Do you...? Are you...?

For years I have been "Linux curious." By that, I mean that I like to sample different distros, to see what the open source community can come up with. I'm fortunate it that I have a server with a good helping of memory (64GB - which doesn't seem like so much today) and lots of disk space. I also have a licensed copy of VMware Workstation, so building VMs and installing different Linux releases is an easy process (I've also used Oracle VirtualBox, which is a free alternative).

I'm not a Linux "expert" but just someone who has spent his career working in the computer field, with an exposure to multiple systems. I've used VMs in the course of my work -- mostly Windows, clusters and directory servers. An offshoot of this work is my reading Distrowatch, checking out the Linux and open source OSes and on occasion deciding to try one out. This is how I decided on Ubuntu MATE for my server OS. I'd tried Mint and MX Linux, but MATE just seemed to "fit."

One of the true beauties of Linux is that many distros can be installed on a bootable USB thumb drive. I have done so in crowded airport boarding areas when I don't want to risk having my computer compromised by some lurker. Even someone peeking over my shoulder is not likely to recognize the OS I'm using, which is also a plus.

Some of the OSes I've tried: Emmabuntüs, Bodhi, Peppermint, KaOS, Puppy, Q4OS, CentOS (which I used in my office for years), Lite, EasyOS, antiX, and my latest, Voyager Linux. I feel safe in declaring there's a Linux for everyone -- especially those who are frightened of "Linux." These are probably the people who tear their hair out at a failed Windows update, but wouldn't think of changing to something no more complex.

So, even though this is mostly wool-gathering, I wonder how many others like to "experiment?" I'm not about to change from MATE as my actual hardware-based OS, but I find some things in other distros very compelling. How about you?

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Oh yes,

  1. Vector Linux (before I switched to Ubuntu 6.06) had a kind of configuration panel (GUI) to switch most daemons/services on and off which was quite convenient.

  2. The Moksha desktop of Bodhi Linux (Bodhi is very fast on my <1G RAM netbook) is the most underrated Desktop I've ever seen. It is arguably more tweakable than KDE and very humble in resource usage and is more original, advanced and forward thinking than most other desktops.

  3. SuSE's YAST ( for installing and configuring) is very very good. Especially if you, like me, don't want a GUI on a server, the TUI of YAST is a breeze to work with.

  4. Antix has something that I never encountered on other distributions: a graphic-equalizer (TUI) for ALSA, I wish more distro's would incorporate that :slight_smile:

  5. PCLinuxOS has a programmable-GUI for bash scripts called gtkdialog where you can use either glade or its own markup language. I even used to copy the binary to my Ubuntu-MATE install. I've wrote some GUI frontends and it is the easiest and the fastest way to write a full blown GUI.

  6. I still have to try NixOS because I'm very thrilled by the way they store and handle libraries (never a version conflict again, yay!) :slight_smile:

EDIT: Oh I forgot Porteus, live or frugal-install, MATE-desktop, very fast, usable as bootloader/chainloader and thus perfect for resurrection real ancient hardware

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I have tried a lot of distos myself. I have never worked in any kind of computer field. To start I bought a Xandros CD to install first as I had no idea how to download an OS. Everything had to be downloaded as a tarball to be installed and I had no idea how to do that. I didn't know the difference between
.Deb and rpm and as I was dual booting then and LILI was the bootloader but continually failed so I gave up.

After I found PC Linux I fell in love with the gnome 2 desktop. Then I tried Debian and loved the apt package manager and synaptic. While I played with other distros and with the changes to gnome I decided I only wanted the mate desktop and apt package manager. That brought me to Debian based Point Linux which went defunct. I still occasionally play with other distros but am always disappointed. Fedora lacked software. PC Linux gave me hardware problems. Arch lacked needed software. And I tried Ikey's first Solus that shut down overnight on me twice. I also tried all kinds of lightweight and beginners distos from puppy to Zorin. I also tried Blackbox and Parrot.

If you like putting a disto on a USB drive look at Sparky from Poland. Semi- rolling, offers mate desktop, based on Debian and with It's own USB tool and the ability to make one with a persistent folder or one where the whole OS is persistent. (Though their is a trick to that. It has the quietest forum I have ever encountered so don't look their for help.)

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I first started my Linux journey almost ten years ago now and I started with Linux Mint Cinnamon, after a year on Cinnamon I decided to upgrade to a new Mint version and MATE desktop since I found out about MATE around 2019 and since then until last year I pretty much had a nice time on Mint but as it was developing so the size of the distro outgrew GB I had designated as separate partition on my Acer Laptop that still runs like a charm in its 9 years of age and so when 24.04 came out I went Ubuntu MATE and I never looked back since it is was a breath of fresh air for my laptop (runs better than it did with Mint MATE so yeey)

Aside from that I used to check around other forums and I got fascinated with MX Linux and antiX in general - mind you I'm no tech savant, I'm just motivated strongly with an ethic of refurbishing old stuff and minimalism so I like how they manage to make their distros light and still look polished - that XFCE on MX Linux looks slick and mighty fine haha

I also tried/had a look at Arch when I visited my best friend last summer since he runs it as a daily driver and actually works in IT - to be fair it looked nice but not for me at all

For me and my needs Ubuntu MATE just checks it all and more I could ask for so I don't feel a strong need to change it for any other option out there because "It just works" - if antiX would implement MATE than I might try and test that out just to see if the feel of the DE is implemented as well as on Ubuntu but I don't think I would change because in the end for someone like me that isn't working in tech related area most problems I have are solved via forums and Ubuntu MATE forum is the best forum to be a member of so yeah - not many distros come with a nice bonus like this one does :wink:

P. S. EDIT: just remembered - open suse also is interesting to me as a concept but mainly because its rolling release implementation and how far they managed to make it so polished with all the upgrades being a rolling release and all - still not something I would use as a daily OS

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I've only experimented within Ubuntu trying the different flavors but always come back to Mate as my primary OS.Studio and Cinnamon are next up when I can find the time.

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I've looked and flirted with at quite few.
It never got past the stage of insertion of a live USB. Motivation dying right there.
I've found my MATE and stopped looking around after that.

W

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You guys are making me feel old. I remember attending Linux user groups where one could buy a Red Hat CD for $1. In a shoulder bag on the other side of the room I have an Apple "iBook G4," a white, polycarbonate 12" laptop that dates back to about 2003. I installed Ubuntu 08 on a partition so I could dual-boot. What issues I had with wpa_supplicant! I remember sitting outside an Apple Store in Las Vegas, camping on their free wi-fi using my Ubuntu, just in case Apple was scanning their network for Apple (or non-Apple) devices. I felt so accomplished in those days! :smiley:

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My experience is with Xubuntu 14.04, then Ubuntu 16.04, then i switched to Ubuntu MATE.

I've just recently tried plain Debian (11) on an old laptop - but had mixed results thanks to NVIDIA.

I have recently started using kvm/qemu/virt-manager as part of some development work on a kernel module. Now that I have that under my belt; I do think I'll give some other distros a sandboxed-try. Although, one of the appeals of MATE and Ubuntu MATE in particular is how responsive it is - and it is hard to test/compare that aspect with a virtual machine.

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You know, while researching fast distributions for older hardware, MATE keeps popping up. I may decide to replicate the experience I had/have with my server. But it's kind of fun checking out the options. I've installed Linux Mint, Voyager Linux, and tried Easy OS (off a thumb drive). There are a couple of others I want to explore, but I'm sticking with the Debian/Ubuntu core, as it's the one I'm most comfortable with.

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I started with Ubuntu. Not sure which release, but I enjoyed messing around with it. I started buying older laptops with no OSs, fixing them up and then reselling them. Didn't really make a lot of money off of it, but it was a hobby. The ones I purchased without OS, I installed Ubuntu and because I had several, I kept one for myself to use. I eventually offered the latops with their choice of distros. Interestingly, I used distrowatch to figure out which were the top four or five and offered them up.

So I played with Mint, MX, Ubuntu, and Debian. I kept going to back to Ubuntu and eventually found MATE because I thought my laptop was a little sluggish with Ubuntu.

But to answer the question, yes I like installing new distros but it is more I like the fact I CAN install different distros. I get a kick out of knowing I can completely refresh an old latop with a variety of looks and feels. Personally, however, I have always been a "loyal" consumer when I find something I like. So MATE has everything I want out of a distro, so why change?

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The only growing discomfort I have with Ubuntu (and hence Ubuntu MATE) is the size. At some point I may switch to a distribution where I can start much more pared back and only add what I want. I suppose the reverse is possible and I could remove what I dont need - but then I spend a lot of time investigating something that I dont understand the purpose of before I can decide if I really need it or not.

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I am not sure but I think I remember Ubuntu Mate giving you an option for a minimal install at the beginning of the installation process?
It was one thing I like about PC Linux, it gave you minimal install that gave you the desktop and Synaptic which they had ported for rpm files. Not even a browser was included you picked which one you wanted and installed it with Synaptic. I don't know if they still do that it was when they still had the gnome 2 desktop.

I actually used to do minimal installs on some distros that offered that option, but haven't found Ubuntu Mate that bloated myself though 3.3 gig is getting large. Ultimate OS which offers everything but the kitchen sink is 4.08 gig.
I remember when OS's all fit on a CD.

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Ubuntu MATE 24.04 minimal chews up about 9GB with a clean install.

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That is a lot. I would not have thought that. Is Snaps the problem?

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I remember when OS's all fit on a diskette... RT-11, DOS and Linux. Yes, it was tiny Linux router/firewall without GUI & other bells and whistles. :smiley:

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Do not forget to subtract swap file volume, please!

I think it's fair to include a 2Gb swap file as 'bloat'. It's still space that a basic user won't be using. And that still leaves 7-8Gb (roughly). Of which, yes, @jymm, 4Gb is smashed by snap .... simply for Firefox.

And that is exactly the problem I have with snaps!

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They're an unfortunate consequence of the terrible binary compatibility across the Linux/open source ecosystem.

I just did an install of a 24.04(.2) flavor (ie. daily) that offers a snap free install with the minimal option, without swapfile and the result on first boot & login is with df -h

/dev/sda2        117G     4.8G    106G   5% /

That install would have created a 512MB swapfile if I'd not chosen to not have any too.

That install included no web browser, and is reported as the base Ubuntu system with Desktop only.

Personally I see little to be gained by a minimal install, as its about the same work to remove packages as per adding them, and by getting a full install I've found fewer problems when I modify my systems the way I like doing it (which usually is a multi-desktop install; so small 'footprint' isn't something I really value obviously).

FYI: The snap list command reported

Command 'snap' not found, but can be installed with:
sudo apt install snapd

which is as expected for a minimal install of that flavor, as three offer that for 24.04 & 24.10.

Yeah a more interesting comparison maybe what is the size if minimal isn't used, but I'm not interested enough to repeat an install for just that, as I don't need that install done for Quality Assurance purposes; 24.04.2 is approaching soon.

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