Suggest me the right Linux distro

Hello, good people of Dev! I need some help from the Linux users out there.

I've been thinking to switch to Linux (again) after being fed up (again) with Windows' constant lagging on my PC. I'm a web developer and just want a distro which is performant, good looking and has an abundancy of all the required packages (without any workarounds).

The distros in the banner are the ones I've been considering.

• Linux Mint Cinnamon: I've heard it's very good for web development. It's lightweight and performant and I've heard some good things about Cinnamon. I've used Mint in the past (like 5-6 years ago).

• Ubuntu 20.04: I've used Ubuntu and have been considering it only for: familiarity and availability of a large user-base. My main pet-peeves while using Ubuntu 18.04 were the unavailability of these following features:

  • In Windows, the clipboard is at my disposal when I pressed Win + v. I didn't really search for a clipboard manager that does this.
  • Blue light filter. I tried using Redshift but for some reason, I couldn't get it to work.
  • Hibernation

• Manjaro: I don't know anything about it.

• Peppermint OS: I was considering it because some people claim it to be super performant.

• Pop!_OS: Super pretty! Lots of support for it on the comments below! I'll probably end up using this.

So, suggest me anything that you think will suit me!

• Web Development
• Kinda done with the lag-ful experience in Windows.
• Will run on Dual boot alongside Windows (which I'll mainly use for Photoshop, Premiere, etc).
• Wants small important features which were mentioned as pet peeves of Ubuntu above.

Laptop Specs:

• 1 TB HDD
• Intel Core i5 8th Gen @1.60GHz
• 8GB RAM
• Nvidia GeForce MX130

Thanks!

Edit: add laptop specs

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Update

Thank you everyone for the suggestions and inputs! By far I've cut the list short to Mint Cinnamon and Pop!_OS. I looked at Fedora too but as I'm not really familiar with it, I doubt if I'll be using it.

Thanks for your inputs on Manjaro and letting me know about other cool distros like Zorin OS and Elementary OS. I'll surely try them out in the future!

P.S. I researched a bit and found out that the hibernating feature is not available out of the box in any Linux distribution(?).

Update: Aug 2021

I bought an SSD and shifted to Linux Mint and have been using it for a month.

• I don't miss the hibernate feature because booting & shutting down takes less than 10 seconds
• I use CopyQ for clipboard management
• Yet to find a Redshift alternative that can be turned on at any time and not just during the night

Thanks everyone for the inputs!

Comments

[Aakash Chaudhary]

I have tried many distros like ubuntu, fedora, mint and other . But i found manjaro very stable and working every time. It's arch based distro so you get lastest version of packages plus AUR ( Arch User Repository) . I have been using it for 2 years straight and never had any issue in my workflow ( web and mobile development).

[hmble]

Use Archlinux. You will learn a lot by tryi g to self install Archlinux. Theres almost all packages with latest version in archlinux.

It has great Wiki. I started out linux with ubuntu but my 4GB RAM laptop was using around 800MB of RAM

So I removed all bloat and use only BSPWM Tiling window manager now my RAM use is just 200MB.

If you are into Tiling Window manager look at reddit.com/r/unixporn

[dariusity]

Aim for the DE (desktop environment) you believe you can master in no time, because if you're new you tend to pick up things easier (learn) so in my opinion it would benefit you the most.

[Denis]

If you have a hidpi monitor, go with Pop!_OS. Their hidpi daemon is a breath of fresh air in the Xorg-mixed-dpi-clusterf*ck.

Manjaro KDE is very nice if you want bleeding edge. It's a rolling distro. Also, it's pretty damn fast.

On my to try list as a dev is Fedora.

But for now I'm sticking with Pop!_OS. Maybe I'll hop again when XWayland Nvidia support is finished and Wayland is more polished/daily driver material.

[Denis]

Also, as a dev, not wanting to use my mouse too much. The keyboard-driven aspect of Pop!_OS and the stacking & tiling is a game changer.

[Narasimha Sriharsha KANDURI]

I am a web dev and I use linux for my daily work.
if you are new and switching from windows, you want something that works out of the box. any ubuntu based ones are good. my pick would be linux mint with xfce.
but developing on linux is not about distro it's about customization. so leave cinnamon and other wm and get yourself a tiling wm like i3. learn some vim it helps a lot if you to edit files remotely.
you can manage any coding work easily on linux but if you are a web designer then Adobe is not your friend. you must depend on figma or avocode

[Priyam145]

Go for Ubuntu 20.04!!!
Just downloaded Ubuntu 20.04 on my laptop
Specs:-
i5-8300h
8gb ram
GTX 1050ti

Now, we all know history of linux and nvidia but damnnnn.
My graphic driver on windows was 456.something.something and the recommended driver on Ubuntu was 450.something.something. (just a few minor versions back)

All I had to do was "sudo apt install nvidia-driver-450" and everything was a breeze. After this I would recommend Ubuntu to anyone.

Also, nightlight is now a system setting and as for clipboards there are tons - clipq, gpaste, clipman etc. try out a few, you will sure find a good one for you.

[Julian Robbins]

I highly recommend MX Linux. Very nice and very fun. Installation is a little confusing at first but it's fast, sleek, quite customizable etc. I've been using it for a few weeks and almost immediately with no knowledge of how it works or how to use it I was able to use it with ease.

I customized the taskbar slightly but left all other settings except for resolution at thier default.

[Stefan Teunissen]

"I don't know anything about it" is a REALLY BAD argument to not choose a distro. You want us to suggest a distro, but you're unwilling to learn. This is a very bad combination. If you're not willing to learn, just choose Ubuntu or something.

[Rishit Khandelwal]

Pop!_OS ofcourse
I think Ubuntu 20.04 is also a lot improved though.

[Carlo Federico Vescovo]

I recommend trying Void Linux if you have some experience in configuring distros. It's blazing fast!
You will have to install and configure everything though.

[ngochieu642]

Anyone use Budgie? I've been using it and tried out some other distros (Pop Os, kubuntu, mint, fedora..) but I always get back to budgie.

It' fast, elegant, beautiful, and just get out of your way when you need to focus. Budgie also have extra applets that are really nice to have (CPU/GPU info, workspace switcher, weather, calendar, quick note, CPU limit frequency,.. ). Recently I notice that the nemo file explorer also integrated really nice with Google Drive. You can organize your GGDrive without having to open web browser

[Albert S. Kim]

I am still enjoying Ubuntu 18 LTS and trying to find a time to upgrade. I have used Ubuntu for long and, as someone said, I never lost a love to Ubuntu with KDE.

[SMJ]

Arch Linux! Best Linux!

[Jeremy J Parmenter]

I'd say it's probably worth going and getting a chromebook for basically everything aside from photo editing.

I felt the same way with windows so I went and got a chromebook. I think the best tools are the ones you don't notice and that's exactly what chrome os is, you never notice it because it doesn't get in your way.

In terms of development I use AWS Cloud9, which works like a charm.