.
Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition
- very stable - I haven’t managed to break it yet
- lets me focus on getting shit done.
- very little system maintenance required, just applying updated
- feels like there’s a gui for everything
Sometimes, I feel sick of such simplistic questions. They look like they’re just for triggering people to response.
Alpine Linux Hyperbola OpenBSD
Last is not linux based though.
Arch Linux
Arch
Arch is also not more lightweight than other distributions.
With Arch, unlike other distributions, there are no extra dev packages. Thus, everything is present in a single package, so they require more storage space.
Arch’s packages also have fixed dependencies on other packages, which in turn have other dependencies. So you can’t only install what you actually want, which is often claimed. For example, I would like to uninstall various Bluetooth packages, but I can’t because they are dependencies for packages I use.
The basic installation including base-devel requires more than 1 GB of storage space without the GUI. Some distributions need less including the GUI.
Personally, I currently prefer Arch for the following reasons.
- AUR
- The Wiki
- The many vanilla packages
- Because you can easily create your own packages with the PKBGUILD files.
- Because, based on my own experience, Arch is quite usable despite the current packages.
If I had to choose another distribution, it would definitely be OpenSuse. Their rolling version, Tumbleweed, is also highly recommended.