I’ve been working and testing to switch my main PC (used for work like audio recording, music, and general multimedia) and have been playing with Ubuntu Studio on my laptop. Loving it so far but I keep seeing people talk about CachyOS, Bazzite, or the new Debian Trixie.
I’m having trouble finding what’s really different about all these distros aside from how they look or slight changes in how they do things (I know Ubuntu Studio has a low latency kernel which seems important for what I need to do). Is there a big difference? Like, if I go with Ubuntu Studio am I gonna end up wiping everything and installing CachyOS or Bazzite or something in a month because it’s better? Or are all these distros basically the same thing with a different look and feel and as long as I choose one that gets regular updates, it doesn’t matter fundamentally?
I’m trying to grasp the Linux concept but being a Windows user my whole life I’m struggling to ‘get it’. Instead of trying to understand in the contex of Windows or Mac, is a better comparison Apple/Android? Like iPhones would be similar to both Mac and Windows (you don’t get to choose much) and Android would be Linux (I know it’s built on it haha) and it’s really just a bunch of different options to do the same thing?
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Ignore anyone claiming there is some massive performance difference between any distros. That’s some misinformed bullshit.
The main things you need to understand are the layers:
- Kernel
- Libraries
- Package Manager
- UserSpace
The Kernel layer will be largely transparent for you as a beginner. If you want bleeding edge stuff, install a “Rolling Release” distro that updates this layer much more frequently than “LTS (long term support)” releases will, as their function is to remain stable for longer periods of time.
Libraries will also be transparent to you as a new user, and even as experts, we rarely need to mess with this layer unless building something specific, which you will not need to worry about. Do not let the Chaff start talking some bullshit about how you to prefer this or that in distros blah blah …you’re a new user. Ignore that noise.
Package Manager: something to consider as you will be interacting with this. RPM, Apt/Deb and pacman are the big three, and all are very mature and stable. They all perform similar basic functions, just in different ways. You’ll have a preference in time, but any of them work well. It’s not a huge thing you need to worry about, but you’ll surely like one over another in time.
UserSpace: where all the fun stuff is. Stick with a distro that has a large community. The biggest choice in how you will interact with your machine as a desktop user is here in that you want to choose a Desktop Environment, or DE. Gnome and KDE are the big two in this arena, but there are many: Xfce, Cinnamon, Mate…etc. Id suggest starting with Gnome if you like a clean MacOS type interface, or KDE if you really like the more verbose sort of Windows experience. Both are fine choices, and you won’t have problems with either. Again, ignore everyone telling you one is better than the other…they are not. It’s a preference. Try them both, and go with one. You can easily swap later if you want, no big deal.
Lastly: don’t go off and use Bl00pyGameRzX or whatever random distro the loudest asshole in a thread is telling you to use. Again, you’re a new user, you need simple, stable, and a huge community to reference if you have issues.
I suggest Fedora for new users now after Ubuntu shat the bed and soiled their crown. After getting comfortable with things, maybe look into what the difference is between Fedora and Cachy, and if that’s of any use to you. If not, whatever, just keep using what you like. Distro hopping is for aimless people who don’t know what they’re looking for, or how to identify. Use what YOU like, and keep using it as long as you like it. Ignore the hype machine telling you otherwise. That’s the point.
…kinda wanna try Bl00pyGameRzX now
Great comment. Makes me wish that Lemmy allowed comments to be pinned
You mean opaque.
And you will definitely find out about libraries if you attempt to install anything.
Some packages will install in your home directory, others, for no apparent reason will spread themselves around the system in the area only available in administration mode. Good luck finding where it all went. The only way I can find is to look at the path in Synaptic, most package managers won’t record it.
This…I don’t understand what this is.
No distro managed by a package manager would be dropping files all over the place as you’re suggesting, not would it require you to interact with or even know which libraries you have installed because it’s all automatically handled by said package manager.
If you’re installing out of band packages, you’re talking about a different thing, and that’s the package maintainer’s fault, not the distro and their maintainers.
General rule of thumb for new users.
Doesn’t like to tinker and non gamer. Fedora
Likes to thinker and non gamer endeavour
Doesn’t like to tinker and gamer bazzite
Likes to tinker and gamer cachy
Arch at this point is no more unstable or prone to breaking then mint or any other distro barring like Debian. Cachy and endeavour with kde6 basically have solved the arch isn’t for new users problem coming from Windows.
So really you just need to ask yourself. Do you want your defaults to include gaming utilities or do you want to have to install them yourself. If your going to game you can save yourself hours as a new user with bazzite or cachy since they come out of the box with a button for “I want to install all the gaming stuff” and your good to go.
If you don’t game and just do basic work then you can go with fedora which will provide a great curated experience that basically just leaves you with a standard and reliable work PC.
Or endeavour which will drop you off right at the point of everything works, is reliable and ready for you to start learning. Even if you choose to never fiddle with anything, you still end up with a system that supports the widest possible amount of hardware and has one of the best user manuals of any distro family.
Seriously for as much as people claim you need a big community for refence material. Between cachy and arches wiki, you have a better source of information than any other option. It’s absurd how useful it is.
Y’all really need to get off the Bazzite thing for new users.
Fedora for gaming is great and has zero issues.
Bazzite is no better than any other distro in this respect EXCEPT that it’s immutable, and going to be a NIGHTMARE for somebody not yet familiar with how things work in a Linux system. It’s edge cases upon edge cases, and the assumption by people pushing this idiocy is that they’ll never need to know how a normal functioning Linux system works if they like it, which is an ignorant supposition.
Stop pushing this narrative to new users, you’re just making it harder on them.
Ubuntu has always been that bad though. Always.
Not at all. It was fine for new users. It was the mostly popular distribution for years for a reason.
Because people recommended it.
There were better options. It crashed or broke all the time. Still does.
It would never be a recommendation for new users from me. I tried every version since 4, so I am not new to its shittyness.
Ran thousands of servers on it for years without a hiccup. No idea what you were doing wrong there, but that’s not my experience.
I suppose I should have clarified: Ubuntu desktop. I don’t really have a problem with Ubuntu server, although why bother when you can just use Debian. Did you choose it for the newer packages?
Ubuntu has specific toolchain stacks that make imaging and packaging easier when you’re running continuously deployed stacks that change frequently.
You’re on the right track. Linux technically refers to the kernel, the low-level core of the operating system that everything else interacts with and is built on top of. Distros are just collections of components that have been standardized by some group or company.
Linux Mint is heavily customized Ubuntu with a different DE and all of Connonical’s stuff removed. Nobara is a gaming-focused distro built on Fedora with a bunch of kernel modifications and pre-installed software to help games run better. CatchyOS is just Arch but with a really friendly installer that allows less advanced users to still enjoy many of the heavy customizations and cutting-edge software of Arch, etc etc.
Think of it like an engine. You can use the same engine in a bunch of different vehicles. You can also make modifications to the engine itself, but it will still essentially be the same engine.
The #1 rule for new Linux users, especially ones who aren’t interested in becoming power users or tinkering with their OS, is if you’re happy with your distro, stick with it.
There’s no objective “correct” distro. The best distro for you is the distro that works and you feel comfortable with.
Lots of new users become worried that they are missing out on some major improvement in their experience of Linux or feel like they picked the “wrong” distro because some random user dissed it. Don’t pay attention to that, if your distro does everything you need it to do and you enjoy using it, there’s no reason to go looking for something better.
Now of course, there’s nothing wrong with checking out other distros, and if you are somebody who likes to tinker with your setup and doesn’t mind risking breaking things sometimes, then by all means, distro hop away. Almost all distros have a “live boot” option, which allows you to test the OS off of a flash drive without having to install it on your computer. It’s a great way to quickly get the look and feel for a new distro without having to commit.
And of course, there are tons of Linux YouTubers who do reviews of distros, so you can watch those to also get an idea of the different options out there.
Because of the nature of FOSS and the linux ecosystem, you can make most distros look and feel just like any other, so that’s always an option too.
This helps a lot, thank you. I’ve been feeling overwhelmed about making sure I pick the best distro and there’s a lot of info bombardment. Additionally, I love this stuff so I know in a couple months there’s a good chance I’ll want to use another distro and I don’t want to wipe everything again haha.
I use my PC for work, freelance audio production, voiceover, music, etc. I’ve been testing Ubuntu Studio on my laptop and it seems to be going ok so far (learning curve and lack of software aside) but I keep seeing people shoot down Ubuntu. Everyone seems to be talking about Bazzite and CachyOS but honestly I’m getting the impression they don’t use Linux for much more than just gaming.
It all feels a little gate-keepy in ways and I got overwhelmed haha. Think I’ll just keep chipping away with Ubuntu Studio and see if it’ll do the trick for my main PC. Thanks again.
I used Ubuntu Studio many years ago when I was going through an electronica phase lol. It worked fine for me.
Don’t sweat it, there will always be the hot new distros on the block. Right now it’s Bazzite, CatchyOS, and NixOS, back in the day there was Garuda, Arco Linux, Bunsen, MX Linux, and a ton of others. Some are still around, some are long gone. Doesn’t mean they are bad distros, many of them are/were great, but don’t choose a distro just because everybody is talking about it.
Plus, as you get more experience with Linux, the differences matter less and less. There are only a handful of package managers, and unless you have some very specific technical requirements, they all do the same thing and work the same way.
“apt install firefox” becomes “yum install firefox”, or “pacman -S firefox” it’s all pretty much the same under the hood.
And if you use KDE Plasma on different distros, the Discover store works the same across distros, same with any other GUI package installer.
If you keep getting better and get into home lab building or just have several different computers, you might end up using a bunch or distros at the same time on different machines.
Right now across all my physical computers and virtual machines in my home lab, I currently have 9 different distros installed on various machines. Different distros for different purposes.
My general #JustWorks laptops and VMs use Linux Mint, my hardcore gaming rig uses Nobara, my test junker laptops run Debian 13, Void Linux, and Arch for testing random software and messing around. For my Docker containers, I run Debian 12 as the base, for my Minecraft server, Ubuntu Server, my Steam Deck is SteamOS which is just Valve’s heavily modified spin of Arch, and my main lab’s Type-1 hypervisor is XCP-ng, which is basically Fedora under the hood.
IMO distros are just “how little work do I need to do before I get this to work the way I like?” You can make any distro work practically the same if you want it to.
These days the things that really differentiate distros are: installer, default desktop environment, packaging, packages.
Some are very different to each other, Arch and Debian where the former is at the bleeding edge of software and the later is the most conservative distro out there. Some are very similar, Ubuntu and Kubuntu where they are the same distro with a different desktop environment and default software.
From a new users perspective, a lot of the main ones will probably feel very similar and the main difference you’d notice is stability and compatibility. Don’t overwhelm yourself with choices, just choose a easy to use, high user base, well supported distro to start on (Fedora, Ubuntu, Mint) and if you don’t like it move to something else later
Appreciate it. I’ve decided to stick with Ubuntu Studio as long as I can duplicate my workflow before I make the switch. Think I got into my own head and indecision took over haha.
As you see, there are 1000 different opinions, heh.
My take is it’s about user patterns.
Every distro has different maintenance expectations, different tolerance for bugs and keeping stuff up to date and working. That’s the flavor difference: it’s all the same packages just served to you a different way.
As an example, Arch Linux has an expectation for the user to pay attention to maintenance. Read their excellent wiki. Update frequently, and pay attention to errors and warnings when you do. There is one version of Python, so update your stuff to work with out. The “reward” for being so hands on is stuff getting automatically fixed quickly.
CachyOS is just a preconfigured version of this, with presets and experimental features tailored for gaming. But it’s largely not divergent from the underlying Arch system: you could switch from an arch install to CachyOS packages with zero fuss.
Contrast with Ubuntu. It is meant to be more “hands off” with staged and delayed updates. There are many versions of Python present in the same system, so old stuff works without changes. But the consequence is you may have to live with certain problems you run into, or risk breaking your system trying to fix them.
Fedora is somewhere in between, with the addition of an emphasis on free software. And a consequence of that is, for instance, no first party support for Nvidia. Bazzite builds on top of that by expensively modifying it into a stable platform for gaming, but you’re also dependent on a relatively small group of maintainers.
So I guess one question is how involved with your computer do you want to be?
IMO, coming from the systems administration side of Linux, the most significant difference was package management and availability.
RedHat and clones were very conservative and focused on services like web, database, etc. With IBM purchasing RHEL, many switched to Ubuntu. Ubuntu is also favored by devs because the packages were more up to date.
Hi, request for comment: how do you feel about GNU guix? Is this the future of package management we wanted?
I’ve used RedHat and Ubuntu and Arch primarily because of the package ecosystem, and security is definitely major concern for most sysadmins (I am not one).
Is guix going to be the future? Thanks
Grass is greener…Linux is a kernel with tools attached that distributions play with and present as they would as a distribution. Packaging (program management) is different throughout with all the distros loving their ‘tool’, or, methodology. Some distros present helpful scripts to get a thing done, or, look a way, or, whatever, and some do not.
Windows tells you, here, you can use this or do this and cannot do this or use that. Linux tells you to simply have at it and makes it all available for you to use or not to use. Windows sits you at the kiddie table whereas Linux gives you materials and tools.
A Linux distribution is just the Linux kernel distributed with various other pieces of software that make it usable. Often times, there are multiple software projects that aim achieve the same goal by going in different paths. These are packaged together by the distro maintainers who mostly do this out of passion.
Different distros prioritize different aspects of the software they package and they do this in different ways. To make the best choice for you, it is best to try and understand what each distro aims to do. Here are a few examples out my head:
- Debian is a traditional distribution that aims to keep the system stable for a few years. They do backport security patches, but slow rollout of feature updates is a deal-breaker for some people (like me).
- CachyOS (based on Arch Linux) compiles it’s packages utilizing newest CPU instructions which may lead to slight performance gain on newer hardware. They also ship some kernel patches optimizing it for gaming use cases.
- Bazzite is based on an atomic/immutable version of Fedora. The aim here is to provide a system that makes it very hard for users to mess it up, using containerization technologies. It also means that installing packages in the traditional way is not very feasible or recommended. You are supposed to install packages without root access and using technologies like flatpak. It also includes some gaming specific kernel patches similar to CachyOS, but not as many.
As someone completely new and stupid it feels like the desktop environment is the only difference I will ever notice. I was just about to move to bazzite and poke around until I realised the example and what I was picturing were just gnome.
At least I know im stupid.
There are some major differences starting to stir. I.E atomic distros Nixos and guix. But beyond that it’s all package manager differences. Some less popular OSs will have different init systems but that’s really about it
In terms of how you interact with it day to day, no. And that’s because the Distro in that sense matters less than the desktop environment. Since DEs are fundamentally distro agnostic, most distros give a person the option for multiple choices in that regard, so it doesn’t really matter if you’re using Ubuntu, Arch, Fedora, etc… what matters from a usage perspective is if you’re using KDE, or Gnome, or XFCE, etc…
Under the hood there’s a lot of differences in how each one chooses to do things, but I wouldn’t call one of them better or worse than any other and for the most part can be ignored.
My advice would be narrow it down to one choice; and that’s your package manager. That’s really where most of the difference lies. Find the one that you find easiest to use (Apt, Pacman/Pamac, DNF, Zypper) and that’s where you land until you’re comfortable.
I don’t think there is really too much difference either. Mainly the package manager is the main difference I guess. There are a lot of other differences but if you don’t really care about it then it doesn’t really matter.
The desktop environment makes a much bigger difference than the distro.
First thing to consider is they all use the same Desktop Environments.
Unlike Windows, in Linux the “graphic” is completely separated from the operating system, any DE can be use on any distro, so trying different distros that come with the same DE, might make you think there’s very little difference (at first look).
Second, almost all distros are derivatives, that contributes to make them feel similar. The original ones are just a bunch: Debian, Red Hat, Slackware, SuSe, Arch, Gentoo, everything else is based either on one of those or on another derivative, if your curious you can have a look at this graph: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Linux_Distribution_Timeline.svg.
So for example, if you take Ubuntu and Mint, they might look similar because Mint is based on Ubuntu.If you want to see the real differences, you need to look at the original ones, the core differences are: the way software is packaged and managed, and the “philosophy” behind the way the system is overall administered, maintained and released.
Derivatives add differences to the user experience, they main reason they’re created is someone is not completely happy with the way a distro does things and they create one the meets their needs, for example, Debian is improved dramatically on the user experience lately, but many years ago was quite arduous to setup and use for non-experts, so Ubuntu was born.
Now to answer you question
as long as I choose one that gets regular updates, it doesn’t matter fundamentally?
It does matter, tho it’s not as much world-changing as some people seem to think (especially when it comes to gaming).
The most important things are support for your hardware and easy of administration/use. Most distros will recognize and setup your hardware out of the box, but some might require tinkering or extra steps. Some distros automate almost everything so the user doesn’t need to think about it, others require more knowledge and more manual intervention, you have a much finer control of your system this way at the expense of some user friendliness, it’s up to you to decide what you prefer.
Then it comes the Desktop Environment, different DEs do things differently, which one to choose is totally personal preference.
As for software, unless you go after some niche obscure distro, you shouldn’t have problems finding it in the distro repositories. For edge cases you can always use Flatpaks or AppImages.
Just pick something with KDE Plasma and you’ll be fine. Cachy, Debian, and Bazzite are all good.
