now is to log in from the CI and then as su and

Code: Select all

apt install --no-install-recommends sudo lightdm gnome-terminal cinnamon
If you don't use the --no-install-recommends command you will get tons of packages (bloat) you don't need/want - even so cinnamon with --no-install-recommends cinnamon is going to include nemo and muffin (the windows manager).

After I reboot I make sure I choose cinnamon as my DE - later I purge the Debian Xsessions. I add my user to /etc/sudoers and then install the software packages I want/need via apt. And if you want you can set auto-login (and auto update, for that matter).

Some packages are obvious like synaptic, your browser and firejail and so on - I like Abiword and Gnumeric instead of the entire Libre Office suite, but whatever packages you use and like. I also install some utilities like gdebi, xarchiver and have found from trial and error for me I need some stuff like gcc, m4, fakeroot because they were missing and were needed. Missing dependencies become apparent and are not a big deal to install and the Debian WiKi pages are excellent for spelling out what is needed for particular software packages should on rare occassion you need that info but synaptic is your friend.

I get it though - if you have an i5 or i7 and 8-16Gib of RAM is it really worth the extra work? Probably not unless you are like me and just want to be the boss of what is loaded on your system.
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Re: Which distro do you use as a daily driver?

Post by WriteF »

majpooper wrote: Tue Apr 13, 2021 12:45 pm The nice thing is I don't have to go through all the hassle of trying to purge the system of crap I don't want or need except for one thing - I do remove the Debian default Xsession.

During the installation you can choose your DE, so you can choose Cinnamon but I don't like that either because Cinnamon has a lot of "extra stuff" that comes with it if you do it that way.
Have been installing it in different ways on a VM. It gets almost confusing how very different the number of packages is depending on how you install it. Just installing Cinnamon as the only DE from TTY. It pretty much halves the number of packages.

Thank you for the guide since I am not sure I am going to remember how to do it consistently myself. And I might as well go all the way as well. I'll try out your way later.

A very rough (and slightly random) comparison for number of packages I made:


Debian10 NF Cinnamon OOTB: 2500+
Debian10 Non-free Cinnamon: 2206
LMDE4 Out-of-the-box: 1836
LMDE4: 1822
My Current LM20: 2712+23
Debian10 Netinstall OOTB: 1672
Debian10 Netinstall: 1662

Deb10Net Bullseye-upgrade: 1972
LMDE4 Updated kernel 5.10: 1868

---------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Voyager OOTB 2700+

Debian10 No-DE -550
Debian10 Core-Cinnamon 1190
Debian10 CC+stuff 1429+10

---------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Debian 10 majpooper Edition 688
I can't get it to boot into desktop environment however..
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Re: Which distro do you use as a daily driver?

Post by Green man »

I've got Linux Mint 20.1 XFCE, but it's a little bit of a Chimera setup. I used a Xubuntu PPA to upgrade to XFCE 4.16. My desktop layout visually mimics Ubuntu Mates Pantheon option, but it's pure XFCE. Also, laugh if you want to, but I use a utilitarian Compiz configuration for window manager. It's very fast and very stable even on a 10-year-old Dell laptop. The plasticity of XFCE + compiz, lets me adjust anything I want, and the user-friendliness of Mint means that everything just works, and I don't have to tinker with aspects of the system that I'm not interested in.
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Re: Which distro do you use as a daily driver?

Post by rossdv8 »

Green man wrote: Mon Apr 26, 2021 9:19 pm I've got Linux Mint 20.1 XFCE, but it's a little bit of a Chimera setup... .., but it's pure XFCE.
Also, laugh if you want to, but I use a utilitarian Compiz configuration for window manager...
..The plasticity of XFCE + compiz, lets me adjust anything I want, and the user-friendliness of Mint means that everything just works, and I don't have to tinker with aspects of the system that I'm not interested in.
The joys of MInt :D
I use something similar, except that I love to tinker with Xfce, as can be seen in some of my posts. Translucent Dolphin file manager and other qt apps, video Desktop Wallpapers and other weird stuff.

Mint, particularly with Xfce / Compiz, is just so flexible.
Current main OS: MInt 21.3 with KDE Plasma 5.27 (using Compiz as WM) - Kernel: 6.5.0-15 on Lenovo m900 Tiny, i5-6400T (intel HD 530 graphics) 16GB RAM.
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Re: Which distro do you use as a daily driver?

Post by kc1di »

Mint! Then others just to keep up with what they are doing. If I was forced to use another distro it would most likely be MX or PCLinuxOS
Easy tips : https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.com/ Pjotr's Great Linux projects page.
Linux Mint Installation Guide: http://linuxmint-installation-guide.rea ... en/latest/
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Re: Which distro do you use as a daily driver?

Post by TheOmniad-2020 »

Debian 10 Stable w/ EXWM. Looking at things outside the Linux stream on VM 'cause I'm nowhere near being able to do Linux From Scratch or Arch. Tried Gentoo, didn't work.
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Re: Which distro do you use as a daily driver?

Post by thatchunkylad198966 »

Because my desktop atm while I'm testing is an RPI4 4GB - my current OS is Ubuntu 20.04.2! happy enough with it. I've applied certain tweaks so it's nice and fast. :)
I switch around a lot.
I'm also waiting for Elementary OS to release their version for the RPI4 to test it out.
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Re: Which distro do you use as a daily driver?

Post by majpooper »

WriteF wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 10:04 am Debian 10 majpooper Edition 688
I can't get it to boot into desktop environment however..
Just noticed this - depending on how far you get.
If you get past the tty then it could be one of two things:
1.) You need to install lightdm (or I guess the display manager of your choice) maybe try it installing lightdm separately with out the

Code: Select all

--no-install-recommends
switch
2.) Unusal but I noticed on my multi-monitor Desktop PC I have to jiggle the mouse for the login window to appear - but my third monitor is a flat screen TV that is rarely on . . . . so it could be that.

But I now have 2 PCs and 1 laptop running Bullseye netinstl/Cinnamon and on laptop running Bullseye netinstl/Moksha (talk about light - it screams) no problems booting up.
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Re: Which distro do you use as a daily driver?

Post by MurphCID »

kc1di wrote: Tue Apr 27, 2021 7:09 am Mint! Then others just to keep up with what they are doing. If I was forced to use another distro it would most likely be MX or PCLinuxOS
If I was forced to use something other than Mint, it would be MX Linux.
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Re: Which distro do you use as a daily driver?

Post by MurphCID »

majpooper wrote: Tue Apr 13, 2021 12:45 pm
MurphCID wrote: Tue Apr 13, 2021 7:08 am Is Debian Testing stable enough for daily use? I know it is not Sid, but by the time Debian stable is released, it is so outdated. Also how do you install Cinnamon in Debian? Can it use flatpaks?
You are correct by the time it goes stable it can be a bit dated - stable as a rock but dated. That is why I went with Bullseye 11 rather than Buster 10 to get version 4 of cinnamon rather than the old version 3. So far for about the last month or so Debian 11 has been running fine on two laptops and a PC - mind you, I am a general user and using these systems in exactly the same way I was using LM 19.3 Cinnamon - same apps just a lot less bloat. On the big powerful systems slight but not a significant performance difference - definitely a difference on the lower powered systems and allows me to have the stuff I like (Cinnamon, nemo gnome-terminal). The nice thing is I don't have to go through all the hassle of trying to purge the system of crap I don't want or need except for one thing - I do remove the Debian default Xsession.

During the installation you can choose your DE, so you can choose Cinnamon but I don't like that either because Cinnamon has a lot of "extra stuff" that comes with it if you do it that way.

I start with a Debian 11 netinst .iso (minimum CD) and choose only to install

Code: Select all

system-utilities
Then I have to build from scratch literally everything. Debian, of course, has the apt repositories - so that is where I start from.

You are so much more advanced than I am, and perhaps one day I will get enough time (and knowledge) to actually play around and learn Linux properly. Great answer though, thank you.
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Re: Which distro do you use as a daily driver?

Post by Avraham Tsaban »

Mainly Windows 7, Mint 19.3 and Lubuntu 18.04
My main concern is 32-bit compatibility and performance (it is quite an old notebook), as well as user friendliness (what excludes bsd, arch linux and more)
Windows 7 is the only one of those that is able to run modern libreoffice, as well is the most stable and has the best support for RTL languages (I speak hebrew natively), so it's a little bit preferred, even though it's unsupported.
This market on 32-bit is not very competitive...
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Re: Which distro do you use as a daily driver?

Post by majpooper »

Right now I am running Debian 11 Bullseye with Cinnamon 4.8.6.
I start with the netinst minimum CD and I decide what applications to install.
This makes for a bloat-free OS.
I wish Mint would provide a minimum version - not necessarily a netinst but maybe just a few basics. maybe use something like the Debian installer portion that lets you choose the DE and maybe the terminal emulator and synaptic.
I wonder how many folks really need/want the entire Libre Office suite or a bunch of games or would rather choose which browser they prefer etc. I get the "works OOTB" approach for a certain segment of users but I would be curious to know how many people if they are computer savvy enough to install a linux distro would not also be competent enough to take a basic system and install only what they want/need.
TD15

Re: Which distro do you use as a daily driver?

Post by TD15 »

I am setting up pop OS. Mint was my first linux based system but it was a pain with Nvidia graphics. Pop OS has better support for hybrid graphics so I went there.
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Re: Which distro do you use as a daily driver?

Post by majpooper »

TD15 wrote: Fri May 21, 2021 12:14 pm I am setting up pop OS. Mint was my first linux based system but it was a pain with Nvidia graphics. Pop OS has better support for hybrid graphics so I went there.
I could do a rant on NVIDIA but I will control myself. However I will say NVIDIA and Broadcom (sp?) drivers are the only real problems I have ever had with linux and that has nothing to do with the distro. Once I found where to get and how to install the CORRECT drivers I have been good2go. I emphasize correct because I jacked up an install by installing the wrong NVIDIA driver and all I could get was a black screen . . . . . live and learn.
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Re: Which distro do you use as a daily driver?

Post by MurphCID »

This is one opinion on best Linux distros for students. https://www.fosslinux.com/46743/linux-d ... udents.htm
TD15

Re: Which distro do you use as a daily driver?

Post by TD15 »

majpooper wrote: Fri May 21, 2021 5:55 pm
TD15 wrote: Fri May 21, 2021 12:14 pm I am setting up pop OS. Mint was my first linux based system but it was a pain with Nvidia graphics. Pop OS has better support for hybrid graphics so I went there.
I could do a rant on NVIDIA but I will control myself. However I will say NVIDIA and Broadcom (sp?) drivers are the only real problems I have ever had with linux and that has nothing to do with the distro. Once I found where to get and how to install the CORRECT drivers I have been good2go. I emphasize correct because I jacked up an install by installing the wrong NVIDIA driver and all I could get was a black screen . . . . . live and learn.
I am switching back to mint, I didn't like the GNOME desktop at Pop OS, I know I can change the DE but why install cinnamon on Pop when I can get Mint + cinnamon :)
I think last time I messed my graphics drivers, this time it is working properly with NVidia driver.

I used to use mint about half a year ago, but in addition to the graphics issue, the system used to freeze for no apparent reason. So I completely stopped using linux and switched back to windows (because I am a university student and the freezes caused a lot of interruptions).
Later by chance I installed kingston SSD manager and turns out my SSD was guilty of freezing linux mint! A firmware update to the SSD then back to mint, now freeze free!
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