Linux distribution recommendation?

M0RPH

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 2003
3,305
1
0
I know this gets asked a lot, I'm just wondering if there's anything new out there. I'm looking for something that's the closest to Windows 7/8 or Mac OSX.
 

Scarpozzi

Lifer
Jun 13, 2000
26,389
1,777
126
I switched from Win7 to Xubuntu 13.10. There's a newer version now with Long Term Support. 14.04.

I couldn't abandon Windows because of apps I run, so I installed Virtualbox and setup a Windows 7 VM. I have linux on 2 workspaces/dual monitors and run virtualbox in one screen. It works well because you can copy and paste between windows/linux with Virtualbox and map /home/ to a drive on Windows. That's what I've done with MyDocuments. My only complaint there is windows indexing can't index my files mapped that way. This keeps Windows Media Player from working correctly as my music player.

Since I moved my music files to linux, this was self-inflicted, but Banshee works fine and can read WMA with the right codec. You can also look up Pithos and install it...it's a Pandora client.

I do a lot of Windows Administration so I use Remmina as an RDP client. It works pretty good.
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
57,363
7,514
126
I'm not sure what you want. There's stuff that has superficial similarities to MS and Apple, but you'll run into differences pretty quickly. IOW, you won't find something that'll let you close your eyes and do what you've always done. New stuff needs to be learned.

The *buntu family would be a good enough overview of what's available as far as fit/finish goes. Try them live, and see what you think...

Ubuntu
Kubuntu
Xubuntu
Lubuntu
Mint Cinnamon edition
 

MrColin

Platinum Member
May 21, 2003
2,403
3
81
The *buntus are always going to be the easiest bet, particularly the Linux Mint varieties which are based on ubuntu. Mint adds in some things at install time that Ubuntu leaves for the user to deal with on their own ie Adobe Flash, some multimedia codecs I think, due to IP/Licensing or closed sourcedness.

If by similar to Win/OSX, you mean they withhold certain functionality until you fork over some cash, Red Hat might be good for you, last I checked it was ~$75/year for support. I'm not really knocking Red Hat, they have the most thoroughly vetted code-base I know of. If I'm not mistaken it was they who discovered the heartbleed bug in OpenSSL. That said, its a US corporation, so they have probably been coerced by the NSA to provide back door access, same as MS and Apple.
 

onething

Member
Oct 30, 2012
49
0
0
elementaryos is so similar to Mac. It's pretty sweet, took a jump into popularity out of nowhere.
 

crashtech

Lifer
Jan 4, 2013
10,521
2,111
146
I've heard of Zorin being recommended for Windows users transitioning to Linux, but while I have burned an iso, I have not yet put it on anything.
 

ponyo

Lifer
Feb 14, 2002
19,689
2,811
126
elementaryos is so similar to Mac. It's pretty sweet, took a jump into popularity out of nowhere.

Elementary OS is what I installed on my Chromebook last night. I'm a Linux newbie. I chose it because it looked similar to Mac OS X in screenshots. So far it's pretty easy to use as it comes with Ubuntu Software Store.
 

M0RPH

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 2003
3,305
1
0
Well I ended up installing Ubuntu and I'm already getting annoyed. Why is there no easy way to get a listing of all available programs? I can't even find a way to open a command prompt, which is crazy... this is Linux, and you don't give me an icon for a command prompt? WTF
 

crashtech

Lifer
Jan 4, 2013
10,521
2,111
146
Ctrl-Alt-T gives you a terminal window. As for the program list, I don't have Ubuntu running on any of my machines right now, but I think it's the icon on the top left, but to get a full listing of all installed programs you have to click something on the bottom of the menu, the "A" I believe.
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
57,363
7,514
126
Well I ended up installing Ubuntu and I'm already getting annoyed. Why is there no easy way to get a listing of all available programs? I can't even find a way to open a command prompt, which is crazy... this is Linux, and you don't give me an icon for a command prompt? WTF

I'm not a fan of Unity. It can work well for people who use a lot of keyboard shortcuts, but it's inconvenient seeing things graphically. In addition to ctrl-alt-t, you can open the menu and start typing a search, and it'll find the program if you know about what you're looking for, eg "te" should be enough to get the terminal, and then click the icon.

I like the Xfce desktop, and am currently typing this from Xubuntu. You can install other desktops on that installation, and pick the one you want at login.
 

M0RPH

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 2003
3,305
1
0
I like the Xfce desktop, and am currently typing this from Xubuntu. You can install other desktops on that installation, and pick the one you want at login.

I was just looking at some screenshots of that desktop. In one it appears to have a very Windows-like start menu. In another it looks to have a Mac-like dock on the bottom. Which one is it?
 

Qwertilot

Golden Member
Nov 28, 2013
1,604
257
126
Both!

Unlike Unity (and OSX/Windows 8) most of the linux desktops let you configure how they look and behave to a very considerable degree. KDE takes this to mildly terrifying extremes.....
(This is I think a big reason some people don't like Unity.).

XFCE is rather more sober than that, but there's no doubt multiple different styles of start menus possible and very likely multiple different styles of docks too. What you get as standard in the distribution you pick depends on what they felt like when they set it up Easy to change though.

I like to use Cinnamon with top/bottom title bars, a void theme (which makes the empty bits of the title bars invisible) and an empty desktop. So I get four little clusters of widgets around the corners. Open windows appear in the bottom 'gap' and I have an auto hiding dock for launching games at the top.

It all amuses me
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
57,363
7,514
126

Pretty much. Default gives you a kind of ugly(imo) dock with a panel on top. I have mine set more Windows-like with a hidden panel on the bottom, and a panel on top with informative stuff, frequently used program launchers, and an application menu. You can also add fancy docks by using unrelated packages. Dunno what's hot now, but cairo dock was popular in years past. Here's what my Xubuntu setup looks like with the bottom panel unhidden...

 
Last edited:

Scarpozzi

Lifer
Jun 13, 2000
26,389
1,777
126
I'm tempted to hide the menu at the bottom. It pops up when I don't want it to...but it's handier to me than using key combinations when I need another terminal window. (I ssh to other boxes all the time from the terminal emulator)

I downloaded Elementary OS to try it out after seeing the video. It's very stripped down. They are basically saying, "here are the apps you can use" and not limiting you, but certainly starting you off with choices I wouldn't have made.


I've got Evolution running on Xubuntu. There IS a MAPI extension you can get for Evolution to make Exchange work without relying on IMAP. I still think the Virtualbox approach works best. Sandbox all your M$ crap in VMs and patch windows as friggin often as it asks without shutting down your REAL operating system.

Pidgin is great for chat.
Remmina works great for RDP....>FREERDP will work with RDG if you need it. (the only one I'm aware of)
 

ch33zw1z

Lifer
Nov 4, 2004
37,733
18,003
146
Well I ended up installing Ubuntu and I'm already getting annoyed. Why is there no easy way to get a listing of all available programs? I can't even find a way to open a command prompt, which is crazy... this is Linux, and you don't give me an icon for a command prompt? WTF

As others have stated, Ubuntu has a shortcut of ctl+alt+t to open the terminal.

A list of all available programs for install? ubuntu software center

If you're looking for something in the default repository's, just open a terminal and type:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-cache search search term here
 

bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
6,604
1,990
146
I'm a fan of the Ubuntu distros. I started out on Peppermint OS 3 but I just recently moved to Mint 17 LTS. Liking it so far but it does have its quirks. It was just released so its to be expected.

Don't go straight Ubuntu if this is your first time. It's painful. Try one of the distros like Mint or Zorin. Also no Linux OS will be like Win7/8. They may look like it on the surface but pretty soon you will find out they are nothing alike.
 

Maximilian

Lifer
Feb 8, 2004
12,603
9
81
Well I ended up installing Ubuntu and I'm already getting annoyed. Why is there no easy way to get a listing of all available programs? I can't even find a way to open a command prompt, which is crazy... this is Linux, and you don't give me an icon for a command prompt? WTF

Just install mint cinnamon and be done with it. Coming straight from windows its reasonably familiar and much better than fighting ubuntu with its unity GUI.

ElementaryOS is up and coming too, its a lot like OSX but its pretty new and still a bit buggy, probably safe to try but I wouldn't count on it for a daily driver.
 

soflawill

Golden Member
Aug 22, 2001
1,514
0
76
I have been using Linux for about 15 years. My main desktop is set up to dual boot Windows 7 pro and Mint 17 Cinnamon. Funny thing is, I never boot into Windows except to do the monthly updates. Linux sees my Windows files and I can use within Linux all pics, videos, music and office files stored on my Windows partition. Picking a distro you like can be trial and error. A great source is DistroWatch.com. Download several ISOs and burn them to disks. Them try them out in "live" mode. This doesn't mess with any of your Windows settings and you get the feel of the differences between the distros. Then you can choose to dual boot if you wish. I do heartily recommend Mint 17 Cinnamon. It works.
 

M0RPH

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 2003
3,305
1
0
Just install mint cinnamon and be done with it. Coming straight from windows its reasonably familiar and much better than fighting ubuntu with its unity GUI.

I'm sticking with Ubuntu and Unity. I just really like the idea of putting the taskbar on the left. Makes a lot of sense with widescreen monitors. I'd do it with Windows too but they did not get that right in Windows. There are some problems with the functionality of Unity, but hopefully they will tweak it in future versions.

I tried Mint/Cinnamon and while it looks a lot like Windows, it looks like a blurrier, less polished, amateur version of it.
 

crashtech

Lifer
Jan 4, 2013
10,521
2,111
146
I didn't see anything wrong with Unity, really. Running Peppermint on my T510 because it seems a bit lighter on space and resources. None of them are really like Windows, and all of them will require you to delve into the CLI at some point if you want to use certain apps that don't come preinstalled.
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
57,363
7,514
126
I didn't see anything wrong with Unity, really.

There's nothing wrong with it if you like that style of desktop. It works according to specs. I don't like that work style, and prefer a classic desktop. AFAIC, nothing beats the Gnome 2.x style, with two panels. That's how I setup Xfce, and I don't see making substantial changes to that ever :^D
 

crashtech

Lifer
Jan 4, 2013
10,521
2,111
146
There's nothing wrong with it if you like that style of desktop. It works according to specs. I don't like that work style, and prefer a classic desktop. AFAIC, nothing beats the Gnome 2.x style, with two panels. That's how I setup Xfce, and I don't see making substantial changes to that ever :^D
The reason I don't see anything wrong with it is probably because I am a perpetual Linux noob. Unix style cli commands and syntax have never come easy to me. If it wasn't for Google searches, I doubt I could ever have gotten the things to work that I want. But now that I have, we'll see. Maybe it'll stick this time.
 
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