Favorite one? Linux

[Keith2021]

I am planning on installing Linux on my computer and was wondering what your favorite version is and a brief reason why? I have on a USB with Ventoy several versions that I have been looking at but can't decide what is the best one for me. So far I like the Mint Cinnamon and then Mint Mate, but they all are nice.
What is your favorite one??

[motoryzen]

Linux Mint Cinnamon by far overall.

Reasons in no particular order:
1. Most stable out of all the distro's I've tried over the past 11 years.
2. Windows-to-Linux easiest and most gentle learning curve ( cinnamon menu/start menu , Nemo/Windows File Explorer...many hotkeys are exactly the same OOTB)
3. Big and very active support forum here that has severely helped me big time across the years to learn how it works and to fix the few problems I've encountered. (Foxclone's software dev... AndyMH is an active member here too. talk about great and fast access to help with system image backup troubleshooting..... *nods humbly to AndyMH * and he isn't an arrogant punk either; very balanced and good attitude replying )
4. Has all Ubuntu -wide variety of packages/software available, but without the canonical overreaching nonsense...specifically for me ALL the software I needed be it the same that was in Windows or good enough alternatives...are all available in Software Manager.
5. Updates system is awesome and has consistently become better and better ( well done Clem and team(s) )
6. All of my hardware....just works!....OOTB. The only exception was trying to get my g1-g6 side buttons on my former Logitech g710+ keyboard to work as anything more than numpad 1-6...but I've dumped that and just set those particular programs to autolaunch that I had set as macros to those buttons before.
7. Easy to tweak things. themes...fonts....all sorts of settings and customizations. Want a mac but prefer LM? Mate desktop has " Cupertino" gui setting. And you can also download and install a big hand full of a variety of Mac os desktop versions of themes including El Capitan I think. ( I couldn't care any less about Mac..but cool that THAT set of options are there )

I can't think of anymore off hand.

[Pierre]

this LinuxMint System . . of course.

it's on most of my PCs in fact.

sometimes there are other Linux Systems, but they tend to not stay Installed, than one year

the MX-Linux System, is also used quite a bit, but not as much as this LinuxMint System is.

why Linux it is more reliable in most cases, than that Popular Windows System ever was.

[AZgl1800]

Linux Mint Cinnamon by far overall.

Reasons in no particular order:
1. Most stable out of all the distro's I've tried over the past 11 years.
2. Windows-to-Linux easiest and most gentle learning curve ( cinnamon menu/start menu , Nemo/Windows File Explorer...many hotkeys are exactly the same OOTB)
3. Big and very active support forum here that has severely helped me big time across the years to learn how it works and to fix the few problems I've encountered. (Foxclone's software dev... AndyMH is an active member here too. talk about great and fast access to help with system image backup troubleshooting..... *nods humbly to AndyMH * and he isn't an arrogant punk either; very balanced and good attitude replying )
4. Has all Ubuntu -wide variety of packages/software available, but without the canonical overreaching nonsense...specifically for me ALL the software I needed be it the same that was in Windows or good enough alternatives...are all available in Software Manager.
5. Updates system is awesome and has consistently become better and better ( well done Clem and team(s) )
6. All of my hardware....just works!....OOTB. The only exception was trying to get my g1-g6 side buttons on my former Logitech g710+ keyboard to work as anything more than numpad 1-6...but I've dumped that and just set those particular programs to autolaunch that I had set as macros to those buttons before.
7. Easy to tweak things. themes...fonts....all sorts of settings and customizations. Want a mac but prefer LM? Mate desktop has " Cupertino" gui setting. And you can also download and install a big hand full of a variety of Mac os desktop versions of themes including El Capitan I think. ( I couldn't care any less about Mac..but cool that THAT set of options are there )

I can't think of anymore off hand.

I have to echo this, only the Cinnamon Desktops

[chavic]

I'm gonna say Mint Mate version.

Works fine
Highly customisable (almost every DE and WM)
Looks cool
Brings the old gnome2 feeling but modern in my opinion
Solid choice for me

[Petermint]

LM Cinnamon with effects off. Does what I want and nothing I don't want (once you switch off effects). MATE, Xfce, LXDE, KDE all had problems. Tiny problems for some but just annoying enough to switch back.

NT, XP, and Windows 7 were my favourite in the other camp. Long gone. There were some Linux distributions I preferred for servers but now servers are so fast, you just install a desktop Linux so you can remote in instead off suffering with the command line over SSH. MVS was good when I had some mainframes to play with. If Linux was as rock solid as MVS, life would be good.

[MurphCID]

Linux Mint Cinnamon by far overall.

Reasons in no particular order:
1. Most stable out of all the distro's I've tried over the past 11 years.
2. Windows-to-Linux easiest and most gentle learning curve ( cinnamon menu/start menu , Nemo/Windows File Explorer...many hotkeys are exactly the same OOTB)
3. Big and very active support forum here that has severely helped me big time across the years to learn how it works and to fix the few problems I've encountered. (Foxclone's software dev... AndyMH is an active member here too. talk about great and fast access to help with system image backup troubleshooting..... *nods humbly to AndyMH * and he isn't an arrogant punk either; very balanced and good attitude replying )
4. Has all Ubuntu -wide variety of packages/software available, but without the canonical overreaching nonsense...specifically for me ALL the software I needed be it the same that was in Windows or good enough alternatives...are all available in Software Manager.
5. Updates system is awesome and has consistently become better and better ( well done Clem and team(s) )
6. All of my hardware....just works!....OOTB. The only exception was trying to get my g1-g6 side buttons on my former Logitech g710+ keyboard to work as anything more than numpad 1-6...but I've dumped that and just set those particular programs to autolaunch that I had set as macros to those buttons before.
7. Easy to tweak things. themes...fonts....all sorts of settings and customizations. Want a mac but prefer LM? Mate desktop has " Cupertino" gui setting. And you can also download and install a big hand full of a variety of Mac os desktop versions of themes including El Capitan I think. ( I couldn't care any less about Mac..but cool that THAT set of options are there )

I can't think of anymore off hand.

What he said.

[Night Wing]

I have three computers. Two desktop tower computers circa 2010 and 2013 and one laptop computer circa 2012. All three have Mint installed on their hard drives.

I played around with Cinnamon, Mate and Xfce. I really didn't care for Cinnamon or Mate, but Xfce was my "cup of tea" so to speak since I found it more customizable than Cinnamon or Mate.

As an example, I have the Mint-Y dark theme which gives me a black colored Panel (taskbar), but I prefer the Mint-X launcher icons. I dislike the Mint-Y launcher icons.

As an exampe, the Mint-Y modern looking launcher icon for the Firefox browser, the launcher icon is mostly black colored with an orange colored "squiggle" in the middle of the button. At first I didn't know what the button was until I hovered over it and it told me it was the Firefox browser.

So I went with the Mint-X icon theme and the Firefox launcher icon button is mostly orange colored with some blue color in it which reminds me of the Firefox launcher icon of my old Windows 7 days.

The Mint-X color theme I prefer is Mint-X-Blue which gives me blue colored folders and a blue colored tab which is real easy to see in the black colored Panel (taskbar).

My suggestion for anyone is this. Try all three desktop environments and use them for a week and then it should be an easy choice which desktop environment someone would like the most and for me, back then in 2013 and still is today, Xfce.

[151tom]

I don't really have a favorite Linux distro as I pretty much like most of them that I've tried and use and I use several Linux distros.

I use Ubuntu 20.04.3 because I like Wayland.

I use Xubuntu 20.04.3 because it's lightweight.

I like PCLinuxOS because it's systemd free snap free and it works on my Frankenstein desktops OOTB.

I like Antix Linux because it's systemd free and snap free and fast ass hell and works on my Frankenstein desktops OOTB.

[Hoser Rob]

I don't think there's a definitive answer. Why not just dl all 3 isos with the different desktop versions and test them yourself with a live USB stick boot? Not DVD, optical disks are too slow to get a feel for it.

[lamar]

I have been with cinnamon since V17. now 20.2. I have it on 4 computers that are never turned off. Am happy to say that I have NEVER had a system failure. Only trouble I have had was caused by me experimenting.
Lamar

[SuperJoker]

Certainly something with xfce. Probably MX.

[RollyShed]

Linux Mint Cinnamon. I install it on everything, 30+ computers

Mate? On an old Netbook. Not as many set up options as Cinnamon. Xfce, on a very slowish small laptop. Fiddly to set up. There tends to be three steps for things instead of two in Cinnamon. Not as logically set out as Cinnamon

Basically I find the set up menu far easier to follow in Cinnamon.

[Grayfox]

When I was a PC tech I had a full desktop linux install on my USB flash drive.
Mainly so I could load into the computer, recover files, reset windows passwords as well as play around in linux.

I first gravitated towards Fedora that used KDE4(IIRC), it was more windows like with the taskbar and start menu.
Then I started playing around with Zorin OS, I did like the way you could customize it to look like a GNOME DE, MACOS or WIndows.
I also have tried various other distros like Kubuntu and distros that used LXDE and the other lightweight DEs.
But since using Mint I have just stuck with it, even if I still use windows on my main PC.

[AndyMH]

... AndyMH * and he isn't an arrogant punk either;

No, he's a pensioner

Also cinnamon, tried the others, didn't like the look.

[motoryzen]

... AndyMH * and he isn't an arrogant punk either;

No, he's a pensioner

Also cinnamon, tried the others, didn't like the look.

So what if he is a person who received or receives a pension *shrugs*. And???

[AZgl1800]

... AndyMH * and he isn't an arrogant punk either;

No, he's a pensioner

Also cinnamon, tried the others, didn't like the look.

So what if he is a person who received or receives a pension *shrugs*. And???

I have been on the Pension dole since 1/2011 and enjoying every minute of it

[AndyMH]

I equate punk = young, while a pensioner = old, doesn't mean I don't get bad-tempered

[Keith2021]

Thanks for all the replies, everyone has different reasons for each one. I went with the Linux Mint Cinnamon for now but might change later on to one of the others. I have tried over 25 different ones and have five on my computer at this time. They are habit forming. I like Peppermint but need to learn more about it. Enjoy.

[RollyShed]

Pension? No, I'm paid by the government (who call it the pension) to install Linux Mint Cinnamon on every computer I can get my hands on. That's nearly 50. Computers and anything else that needs fixing. I have a good range of hammers available... if needed.