1y ago

Distro recommendation for ease of use and up to date software

Note: I don't know if I'm posting this in the right community, I joined Lemmy recently.

I use KDE Neon on my desktop, and I recently decided to install Linux on my laptop. I don't want to install KDE Neon onto my laptop though, because it only has fairly up to date software through Flatpak (at least for me).

Is there a good distro with very up to date software that doesn't require me to check on it often, and that I can probably make it work within 15 days? (I have the list of apps I need.) I prefer an Arch-based distro that lets me remove a lot of distro specific customization. However, if there is some other distro "base" that has software up to date like Arch and the AUR, please also let me know.

(I tried Arch already, but it seems to be too hard for me to configure, and it has multiple weird issues for me, so I don't really want to use it.)

Edit 1: (Late edit because lemmy.world was down for the day) I am going to try out Fedora KDE, Endeavour KDE, and Manjaro KDE out. Might also check out Kinoite. Will update after I have tested each.

49 comments

Endeavouros would be recommended if you like arch , if you want an rolling relase you could try Opensuse Tumbleweed, or fairly updated but stable then Fedora.
- This is the way!

I’m gonna vouch for EndeavourOS on this one. It’s Arch based but it has very sane defaults. It’s the spiritual successor to Antergos.
- I agree with this one. EndeavorOS is a more featureful archinstall that has best practices configurations out of the box.
- I just hopped both my laptop and desktop from Manjaro to Endeavour - so far, so good. I'm still restoring files from backup and installing stuff, so it's still early days, but already things are feeling better.
- Endeavour is great. I would also advise taking a look at the KDE version of Fedora.

Like many here have said, fedora or opensuse seem to be good options for you. Both are stable and the packages are up to date

Check out distrobox. Allows you to run any distro in a container and use the apps on your system like they are native.

Ubuntu is a good starter distro. It is up to date and has the most documentation/examples on the web. It is the most likely to "just work". Install it and test it out.
- 100% Ubuntu. They have great hardware support and spend a lot of time making sure the user's experience is smooth. The snap package thing is annoying but can be worked around.
- I'm a fan and user of Ubuntu, but I would never recommend it to someone coming from Arch and looking for bleeding edge updates. This user isn't that green. Ubuntu repos absolutely lag in up to date versions of things, which isn't usually a problem, can usually be fixed by adding the app developers up to date repo, and is still more up to date by default than other Debian stable type releases. But bleeding edge out of the box, it absolutely is not. But, in my experience also, it does just work. And the documentation is pretty straightforward and easy to digest. Also, as package managers go I prefer apt. I just wish ubuntu distro upgrades were more stable and less prone to ruining my weekend.

Fedora has a KDE spin and gets some updates faster than even Arch (e.g. new Gnome releases) while also being considered stable. Heck even the the Asahi Linux project switched from Arch to Fedora as a base recently.
If you really need something from the AUR you can just use distrobox to generate an arch container and install the AUR package in there. You can then export it from distrobox to your application list with a single comment so that the fact that it's running inside distrobox becomes completely transparent.
That way you have a stable but up-to-date base while also still having access to AUR.
That being said, in my 7 years on Linux I never needed something that was only accessible in AUR but maybe that's just me ¯(ツ)/¯

openSUSE Tumbleweed. It's not Arch based, but easy to install and configure, KDE Plasma is nice and the rolling release has you always up to date. Snapshots make it safe.

I'd also opt for Fedora if your device can handle it. Using Ubuntu is a bit of a headache with snaps and also Fedoras packages are newer. Fedora also has a stricter SELinux policy than Ubuntus Apparmor afaik.
- If you're really brave you might want to check the package versions of immutable distros like Guix, Nix and Fedora Silverblue. They might lower your headaches in regards to maintenance thanks to eg better rollback.

I'm going to recommend Fedora Workstation. The Gnome desktop is fantastic on a laptop with a touchpad, Fedora is very up to date without being unstable, and between Flatpak, the Fedora repos, and Copr, you're probably going to find everything you need.
- The pain with Fedora is the short support cycle, so you have to reinstall/upgrade it every year.
  That and dnf/yum stinks.
  
  The upgrade is super seamless though. Basically bulletproof in my experience over many releases.
  
  Gonna back this up as well, never had an issue for 5 concurrent releases
  
  Is "upgrading" Fedora in the same sense as upgrading Ubuntu?
  
  Nah, mate. You upgrade twice a year. But it's been a smooth experience since about 34-ish. For me, it's been similar to just running a regular update (not exactly the same, but still not much of an issue).
  And DNF is fine these days. You have to slightly tweak the config to allow for more simultaneous downloads and you're good. Plus DNF5 is on the horizon. I've played with it a bit, and even at this stage it's smooth and fast, just not feature complete.

Fedora Kinoite is a good option for you. It's extremely stable and the software is very up-to-date as it heavily relies on Flatpak.
Kinoite uses KDE. If you want to give GNOME a try, Fedora Silverblue is practically Kinoite that uses GNOME.

Fedora, you can add distrobox for containerised AUR

Personally I've had good experiences with Garuda lite (despite the terrible looking website). Btrfs + snapper built in with GRUB integration, vanilla KDE by default, plus a few GUI utilities for basic functions. Nothing you can't do yourself but it's quick and easy to set up and has some some nice bits and bobs.

I see a lot of good recommendations already, and want to add one more suggestion to try: Siduction.
I'm not sure how exactly its repos match up against the software you want more recent releases for but IMO it's worth checking in a live boot environment or VM.

ease of use and up to date software
I prefer an Arch-based distro
How about Manjaro then? Looks like the perfect match for you.
- I used Manjaro for several years but it requires so much manual intervention on updates that don't work. Just straight arch or endeavor would be easier in the long run imo. I use tumbleweed on my current main computer though.
  
  every time there is an update, they create a post on the forum.
  90% of the time you will not be affected by whatever broke and you can just hit update.
  i still advice anyone that uses manjaro to set up timeshift.
- Manjaro is a good distro for a first Linux/Arch-based distro, but Endeavour is much nicer IMO.
- Other people have already said this in other comments on other posts, but in short Manjaro breaks easier than Arch because it ships stable older packages, but combines it with unstable new packages. The AUR can easily break on Manjaro, and ironically the same is true in reverse. Manjaro has broken the AUR before and they've let the SSL certificates expire, multiple times. The devs even suggested users to change their system clock back as a temporary fix. You'd probably be better off learning Arch itself or use Endeavor OS, although I personally haven't tried it.

Yes, Linux Mint. Very stable, low resources, great UI, rock solid. Best overall distro out there.
- Unforlunetly LM isnt great with up to date software and OP wants a distro with up yo date stuff.
  
  That's true. If he needs up to date, then it's Arch or opensuse Tumbleweed
- I actually used Mint as my first distro, however the software it has is way too out of date for me (for example, Wine was many months out of date for me), so I can't use it.
  
  That's because it's an LTS. There may be a way to backport the latest kernel and drivers but I'm not sure.
  I suppose if the games always require the very latest drivers then it's problem but you'd expect them to run on older drivers also.
- Its Ubuntu, and I for some reason got newer packages on Debian than Ubuntu. Not sure how fast Forks are like Linux mint.
  
  Is that Debian 12? It has the latest stuff at the moment, because it's just come out, but it will start like that for several years.
  Unless you switch to the Unstable repo, but then you might get system issues.

49 comments