this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2024
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Ubuntu's popularity often makes it the default choice for new Linux users. But there are tons of other Linux operating systems that deserve your attention. As such, I've highlighted some Ubuntu alternatives so you can choose based on your needs and requirements—because conformity is boring.

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[–] cbarrick@lemmy.world 90 points 9 months ago (31 children)

From an engineering perspective, I prefer Debian distros. Apt is the greatest package manager ever built. For a production server, I'd choose Debian or maybe Ubuntu if I needed to pay someone for support.

But for a desktop, Ubuntu kinda sucks. These days, I think I'd recommend Fedora to Linux noobs.

And for my toys at home, I run Arch btw.

[–] silkroadtraveler 4 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Fedora’s near daily update and restart cycle is so annoying esp when you have an encrypted hard drive. I know it’s part of the deal and I’m lazy, but all I’m using it for is a Jellyfin client.

[–] YIj54yALOJxEsY20eU@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

What do you mean restart cycle? You only have to restart if you want to load the new kernel (there's technically a way to avoid even that). If you don't feel like installing a better tool for the job like Debian, just update less, most of your packages will still be newer than most distros. Also not sure why you would encrypt if its just jellyfin client.

[–] silkroadtraveler 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

In the Software Manager, whenever there is an update you must press “Restart & Install” in order to update. Never seen a restart not be required. Why would I not update when I would be potentially miss important security patches?

Also I typically encrypt during install for enhanced privacy. Probably overkill but yeah. I don’t really have a specific reason other than that.

My other system is Linux Mint 21.3 and restarts are very infrequent.

[–] YIj54yALOJxEsY20eU@lemm.ee 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Ah I am not familiar with the software store, you don't have to do that from the command line. And thats true, I'm not suggesting to never update, just less. Also if theres not much to steal on your computer, saftey is a little less important. I would personally feel comfortable updating once per month but thats up to each user. I sat on fedora 37 for way too long because Ubuntu made me afraid of major upgrades.

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