Distro for newbie

to add: I just need something reliable that won't fuck me up as student.

>>61378354
mint
or ubuntu with anything other than unity

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>>61378354
here you go lad

>>61378370
> Reliable
> Linux
You need to dive into the deep end and spend several hours to learn Linux before this fall.
It's a massive learning curve but it's worth it.
I would suggest Ubuntu, or one of their flavors, for noobs as its community is big enough for you to easily research 'hot to do' things and errors.

Ubuntu MATE, easy to use, very compatible, efficient UI.

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>>61378487
fixed

>>61378627
>didn't even bother changing the logo
sasuga kde shitter
he asked for something reliable, not something that crashes every 30 fucking minutes

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openSUSE
>real engineering
>no fagotry

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>>61378354

There is no perfect distro, to make everything you may encounter, exceptionally amazing or efficient. Truth is, when you're new to linux, you're already used to use Windows/Mac mouse interactive environment and inexperienced with, believe it or not, text editting. Know how tall you stand from linux enthusiasts who use because they choose the "best", most superior OS.

Try Ubuntu, it's the smoothest and pain free entry point. Of course, you'll still have access to a terminal prompt and you should make good use of it, only an idiot doesn't learn how to efficiently use one. You'll still have a healthy and reliable office, browsing, and entertainment software ecosystem to life off of. Let's face it, writing an essay isn't going to have a difference if its being written on a Linux or Windows word or LaTeX processor.

>>61378354

Xubuntu is good advice.

Personally I am starting PhD soon and am going with Debian stable.

>>61378767
>>61378354

Having said that Debian is not good for noobs. So Xubuntu is probably the best advice I can give. I know a fellow academic who swears by it.

>>61378800
Never tried Xubuntu, what makes the flavor so good for noobs? Better DE?

>>61378840 (me)
>Desktop Enviroment
Built in software; File manager, Terminal etc.

>>61378840

XFCE is slimline, OS is stable, quite plain, customisable but non distractive. Complete focus on productivity and streamlined output. It's not 'all about the OS' but what you do on it.

>>61378354
Anything based on Ubuntu is probatly a good starting point, just don't go with regular Ubuntu, because unity is a pain in the ass.
Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Mint, Ubuntu MATE all are good choices.

>>61378948
But for someone who's taking CS (I'm English and never went to uni because I'm all semi-taught; I know, KMS) But surely 'productivity' and 'streamlined' is what Annon doesn't need to learn? They Need to learn the nitty and Gritty parts, Like setting up servers etc.

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>>61378991

I don't know, I will let someone with more knowhow answer this. But I will say, if you are interested in servers there are two distros for you - Debian and Cent. You'd better learn Debian sharp-ish, mostly likely, would be my recommendation. If you're doing CS it will hugely benefit you since it's a distro which is the grandaddy of so many others, and its stable branch is rock solid for servers. However it is not for noobs.

So....

I would recommend spending a crash course month with Ubuntu, Xubuntu or Mint, and then another month with Debian stable. By then you should JUST be OK to start uni with your Debian distro and all foundations lain. Good luck.

>>61379139
That's what I was thinking. Like I said, I never attended a CS course so I'm not 100% sure what it consists of. 'Computer Science' to me seems so vague that it can be anything, from programming in Assembly, hardware or using Excel.
If you want the run down on Linux then the probability is 'production' side; meaning server side. I would look into ((( basic Linux server OS ))) and how the internet works; nodes, web browsers, peer to peer etc.

>>61378354
ZorinOS, ZorinOS Lite, Kubuntu, Xubuntu.

gentoo is great :*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zpgQpdy_fI&t=579s

>>61378524
>Ubuntu
>learning curve

>>61378354
xubuntu 16.04.2 LTS

Remeber, you can install a diffrent DE if you dont like XFCE and xubuntu is mostly okay with that.

>>61378354
first for install gentoo
>23 replies
>13 posters
>no install gentoo
I didn't realize nntpchan killed us this hard

>>61378354
ubuntu

>>61378354
Ubuntu if you just need a working linux environment, Slackware if you want to learn linux

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>>61378354
Ubuntu LTS. Completely stock.

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>>61378354
Ubuntu is the most supported distro and get some pubs with Steam, and was the first distro in the Windows Store, so even a normie can know it's name.

And even if we consider the good progression of RedHat/SUSE/Arch, for like 10 years Ubuntu was the first choice and the first recommended distro on forums, and many of us start with it. (I'm very nostalgic of this aera.)

So please, stop trying to fracture more the Linux community, and choose an Ubuntu-based distro.
If you want something less noob-friendly, or if you didn't like Canonical, you can go Debian. Both Debian and Ubuntu takes benefits of their shared users.

>>61378354
Arch Linux unironically.
Seriously, it'll teach you a LOT about operating systems, specifically Linux, and you'll be able to customize everything as you see fit and look like the coolest kid in class, trust me. Seeing as you're going to be a cs student, you might as well use the few months of summer to dig into learning about Linux

>>61380609
Slackware stills going on? last time that i installed it was 2005 or something lol.

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, when you get impatient and feel like you need to '''''graduate'''' go to Fedora WS or Debian

Hello, I'm a Linux sysadmin managing a 110k members community.

There's no perfect Linux distro and remember that most components will be usable on any other distro, meaning that they all could do the same things.

That said, we could still have an efficient learning curve with benefits for a beginner, so I would pick a Ubuntu derivate with at least the Xfce panel to begin with, using an LTS release as base. (Xubuntu, Linux mint Xfce, PeppermintOS, Voyager Linux, ...)

Your goal will be able to follow the documentation, use the terminal mostly to add packages. (apps)

After any Debian based distro with Openbox window manager will lead you slowly furter, Bunsenlabs fairly impressed me, mostly learn how to build a desktop how you which an move on.

Next step will simply to upgrade it to unstable, basicly ending with a rolling release distro, your aim will be to maintain the setup running, usually it will rarely break but you never know.

Last, you're ready to build your own setup from a net install, choose your own, Arch/Gentoo/...

Note : I falled in love with apt-pinning on Debian, you may have a look to it when skilled enough, steps told before could be skipped to your wish if you feel confortable with it.

>>61378700
Fuck off lunduke

>>61378354
Xubuntu is stable af and works out of the box. It's what I got started originally. If you want to be a little more experimental and have the potential to more thoroughly customize your setup, I would suggest Manjaro. Unlike Ubuntu, it's a rolling release distro so you can better keep up with newer versions of your software. It also has a much better package manager and builder imo. If I were to do it again, I would have started with Manjaro + xfce

Linux Mint Cinnamon 18.2 'Sonya' - Cinnamon Edition

Why not a bsd? Confining yourself to Linux is like putting yourself in a box.

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>>61382748
I bet you use Arch
>da broken shit

gentoo linnox.

>be me
>using GNU/linux for a little less than a month
>arch was my first distro
Why are people thinking Arch is some fucking elite mastermind distro.

>>61383289
Why would you suggest something more obscure than Linux? Especially an aging, increasingly obsolete server OS. You can save you breath about Netflix and Nintendo. They only use BSD to create proprietary shit with Linux technologies Frankenstein stitched onto a mess of shitty scripts. It's an easy exploit for large companies. They don't use it because it's good.

>>61378378
this, tb.h

>>61384670
The forum is full of dickwads

>>61378354
I use Ubuntu on my workstation. It now comes with spyware, so you have to remove some packages after a fresh install. I use xfce for windows management and it seems to do the job pretty well. On server I use debian. DESU I have been thinking about using a BSD since the whole systemd pile of garbage. I find it difficult to recommend linux now, because of systemd. In all seriousness I would suggest starting out with NetBSD, OpenBSD or FreeBSD.

>>61378354
College is usually a busy time. (I don't know about modern US colleges, but the intent is still there).
You need to learn a lot in a short amount of time.
You need to understand this and you need to understand the rythm of a college.
There will be moments where you have a lot of time and there will be times where you don't have any.

If you don't know what that translates into a distro for you, then drop out

>>61378487
is LTS really supported for years or it's shit "support" and better to install a new sdistro?

>>61378354
Ubuntu (or any flavor of it, it does not matter anyway) if you have no clue about linux.

Debian if you care about freedom.

>>61378354
Mint. It has all the drivers and shit preinstalled.
Otherwise you'll have a pc with no internet connection because linux is that bad.

>>61385487
same goes for the other ubuntu based distros

>>61381721
this is the only sensible answer in this thread.
Arch is the only non-meme distribution that respects unix philosophie

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>>61378867
>using a DE

you should probably just kill yourself

>>61378354
Gentoo

anything else is really just a waste of time, I mean if you're going for CS then any other distro is just delaying the inevitable

>>61378354
the answer is obvious: friends don't let friends choose ubuntu, go with arch

>>61386488
>using an OS
kys pleb

>>61386561
>using a general purpose microprocessor
Normie alert

>>61386561
no dude, if you're on Linux you're doing yourself a disservice by using a DE, straight out.

>>61386574
>MUH LOONIX SEKRET CLUB
I've contributed to the kernel and I use Xubuntu. Kys.

>>61378354
Arch

>>61386561
>using electricity

kek

>>61385374
>Debian if you care about freedom.
>uses systemd
Do you even know what freedom means? Using linux does not mean 'being free' by default.

ubuntu + i3wm

>>61386597
uh huh okay bud

>>61386686
Look up Redundant Data Bundling if you don't believe me.

>>61386623
Might as well do debian + i3, what does ubuntu offer more except amazon spyware?

>>61386694
oh I believe you...

>>61386616
>uses systemd
Last time I checked systemd was open source did that change?

>Using linux does not mean 'being free' by default.
Of course not.

>>61386574
No dude if you're using a microprocessor you are allowing the NSA to back door into your hardware

>>61386616
systemd is free software

>>61378354
mint

>>61378354
>I want the freedom of linux
>downloads distro thats all preconfigured and hand holds you while using it

If you're a newbie go straight to gentoo, void or arch, you aren't actually using linux until you can set everything up from scratch.

>>61387895
>set everything up from scratch
But I do actual work at a company and don't have time for autism.

>>61385061
yes, it's really supported. you won't get all the latest features for all your software, but you will get security updates.

Linux mint XFCE

>>61389312
>don't have time for autism
do it on your free time retard, if you don't enjoy tinkering with your OS then you might as well use windows

>>61389608
>muh tinkering
Yeah because Windows is definitely free and open source, and is such a great OS. Might as well!

>>61378378
Linux Mint has many problems:

Linux Mint mixes Ubuntu and Debian packages
Due to the mix of Debian and Ubuntu packages, when an update is released that breaks Mint, the maintainers blacklist it until it works again, even if it is a security upgrade. (Note: they don't try to fix it, they just blacklist it)
Mint doesn't publish CVEs, and you can't check if you are vulnerable because you don't know where a certain package came from.
When one of their packages has the same name as a upstream package, they block the package and replace it with theirs. For example, the package mdm contains Utilities for single-host parallel shell scripting, however, in Linux Mint (and only Linux Mint), the mdm package is the Mint Display Manager(aka a clone of gdm).
Security updates are optional.
By default, using the Update Manager, you won't get updates for critical parts of the system(xorg, systemd, kernel), even security updates.
The use of old kernels means that newer hardware isn't supported

You will probably have a better time with Ubuntu(or any other distro) MATE or by installing Cinnamon on Ubuntu(we really need a Ubuntu Cinnamon Spin) than with Linux Mint.

>>61378354
Arch linux

>>61389608
Again, I have actual work to do and don't have time for autism. Your autism is not worth my free time.
Might as well stick with a superior OS that actually works in a professional setting.

>>61393509
>Might as well stick with a superior OS that actually works in a professional setting.

OSX?