The arguably best linux distro?

Best DE in your opinion?


  • Total voters
    12

Linux and Lucy

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I considered linux a while ago but didn’t go through with it because windows 10 was just fine for me. Now win10 has royally screwed me over and my PC is a brick that can’t even factory reset, so I could use help picking the right distro.

My PC is an Asus Zenbook Flip UX360CA, specs listed below. It has a touch screen and can bend all the way back, so an environment that takes advantage of that would be superb. I’d also love guides, pointers, and suggestions for how to not suck at linux. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
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I checked other as I like different desktops that Linux offers.

Gnome
LXDE
Xfce
Cinnamon

IceWM
JoesWM
 
I have taken a liberty, hope the OP does not mind, in editing the choices:

- to include MATE, to not do so would be a grave mistake, and
- to invite those whom choose Other, to specify same, as Tom (@poorguy ) has wisely done, above.

Linus (you must know I would call you that :)) - these two options will give you more knowledge to help you choose.

What is risky with a Thread such as this (& don't think that I am being critical, I am not), where the Title is not related to the Poll content, is that information you might otherwise receive may fall through the cracks, with incomplete input from participants.

The nature of our site software setup, currently, is that there is the Thread, and if you are in the Thread, you can likely also see the Poll at your right.

True?

If, at the right, we click on "Best DE in your opinion?", we open the Thread, titled "The Arguably Best Linux Distro" - we can then vote, and give opinions on Distros as well.

If we are on our front page or elsewhere, and just Cast Your Vote at right, we are simply voting on DEs, not Distros.

A Tip before I go for now (& I'll come back and vote before long, likely either MATE or Cinnamon):

  1. Get yourself a 16 GB USB stick (or bigger) and I'll show you how to test 6 - 8 Linux at a time, Live, to get a feel for what Distro, with what DE ticks your boxes
  2. GNOME - is, to use your terms, arguably, the best DE for support for touchscreen technology.
Cheers all

Wizard

OK, I lied, two tips, so sue me
 
... and a BTW

If you need to salvage personal date from the WinDozer brick, start a separate Thread say in General Linux, eg "Windows 10 bricked, how to salvage via LInux?"
 
In my opinion it will be the cinnamon desktop. It hase a good windows like vive.Or If you have a good grafics card (2nd gen intel grafics 3000 or more powefull) you can run gnome perfecly
 
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Thank you all for the kind responses :)
I have taken a liberty, hope the OP does not mind, in editing the choices:

- to include MATE, to not do so would be a grave mistake, and
  1. GNOME - is, to use your terms, arguably, the best DE for support for touchscreen technology.
Why is not including MATE a grave mistake, and how would I run it alongside gnome? Another thing is I tried manjaro gnome 3 on a vm before and didn’t like the look of it. How could I make it look more like a traditional desktop?
I will definitely try this when I fix my pc :D
 
Hi @Linux and Lucy You didn't mention whether or not you have some experience with Linux, so I'm assuming that you don't and that you're a complete newbie, taking that into account I'd say that Ubuntu with Unity might be the right choice given its friendliness and the fact that if there is one thing that Unity does do very well is touchscreens. There's also Fedora which includes Gnome 3 right out of the box which also has good support for touchscreens, so you won’t have to worry about manually installing it, and it includes all the software you need for a good touchscreen experience. I also recommend this app https://github.com/JoseExposito/touchegg touchegg which is a multi-touch gesture application that runs in the background and according to its author «By editing a simple configuration file you can attach an action to a particular gesture and –by performing those gestures on your trackpad– maximize, minimize or resize windows, show your desktop, emulate mouse clicks and more.» cause while Unity and Gnome do a good job they lack multi-touch and gesture support out of the box, and that's where touchegg might come in handy.

Hope this helps! :)
 
Just a heads up on what @Tolkem was saying at #9 above - on Unity.

You would want to install Ubuntu 16.04 with the Unity DE if you wish to try Unity. That would involve a considerable amount of updates in the first stage, but once completed, regular-sized updates.

16.04 was the last LTS (long-term support) version to ship with Unity, and 16.04 is supported until April 2021, hence so with Unity. Unity is v7, with that, but what happens after EOL (end of life) April 2021 ia anybody's guess.

How well does other DEs such as KDE or MATE work with touch screens?

You are better off Googling eg

linux mate kde touchscreen support

or similar and having a read of comments, or else try them on a live USB stick. Only you can tell if they are satisfactory for your needs.

Wizard
 
The best anything in the Linux world is always a personal, subjective choice.
Try a few different environments and see what works best for you.

Personally, I prefer tiling WM's like 2wm, dwm, awesome, wmii, i3 and xmonad to more traditional DE's/WM's like Gnome, KDE, Xfce, etc.

dwm is my favourite tiling WM and has been for many years. Mainly for its sheer simplicity and ease of use (once you have taken the time to learn and understand how dwm works).

But I wouldn't recommend dwm to anybody who is new to Linux, because there is no point and click menu for applications. Only a text based menu/launcher. So it's really only any good if you already know what software you have installed.

Also, if you want to customize your installation of dwm to have a different colour scheme, or to change some of its key-binds and behaviours - it requires altering some of the C source code, before re-building and reinstalling it. Then you need to log out and back in again to see your changes.

But for an experienced power user, with a bit of C programming knowledge - it's brilliant! I find I can be much more productive using dwm.

Since using dwm, the traditional DE/WM paradigm just feels too clunky and awkward. I can't go back to a traditional desktop now. I've tried - I just can't do it!

If I HAD to choose a traditional DE/WM for Linux I'd probably say Xfce, KDE, Openbox, or Enlightenment are my favourites (or at least they were before I discovered tiling WM's!).

But I'd still prefer ANY tiling WM over any of those four environments.

And that's just my personal preference!
 
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Just a heads up on what @Tolkem was saying at #9 above - on Unity.

You would want to install Ubuntu 16.04 with the Unity DE if you wish to try Unity. That would involve a considerable amount of updates in the first stage, but once completed, regular-sized updates.

16.04 was the last LTS (long-term support) version to ship with Unity, and 16.04 is supported until April 2021, hence so with Unity. Unity is v7, with that, but what happens after EOL (end of life) April 2021 ia anybody's guess.

Yes @wizardfromoz you're right, I missed that small detail :p thanks for the clarifying. In any case, Gnome is the default DE now in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS so it still seems like the right choice for a new Linux user looking for touchscreen support. Also, I think that your suggestion of running whichever distro @Linux and Lucy decides to try, he does from a USB stick, so he can get the look and feel first hand and decide whether to install one or another is a preferable and desirable solution rather than rushing and installing.
 
I’ve heard that kubuntu (specifically kde neon) has good touch screen support, so if I decide to go with ubuntu, it’ll be with the k. The other option I’m considering the most is manjaro mate or gnome, both if possible, though I don’t know how to do that.
 
I’ve heard that kubuntu (specifically kde neon) has good touch screen support, so if I decide to go with ubuntu, it’ll be with the k. The other option I’m considering the most is manjaro mate or gnome, both if possible, though I don’t know how to do that.

You should really consider trying whichever distro from a USB stick booting into live mode prior to install, that way you'll make sure everything works the way you want it to. Regarding dual boot - KDE neon and Manjaro - learn how to walk before attempting to run...meaning, learn how to deal with one distro first, then you'll eventually find your way. Once you've installed KDE neon or whatever it is, you could install virtualbox and try as many distros as you want. :)
 

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