Which Ubuntu flavor is the best?
Ubuntu comes in a number of different flavors, and each has its advantages and disadvantages. Which one is best for you? A writer at Linux.com recently delved into the various flavors of Ubuntu and considered what they had to offer.
Jack Wallen reports for Linux.com:
Ubuntu Linux comes in a few officially recognized flavors, as well as several derivative distributions. The recognized flavors are:
Kubuntu - Ubuntu with the KDE desktop
Lubuntu - Ubuntu with the LXDE desktop
Mythbuntu - Ubuntu MythTV
Ubuntu Budgie - Ubuntu with the Budgie desktop
Xubuntu - Ubuntu with Xfce
I thought it might be a good idea to help newer users decide which flavor is best for them. After all, choosing the wrong distribution out of the starting gate can make for a less-than-ideal experience.
And so, if you’re considering a flavor of Ubuntu, and you want your experience to be as painless as possible, read on.
Linux and the Windows desktop
Microsoft’s attitude toward Linux has changed over the years, and now the company is trying to make it even easier to run Linux on the Windows desktop.
SJVN reports for ZDNet:
Yes, Microsoft is making it much easier to run the Bash shell, based on Ubuntu, and soon SUSE or Fedora, on Windows 10. No, hell hasn't frozen over.
…it's now much easier to install WSL and Bash. By making it available via the Windows Store.
…it will make it much easier for developers and system administrators to run Linux shell commands on Windows. While this isn't very useful for ordinary desktop users, for serious IT staff it's a real step forward in making Windows more useful in a server and cloud world that's increasingly dominated by Linux. Even on Windows Azure, over a third of server instances are now Linux.
With Bash and WSL, you can run most Linux shell tools. These include: apt, ssh, rsync, find, grep, awk, sed, sort, xargs, md5sum, gpg, curl, wget, tar, vim, emacs, diff, and patch. You can also run popular open-source programming languages such as python, perl, ruby, php, and gcc. In addition, WSL and Bash supports server programs such as the Apache web-server and Oracle's MySQL database management system. In short, you get a capable Linux development environment running on Windows.
DistroWatch reviews NixOS
There are many different distros available, and some are much better known than others. One distro that hasn’t gotten much press is NixOS, a distribution that hails from the Netherlands. A writer at DistroWatch recently did a full review of the little known NixOS.
Ivan Sanders reports for DistroWatch:
Have you heard of NixOS? If not, it may be time to pay attention. NixOS is an independently developed distro from the Netherlands. If you have heard of NixOS you already know - this distro is different. And it is a good type of different. It is slick, compartmentalized, and very forgiving (unlike some distros). It is lightweight out of the box, and it gives you the ability to configure everything and anything just the way you want. Let's take a deeper look.
I think that the biggest issue with NixOS is the complete disregard for the standard file system hierarchy. I don't mind it, because I find the file system hierarchy standard confusing at times, but it is an issue for some users. It is also an issue when building a package from its source code, but there is a way to make source builds into .nix packages to use with the Nix package manager, so that's not really an issue either.
NixOS is a viable daily distro for average users who are willing to put a small amount of work into it. Since it is a little strange, knowledge about NixOS may not translate well to other distros. NixOS is very lightweight and usable. I think that it is probably a very good distro for a more advanced user. Like I said, I was able to do everything I wanted on NixOS (except get my NVIDIA drivers working, but I think that's my fault).
The Nix package manager is also available for most other distros, so if you want to use the Nix package manager and all the Nix glory associated with it (like isolation of packages) you can. I probably won't keep NixOS on my machine, but I think I will start using the Nix package manager on whatever distro I settle on for this week.
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