this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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looking for half-stable Linux distro (lemmy.ml)
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by Luffy879@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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Hello, i am currently looking for a Linux distribution with these criteria:

-it should be more or less stable, comparable to Ubuntu with or without LTS // -it should not be related to IBM to any way (so no fedora/redhat) // -it should not feature snaps (no Ubuntu or KDE neon) // -KDE plasma should be installable manually (best case even installed by default) // -no DIY Distros //

I've been thinking about using an immutable distro, but if anyone can recommend something to me, I'd be very grateful //

Edit: I'm sorry for the bad formatting, for some reason it doesn't register spaces

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[–] Luffy879@lemmy.ml 8 points 9 months ago (6 children)

With diy distro I meant arch, gentoo, and nixOS The distro is meant to run on a PC which is mainly used by non tech sawwy people. And even tho I will be doing all administration tasks on it, I would like it to be as easy to manage themselves as possible, so they become familiar with Linux more.

[–] Dirk@lemmy.ml 7 points 9 months ago

The distro is meant to run on a PC which is mainly used by non tech sawwy people. [...], so they become familiar with Linux more.

In this case I always suggest trying out Linux Mint. It is not "too heavy" and not "too specific/niche". It's a good all-purpose distribution for desktops/laptops where basic maintenance can be performed by the user.

[–] glibg10b@lemmy.ml 6 points 9 months ago

If it will be used by non-tech savvy people, why do you care about snap and IBM? Do the people care about that?

[–] Nyfure@kbin.social 2 points 9 months ago

I dont see how e.g. arch would be super hard to maintain.
There is a nice GUI program for installing programs and updates. (like many modern distros)
If you dont want to set everything up, go with Endeavour or Garuda.

I find rolling release to be easier to maintain and keep up to date than non-rolling.
Specially if you want up to date packages for desktop use.

[–] INeedMana@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

My mom and grandma are using Manjaro. With grandma I'm the only one doing the updates of course, but with mom she usually can do it herself just using pamac-tray. If that fails a phonecall is usually sufficient. Once in a few years I have to come and do something by myself

And when that happens I work with a distro that just works, instead of some broken crap
EDIT: I tried having Mint on their computers. Big mistake, it's as broken as Debian and Ubuntu

EDIT: Xfce is very nice in such cases. It looks familiar for them while being manageable for me

[–] agent_flounder@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

What is broken with Mint? My kid has been using it since she was like 10.

[–] INeedMana@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)
  1. no rolling-release: around once half a year you have to reinstall the system because it can't update some core library to a more recent version. And it's only the distro's limitation because rolling releases have no issue with it
  2. you can't just define a package of your own. So if a piece of software is not in packages, you need to compile and install it manually without packager managing it. It tends to break in the long term and when the software suddenly becomes packaged
  3. deb-hell: if you come to the idea to solve the first problem by compiling your own package, the packager will give you hell for that. And compiling your own deb with bumped up version is no easy task. Which means that when your version of the system goes out of life, you have to reinstall. Pray that you thought about this before and put /home and /etc on separate partitions
  4. package dependencies are too baked in or stability is too high priority. Even if your issue got resolved recently, it will take a long time for an updated package to appear. And you can't roll your own in the meantime (see 2, or even worse 1)
[–] agent_flounder@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

Gotcha. The difficulty in upgrading OS versions was my major gripe. Not that this is unique to Mint I'm guessing.

Second was unavailability of newer versions (or any versions) of some software. At the time, one example was FreeCAD being a couple years behind the current version.

And in fact this second issue made the first issue worse. I could've run an LTS longer. But from day one certain packages were pretty far behind and those packages didn't get major version upgrades until I switched to the next Mint release.

Or else I would have to point to another repo. So at one point I had a bunch of different repos. Then one might go down and break the update and upgrade process.

And if not that approach I would have to find some other way to install but I still want to keep it updated semi automatically which isn't possible in some cases.

Idk. I may switch to a rolling release distro at some point. But for now Fedora runs newer versions of the kernel and presumably(?) other software, or at least it hasn't been an issue, thus far.

[–] Pantherina@feddit.de 2 points 9 months ago

Agree on Mint haha.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 1 points 9 months ago

The answer then is OpenSUSE Leap or SlowRoll. OpenSUSE has YastGTK GUI for all config tasks ( think windows command center ), they won't have to use CLI for anything, and if an update does go weird ( which is very rare due to their automated QA ) then you have inatant rollback at the boot menu

[–] Pantherina@feddit.de 1 points 9 months ago

Could you elaborate? Children, family members?

I would recommend Fedora Kinoite from ublue for anything you dont manage yourself. Even if it breaks and your damn kernel doesnt boot, you can just reboot, choose the old version and have a working system.

All changes can be reverted using rpm-ostree reset and updates on ublue versions are done in the background.

Ublue takes the Fedora base and adds packages they cant, like restricted video codecs or drivers. Give it a try, I broke every other distro before and dont want to use something else anymore