I hope you will enjoy. Fasten your seatbelts! Let's go!
I have read very positive comments about OpenSuse, Mageia, PCLinuxOS, but I have had problems with them in the past, which is why I had to erase them and re-install something else.
My journey to Linux started with RedHat 5, but I used it to just learn and get a feel of it. I have been using several distros on and off while I was a Windows user. In 2011, I ditched Windows completely and started using Linux as my developer OS for full time.
I am a software consultant with varying needs like Cisco Anyconnect, Citrix, Pidgin with Sipe plugin etc. Below are some of the experiences that I have had with various distributions.
Arch / Archbang: An excellent distro which I used for couple of months. I was able to get everything working and it was blazing fast. The only problem I had is with the updates. Being a rolling release distro, updates break things some time and my laptop rendered unusable once.
Sabayon Xfce: Another excellent rolling release distro, but here too updates break things at time. I tried 13.04 Xfce recently, but the speed/performance was not that great. Sabayon 9/10 were very fast compared to the recent 13.04.
OpenSuse: Thunderbird is a must for me, but removing Evolution and installing Thunderbird is a nightmare.
Mageia KDE: Openconnect is a must to connect to my Cisco Anyconnect network, and the net-applet doesn't show Openconnect as an option even when it is installed in Mageia. I know how to connect to Anyconnect network with Openconnect command line, but I prefer to connect via net-applet or network manager. Wifi connection stopped working after a reboot when I messed with the option of "Network interface be controlled by Mageia Control Center" or something like that.
PCLinuxOS: Both Mageia and PCLinuxOS uses the net-applet (drakx-net) for network config and they don't support Openconnect.
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS: Used it for a long time until an update broke the screenshot utility. Whenever I launch the screenshot utility to take some screenshots, Ubuntu system froze. It happened quite a lot. Doing a Google search to fix the issue did not help.
Salix Xfce: Another excellent distro and I was able to get almost everything working. For some reason, PCmanFM doesn't update automatically and shows in the update list every time I boot the system. I know I could have fixed it by doing a Google search or by using their forums, but I wanted to try Mageia. So, I ditched Salix and tried Mageia.
Right now I am using Linux Mint 14 Xfce and it is good. I will plan to use it for some time before I move on to the next.
Some points to ponder:
Arch / Archbang: An excellent distro which I used for couple of months. I was able to get everything working and it was blazing fast. The only problem I had is with the updates. Being a rolling release distro, updates break things some time and my laptop rendered unusable once.
Sabayon Xfce: Another excellent rolling release distro, but here too updates break things at time. I tried 13.04 Xfce recently, but the speed/performance was not that great. Sabayon 9/10 were very fast compared to the recent 13.04.
OpenSuse: Thunderbird is a must for me, but removing Evolution and installing Thunderbird is a nightmare.
Mageia KDE: Openconnect is a must to connect to my Cisco Anyconnect network, and the net-applet doesn't show Openconnect as an option even when it is installed in Mageia. I know how to connect to Anyconnect network with Openconnect command line, but I prefer to connect via net-applet or network manager. Wifi connection stopped working after a reboot when I messed with the option of "Network interface be controlled by Mageia Control Center" or something like that.
PCLinuxOS: Both Mageia and PCLinuxOS uses the net-applet (drakx-net) for network config and they don't support Openconnect.
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS: Used it for a long time until an update broke the screenshot utility. Whenever I launch the screenshot utility to take some screenshots, Ubuntu system froze. It happened quite a lot. Doing a Google search to fix the issue did not help.
Salix Xfce: Another excellent distro and I was able to get almost everything working. For some reason, PCmanFM doesn't update automatically and shows in the update list every time I boot the system. I know I could have fixed it by doing a Google search or by using their forums, but I wanted to try Mageia. So, I ditched Salix and tried Mageia.
Right now I am using Linux Mint 14 Xfce and it is good. I will plan to use it for some time before I move on to the next.
Some points to ponder:
- Xfce is my preferred DE because of its speed and configurability.
- Arch Wiki, Ubuntu Documentation, Gentoo Documentation, Salix forums are great.
- I preferred rolling release distros in the past, but now I am actually debating myself which one is better.
- I always take a backup of OS partition with Clonezilla whenever I try something new and it is a great piece of software.
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