They say debian is free and has its promise, but Arch has like 2-4 maintainers?
If you know vaguely what you’re doing or are willing to learn, you can go with whatever and it’ll be fine.
Personally not a big fan of debian because they tend to be slower and more conservative on updates. Arch is a bit more technical, but very customizable.
I’m personally a big fan of Fedora. Software updated quickly enough to have all the bells and whistles, slow enough to not get cut by bleeding edge software.
Gentoo is where you learn the most about Linux and software in general.
I think it’s Ubuntu that’s slow, while Debian as its base is smaller and faster?
No, Debian is typically quite a bit older than even the Ubuntu LTS. E.g. they currently still don’t ship a Nvidia driver that supports the 50 series GPUs.
Performance differences between distros tend to be negligible. Unless you have a specific use case and a distro specifically tuned for that, you will hardly notice any difference.
Ubuntu is based off the testing version of Debian, so they have newer software versions
If you have to ask, you definitely don’t want Arch
NixOS ;)
Fucking sadistic bastard…I second this.
Let me expose my lack of knowledge and experience in this.
Afaik. NixOS is completely build from configs, thus easy to VCS, and you can try stuff and then just roll back like nothing happened… what’s the difference to snapshots and why is it sadistic/masochistic but worth it?
Give me your NixOS pitch.
Snapshots work in filesystem level. NixOS rollbacks work in system configuration level. NixOS has steep learning curve due to the nix language and fragmented documentation but once you get grip of it, it works great. Either way, you netted the days of suffering to set everything up :)
The problem with a beginner using NixOS is that it teaches them, well, NixOS. Using just about any other distro will teach them transferrable skills; i.e. suffering , until they embrace ansible;)
Unless that other distro is Guix, in which case Stall man smiles upon you and I wish you the best with your ultra libre Pentium machine.
I moved to nixos, then moved my server to nixos. It was painful, but now I don’t have to remember where I put that systemd timer or where stuff is in general.
Is your hardware ten years old or more?
Do you want a system made up of software that is on average 3 years old?
Do you want absolutely ridiculous stability for the uptime memes?
Are you a fan of the idea that every design decision should be done by a committee of theoretically democratically chosen developers but is actually just whoever wants the job because there is never any real transparency or motion about when the meetings are, much less when elections are?
Does the idea of your operating system being compatible not because its good but because it’s just the largest base thanks to corporate investment make you moist?
Then pick Debian.
If you answered no to literally any of those options then go ahead and pick an Arch flavor, or Arch itself.
You mean Cachy OS? Yeah, I’ve heard of that, might choose it, I dunno yet.
Linux '26er here. I tried a few and CachyOS is now my jam. I’m way too new to offer true insight, but as a new convert, Cachy has good video/gaming support and all the core features I need to keep exploring. 100% recommend a day or two to try it out.
I run Cachyos (KDE), for 10 months now, on a 13 year old HP workstation. Daily updates. Best distro I’ve used (previously used Mint, SuSE, Debian, Ubuntu), wouldn’t go back to any of the others.
But is it catchy?
I’ve never used it but recommend it to newcomers because they all seem to like it.
The fact that you’re asking this suggests you might be new to linux so go Mint but if it has to be one of those two then Debian
Linux Mint Debian Edition. Best of both worlds.
Debian is chosen for Satellites because it is “stable”, that is it doesn’t do major changes like changing the Kernel.
Arch isn’t for beginners, but it’s a rolling release distro that’s nice and simple but powerful.
Debian Unstable, if you like to live dangerously and have to reboot every couple of years.
/s
I feel like there are other options here. Fedora? OpenSUSE?
Fedora is so, so nice. I have it on all my personal computers.
At my work they only tolerate Ubuntu. My God, it can be so frustrating. Snap gets in the way constantly. Somehow Ubuntu LTS seems to have a knack for precisely choosing the worst package versions for a workstation.
Fedora on the other hand just gets out of my way and lets me get shit done.
I mean, you can install each in a VM if you want to play with them.
Fedora is a middle ground between the two.
If you don’t care, go with Mint. Fast, secure, simple.
If you have some special thing like an old slow computer, uptime or specific security needs and so on, check out all the other good answers here in the post.
Teach good debugging practices early
I know its tough to see through all the noise. Everyone tells you what you should do and to not listen to the others. But what I want you to focus on is that they are all nobodies. Randos you don’t know and never will. But I’m Magnum PI, you know me, so listen to me and forget what everyone else has said.
Go with Debian.
Hell yeah, I knew Magnum ran Deb
Hell yeah brother
In my experience, Debian has been way simpler, more intuitive, more stable, and cleaner. Start there. If you need the absolute latest bleeding edge drivers or software, consider arch, then probably just run it on Debian because the software is still available, just not preinstalled.
Debian user that reccomends it. I don’t game or need latest gizmos. I want and have a computer that is very reliable and maintenance free.
