Which linux are you using?

recommendations? stability? pretty simple approach

[explorador]

Hi there webmasters, this is not one of those X vs Z distro threads. It's basically two simple questions. The other thread on how much time you keep your computer on keeps me thinking.

What linux flavor are you using? (extended periods)
How's the stability? recommendations?


I've been using Linux for quite sometime, more and more everyday until I finally moved 100% to linux. Used Lubuntu (which I love) and then moved to Xubuntu (I also like it a lot). I left Lubuntu because of many bugs trying to do something small and find lots of threads with the same problem. Xubuntu works great but it has bugs too (12,04) I will focus on this one right now.

First I'm not trying to diagnose what's the problem causing Xubuntu to freeze, there are far too many variables, diff programs installed, etc. I already searched how to diagnose this but I don't think it's worth investing time anymore, there is no clue or pattern, it just happens, sometimes few times, others a lot.

Second, I know Debian has been my constant finding as a big recommendation on stability. I'm still thinking about it.

It's about using full Linux for office, design, writing, coding, and specially browsing the web. So the question goes for this specifically. There are lots of threads about "stability" and reviews from eager users but hey, installing and testing to write a post it's way different than using the system on a daily basis. Xubuntu 12.04 showed a few times the crash report and gave me clues, but now even that the service is on, the pc just freezes.


If you want a simple approach just share how's your experience with diff distros working hours and hours on it, I will appreciate your testimonial.

Thanks in advance.

[tangor]

Some tasks cause odd results... for example:

My Linix servers running Apache seem to stay up "forever" (not really, just run well for long periods of time, measured in weeks to months). My "desktop" workstation, on the other hand, works great with text and numbers, tends to get grumpy with graphics and audio/video. Most days it will run all day no errors, other days the sun just doesn't come up right. (sigh) (And that's why I still have Win machines for the graphics, audio, video). The Linix laptop isn't used often enough or long enough to really encounter problems. The other desktop dev/test machine always fails because I'm always testing on it. :)

I have three flavors of Linix in use and other than slight feature set changes, the basic kernel is the same and I have yet to find a "favorite". Reminds me... about time to try another distro just to see if that perfect version is out there. :)

[brotherhood of LAN]

Ubuntu on home laptop and some dedicated servers, and a mix of Ubuntu, CentOS and Debian on several hundred VPS's. Ubuntu was my first taste of Linux on my own PC around six years ago and it's what I'd recommend for anyone making a jump from a Windows OS.

I would recommend Debian but to be honest all three are more than adequate, I'm just more comfortable with the Debianesque environments and apt-get. I find apt-get runs more smoothly on memory constrained nodes too.

Other than that, I'd recommend whichever one you think would be the smallest learning curve for you to be productive with, and that there's very little difference between Ubuntu and Debian.

[dstiles]

I started my "recent" use of linux with ubuntu gibbon and kept with it until upgrading from 10.04 to 12.04. I was so cheesed off with it after a few hours that I switched to Mint, specifically Maya Mate (recommendations made hereabouts). Mint Maya is based on ubuntu 12.04 and expires in 2017 but another LTS is already available.

I've been using Mint Maya extensively ever since. I currently have (all permanently turned on and working):

My own desktop: used for managing online servers and local servers/desktops (linux and windows) via remmina; VLC for several hours a night (mostly mp4 and mp4a); kaffeine audio ogg playback; several firefox multi-tab windows; thunderbird; etc.

Wife's desktop - my old machine: permanently on although she seldom uses it (her work requires a windows environment).

My laptop, permanently connected but not often used now (used to be used for watching video and listening to audio).

Local postfix/dovecot mail backup server (second-hand at £75).

Online postfix/dovecot primary mail server (still being installed and tested); this is a windows Hyper-V server. Also runs apache in order to use squirrelmail - I would have loved to run all my web sites on linux but they are all ASP-coded.

My brother and nephew now run three or four Mint Maya machines and between us we're getting other people interested (one very non-tech person recently tried it and declared it easy to use).

[tangor]

Made me look. That's next on the list to inflict on a bit of hardware I have laying around. :)

Thanks!

And it will run 24/7/265 :)

[graeme_p]

I had occasional freezes with Ubuntu Unity, I switched to Kubuntu (installed from Synaptic, not a fresh install) and it seems fine now - although Komodo Edit now seems to be acting up that is just one application.

it could be a hardware issue: the only really unstable Linux desktop I have had turned out to have faulty RAM: you should be able to check this from a boot option or a boot USB. Also check your hard drive for corrupt files(although that usually happens very 30 reboots anyway) and check your hard drive SMART data.

Then there are driver issues. Switching distro may not help as you may still have the same kernel and driver.

Do you have the same stability problems if you login using LXDE? If so, have you tried something that does not use Gtk (like Enlightenment or Razor-qt or KDE) - if Gtk and LXDE have the problem, and something non GTK does not, then you can assume its Gtk related.