Linux Distro reviews from Reddit

Summary

We analyzed 1018 Reddit reviews across 38 subreddits and 141 posts to rank the best Linux Distro brands recommended by redditors, including communities like r/linuxquestions, r/linux4noobs, r/DistroHopping, r/thinkpad, r/linux_gaming. Top-rated brands include Linux Mint (4.5/5), Fedora (4.2/5), Debian (4.2/5).

Stats

Reviews1018

Subreddits38

Posts141

Brands85

Products17

Top communities

r/linuxquestions373 r/linux4noobs295 r/DistroHopping60 r/thinkpad38 r/linux_gaming36

1018 reviews from

and

By Brand

By Product

Linux Mint

4.5

(268)

"Linux Mint XFCE or MX Linux is a much better choice."

"Easist non-sperging answer. Linux Mint XFCE. If there is a distro that works, it's that."

"I would suggest Mint, Lubuntu or Linux Lite. Never had a problem with any of these."

"Yes. This is the answer. Mint has never let me down on old hardware."

"Linux Mint. Thank me later with a comment."

"Or xfce linux mint."

"Linux mint is always the way to go, friendly interface, large and good community support, doesn't need too much manual intervention, yet still light on resources."

"I've used Mint with Mate on old clunkers and it's a good choice."

"I’ve done Linux Mint cinnamon desktop. No regrets. 10 years now!"

"Installed Linux Mint Debian Edition, and the thing runs almost as well as my new work laptop running Win10!"

Fedora

4.2

(81)

"Fedora or Nobara should work great and be very stable"

"Get fedora it has no problems and driver installation was just sudo dnf install akmod-nvidia"

"Among the ones you mention, I would vote Fedora. I have wrestled with nvidia on multiple laptops ... Fedora has always been the one distro that's actually usable as a daily driver"

"Fedora has good Wayland support (Wayland improves security)"

"Great out of the box."

"I'm using fedora over last 10 years and is rock solid."

"After distro hopping for a long time I fell in love with fedora. It's on my gaming PC and on my laptop which I use for school. Can def. recommend it."

"I recommend Fedora. Arch and Opensuse Tumbleweed is other options but for a beginner I suggest you take a look at Fedora with a DE (Desktop Environment) that you like."

"It's awesome and such a better experience over Windows 11."

"Fedora has multiple versions of GHC (8.10 to 9.10 currently) built for all arch's."

Debian

4.2

(73)

"Debian would be my distro pick for a server."

"Debian with XFCE. Simply because it's rock solid."

"Debian 12, it's the only answer for me. Xfce4 or Lxqt, very easy to use, not bloated."

"Debian with xfce"

"Debian!"

"Debian! It's the get-out-of-your-way-so-you-can-get-shit-done distro."

"Debian Stable."

"Debian"

"Im running debian 12 as a firewall, homeassistant, dhcp server, vlan router, NAT, openvpn."

"Debian is nice, Ubuntu offers long term stability."

Ubuntu

4.3

(68)

"Highly recommend you stick to the well known distros, well documented, and easy to maintain. Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, Debian come to mind."

"Ubuntu will be the easiest to use as most guides are made for it."

"Ubuntu over debian always."

"Ubuntu and pterodactyl or pelican."

"Recommended Distros: Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop OS, Zorin OS."

"Defnetly Ubuntu, I don't understand how people here are saying 'it depends'."

"Remarkably stable and easy to learn."

"Short answer: Ubuntu LTS with original kernel."

"Some popular choices (no particular order) are: Ubuntu."

"Ubuntu + Gnome. Easiest. Add Dash to Panel addon/extension & Arc Menu."

Lubuntu

4.1

(35)

"I mostly run Lubuntu on my old hardware. It's very lightweight."

"Lubuntu. It is for low end pcs , it has all they need preinstalled and it's easy to use."

"Lubuntu or Xubuntu."

"Lubuntu."

"Lubuntu is super lightweight, Linux Mint is great with Cinnamon or XFCE."

"I installed lununtu on old Chrome notebook 2010. It works well even if it is very limited in disk space."

"Lubuntu"

"For distros that use them, something like LUbuntu or XUbuntu."

"Lubuntu or a fedora spin of lxde, depending on if you like Redhat or Debian better."

"Lubuntu is good for laptops."

AntiX

4.3

(31)

"AntiX is probably best. Super lightweight. Based on Ubuntu/Debian. My Go To Linux OS for crappy hardware"

"Try antix"

"AntiX Linux: DA BEST IN THE WEST"

"I would install antiX"

"AntiX is the best choice for ease of use."

"AntiX linux"

"AntiX - problem solved."

"Antix linux would be good (there is some political ideology in the marketing, but the distro itself is very solid)"

"Antix is big in Brazil."

"I use antix linux and it works for me !!"

MX Linux

4.4

(28)

"MX Linux XFCE edition should work really fast on that hardware or maybe Manjaro XFCE if you fancy something ARCH based."

"I put MX Linux on it and I've been really happy with it. Fast and snappy, user friendly and intuitive enough for install-and-go."

"MX Linux"

"Great stability, frequent updates, and large collection of very useful system tools off the bat."

"I have put a MX Linux on something with an Athlon CPU."

"Get a cheap SSD and match your ram to 4gb or 8gb."

"Good options: MX Linux, AntiX, Peppermint OS, Debian."

"MX linux is the thing."

"I am using mxlinux on my 12 year old laptop it works great for me"

"MX Linux XFCE would be my choice."

Zorin OS

4.5

(26)

"Zorin OS. Straight up."

"Zorin OS will do nicely."

"She absolutely loved Zorin through dual booting."

"The closest one to windows I can think of is ZorinOS."

"Zorin, then. Comes with Wine, can look like Windows 7, 10, 11."

"Try Zorin os you will like it 100%."

"I've heard excellent things about Zorin."

"Very stable. Good privacy."

"Try Zorin OS"

"I would go with Zorin OS 17.2 Education or EdUbuntu."

Pop!_OS

4.2

(24)

"Pop!_OS, it just works."

"Check Pop os. it's designed to work out of the box with nvidia and hybrid graphics."

"Pop! and Draugur are both based on Ubuntu."

"Pop!_OS. They have a financial incentive to make Nvidia work as good as possible."

"Pop!_OS is the way."

"I have been using Pop_OS with no issues."

"Pop!_OS if it's a desktop PC."

"If you have Nvidia graphics, pop_os is a good choice."

"Pop OS has iso with nvidia drivers baked in."

"I recently tried Popos and that seem easy enough unless she's into networking :-)"

#10

CachyOS

4.2

(23)

"Everything worked out of the box on my 4070 G14 with this distribution."

"Try cachy os been great for me"

"CachyOS. My rtx 4080 super works great"

"CachyOS (don't mind Arch and rolling release; bleeding edge packages)"

"CachyOS feels like the best for most general purposes."

"CachyOS in short Arch but with a specialized kernel for optimizations."

"I’ve heard cachyos runs well on nvidia gpus, with the custom kernel you can maybe get more fps than on a base kernel"

"My personal recommendation would be CachyOS"

"CachyOS is pretty popular rn."

"I really recommend CachyOS, or Endeavour."

#11

Puppy Linux

4.2

(20)

"You could try puppy Linux."

"Puppy Linux is the best distro."

"Extremely lightweight and fast"

"Puppy linux"

"Puppy Linux would run good on it."

"+1 for puppy"

"Puppy Linux, give it a try, you might be surprised!"

"Puppy Linux and Alpine."

"Puppy linux ran on an old laptop for me, might work on yours."

"Puppy Linux might be good."

#12

Nobara

4.2

(17)

"Been using Nobara and been very happy with it overall."

"Nobara is my favorite in these cases."

"Nobara has been working wonderfully for me with my 4070"

"Nobara or cachyos definitely. Gaming and recording were the best I have experienced."

"Fedora or Nobara should work great and be very stable"

"Nobara might be a good start"

"Nobara is a very good gaming distro but not recommend for low-end systems."

"You can try nobara or PopOS, they are prepared for gaming."

"If you want a "gaming distro", use Nobara."

"Nobara. Comes preinstalled with everything gaming related."

#13

openSUSE Tumbleweed

4.2

(17)

"Is my favourite for my x230."

"OpenSUSE Tumbleweed with KDE is a solid, stable distro."

"I have a really good gaming experience with openSUSE tumbleweed."

"OpenSuse Tumbleweed. Rolling release so always up to date."

"OpenSUSE Tumbleweed has been great on my Lenovo Legion."

"Opensusse Tumbleweed with Plasma 6 is my go-to."

"My favourites are OpenSUSE Tumbleweed and Void."

"OpenSUSE Tumbleweed was what worked flawlessly."

"I go with open suse tw nowadays."

"OpenSUSE Tumbleweed KDE. It's for both beginners and experts."

#14

Kubuntu

4.1

(16)

"Found it to be good looking, stable and importantly, the customization options allow to make it look and feel closer to Windows."

"Unpopular opinion: Kubuntu, specifically the 24.10 version of Kubuntu. Smooth as silk."

"I ran Kubuntu on that machine and it ran pretty nice."

"You might start with something like a just booting kubuntu to see how it performs."

"Kubuntu, Linux Mint are good options."

"I think kubuntu has the right mix of software, user base, and desktop for being productive."

"Kubuntu."

"If you want something slightly different you can try out something with KDE like Kubuntu or Fedora KDE."

"I really enjoy kubuntu + kde plasma its a smooth experience and loading up games so far has been a breeze aside from some minor tinkering."

"Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE), because it's polished, works well and vendors offer prebuilt packages for Ubuntu."

#15

Arch Linux

4.4

(14)

"I started using Arch because at one time I only had a bad computer to program on."

"Arch with xfce"

"I use Arch btw"

"Try arch Linux or debian with sway window manager or xfce as distro."

"Arch"

"Go with you preferences, go with Arch"

"You can never go wrong with Archlinux. Yes I'm a bit biased here, yes Archlinux is hard as fuck to deal with when it breaks."

"I think arch-based distros are good since it's easy to install various softwares."

"If Arch is the distro that you prefer, then Arch is the best distro to dual boot on your machine."

"Arch with xfce."

#16

Arch

4.3

(14)

"For complete customizability, go with Arch."

"Uses about 300 MiB for me."

"At this point I'd suggest you try arch, void, or gentoo."

"Arch is the only way. Especially for newcomers!"

"Arch or EndeavourOS."

"Arch with kde works well with time shift for productivity."

"Arch or arch derivative."

"Thinkpad and arch is the best combo IMO."

"I use arch, btw."

"Arch is great, i recommend manual install... but archinstall works quite good, try it."

#17

Bazzite

4.5

(13)

"Try Bazzite! Best set and forget distro i've ever used."

"Bazzite is a good start!"

"Bazzite, it's the most comfortable console replacement."

"Bazzite -it's based on Immutable Blue."

"Bazzite is specifically set up for that use case."

"I would suggest something like bazzite or nobara."

"Bazzite is popular around here"

"I have been happy with my Bazzite system for my Primarily Gaming focused Desktop system."

"Try Bazzite."

"Bazzite is a good start!"

#18

Xubuntu

4.4

(13)

"I finally settled on Xubuntu on a 15-year-old Dell laptop with similar specs after trying numerous distros. I have zero problems running it and have never rebooted it unless updates require me to."

"I have installed xubuntu on a lot of old laptops for the students at my school. The oldest one is 18 years old! SSD and 8GB RAM for the oldest devices (newer ones only need 4GB) and they run like a charm."

"I have Xubuntu running on a 2014 MacBook Air. It runs flawlessly."

"I'd go for something like Xubuntu."

"Xubuntu works very well on my old 2013 Apple Macbook Air."

"Xubuntu with mate or xfce, it’s very lightweight und don’t need much support"

"Xubuntu is nice."

"Xubuntu."

"Xubuntu imo, but honestly ubuntu with awesome-wm would be better."

"Xubuntu might be the best best cuz more support tbh."

#19

openSUSE

4.2

(13)

"I was perfectly sastified with OpenSUSE Tumbleweed on my X220i."

"OpenSUSE Tumbleweed KDE."

"A superb vanilla GNOME experience with up to date security updates and software updates delivered at a slow drip pace."

"Opensuse TW. It's been very stable for me."

"Opensuse, mint."

"Opensuse or mint. Wide support."

"OpenSUSE Tumbleweed or Leap with KDE although i'm prefered GNOME version."

"OpenSUSE and Mageia are good for beginners."

"I'm using openSUSE for my Threadripper workstation as well as for my work notebook. No issues on that from my side."

"I have 0 problems apart from when I create them myself."

#20

Zorin

4.3

(12)

"I’ve been playing around with Zorin in a VM. It’s intentionally very similar in layout to Windows."

"Check for zorin or mint, both are great distros for windows users."

"ZorinOS."

"ZorinOS. Better than Mint for anyone who just needs their OS to work."

"I run Zorin. Never had a single problem really in the last 4 years."

"After much experimentation I found Zorin works best on my old Surface Pro."

"Zorin is great because it looks like Win out of the box & you can get very affordable support."

"It was ok for browsing."

"Try zorin. There's also dsl... Specifically made for your situation"

"I'd suggest looking at Mint or Zorin OS core."

#21

Mint

4.3

(11)

"Mint."

"Mint is probably your best bet."

"I think Mint and PopOS might fit your needs a bit better."

"Mint, and Gnu Cash for the personal accounting."

"Mint and Gnucash"

"I'd consider using either: Mint(current, for stability, security, etc.) or Fedora."

"Mint, Ubuntu, Debian."

"If you are a begginer,either mint or openSUSE."

"Mint could be a great choice."

#22

Ubuntu Server

5.0

(9)

"I always use Ubuntu server with no problems."

"Ubuntu Server has a super simple setup, low system requirements, and great support."

"I had a brief experience with Ubuntu Server + Crafty and everything went well."

"Ubuntu server is awesome."

"Ubuntu server is widely used, I run all my services on it and it works really well."

"I would echo a lot of the other opinions here and run the server in a docker container on Ubuntu Server (CLI, no GUI)."

"Ubuntu server is what I run. M2 drive and it is stupid fast."

"Ubuntu *but* Ubuntu Server, no-GUI one. Or Debian, it'll work great too."

"Im using ubuntu server without graphical ui and it works perfectly and uses around 250-350mb of ram (the system alone) with all the preinstalled tools."

#23

EndeavourOS

4.0

(10)

"EndeavourOS is similar to Manjaro but infinitely better."

"Bazzite is popular around here and I personally like EndeavourOS."

"Very light is Endevearous Os with Gnome or KDE."

"I'm a simp EndeavourOS."

"Endavour os is a good one."

"I use EndeavourOS and it has been flawless."

"EndeavourOS / Budgie on BTRFS, with subvolumes and automatic snapshots."

"Give endeavouros or fedora a try."

"Consider trying EndeavourOS"

"I loaded EndeavorOS and installed the default Plasma desktop... So it runs Arch/Endeavour/Plasma pretty well."

#24

Linux Lite

4.1

(9)

"Linux Lite, WattOS"

"Linux lite has 1GB RAM as it's requirement but you'd only know if its suitable by trying it."

"I recommend you to try Linux Lite."

"I've been running two lightweight systems on 4 GB of RAM."

"Burn Linux Lite, MX Linux, and Porteus."

"Linux Lite Xfce 3.8"

"Linux lite all the way!"

"Linux Lite"

"Linux Lite isn't a bad choice but even Linux Mint with the MATE desktop Environment would work really good too."

#25

Q4OS

4.1

(8)

"Try Q4OS."

"Q4OS is what I'm running most recently they just released a new version in January this year works well and you can get updates."

"I plan on giving my mother Q4OS when Firefox gives up on Windows 7 in a couple months."

"Q4OS works fine for me with worse specs."

"Q4os trinity 32bit."

"Q4OS, strait debian with LXQt, or bodhi are all 32bit options that work well."

"But so far the out of the box winner is Q4OS."

"Try Q4OS."

#26

Alpine Linux

4.0

(8)

"Boots in less than 15 seconds even on slow hardware."

"I use Alpine Linux on my servers."

"I recommend Alpine linux for this."

"I would recommend Alpine Linux, Calculate Linux, OpenBSD, Void."

"Alpine is what you want."

"Alpine / void musl."

"Alpine linux. it's really minimal, you'll like it"

"Alpine linux 32 bit"

#27

NixOS

4.7

(6)

"I use NixOS. It is brilliant for managing development environments and system overall."

"NixOS is BestOS."

"Yess NixOS is such a comfy distro, even if the computer goes bad, my system is just a git repo pull away!"

"Yeah, NixOS is the best"

"It is the most stable distro I have ever tried."

"I run NixOS and Arch, and they both handle Elden Ring pretty well."

#28

Peppermint OS

4.3

(6)

"Peppermint OS is another distro that should work really fast on that hardware."

"Try peppermint os, its debian with a lightweight desktop and more drivers."

"I would suggest something like PeppermintOS, it is based on Debian and it should have the option of Spanish during the installation process."

"Runs PeppermintOS."

"The best for a new user would be peppermint os imo."

#29

LMDE

4.2

(6)

"LMDE Cinnamon."

"I find LMDE works well on my older laptops."

"LMDE Mint is always a solution."

"Try LMDE 6. It ran really well on my X230."

"I ran LMDE 6 on my X230 for awhile. It would get about 4-5 hours of battery life."

"LMDE 6 or Ubuntu MATE."

#30

Garuda

4.8

(5)

"FTW."

"I’m having a great time with Garuda."

"It's hands down the best distro I've ever used."

"I really like Garuda and works great for me."

"Garuda."

#31

Fedora Silverblue

4.2

(5)

"Fedora Silverblue or a other immutable distro."

"Fedora Silver Blue is great."

"Fedora silverblue."

"If you don't want to suffer with maintenance go with Fedora Silverblue."

"I think Fedora Silverblue might be worth looking into."

#32

Rocky Linux

4.0

(5)

"Why not Rocky? As mentioned in the thread by some, it is officially supported by BMD."

"Rocky Linux is the officially supported distro so if you want 100% piece of mind and no preference for one distro vs. another one then go with Rocky"

"Rocky. You’ll get support from BMD if you need it."

"Rocky Linux."

"My choice is Rocky Linux for a server."

#33

Gentoo

3.6

(5)

"Might be worth giving a test run."

"Gentoo. It has nice tool to convert any cabal package into system package (ebuild) that can be managed by Portage."

"Gentoo https://www.shlomifish.org/humour/by-others/funroll-loops/Gentoo-is-Rice.html"

"Gentoo."

"If you want to learn and understand linux, you can install Gentoo... you will learn a lot about Linux and open-source software."

#34

Endeavour OS

4.3

(4)

"I'd personally recommend EndeavourOS."

"I'm considering Endeavor OS this time around."

"Personally, I'd vote for Endevour OS, Debian if you value stability or Linux Mint."

"Install something friendly but minimal like Endeavour OS."

#35

Garuda Linux

4.3

(4)

"Garuda should do it."

"Garuda Linux."

"Garuda linux."

"Garuda"

#36

Solus

4.3

(4)

"My new winner for the most working stuff out of the box is Sulus."

"Solus is a good non-standard answer."

"Solus, pop!_os , Ubuntu."

"Solus is pretty straightforward if you don't mind updating it weekly."

#37

Bodhi Linux

4.3

(4)

"Bodhi Linux 7.0"

"Bodhi Linux 7.0 HWE"

"Bodhi Linux is as light weight as they come, if you use the interface as out of the box it is very windows like."

#38

KDE Neon

4.0

(4)

"1. KDE Neon 2. Fedora 3. Linux Mint 4. Pop!_OS 5. Manjaro 6. Debian 7. Zorin OS"

"KDE Neon is my favorite."

"Kde neon is nice ubuntu based distro, if ubuntu is your thing than go for this one."

"I actually find KDE quicker and less resource hungry on that mach"

#39

Zorin OS Education

5.0

(3)

"It comes with all the tools you will ever need, including an application that allows you to see what the students are doing on their computers."

"Zorin os education edition."

"Zorin education."

#40

BunsenLabs

5.0

(3)

"BunsenLabs has a nice sensible configuration of the box if Linux Mint Cinnamon is too slow."

"Try Bunsenlabs"

"If you want something really lightweight, try bunsenlabs."

#41

SSD

5.0

(3)

"If it's 10 minutes, it's not just a slow hard drive, it's a failing one."

"Also, go buy a small SSD and stick it in there."

"Just get the lowest RPM you can buy new that still on the market... or better yet, get an SSD."

#42

5.0

(2)

"Debian+ xfce4."

"Debian XFCE would run on this no prob."

#53

Kali Linux

3.0

3.0

(1)

"Tiny core Linux maybe? It is a minimal Linux distro."

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