Linux! Linux! Linux!
Based on some research that just about anyone can do on the Internet, there is any number of ways to determine what the best distribution should be for your desktop. But of course, you shouldn't believe all the hype. After all, it's a nice shiny colored brochure you're holding when you buy that new car. Why should going with a desktop Linux distribution be any different? That being said, you can trust places such as TechRadar or DistroWatch to report their experience. Should we then not trust places that report the actual popularity of these desktops based on downloads? If you believe that something more popular is because it has better marketing with a larger advertising budget, then you likely don't know Linux. The Linux community is a fickle bunch. We don't just go for the latest shiny this-or-that. We go for distributions that do exactly what we want how we want.
Now personally, I'm a long time Red Hat/Fedora fan. I've been using Red Hat since version 2.1 that I got in the back of one of my first Linux books back in the mid-1990s. But that doesn't mean I don't look at anything else. For the longest time, my desktop distribution was Red Hat. Then they ended the free ones and went full enterprise back in 2003. But even before then, I was using it and Slackware. Slackware was one of the few you could still get on floppies in the late 1990s. Somewhere in my domicile, I have a gray laptop with a built-in trackball that is running some version of Slackware.
So what sorts of things should you look for in a distribution? Well, for me that list is pretty short. But here it goes:
- It has to do what I want how I want and when I want.
- It has to be pleasing to my eye.
- It has to be easy to update and maintain.
- It has to be easy to use in terms of daily use - meaning terminals, web browsing, and writing documents.
Who Is The Best?
According to DistroWatch, the top 10 distributions are as follows:- Mint - 19.0%
- Majaro - 17.2%
- Ubuntu - 11.2%
- Debian - 11.0%
- Solus - 8.7%
- elementary - 7.6%
- Antergos - 7.1%
- Fedora - 6.4%
- TrueOS - 6.2%
- MX Linux - 5.5%
Which One For You?
So which distribution should you use? Well, that depends on what you plan to do. If you're looking for a distribution that has the most community support, then I would recommend Ubuntu (LINK), CentOS (LINK), Debian (LINK), or Fedor (LINK). If you're looking to get started in Linux and want to eventually get certified, I'd recommend CentOS (LINK) because it is, for all intents and purposes, Red Hat Enterprise Linux. If you want a sleek desktop that gives you all the basics such as a terminal, then I would recommend my current favorite: elementary OS with Chrome and WPS Office installed. It is a simple looking OS that looks great and is easy to use. It's somewhat reminiscent of the old CDE desktop or perhaps even MacOS.
In the end, however, it really is what you like. Does that change anything? Not really. You could download each of these OSes and install them on your Intel-based workstation and try them out. That's how I got started! And you'll learn a lot in the process.