What Linux distro do you prefer and why?

[LochDhu10yr]

My Plex server runs Ubuntu / Unity most of the time. I also have MATE on because that was the only desktop I could get to work with X2Go. If I'm not in X2Go I prefer Unity - it seems cleaner. Maybe I just have Unity configured as I like it and I haven't given MATE a chance.
I'm planning on a gaming Linux build in the next month or so, and might be more adventurous. But Mint had that big security breach - Arch is too bleeding edge. Decisions, decisions.

[Gammett]

I started on Ubuntu mate and left Linux because of the fact that xinput is crap for competitive games that need precise input (cs & tf2)
I will return though if wayland fixes these issues and my games get native ports to it.

[Captain_Stormy]

Both counter strike and Team Fortress 2 have native linux ports. Check them out on Steam.

And xinput seems to be for using xbox 360 controllers on a PC? Thats odd, your the only FPS gamer I've ever heard on on PC that wants to use a controller.

[rivercityratkat]

After hating on U_16.04 since replacing U_14.04, I've come to discover the new Canonical trash is only x2 as bad as I imagined. That is ... once replacing cartoonish UNITY with MATE 1.6 & heckling LibO with mature APACHE OO. The kernel upgrade K-4.2.x --> K-4.8 is an unexpected benefit.

[MrNovi]

After hating on U_16.04 since replacing U_14.04, I've come to discover the new Canonical trash is only x2 as bad as I imagined. That is ... once replacing cartoonish UNITY with MATE 1.6 & heckling LibO with mature APACHE OO. The kernel upgrade K-4.2.x --> K-4.8 is an unexpected benefit.

Just out of curiosity, why not just use UbuntuMate instead of replacing Unity with Mate? Not meaning to start an argument, just curious.

[rivercityratkat]

MN:

Pure laziness! Besides email (T-Bird) and news my primary computer use is building & maintaining a "pulp-fiction" website; good 2004-level coding (Bluefish) and original hard-right stories. Generic UBUNTU is good enough for my needs; that's the bottom line. Unity of-course spews distracting crap. MATE.x front-end is a simple PPA install. The combo has provided a modestly robust system that improves with age -- I'm 73.

[MrNovi]

Okay. Sounds reasonable.

[Ned Slider]

I'm using RHEL, but any RHEL clone (CentOS, SL etc) would fit the bill.

I started out on Red Hat Linux here on this very forum and then migrated to Fedora Core and subsequently Fedora, but soon tired of the constant update churn, so was drawn to the long life-cycle of Enterprise Linux. I switched to EL4, and then in 2007 installed the newly released EL5 on my main desktop and server. I ran those systems for 10 years until EL5 went end of life in 2017 and only really replaced them because I was forced to. They never missed a beat in 10 years and other than a HD upgrade to add more storage ran with virtually zero downtime. I've now replaced them with RHEL7 and plan on running those systems for another 10 years, all being well.

I love the stability and reliability of Enterprise Linux. It gives me a stable platform (ABI) on which to develop and just gets the job done. I don't run a lot of services, mainly email with spam filtering and DNS for myself and an OS project for which I develop.

On the desktop RHEL7 ships with gnome by default which I've never liked and struggled to get on with. I started out with KDE on Red Hat Linux 7 all those years ago and have been running KDE ever since. I did give gnome a go for a couple months on RHEL7 but have now switched back to KDE on the desktop and feel much happier.

So that's me sorted until 2027

[TBird761]

I am a Debian user. My history with Debian goes back to Sarge (3.1) when I had a computer in my bedroom temporarily one summer. I had previously played with Mandrake back when that was a thing. A couple years later in college I toyed with Ubuntu again in my dorm. In any case, I wasn't really a convert by any means--just curious. I played games and used lots of other Windows-only software, so switching was never a real consideration.

Fast forward to 2016 and I needed to re-image a laptop at work with something. I had been using Ubuntu for disk based work (ie making images, restoring them, recovering data) for years but that was about the extent of my linux usage. I switched over to doing those tasks on Debian when Ubuntu's interface went full-retard. With my laptop, I noticed how everything just sort of worked out of the box. Wireless, sound, graphics--everything. Valve's work meant that gaming performance and support were greatly improved. The Mesa project was also going through a period of rapid advancement with a real, fast, and usable OpenGL implementation for AMD graphics hardware. This was sort of shocking in a way given my previous experiences with how fussy linux systems were back in the mid 2000s. Over the previous decade, a lot of my day to day software had organically changed to open source solutions like Libre Office, Thunderbird for email, Vivaldi/Firefox for a browser, and Pidgin for an instant messenger. My programs were already available and they were native.

So, I decided to see what life would look like as a Debian user. It was very possible, sometimes challenging, and usually interesting. I've had fun with it. I don't consider myself to be a convert exactly as I like Windows just fine and will go back to using it if I ever quit being entertained or run into some sort of hard roadblock that keeps me from being able to use my computer in the way I want or need to.

[brothergc]

Me I just dumped windows for the new Linux Mint 19 Cinnimon edition and it is rocking a MSI Procarbon 470 , AMD 2600+ , 2x 8gc DDR 24000, Evga GTX1060 6gb, and get this a samsung 960 nvme drive . smokin; fast and I was surpised how easy this distro was to install . nvidia drivers no sweat .
Side comment to MS Kiss my A**
Mint saw and configured everthing right out of the box ( and I am a linux nubie )
Only one issue that I did not like was the preinstalled bluetooth , buggy , kept running in the background but one I uninstalled that ( PITA care full youcan break Mint )
of and this will run steam I played half Life 2 and seious sam nice !