this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2024
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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I’ve been distrohopping for a while now, and eventually I landed on Arch. Part of the reason I have stuck with it is I think I had a balanced introduction, since I was exposed to both praise and criticism. We often discuss our favorite distros, but I think it’s equally important to talk about the ones that didn’t quite hit the mark for us because it can be very helpful.

So, I’d like to ask: What is your least favorite Linux distribution and why? Please remember, this is not about bashing or belittling any specific distribution. The aim is to have a constructive discussion where we can learn about each other’s experiences.

My personal least favorite is probably Manjaro.

Consider:

  • What specific features/lack thereof made it less appealing?
  • Did you face any specific challenges?
  • How was your experience with the community?
  • If given a chance, what improvements would you suggest?
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[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I don't get the hate for Manjaro, TBH. I never had any problem with it, and I used it as my main OS for a few years now.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

It's fine. People like to shit on it, usually people that have never even tried it.

I've run it for years on many systems and had no issues, which I can't say with most other distros I've tried on and off.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I swear it is my machine or something, but despite CachyOS claiming being faster and more optimized I have yet to benchmark it as faster than the stock kernel for things I play around with. I wrote an application in rust to process a large text file and it both compiled and ran slower on CachyOS. I play around with llama.cpp and again it compiles and runs slower on CachyOS. I want to like Cachy, but right now all I can see is a bunch of window dressing to stock Arch with KDE and a couple of themes that I would rather change to default.

Also, why in the hell am I being asked to make a wifi password encryption key with the damn USB installer? CachyOS is not the only one. A lot of KDE using distros pop up the encryption window when you setup WiFi on the install image. Why? You want me to temporarily encrypt my wifi password on a temporary live image??? I just slows me down.

Anyways, I'm sure I'm crazy and clearly it is fast for somebody, but I can't even get games to benchmark higher.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Cachy is a great live usb because it has zfs.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Did you test with different kernels? Them using a custom scheduler that prioritizes desktop applications might cause background things to run slower.

Plus, the use of ananicy (cpu/ram limiter) limits stuff like that as well.

I use cachyos because they set up zram, anf uksmd by defualt. That's ram compression and deduplication, and it'a pretty powerful in my experience. If you're using cachyos, then uksmdstats and zramctl can give you an idea of how much you are saving.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

I agree with you.

I don't hate Manjaro's developers, but they simply do not know what they are doing. They over promise and under deliver.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm going to say Gentoo Linux. It's a good learning tool and I suppose maybe a tiny bit faster if you actually custom-compile everything for your hardware from source, but that's a crazy waste of time.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Agree. The tradeoff of building everything from source just doesn't pay off

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

OpenSUSE, awfull default software selection on desktop, and pushing users hard to use an "everything configuration tool".

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Manjaro always broke on me. I can't even trust them to keep their SSL certs up to date.

Sorry Manjaro devs, no hate, I just got burned way too many times by this arch-not-arch frankendistro.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Been on it for the last two years. Never broke. Idk what's going on

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Probably PoP_OS!. There isn't anything wrong with the os itelf, my problem is rather that its often sugested as a beginer friendly distro which in my experience it absolutely isn't. The amount of issues I encountered while trying to use it almost drove me away from Linux as a whole. (It was the first distro i tried) The time I spent trying to make everything work was comparable to Arch.

I realy like the idea and the DE they ship by default is one of the best ones I've seen (it's like GNOME but in my opinion much better) but the bugs make it a terrible suggestion for new users.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Debian.

Everything is so manual, not even system upgrades or enabling automatic updates. Like, this can be easily scripted using sed, why dont they do that?

It gets outdated very quickly and people complain that their apps are outdated, while Debian is simply shipping an extremely outdated package.

I respect what they do, and maybe for a Server it is a good OS (even though I would trust Fedora with SELinux and quick updates more).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

VanillaOS looked really promising but it was terribly buggy when I used it.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Evil Linux Suprise™

idk why people even use it. too scary for me.

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