There are even Fedora distros designed for server use Fedora Server and Fedora CoreOS. Many say Fedora is as bleeding edge as Arch Linux, but as stable and user friendly as Debian and Ubuntu.
Users can easily install new and different repositories if they want other software, though you may not need that as Fedora comes with plenty of familiar software like Firefox and LibreOffice. It’s available with a wide selection of desktop environments and uses the RPM and DNF package managers. Manjaro also offers a version for Arm systems like the Raspberry Pi, Odroid, and Pine products.įedora is the upstream source of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and has been around since 2003, gaining a ton of popularity over the years, including the creator of the Linux kernel, Linus Torvalds. It has an easy-to-use interface and is available with a wide variety of desktop environments including Xfce, KDE, and Gnome. The emergence of Manjaro has been a pleasant surprise in the Linux community as it’s closely related to Arch, which is a bleeding-edge distro with tons of new features but can be cumbersome to use, especially for Linux newcomers. If you want to get away from Ubuntu entirely, there are a few more options that stand out: elementary also packs its own desktop environment known as Pantheon.
It features a gorgeous dock and simply named apps like Web (for the browser) and Code (for the text editor), which helps strengthen that connection to Apple's OS. This is due to their overall design, hardware support, and built-in tools for emulation of apps typically used with the Microsoft operating system.Įlementary OS features a striking design that many have likened to macOS.
Zorin and Pop!_OS are ideal for users interested in gaming or transitioning from Windows operating systems. Some of these distros use proprietary or closed-source software, which some Linux enthusiasts feel is against the open-source philosophy of the operating system. They differ through their selection of software, desktop environment, and overall theme. Pop!_OS, elementary OS, and Zorin are closely related to Ubuntu and Debian. However, there are other Ubuntu-based experiences available, each offering a unique take on Linux. Ubuntu also offers versions that are ideal for use in a server setting. Kubuntu uses KDE, Lubuntu uses LXQt, Ubuntu MATE uses the older Gnome 2 interface, and Xubuntu which uses Xfce. A desktop environment can make or break the user experience, but there are other versions of Ubuntu with different environments, so you can pick one that's right for you. Ubuntu is based on Debian Linux and uses the GNOME desktop environment. But when there are so many other Linux distros out there, users may be curious about what else might work for them. That’s a fair suggestion since Ubuntu is frequently updated and supports a lot of hardware. However, those switching to Linux on the desktop usually get pointed in the direction of Ubuntu due to its popularity and large community. Unlike Windows and macOS, there is a world of Linux versions, known as distributions, for users to experience.