Post by mikkh on Apr 1, 2021 11:43:13 GMT
In my 20+ years of using Linux, I've literally tried every version at one time or another. A lot have been good, some have been great and sadly discontinued but eventually I settled down with one or two I consider the best for my needs. 'Distrohopping' (constantly trying new versions) can be addictive, but ultimately counter productive as little niggles cause me to dismiss certain ones without really trying them.
I had settled on a few, but this pandemic has got me trying new ones again and coming up with a few surprises.
First up was 'Clear Linux' Designed by Intel for Intel CPU's and apparently the fastest Linux out there. It works fine on AMD CPU's too and embarrassingly for Intel, slightly better on the high end AMD CPU's
It's probably the fastest booting (from USB stick) I've ever seen, but it is quite minimal and really for developers/coders who appreciate the extra speed - impressive though.
Next and the real reason for this thread is 'Deepin Linux' a Chinese Debian clone that makes a big effort to be different in a world of very similar versions of Linux. Customisation is a strong point of Linux, but at least 60% of them only make minor tweaks and a lot look very similar. Some go too far the other way though, so it's a tough task to get it right and I think Deepin did.
A lot of Linux distros rarely stray beyond the default icons and while familiarity can be good, it can also be quite boring. Deepin uses totally unique ones, almost cartoon(ish) and definitely different. You get to pick different desktop behaviours and I opted for one called 'efficient' which is what I usually aim for and spend quite a while fixing in other distros - top marks for that.
Different Linux versions have slightly different ways of doing things, so becoming familiar with a new one can take a while. Deepin was very intuitive from the start, I didn't need to go looking for things, or finding out how to achieve certain tasks, it was just there where I expected. It does have one quite major fault though, it only comes as an install version where normally you get to run a 'live' version first to see if it suits your needs before commiting yourself to the install.
I took the chance and installed it to my new PC and it installed in about 4 minutes - eat your hearts out Microsoft!
Obviously that's on a new PC, so it won't be as rapid on older hardware, but I can't see it taking more than 10 minutes on anything fairly recent but handicapped by a mechanical drive.
Early days but this could enter the hallowed top 5 of my favourite distros.
Another surprise contender is Manjaro Linux. I'd previously dismissed this when I first saw it near the top of the Distrowatch rankings and couldn't understand what the hype was about.
Luckily I decided to give it a second chance and couldn't remember why I dismissed it in the first place. It's probably not for beginners, but the default settings are pretty good and it wouldn't be impossible to use for a raw Linux recruit. Fast enough to steal a few categories from Clear Linux and a definite contender for older hardware.
PClinuxOS (Mate edition) remains my default OS though.
I had settled on a few, but this pandemic has got me trying new ones again and coming up with a few surprises.
First up was 'Clear Linux' Designed by Intel for Intel CPU's and apparently the fastest Linux out there. It works fine on AMD CPU's too and embarrassingly for Intel, slightly better on the high end AMD CPU's
It's probably the fastest booting (from USB stick) I've ever seen, but it is quite minimal and really for developers/coders who appreciate the extra speed - impressive though.
Next and the real reason for this thread is 'Deepin Linux' a Chinese Debian clone that makes a big effort to be different in a world of very similar versions of Linux. Customisation is a strong point of Linux, but at least 60% of them only make minor tweaks and a lot look very similar. Some go too far the other way though, so it's a tough task to get it right and I think Deepin did.
A lot of Linux distros rarely stray beyond the default icons and while familiarity can be good, it can also be quite boring. Deepin uses totally unique ones, almost cartoon(ish) and definitely different. You get to pick different desktop behaviours and I opted for one called 'efficient' which is what I usually aim for and spend quite a while fixing in other distros - top marks for that.
Different Linux versions have slightly different ways of doing things, so becoming familiar with a new one can take a while. Deepin was very intuitive from the start, I didn't need to go looking for things, or finding out how to achieve certain tasks, it was just there where I expected. It does have one quite major fault though, it only comes as an install version where normally you get to run a 'live' version first to see if it suits your needs before commiting yourself to the install.
I took the chance and installed it to my new PC and it installed in about 4 minutes - eat your hearts out Microsoft!
Obviously that's on a new PC, so it won't be as rapid on older hardware, but I can't see it taking more than 10 minutes on anything fairly recent but handicapped by a mechanical drive.
Early days but this could enter the hallowed top 5 of my favourite distros.
Another surprise contender is Manjaro Linux. I'd previously dismissed this when I first saw it near the top of the Distrowatch rankings and couldn't understand what the hype was about.
Luckily I decided to give it a second chance and couldn't remember why I dismissed it in the first place. It's probably not for beginners, but the default settings are pretty good and it wouldn't be impossible to use for a raw Linux recruit. Fast enough to steal a few categories from Clear Linux and a definite contender for older hardware.
PClinuxOS (Mate edition) remains my default OS though.