Looking for distro recommendations - eviltoast

Between wanting to do more with local LLMs, wsl annoyances, and the direction tech companies have been going lately, I think it’s time I start exploring a full Linux migration

I’m a software dev, I’m comfortable in the command line, and I used to write the node configuration piece of something similar to chef (flavor/version agnostic setup of cloud environments)

So for me, Linux has always been a “modify the script and rebuild fresh” kind of deal… Even my dev VMs involved a lot of scripts and snapshots. I don’t enjoy configuration and I really hate debugging it, but I can muddle through when I have to

Web searches have pushed me towards Ubuntu for LLM work, but I’ve never been a big fan of the window Managers. I like little flourishes like animation and lots of options I can set graphically, I use multiple desktop multiple monitors

I’ve tried the one it comes standard with, gnome, and kde (although it’s been about 5 years since I’ve last given them a real shot).

I’m mostly looking for the most reasonable footprint that is “good enough”, something that feels polished to at least the Windows XP level - subtle animations instead of instant popups, rounded borders, maybe a bit of transparency here and there.

I’m looking at Ubuntu w/

  • kde w/ plasma (I understand it’s very configurable, I don’t love the look and it seems to be a bigger footprint

  • budgie (looks nice, never heard of it before today)

  • kylin (looks very Windows 10 which is nice, a bit skeptical about the Chinese focus)

  • mate (I like the look, but it seems a bit dubiously centralized)

  • unity (looks like the standard Ubuntu taken to it’s natural conclusion)

  • rhino Linux (something new which makes me skeptical, but pretty and seems more like existing tools packaged together which makes me think the issues might not impact actual workflow)

  • anything the community is big on for this, personally I’d pick opensuze, but I need to maximize compatibility with bleeding edge LLM projects

My hardware and hard requirements are:

  • nvidia 1060ti
  • ryzen 5500u
  • 16g ram
  • 4 drives nearly full, because it’s a computer of Theseus running the same (upgraded) vista license that came with the case like 15 years ago
  • multi desktop, multi monitor
  • can handle a lot of browser Windows/tabs
  • ideally the setup is just a package mana ger install script with all my dependencies
  • gaming support would be nice, but I’ll be dual booting for VR anyways

I’ve been out of the game for a while, I’d love to hear what the feeling is in the community these days

(Side note, is pine as cool a company as it seems?)

  • Gunpachi@lemmings.world
    131·
    1 year ago

    My recommendstions would be -

    1. Linux Mint / vanilla debian
    2. Fedora / Nobara
    3. Opensuse tumbleweed (Like fedora, but rolling release and has btrfs snapshots configured out of the box)
    4. Endavour OS / vanilla arch ( if you want to configure everything manually)
    5. NixOS (very different distro, you can configure your entire system with a single file)

    People have a misconception that Linux Mint is a newbie distro but don’t let that stop you from using it. It’s quite stable and will serve you very well.

    For Desktop Environment -

    You can try out XFCE, it doesnt look great out of the box, but it has all the options you’ll need to make it look to your liking.

    Then there is also Cinnamon, it doesn’t have many configuration options but is really nice in general. The flagship version of Linux Mint comes with Cinnamon.

    • HumanPerson@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I agree with those recommendations recommendations but perhaps the Debian based Mint instead. I am not aware of any major change Ubuntu has made to Debian other than DE and spyware. Also budgie desktop looks great and never broke / broke anything for me.