DEV Community: Raine

Linux distributions: a short recommendation guide

Raine — Mon, 01 Jan 2024 13:45:40 +0000

I will be covering distros in short.
But this is a nice document I use to recommend distros to other people.

Beginner Distros

You don't need any knowledge on linux.

Ubuntu

link: https://ubuntu.com
The elder of the beginner, user-friendly, linux distros.
This is maybe the most common distribution given it's somewhat popular name.
A good beginning.

Fedora

link: https://fedoraproject.org
A simple, comfortable, yet up-to-date distro.
Used by Linus himself.

Pop_OS!

link: https://system76.com/pop
A great distro for gamers, casual users and such.
This distro will hold your hand but also allow you to embark some wild adventures (if that's what you want)

Intermediate

Distro's that can be used as beginner distros but knowledge on linux would be a great help.

Manjaro

link: https://manjaro.org
An arch derivative that "just works" tm.

Advanced

Using this requires knowledge on linux.

Arch Linux

link: https://archlinux.org
My all time favourite distro, it's bleeding-edge and just works given it uses systemd as an init system.
Good docs, big community.
10/10 would recommend.

Void

link: https://voidlinux.org
Using it right now (at time of writing), and it's very nice.
Works well, keeping it simple.

Gentoo

link: https://gentoo.org)
I'm putting it here for now, the docs really hold your hand and the only extra step you're really taking is more configuration.

Expert

Be sure to know how linux needs to be compiled and what to do to get your system to boot.

kisslinux

link: https://kisslinux.org
Maybe one of my favourite distros.
Keeping it simple stupid.
The aren't many docs but with a good understanding of linux you will get there.

lfs

link: https://linuxfromscratch.org
A very good resource to create your own distro... from scratch.
Documentation is really good and extensive, but beware as you will put many hours in this process.

sideberry; become less of a tab monster.

Raine — Mon, 01 Jan 2024 03:02:21 +0000

I am a monster.

I always have 20+ tabs open if not more.
I just need to have my research open because, you never know when it's useful.
This is monsterous.

Enter sidebery...

Look I've used tree style tab before but it's just not been what I've looked for.
But with sidebery, it's a different question.

You can customize... so... much!!!!!
Which is one of the best things extensions can offer.

I absolutely hate it when extensions get in the way of what I'm trying to do: browse.
I don't want popups, I don't want flashing icons.
I want them to enhance my experience. Dare I say, extend my browser (woah shocking, I know).

Sidebery is just exactly what I need.
You can setup sidebery to unload folders (which makes my auto discard extenstion truly obsolete) and do all sorts of small things.

Sidebery allows you to use it as a vertical tab bar, a tree style tab and it even adds support for grouping.
Beware that you need to go into the (somewhat confusing and overwhelming) settings page but that's totally worth it.

I want folded folders to be unloaded and sidebery has that option.
Want to color tabs depending on URL? sidebery can do it.
Want to group folders by a distinct group and not necessarily another tab? guess what sidebery can do it.
You can even ask sidebery to hide folded folders!!!

Those features make it such an improvement over TST.

Guess what, it's open source too!

I could talk more about sidebery but I haven't even used it for a long time, I will write more after a month or so when I've used it properly.

Also, try it; it's free.
My post serves it no justice to the list of features it adds!

https://github.com/mbnuqw/sidebery

Hello again, dev.to!

Raine — Sun, 23 Oct 2022 16:37:57 +0000

I've returned and now I'll likely use this as my blogging platform.

That's it, bye!

If you're not using linux...

Raine — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 21:40:31 +0000

I've recently made a new post regarding a guide on distros!
https://dev.to/rainedev/linux-distributions-a-short-recommendation-guide-3498

Then, what are you doing?
Linux is the best, switch now.

But for real, Linux is open source, there is no telemetry, You can customize it to what you want it to be, it's lightweight and honestly it's just epic.

You can install it in 15~30 minutes and then you can enjoy your free and open source software!

The (basic) distro's
These distro's are great for beginners.
Elementary OS (Mac like)
Zorin OS (Windows-y)
Solus OS (Also Windows-y)
Ubuntu (Mac/Windows 11-y)
Manjaro (Arch-based and in many flavours.)

"Hands on" distro's
These distro's are great for doing it all yourself.
Arch (What I use.)
Gentoo (Very hands on)
Void (in musl version and glibc version)
kiss (super sexy distro)

GOD TIER
you're crazy to use this lmao
LFS (absolutely your distro, very hard)