Guenther_Amanita @ Guenther_Amanita @feddit.de

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Joined

2 yr. ago

I can only speak for Silverblue, as I didn't try other ones yet. But I'm extremely happy with it.

General

• I don't get the difference between rpm-ostree and other techniques, like those from VanillaOS or Aeon, yet. So I can't tell if ostree is the "best" one
• BIGGEST pro (in my opinion): the rebase-function (see the following)
• Working with it feels very "clean", as your base-OS doesn't get crammed with trash programs
• You containerize pretty much everything if you can. Flatpak and Distrobox are your friend.
• Should be more reliable, since there's "your" stuff and "the OS' stuff", and every system is the same -> devs can fix bugs better

"Official" (vanilla) Silverblue

• The oldest one around. Big developer- and userbase
• Very robust and stable
• But also minimalist (no additional packages preinstalled)
• Comes only with Gnome or KDE
• You need to layer/ install essential packages yourself, which somehow isn't the recommended way to install stuff. I yet still have to find out what disadvantages this has.

Universal-Blue (uBlue)

• Isn't a distro/ fork of SB, but takes advantage of the rebase feature. Basically, you can choose from where your distro draws it's OS-base. So, it's just a repository for OS-images.
• Comes with essential packages and tweaks OOTB (distrobox, 3rd party stuff, Nvidia drivers, etc.), which aren't layered, but part of the image
• Everyone can publish their image. There's the "normal" SB with QOL-stuff added, there are some DE-spins (e.g. XFCE), some are similar to SteamOS, and so on.
• CON: I don't know how reliable and "bloated" they are compared to Vanilla SB.

Not exactly CLI, but GPT4All works perfectly for that.

If you want to have super simple to understand man pages, use "tldr" in the terminal, that's very helpful!

Even better: Silverblue! (I use uBlue)

Everything gets updated in the background without even needing intervention, not even a "you need to click here to download and reboot to apply changes"-notification.

I shut down my PC every few days when I leave the house for longer and boot into the next base-image without even noticing.

And if I do because something doesn't work, I just select the image from yesterday.

Oh yeah, and 99% of my apps are Flatpaks anyway, which auto-update too by default.

I just don't notice my OS in any way, I just work with it. Lovely!

I don't have much to add here, since I mostly agree with the others.

I started with Zorin too (a few years ago) and back then it was great. It was almost the same as Mint, but looked more modern.

Nowadays, I would recommend Mint more than Zorin. Zorin isn't bad, but isn't maintained as much anymore.

There were lots of upgrades (performance, looks, functionality) in the underlying system (kernel, UI, etc.) which Zorin didn't recieve. But it still isn't a BAD choice, but there are better ones.

Mint is an example of that. It's also very conservative (-> stable), but heavily maintained and improved. It isn't a gaming distro, but every distro is suited for gaming anyway.

Use that for a while and see what you dislike.

Then switch to something like Fedora (or Nobara), Pop!OS, or Bazzite. The latter is definitely for more advanced users, since it's a very new concept and not as spread. It's more similar to SteamOS.

Don't base your choice by "it's a gaming distro". That doesn't matter much. You can install those tweaks pretty easily on everything else.

Yeah. I've just started using SB a few days ago AND decided for Mullvad. What a coincidence...

AFAIK you can just install the rpm via rpm-ostree and reboot. I have to look if this also works with tool- or distrobox.

Or, if you don't rely on the client, just set up your connection using the native import function of Gnome/ KDE.

But for now, Silverblue is great and I don't feel like it restricts me at all tbh. I just wouldn't recommend it to newcomers, since you have to find a few workarounds and try other approaches as with Ubuntu for example.

Wow! The color scheme looks very comfy! Would you be able to also publish it it in the KDE store?

I would choose a popular distro instead of a niche one.

The main pro of that is that you'll get a big support community and lots of documentation. When you decide to use a less common one, especially one with only one or a few developers, this can backfire. Maintaining a distro is a lot of hard work and you have to trust them to patch all security-things and don't just stop sending out updates.

Most niche distros are just Debian/ Arch with some custom themes and a few apps pre-installed, which you can do on your own super easily anyway.

My recommendations would be:

• Fedora: my favourite distro. Gets major updates twice a year, and therefore is leading in new technologies and software, but not bleeding edge, so it is pretty reliable. There are many spins (editions) available, which differ in their desktop environment (DE), aka GUI and app family. The "Official" (Workstation) is with Gnome, which is a very unique and interesting DE that supports very smooth trackpad gestures (better than MacOS imo!) and looks very clean. But it is very unconventional and minimalist, so not everybody likes it. Hit me up if you have any questions. And the other one is the KDE spin, which looks exactly the same as your desktop mode in your Deck, since it also uses KDE Plasma as DE. Both are user friendly, but require something like a "10 things to do after installing"-tutorial, since there may be a few codecs or so missing.
• Mint: THE recommended distro for newcomers. It will take you by the hand and show you the wonderful Linux world. It's a bit more conservative, but therefore very stable. Even my Mum and tech-illiterate friends/ elderly understand it. If you like the UI of the steam deck, you may not enjoy it as much, but even when not, will introduce you
• Pop!OS: you already used it, nothing to say
• Kubuntu: similar to Fedora KDE, but not liked by the community as much. Would choose Fedora over it, but doesn't matter much tbh
• Fedora Silverblue/ Kionite: probably the most similar to the steam deck in this list. It is also immutable, so you can't brick it or fuck up much. But it should be more used by more experienced users.

--> I would recommend you Fedora Workstation if you have a good trackpad or prefer a keyboard based workflow. It would be a quite unique experience and something else than your Steam Deck. Otherwise, if your laptop is a bit older, try Mint.

All comments here say the same - that TW is great. And they're right! But I want to give you a few contrapoints to all of them and why I don't use it.

If you like rolling release distros, TW is the best.

The OpenQA checks for incompatibilities in all the packages, and if something goes wrong or doesn't work as it should, snapper rollback saves your butt.

It's a very very solid distro and I have great respect for the engineer-software-artists!

Here's what I personally didn't like (my own opinion/ experience):

• Zypper is pretty redundant for me, since the settings apps can do more nowadays. Still a handy tool
• Zypper is slow
• Huge updates. I don't have a good internet connection and it takes ages to complete. And when it's done, you refresh and there are already 5 petabytes more to download :D
• More bugs: sometimes, it feels like a testing ground for new software. There were never any breaking errors, but many papercuts. I prefer to wait a few weeks until those are ironed out.
• The installer sucks. I had to retry it many times until I got a system that I could work with.
• Doesn't seem as polished sometimes. There are a few QOL things I just miss by default, like a friendly password promt box for your LUKS.
• Software availability: you have to use Flatpak more often

I personally recommend and love Fedora. It's also very up-to-date, but not as bleeding edge as TW. It feels more polished and robust, and it has a bigger community with more support.

I started using Silverblue recently and I think I found my perfect distro! Maybe take a look into SB, it is really not as complicated or restricting as many people think.