First off, let me start by saying that your choice of Linux distro is up to you! I’m not trying to tell you what to use, but simply enumerate the reasons I choose it over other distros. There are many debian-based distros with pros and cons, and many RHEL-based distros I like as well. The choice of which distro to use as a daily-driver ultimately came down to which distro was least likely to get in the way, and was best supported by the industry. No matter which distro is your favorite, you have to admit, Ubuntu is pretty well-supported. So, that was my primary reason, but here are some more:
- Comes with ZFS
- This may not be important for everyone, but for me this was a huge deal. I’m a long-time FreeBSD fan for many reasons, and one of those reasons is its native support for ZFS. Most Linux distros cannot say the same thing, but Ubuntu is certainly one that can. You can even do root on ZFS if you wanted to, although I prefer to keep the root simple and use EXT4 or XFS (for faster M.2 drives)
- Very stable UI
- Everything renders correctly in Ubuntu’s UI. This isn’t a given, and yes it’s largely because they’re using Gnome, but it is a point its favor when many other Linux UIs can sometimes have issues with a given piece of software. Everything works well here
- Everything works out of the box
- I wish we lived in a world where Linux distros could ensure everything works out of the box, but Ubuntu I’ve found just does this better than most others, although Ubuntu derivatives aren’t going to be much different here.
- Bluetooth is pretty stable now
- It’s been a long road, but my bluetooth devices work pretty reliably now, and that certainly is not a guarantee
- WiFi is stable too
- Also was never a guarantee, but WiFi is quite stable now as well
At the end of the day, I’d probably love many Linux distros, but these are my reasons for sticking with Ubuntu.
Ubuntu Alternatives
So, lets say I decided to stop using Ubuntu, which distro would be my second option? Well, I’m going to cheat here a little bit and start with Ubuntu derivatives I’ve used. They have many of the same advantages, but with a new spin on a successful theme.
- Linux Mint
- Yeah, this one. A lot of people know about it, and I’m no exception. It’s a great Ubuntu-derived distro that is also well-supported and feature-packed. Huge fan of it, and would be a great second choice
- Elementary OS
- Another great Ubuntu-derived option with a great UI that I’ve experimented with. The UI is nice, and I could see myself using this one full-time
- Fedora
- Now for a non-Ubuntu derivative. Why Fedora? Well, there are many advantages. First off, it’s known that Linux kernel devs use it, so there are more stability guarantees here than you’d get from most frequently updated distros like it. It comes with the latest features, and still offers the security advantages of its RHEL underpinnings. A solid option
- FreeBSD (Not Linux)
- Okay, so lets go over to a somewhat geekier option. I love FreeBSD for its native ZFS support as I mentioned earlier, but it also is known for having a great network stack. On top of that, it’s a lot more unixy and simple under the hood compared to your average Linux distro, most of which have begun to get a little more bloated than any Unix-like OS should ever get (not calling Linux bloated, but it’s heading in that direction)
(Not Linux)If anyone has any other suggestions, I’d love to hear them! There are a tremendous number of distros out there (and FreeBSD), but these are the ones I’d go with if I had to choose!