What are corporate users using?
Windows on PCs, Linux is used mostly only on servers (RedHat/SuSe), hardware brands are usually HP, Dell and Lenovo.
I think that is my standard
Why? Do you expect companies to ask you to use your own PC for work instead of providing the tools you need? Be wary of those who do, using whatever personal PC for company work can lead to data breaches and that’s a very serious problem.
she didn’t really want to switch to Win 11
On which computer? Her own?
Does not the company provide a PC with the tools needed? If yes, she has no right to decide what goes on it, the company does and she should respect that, doing what you want on a company PC can get you in serious trouble, way more serious than finding out you’re using a pirated version of Office.
If the company expects her to use her own PC, they should at least provide the needed software licenses, Office365 can be used on the web, no need to install anything and it can be used on Linux no problem.
BUT the serious problem remains of having company data on her own PC, the best thing to do in such a case would be creating a VM, encrypting the file system and keeping all company data contained inside the VM.
Tho in such a case I would change company, no serious company today would expect employees to keep company data freely on whatever personal PC, that could lead to data breaches, I would never want to be involved in case like that, tho I live in EU, we have very strict laws about data integrity and privacy, dunno about other countries.
That was on the kernel 6.1.0-18, I had it too, fixed several days ago, but in OP picture the kernel is 6.1.0-17, that one wasn’t affected.
Distro Hopping seems to be such a big part of the “Linux experience.”
It’s not, it’s just a way to find the distro that suits you best.
If you’re already satisfied with what you have, there’s no reason to change and you’re not missing out on anything. If you’re ever curious about other distros, install Virtualbox and try them in a VM.
I stopped distro hopping years ago when I started using Linux MX (Debian based), I’m so happy with it that I have no intention to change ever again.
The only other distro I really like is LMDE (Mint based on Debian instead of Ubuntu), so I put that one on my laptop (MX on my gaming desktop).
I think it depends on what you want to accomplish.
I agree Distrobox is perfect for any case you want to use software your distro doesn’t support (you basically setup the target distro into a docker container), or for developers wanting to use different versions of software/libraries without risking breaking the host OS with tons of different packages that might conflict with each other, but I wouldn’t say it can also completely replace the use of VMs.
For example, using a VM is the only way for me to use Linux on my company PC (Windows), it’s easy to get permission to install Virtualbox/Vmware since VMs are isolated from your host and you can cut them out from the company network, it’s an opposite use case than what you would use containers for.
VMs are fantastic to learn, trying the setup of a different distro if you’re distro hopping or simulating multiple machines interacting with each other, you can’t do that with containers.
This might be an unpopular opinion but I really don’t get this trend of wanting to containerized just about everything, it feels like a FOTM rather than doing something that makes sense.
I mean, containers are fantastic tools and can help solve compatibility problems and make things more secure, especially on servers, but putting everything into containers on the desktop doesn’t make any sense to me.
One of the big advantages Linux always had over Windows is shared components, so packages are much smaller and updating the whole system is way faster, if every single application comes with its own stuff (like it does on Windows) you lose that advantage.
Ubuntu’s obsession with snaps is one of the reasons I stopped using it years ago, I don’t want containers forced upon me, I want to be free to decide if/when to use them (I prefer flatpack and appimage).
Debian derivatives that don’t “reinvent the wheel” is the way to go for me, I’ve been using Linux MX on my gaming desktop and LMDE on laptop for years and I couldn’t be happier, no problem whatsoever with Steam either.
Yeah and sometimes it’s not even just about customers, some people don’t realize big enterprises (as in dozens of thousands of employees) are very different from smaller companies, they’re like a “different world” on their own, not everything you can do on a smaller scale is feasible. They would probably need to work in one to really understand.
You can’t do whatever you want if you’re an employee in a big enterprise, there are company-wide rules and standards that you have to respect, you can’t expect your colleagues to adapt to you nor you can decide which OS to install on your company PC.
That’s not to say you can’t use Linux at all, you can ask your IT to be allowed to install Virtualbox and use Linux in a VM, that’s what I do, there are a lot of things that don’t strictly require Windows and I use Linux for those.
I use Linux MX on my gaming desktop and LMDE on my laptop. I also have an encrypted LMDE VM that I use for some working stuff, since I have to use Windows on my company PC (but we’re allowed to have Virtualbox on it).
The desktop is pretty new, I built it a month ago after almost 10 years, it’s i9 and rtx 4070. The laptop is several years old (HP spectre), but since the previous one gave me so many headaches with nvidia optimus, I decided to go full Intel, I’m happy I did because I had no problems with it whatsoever, Intel only on laptops for me going on.
This is about Windows, why did you post it here?
I never liked GNOME, too inflexible as you said. My favorite is XFCE and it couldn’t be easier, right click on the entry on the app menu and select add to desktop.
And if you want a custom one, right-click on desktop, create launcher, give it a name and click browse to select the file you want to run, that’s it. Create link if you want to link to a folder.
If I use ubuntu I’m somehow forced to use them.
Yes, that’s why I stopped using it years ago (among other reasons).
Users are not out of options, they don’t need to check the origin of the apps themselves, it’s enough to ask other users what distros don’t do the things they don’t like and use those.
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The solution is using a distro that has support for containers (flatpaks preferably) but doesn’t force them on you, so far I haven’t found a single use case in which they’re truly needed on desktop so apt update still does everything for me.
There’s some software that I compile myself (emulators), it cannot be upgraded with a packet manager but that has always been the case.
I use Linux MX but there are other distros with the same approach. It also makes it really easy to see if you’re installing them because flatpak is a separated repository from non-container apps (I think it’s also updated by the package manager but I haven’t tried so far).
Yes I was referring to snaps.
distribution hopping will add lots of unnecessary frustration for me.
That’s a fair point. Cinnamon is the desktop manager and it’s been the only one available on LMDE so far, in any case, it’s perfectly fine to use Mint, just know that if they ever decide to make LMDE their primary, you have nothing to worry about, being already used to Cinnamon we’ll make it so you won’t notice the difference at all, LMDE is still Mint after all.
It’s been a while since I installed Debian directly, anyway I believe it’s a godsend as a base and amazing as a server, but for desktop usage I prefer derivatives because I find them more user friendly.
LMDE vs MX: they’re both really good, MX is a bit more “nerdy”, LMDE is beautiful out of the box and has the total friendliness of Mint, MX (XFCE) is a little more barebones when it comes to user apps/GUIs but it has some fantastic tools to get into its customization, more flexible than LMDE from that point of view.
Ubuntu is based on Debian. LMDE have existed as a backup plan in case something wrong happened to Ubuntu, Mint could still go on without problems.
Using LMDE is like just removing a “middle-man”: Debian --> Ubuntu --> Mint, Debian --> LMDE. (I’ve been using LMDE for a few years on my notebook while on my gaming desktop I use Linux MX, also based directly on Debian).
I understand some people don’t want Ubuntu to avoid commercial distributions but for me the reasons are different.
Ubuntu LTS is base on the testing branch of Debian, while non-LTS are based on Debian sid, that is the development branch, in both cases you lose - in my opinion - one of the biggest advantages of using Debian that is rock-solid stability, sid packages are not controlled by Debian security team so in that case you also lose out on security.
Another reason is Ubuntu have been trying to push their own sort of “proprietary” version of containers that have been proven times and again to have serious security flaws. They also use them everywhere and I don’t like that, I want to be free to decide if/when to use them, not being forced to do so for everything.
Sometimes they make very questionable decisions, like when they wanted to discontinue libraries for 32bit compatibility (while Debian does not), ignoring there’s still a huge amount of 32bit software that cannot be recompiled to 64bit (mostly Windows games), that made me question they know what they’re doing.
I think you would get more suitable recommendations if you told us what your use cases are. Did someone else give you those requirements? Are you new to Linux?
Arch, Slackware current (KDE), Suse tumbleweed, Debian sid and Fedora tick all the boxes but I wouldn’t recommend Arch nor Slackware to someone who never used Linux before, nor I would recommend Debian sid for desktop usage (unless you know what you’re doing) because its packages are not controlled by their security team.
Free and open-source. Receives regular software and kernel updates.
All of them (desktop). The difference in updates is between a rolling release or non-rolling one.
Rolling means they receive updates to software and kernels continuously as soon as they are released, you always have the latest versions but that could lead to instabilities, non-rolling (or stable) are updated less frequently so are more stable, which one to choose depends on what you need to do with it.
Avoids X11.
Fedora, Suse, Ubuntu, Slackware current, Debian, Arch, if you choose GNOME or KDE you’ll have Wayland as default AFAIK, probably others.
Supports full-disk encryption during installation. Doesn’t freeze regular releases for more than 1 year.
All of the above.
We recommend against “Long Term Support” or “stable” distro releases for desktop usage.
LTS is a version, not a distro. Distros that offer LTS versions also have a non-LTS ones, get those and you’re fine. Tho not wanting a stable is weird, they can be the best for desktop usage depending on what you need to do.
Supports a wide variety of hardware.
That depends on the kernel, all kernels support a wide variety of hardware, non-LTS versions are best for more modern hardware.
Preference towards larger projects.
All distros mentioned are large projects, Debian is probably the biggest, it also supports several different architectures.
Being verified on Steam Desk is my parameter for deciding if I’ll consider a game or not, even if I don’t have a Steam Deck (yet). I’m perfectly fine with that, not asking for a Linux native version as long as the game works as it should on Proton.
True, it’s the desktop manager that can make a difference but you can install any DE on any distro.