Looking for Distro advice

Operating Systems & Open Source Linux
1

Hi all,

I've got a question I'm hoping to have some advice on.

I'm planning on doing the 1 year challenge (see: https://forum.teksyndicate.com/t/1-year-linux-challenge/74682/53 ). I have a laptop coming that will specifically for this; on my main desktop I will be running Linux in a VM until I've either decided to completely swap to linux or leave the challenge or decide something different. I've been using Linux on and off for many years at this point - I've used several different distros for different purposes, but never one for long term desktop use.

My dilemma is this: Ubuntu or openSUSE.

With Ubuntu:
+ I'm familiar with apt as although I used Red Hat a lot about 17 years ago, I've only used it a bit in the past few years, so I'm not as familiar with yum
+ I would have both Unity and KDE (and possibly XFCE) installed as these are probably my 2 main favorite DEs, a bit more toward KDE
+ As Ubuntu Touch comes out of development and into main stream (some day), I can install it on my Nexus 10 easily through the Ubuntu desktop
+ I've used Ubuntu desktop on and off through various versions. I've used Ubuntu server for various servers since 10.x
- It's not as stable as I would like
- they are going into a potentially quicker development and release cycle as they move to mir which will probably introduce incompatibilities, my main concern would be steam here, especially if I were to use proprietary drivers (on my desktop - the laptop isn't as much of a problem as it has an intel HD 5500).
- Although it can be turned off - something about the Dash integration with servers to produce search results bothers me; I don't know why it does as the OS X Yosemite integration for spotlight search doesn't bother me as much - possibly due to the different philosophies of Linux community vs Apple controlled environment

With openSUSE:
+ I would have KDE and XFCE (my next favorite to KDE).
+ From what I understand openSUSE 13.2 is extremely stable compared to Ubuntu, especially in the KDE environment
+ From what I've seen of tests on Phronix, openSUSE seems to have better numbers on identical hardware then Ubuntu when it comes to various tests and FPS ratings
+ Option to utilize a rolling release
- I'm not familiar with Yast and although I'm trying openSUSE in a VM right now, I'm having trouble getting used to Yast.
- All users created are plunked in the Users group instead of their own groups. This would mean that if I were to create an additional user on my laptop, unless I went through and made a bunch of manual changes, with the default permissions, they would have access to my personal path.
- No really easy way to grant just certain privileges without diving into the OS (ie: if I were to put it on a laptop, and need to loan said laptop, I can't allow/prevent them from certain operations easily like ability to control wireless, add printers, share files, etc. - this is actually surprisingly easy in Ubuntu)

The two distro backers are both well backed financially, so I really don't have a concern about them just vanishing. I'm just having some trouble choosing as once I get started, I want to stick with what I start with.

My laptop will be arriving probably next Friday (the 17th) so I still have some time to decide. It's a Lenovo that according to both distros are very compatible with their OOB configuration (possibly with some minor tweaks for things like fingerprint scanner and keyboard backlight)

I don't want to start a flame war between distros, they are both great so it seems, I just want to make a good choice and I want to make sure I'm not missing any major differences between the distros that could lean me more in one direction then the other.

2

Also zypper which is the prefered cli front end. Im not overly familiar with yast either even though ive used openSUSE often in the past.

openSUSE has excellent KDE support and KDE repos for the latest plasma 5 stuff. I believe Ubuntu also has repos maintained by Kubuntu for plasma 5 as well which are supposed to be quite good.

As your user

usermod -g primarygroup

if you need to create one and you want it as your username

groupadd groupname

fix permissions

chown :primarygroup -R ~/* #not as root

openSUSE also has the benifit of tumbleweed which essentially gives you a rolling release openSUSE, i dont think Ubuntu has that?

I've not added anything about Ubuntu because ive not used it much.

3

Hi Eden,

Yes, the commands I do know for modifying a users group - it'd just be nice if openSUSE would default to individual groups (or if there is a way to do that - i'd like to know how to get that setup).

Ubuntu itself does not have rolling releases - which was one of the +'s I had put in openSUSE as I find that to be a very interesting options - have you tried tumbleweed? I wonder how it is stability wise.

4

One could argue a users group is a good thing. It really depends on your needs, an option in the install might be a nice idea, but really its not difficult to change the default behaviour only the first user is automatically set by the OS at install.

I tend to have a users group because i have a lot of data on a /data partition and that is occasionally accessed by multiple users (all me) or OS' in which I set the users group as the same in all of them.

Tumbleweek has worked well for me in the past. Im not sure what there officail line is on its stability but its not bleeding edge. It goes (from memory) Factory > Tumbleweed > non-rolling release

5

I can see your perspective. In the past, usually I just create a group for that folder and add anyone to it that might need access - usually I have to worry about that a lot less ;) Honestly, as I think about it more - it may just not be a huge deal right now.

Have you used Steam and/or played native games on your system with openSUSE? if you have, how well does it perform? Any frequent problems? Are you using open source drivers or proprietary?

6

If you want KDE 5 @R00tz31820 told me that Kubuntu 15.04 is better than SUSE at this time (difficult to install on SUSE).

Since @Eden went through OpenSUSE for you I'll go through Ubuntu for you.

When running Ubuntu I go LTS. 14.04 at this time. Sticking with a distro version for two years isn't as big of a deal as you think as they do update the kernel multiple times in that two years. 14.04 has had it's kernel upgraded twice already!

Ubuntu is Steam's "recommended" distribution. If you look at Linux product pages they use the Ubuntu versions as their 'minimum' and 'recommended' specs. While Steam should work on all of the big distributions it's fair to say you won't face issues with Ubuntu LTS.

It is the same as Apple and Microsoft's integration. If you aren't running Unity it's not an issue, however in the newest version of Ubuntu it is disabled by default. In older versions it's a one click switch in settings.

I decided between Ubuntu and SUSE, ended up on Ubuntu but they are both solid distrobutions.

For your Lenovo it's more than likely to be Ubuntu certified and work out of the box. The fingerprint reader may need this:
https://fcns.eu/2012/04/29/fingerprint-reader/

7

I've heard this as well, they do a solid KDE repo from what ive heard.

It really doesnt change much from distro to distro. I have ocasionally had to run this script on non ubuntu distros to get rid old old libraries that the steam package sometimes comes with so it uses system libs http://hastebin.com/huyiliruke.bash

As for drivers. Again, not much changes, ubuntu is a little behind on some drivers, so is openSUSE at the moment. AMD open drivers work well in general, but for games you will get lower performance and it will only work in some games, its hit and miss. The binary AMD drivers are generally very good.

Nivida, your only choice is the binary drivers, the nouveau drivers really arent there yet for 3D although if your not doing games they will do fine.

8

When installing Nvidia drivers make sure you get the latest. PPA is the way to go, not Nvidia's silly .RUN file:
https://forum.teksyndicate.com/t/how-to-get-the-latest-nvidia-drivers-on-ubuntu-using-a-repository/76661

(in SUSE you'd use another repository, obviously)

Also @Nethfel, Mir will work fine with X applications.

Mir's client library should be easy to integrate with existing toolkits. Application authors relying on Qt/QML, GTK3, XUL etc. should not be required to perform additional porting as we will work on providing Mir integration for the most prominent toolkit choices. In reality though, certain legacy applications will not be able to transition away from X completely, and we will provide an in-session rootless X server that is integrated with Mir. It acts as an on-demand compatibility layer between legacy X applications and the session-level Unity/Mir instance.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Mir/Spec#Toolkit_Integration_.26_Legacy_X_Application_Support

9

Interesting information - from what I had heard in the past was that Ubuntus KDE implementation was pretty unstable, I guess that issue has been worked out at this point.

AMD drivers are my primary concern atm - of course, I'm not sure how well they will work on my desktop, but that's a future issue at this moment anyway - more of a question as it might direct my decision now to save time in the future.

It'll be interesting to see how mir goes - especially when it comes to proprietary drivers - that could be a source of concern - the current state of it says the proprietary drivers may provide "disappointing" performance - I wonder if that will be something Canonical will be able to work around or if they are going to try to pressure NVidia/AMD to modify their drivers to work with Canonicals new interface...

10

Yes, proprietary drivers will provide "disappointing" performance in Mir at this time as it's many months away from a launch on the desktop with no support from the hardware manufacturers. Just like they will in Wayland (the other new display manager) at this time. As soon as it's included in a release those drivers will be updated. That's practically guaranteed. Mir isn't an interface, it's a display manager. It is being developed to replace the ancient X display manager just like Wayland (which will probably be used in SUSE) is.

To install AMD drivers:

11

It is not very stable at all.

I have it installed on opensuse tumbleweed and there are definitely some bugs in the system. For instance I can not auto hide the dock for more than a few hours before there is a crash.

Plasma 5 is still very useable though. Even with the issue I just mentioned above, all that happens is the dock will just un-autohide.

So there are plenty of issues, but none of them are anything more than a nuisance.

12

Yes KDE 5 is more stable on 15.04 as the distro version release is specifically designed around it this time... OpenSUSE is good.. Ubuntu would be the one to go to if you want ease of installing proprietary and closed software which is fantastics.. (STALLMANITES COME AT ME) i said it yup... Anyways yup thats what id recommned