Best linux distribution on Reddit

486 reviews from r/linuxquestions, r/linux4noobs, r/linuxmasterrace and 25 more subreddits

486 reviews from

and

By Brand

By Product

Linux Mint

4.4

(90)

"I suggest you try Mint."

"You can try Linux Mint Xfce and Linux Lite."

"Linux Mint xfce, MX linux xfce, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Puppy Linux, AntiX, Linux Lite, Bodhi Linux, Tiny Core Linux, Slax or Peppermint OS"

"Linux Mint and Wine."

"Linux mint with the cinnamon desktop Free, does all you want it to do, similar userinterface to windows, really easy to maintain"

"I think Ubuntu would usually be fine, but Linux Mint would probably be the best option here, especially if you want her to easily get used to it."

"Linux Mint Cinnamon would be a good choice."

"Linux Mint is commonly recommended for new Linux because is well-designed."

"I have a very good pc and I use mint cause it just works without problems."

"Mint is probably the better choice."

Debian

4.3

(55)

"And finally the ultimate choice is the original **Debian XFCE**."

"Debain based os to get your toes wet."

"Debian"

"I swear by debian"

"Debian + KDE with Flatpak and a bit later Nix packages"

"Debian or ubuntu. Simply no point of running a bad ass distro"

"All things being equal, I prefer - Debian - Ubuntu - Redhat - Centos/Alma"

"Debian Stable, Ubuntu LTS, and Rocky where we used to use CentOS."

"Had a debian server running well for the past few years - no complaints"

"+1 for Debian. Predictable, stable & does what it says on the tin."

Ubuntu

4.2

(55)

"Ubuntu, it's what my 75yo MIL uses and it couldn't be more simple and stable."

"I would go with Ubuntu and remove every icon that she will not use."

"I booted Ubuntu 22.04 from USB stick to show her."

"Ubuntu LTS makes it as easy as possible."

"Debian or ubuntu. Simply no point of running a bad ass distro"

"All things being equal, I prefer - Debian - Ubuntu - Redhat - Centos/Alma"

"Mostly Ubuntu LTS or Amazon Linux 2"

"Dedicated VM still get latest ubuntu lts release"

"Ubuntu, most stable and reliable for sure"

"While Debian is awesome, we recently migrated to Ubuntu for one of our core platforms."

Fedora

4.3

(43)

"I'd recommend fedora, for gaming bazzite (based on fedora) and to get work done."

"I would take a closer look at Fedora."

"If I were to change I probably go with fedora and KDE."

"Fedora. It's stable, fast, current and works very well for most use cases."

"Fedora KDE seems to be the perfect choice. Easy to setup LUKS+Bitlocker, Secure Boot, Howdy."

"Fedora for long-term. It will heal your distrohopping."

"I can recommend Fedora KDE spin."

"Fedora is a great distribution for developers."

"As a FS developer myself, I use a Fedora spin from KDE called Plasma, and it's great."

"I am running Fedora 37, and been using it since 35."

Pop!_OS

4.2

(21)

"Built with gamers in mind, it has excellent Nvidia support and works well with Proton and Steam."

"I'm on POP OS now and I love it."

"I think PopOS is a great distro to try."

"I have been using pop os for more than a year now and never had any major problems."

"I'd say give Pop!_OS a try"

"That said, Pop! OS (which is based on Ubuntu which is based on Debian...) is a great, user-friendly option."

"Pop!_OS is the easiest to use for beginners."

"My bet would be PopOS 22.04."

"I've used Pop OS for over a year now and have been gaming on it without much issues."

"Try Pop_OS! Or Linux Mint 22."

Zorin OS

4.1

(15)

"ZorinOS. https://zorin.com"

"I did use Zorin Os 16, on a AMD Ryzen / NVIDIA machine."

"I’d probably go with Zorin OS because it will have the same feel."

"ZorinOS."

"Zorinos or mint."

"I think zorin os is for her,but mint is also a good choice."

"A few other good options that may fly under your radar."

"1. Zorin OS - literally just as easy as windows."

"ZorinOS Lite."

"I think Zorin OS could be good because its look is very similar to Windows."

antiX

4.2

(13)

"Use antiX instead since you are already familiar."

"I would recommend Antix Linux, is the best."

"Then go for Antix"

"I would try Antix, it has a 32 bit version."

"Antix"

"Antix > Bodhi > Slitaz."

"I tried anti x, and that's fantastic."

"You are going to want at least 4GB of RAM. I would try Antix and see how it does."

"Only thing I would even bother trying on that would be antiX."

"Antix Linux, Puppy Linux, Lubuntu to name a few."

MX Linux

4.2

(13)

"Try MX with Xfce. The 64 ISO..."

"MX will be the most stable for her."

"My goto is mx linux which is pretty lightweight, and popular."

"Nothing wrong with MINT, I like it, but I like MX better."

"**MX Linux XFCE** is the second choice."

"I use MXlinux(based on Debian) on older hardware."

"Personally, I like MXLinux for older computers."

"But for some old laptops MX Linux is better."

"I use mxlinux on my lower end systems."

"Personally I use MX Linux (Xfce) on one (home), and Ubuntu (Gnome) on the other (work)."

Arch Linux

4.1

(13)

"Arch Linux + KDE Plasma is the best way to go."

"Arch with a manual install for daily driving and RHEL for enterprise server stuff."

"If you want to learn more about how computers in general work, installing Arch or Gentoo will be illuminating."

"I'd like to recommend Arch but you should go with RHEL."

"ArchLinux or Gentoo with just the bare minimum packages to mine in the TTY."

"Arch with xfce or with just a window manager runs very well and low on ram."

"For me personally arch works flawlessly with dual and even 'triple' boot."

"I use Arch on it."

"Arch if you want to tinker, Ubuntu Studio if you want to install and go."

"Arch with the same specs."

#10

Manjaro

4.5

(10)

"Has run most everything I've thrown at it and when paired with Heroic does the trick."

"Running it on Manjaro for over a year now without any problems."

"I reinstalled Manjaro XFCE on the advice of u/nikgnomic."

"I have been using Manjaro Xfce for many years to produce live audio and it has been very reliable."

"Put them on Manjaro KDE. Works like charm, 3 years or so and counting."

"I use Manjaro."

"I would go with Manjaro."

"I'm happy with Manjaro (5.19.17) on a Minisforum UM700."

"Manjaro is fine for me, might try out endeavour os one day."

"Manjaro KDE seems solid."

#11

Talos

4.9

(8)

"Have used talos myself and im absolutely in love"

"Talos +1"

"In other cases I would use Talos, it is quite open, easy to get support and extend it"

"We are using Talos in our company"

"Talos by a mile."

"If Talos doesn’t get you a Kubernetes cluster faster than the other distros and lower maintenance... then it’s a bug."

"I used talos, it’s pretty nice and I also run rancher on it"

"If it only needs to run containers: Talos."

#12

openSUSE

4.2

(9)

"I'm really liking OpenSUSE Tumbleweed right now."

"I also reccomend openSUSE that I had been more than 2 year."

"I recommend openSUSE which has Kiwi or Open Build Service and makes building custom images a breeze."

"OpenSUSE."

"I use Suse Leap 15.6."

"I'd recommend you openSUSE, its NVIDIA repo contains everything you need."

"OpenSUSE Aeon can give you the stable core as a base."

"I'm really liking OpenSUSE Tumbleweed right now."

"Either openSUSE, Nobara or Solus at this point."

#13

Ubuntu Studio

4.5

(8)

"Ubuntu studio."

"I plan on getting a laptop and loading it with ubuntu studio."

"Ubuntu studio."

"I've used Ubuntu Studio for 10 years."

"I do use Ubuntu studio 24.04 for the moment and it works great for me."

"I had the best time with Ubuntu studio."

"I used Ubuntu Studio and that was by far the easiest to setup."

"I really liked using ubuntu studio."

#14

Lubuntu

3.9

(9)

"Lubuntu"

"Try Light weight LUBUNTU."

"Lubuntu is modem and streamlined without too many bells and whistles to fool with, but it has excellent hardware support, works well on older machines, and is easy to troubleshoot if need be."

"I would try Lubuntu or Xubuntu & visual studio code for IDE."

"Lubuntu, Xubuntu, fedora, endeavourOs"

"Lubuntu, Xubuntu and Linux Mint (Cinnamon) are a good start."

"Lubuntu."

"#Lubuntu"

"Lubuntu is also pretty good, it's lighter than Mint."

#15

Arch

4.3

(8)

"Arch is the way, always have been."

"ArchLinux - updated daily (rolling release) - stable - fucking well documented - tweakable easily - simple and light - no ad like Ubuntu cie - great community"

"I recommend against using raw Ubuntu. If raw Arch has kernel v6.12 then EndeavourOS has it as well."

"If you're up for it try arch."

"Arch (with archinstall), it's easy enough to use and has the AUR."

"Personally i recommend an arch based distribution."

"Arch is the best way to go."

"One of the guys at work uses arch"

#16

Q4OS

3.9

(8)

"Q4OS with Trinity DE consumes little resources."

"I would go for q4os or bodhi."

"If you can possibly upgrade that HDD to a SSD you can easily install Q4OS."

"You might try [Q4OS (Trinity)], which is very lightweight."

"Q4OS is based on Debian with minimal tweaks to add Windows-like usability."

"My short list for installing on my ancient 32bit laptop from 2002 was * Q4OS trinity DE * Debian LXQt DE * Emmabuntus LXQt DE *"

"Q4OS with the Trinity Desktop only needs 256 MB of RAM."

"My short list for installing on my ancient 32bit laptop from 2002 was Q4OS trinity DE."

#17

Red Hat

4.5

(6)

"Redhat, Ubuntu, Suse and Debian."

"All things being equal, I prefer - Debian - Ubuntu - Redhat - Centos/Alma"

"I would recommend Red Hat, which seems favored by larger companies in the Enterprise space."

"As other have said, Red Hat or Ubuntu (maybe Debian)."

"It depends on job. basically Redhat and, Debian are common in business."

"Red hat for wide exposure."

#18

Gentoo

3.7

(7)

"Install Gentoo linux following the handbook."

"I personally would probably put something like Gentoo on it."

"Any modern Linux distro. I've had success with Gentoo, Debian, and ubuntu."

"Gentoo has amazing tools to make this really easy so check them out with some others."

"Might as well take a look at Gentoo ;)"

"Gentoo"

"Gentoo or LFS, both are good distros."

#19

Rocky Linux

4.3

(6)

"Debian Stable, Ubuntu LTS, and Rocky where we used to use CentOS."

"If you are looking for an open-source solution then probably I would recommend Debian or RockyLinux."

"I’d say Rocky Linux or Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Rocky Linux is 100% compatible with RHEL."

"Rocky"

"We are now using RockyLinux."

"Try the other RHEL distro like , Rocky linux or Almalinux."

#20

Puppy Linux

3.4

(7)

"Puppy os is the most compact i know."

"1GB RAM? That's Puppy Linux or even Alpine level low-spec."

"Try PuppyLinux."

"Puppy linux."

"Puppy Linux."

"Puppy comes to mind."

"Some flavours of Puppy Linux, go check them out."

#21

Red Hat Enterprise Linux

4.0

(6)

"RHEL (or Almalinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora) or Ubuntu, probably."

"Red Hat or a relation, like Rocky, Oracle, Alma, or even Fedora Server."

"RHEL"

"RHEL/rocky/alma feels more stable."

"We stay on that flavor, using Rocky for customers who want a free distribution."

"Commercial ECAD and EDA apps always require Red Hat Enterprise Linux."

#22

LMDE

4.3

(4)

"My elderly parents use LMDE on their 16 yr old desktop PC, they used windows 7 and windows 10 before that."

"LMDE, take some time to optimize it."

"LMDE."

"LMDE would probably be better than regular mint."

#23

CentOS

4.3

(4)

"All things being equal, I prefer - Debian - Ubuntu - Redhat - Centos/Alma"

"I have used CentOS on three machines with no issues."

"CentOS, with plans to move the bulk of things to k8s on EKS or RKE on Rocky."

"CentOS for now. It's what we have all of our stuff on, it's what is known."

#24

Chrome OS

4.0

(4)

"Honestly, i would go ChromeOS flex."

"Chrome os flex"

"Chrome OS Flex"

"Chrome OS Flex and use Debian or install Arch in the Linux VM."

#25

Kubuntu

4.0

(4)

"You can never go wrong with the usual ones that are LTS models."

"But you can never go wrong with the usual ones that are LTS models and very popular. Kubuntu LTS, Linux Mint, Debian, SUSE Leap."

"Switched to Kubuntu and everything is running fine now."

"Mint or kubuntu."

#26

Fedora Silverblue

4.0

(3)

"I think she would be better served with Fedora Silverblue or one of its derivatives"

"Something like fedora silver blue, because in a fedora fan boy lol."

"Fedora silverblue"

#27

KDE neon

4.0

2.5

2.0

(1)

"I may switch to Debian 12, or Slackware as well for that long term support."

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