First time here first post hello

icreepin

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Morning,

I am not new to computers or anything. In 2012 had some medial issues now I am gonna get back into software development and just being a computer nerd again LOL.

Not trying to start a heated debate or anything. But I am use to FBSD for an OS well unless I was playing everquest then I was on a windows machine. LOL

But I have a lot of computers running XP but I am wondering what would be a good disto to put on the computers in my computer room for just everyday users?
 


But I have a lot of computers running XP but I am wondering what would be a good disto to put on the computers in my computer room for just everyday users?
Welcome to the forums

for a start we need to know what computers, are they 32bit or are they 64 bit, do they have minimal ram or ample ram, the easiest way is to list the make and full model number of a couple [with any modifications you may have made [cpu upgrade /ram upgrade/graphics etc] and we can have a look

Bwiz
 
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probably we could break it down to:

1) Linux OS that users would put on their own computer- pro's and cons and ease of use
2) How would users fair with an OS that somebody else put on their computer. I put vanilla Arch on a laptop for my 16yr old daughter with 10 minutes of instruction and asked "how are you finding it ?" No problem was the reply.

Obviously there is going to be some minor work on my part fro mtime to time eg :
sudo pacman -Syu
I don't think thats going to stress me too much
 
Re OSes:
1. For your gaming, Manjaro, not question. It really "just works" and has great hardware support and ships with stuff like WINE. There are some caveats, but if you don't want to manually install lots of software, it's a shortcut. It may come back to bite you, just like Ubuntu would (some people call Manjaro Archbuntu). If you feel up to it and have a decent internet, then Arch would be my second gaming choice. I was just saying in another post how Arch values functionality over ideology so there's no whining about including closed source stuff. Therefore, most people wanting a gaming PC are better off on Arch than Ubuntu (despite all claims to the contrary).

2. For development and general stuff, it's more tricky. Let's face it, the BSD world is not nearly as caught up to Big Tech as the Linux world (and yes, Sony, the irony did not escape me). Nonetheless, there's the quite functional Linux compatibility layer and most FOSS software is ported anyway. Personally, I'd move to Linux for the sake of better support and increasing the number of Linux users to help compete against MS and Apple because it will ultimately help Desktop BSDs, further down the line because once Desktop Linux gains full mainstream status, all other FOSS OSes will benefit from sharing code, something which MS and Apple don't do, ya see.
If you want to stay with BSD-system, there's GhostBSD which is now based off FreeBSD. It's very elegant and user-friendly OOTB. Or you could just stick with FreeBSD.
If you want something familiar to BSD, I have found Void Linux feels a little like FreeBSD. The only problem is it wasn't too stable when I tried to install it and ended up doing a lot of unnecessary hackery.
If you're happy with a straight-up Linux OS, then you're probably up between Debian and Linux Mint. The former makes a great, no, the best, work environment, and is very easy to fine tune. On the downside, even the preconfigured DEs need some tuning. Another upside is Debian's meta-packages and I'm sure there's one for working/development. That said, Debian's hardware support can be troublesome compared to Mint (Ubuntu-based). So it comes down to what you're developing. If it's games, I'd go with Mint, no second thoughts. If it's not serious AAA games and just stuff like basic platformer games, software backends, web development, office software, etc. then Debian will handle fine. Debian's biggest strong points are low system footprint, stability, and malleability. Footprint depends on things like your DE and background daemons, etc. As for malleability, Debian is probably one of the closest, if not the closest mainstream distro to Arch when it comes to options (though there is quite a lot of distance even then). Finally, the stability assumes you stay with the stable branch and accept being frozen in time regarding software because most software is already behind at release date and is updated only each stable release, ~2 years, but that does ensure a near-zero bug OS. On the Mint side, it's an elegant, very stable in its own right, polished OS that puts Ubuntu to shame. There's almost zero work getting a system with a decent workflow up and running and it's my distro of choice for clients. It's reasonably light by default (using default DE) and it's actually very stable. It's definitely go the best, most user-friendly UI for package management on any Debian-derivative.

I hope I've hoped narrow that down for ya (long-winded as it was). I've tried to keep it diverse as possible so that once you've eliminated OSes based on specs and other criteria not mentioned, you'll have a reasonable list, at which point I'd say install them all and try them. LiveCD previews are great, but when it comes to development and workflow, you may need to get a more real feeling (which means also breaking things purposefully and seeing how easy it was to break and to fix). You'll find the one that suits you. You may still distro-hop a little, but you'll likely end up where you started. Good luck and keep us posted.
 
Welcome aboard. There are many great distros to try and this is the important bit - your machine(s) are different to anyone else's and so what someone else thinks is the best distro might not be so for you. In other words no 2 machines are the same with different hardware. Trying live media is a great way to go. May be Linux won't be your choice BSD's may end up being your choice.

Anyway enjoy the freedom of choice that is available. The "Download Linux" section is great place to start and distrowatch. Also feel free to ask questions - many wise heads here.
 
:D... Welcome...:D
im running Lubuntu 18.4 on a old xp laptop with 512mb ram.
 
Hello icreepin,
Welcome to Linux.org forums. Good to have you here. As has been mentioned there are many good distros to try. But it will depend upon if those machines are 32 or 64 bit as to which ones may work. Generally I think MX or antix should work on them. But most distros today offer live .isos so you can try out a few and see which ones seem to work best for your machines and your work load. Enjoy! :)
 

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