Before I swoosh over to the gym why not having a peek at the Top 5 Linux distros, according to DistroWatch?
As you can see there ain’t any movement so far up top. We see the same 5 distros in the same order since months already. I guess this is good and natural, after 30 years of Linux we’ve reached a state of unexcited coolness and all the good distros have found their place in the hacking order.
Orca is still not 100% ok with stupid MX on #1 but maybe there is something in that distro many people are looking for. #2 is also a tiny bit questionable, don’t you think? As much as I love Endeavour it is a bit of a freakshow, isn’t it? Manjaro otoh belongs on #1! All the comforts of Mint combined with the power of Arch, this is a Swiss Army Knife if there ever was one. Then on #4 and #5 we have the pretty Ubuntu daughters Mint and Pop. Mint, as you know, is a favourite of the masses ever since its inception, and so is Pop. Only prob with Pop is that it’s still searching for its own identity. In so far my money is on the tried and true Mint.
Invisible for you, on #6 they are both followed by clan mother Ubuntu. But we don’t like her, do we? The latest version, 21.10, did receive only luke-warm reviews.
So my recommendations still stand:
For n00bs: https://linuxmint.com/
For advanced users: https://manjaro.org/
For playkiddies: https://endeavouros.com/
Since I know Mint and Arch are reliable and uncrashy and mature enough, I kicked all my Debian-based recommendations off the list. And … know what, I guess we kick EOS off, as well. Ya! Mint and Manjaro are all the modern lady of today needs. Both with Cinnamon desktop … and you’re settled for life.
Boys, sorry, I didn’t make my recommendations for you. Please note that I’m not a male and have no interest in and patience for making computers my hobby. You can use whatever freakish geeky system you fancy. Maybe EOS is right for you?
So girls, if you’re new grab yourself a Mint, and once you’re cool make your new home in Manjo.
PS: Btw, Bex, how’s your Manjo/KDE treating you? The congregation is waiting for a new experience report …
THAR SHE BLOWS! 
🙂 Do not worry, Orca. You handle the Linux needs of the girls and I will handle the Linux needs of the guys.
I have noticed that my vanilla Arch Linux has fallen one spot from number nineteen to number twenty on DistroWatch.
On a positive note, I am very happy for EndeavourOS (It is quite famous for a fairly new Linux distribution).
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Indeed Renard, EOS is fantabulous, easy peasy enough for me on the lappy, but also gives the boys enough geeky stuff to play with. It’s a real Arch afterall. And on my “production and game machine” I use Manjo coz of easy Nvidia install. That was a nervewrecking experience in EOS and needed me to call for help in the forum. Another positive point for Endeavour, you’ll never get the RTFM answer but real help by real knowfull geeks. But when I needed to reinstall 2 weeks later I didn’t dare alarming the forum yet again and switched to Manjaro. It’s great! No probs with EOS on the lappy, it just runs and runs and runs and …
Since I don’t think too many of my female readers are admins for server farms I stopped recommending anything Debian-based. People who are advanced enough and wanna deal with it won’t need my recommendation anyway.
Have a good slide into 2022, Renard
xoxo
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No idea how Archmother could’ve lost one position. Maybe because even hardcore Archies found EOS more appealing? Or maybe Eznix’ installer? After all both are standard Arches once installed.
Hmm, I wonder, I wonder, if the Arch guys are too stupid to come up with their own GUI installer, maybe they could just instrumentalize the Octopus installer. And for command line use Eznix’s script.
Not my problem. 😉
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If you’re not into bleeding edges then KDE Plasma is the way to go. (Me loves it!) I’ll be a plasma girl for life 🙂 I’m all updated to the newest version, the newest Manjaro and the newest kernal now. Once I find out what the newness is all about, I’ll let you know.
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Do you know how to turnoff the 24hr clock in Plasma? Across many Distros wid Plasma I have never figured out how to get it set to 12hr clock…
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Plasma is too much for me…anyway, finally figured out how to change 24hr to 12hr in Plasma. DE’s I use go thru Date & Time settings, but Plasma went thru “Configure Digital Clock” settings. Grabbed some pics so I can remember from now on when testing it… 😉
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Congratz Karmi on your glorious victory over the clock. But, it must be said, a day on planet Erf usually consists of 24 consecutive hours, not 12. And, as far as I rememba, America is still a part of this rock of ours, no? 😉 And in things like these it’s clear to see that KDE was cooked up by Germans. Oh yes, we love our 24h-day.
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Glad you got it sorted out Karmi 🙂 I am by no means an expert. My format is set to United States – American English so has always been a 12 hour clock. Now I know where to look if that gets messed up, TY.
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BS – you are the Plasma Girl!!! 😉 Yeah, finally getting that clock to 12h broke the ice for me. Now I have it set to single click opens files ‘n folders. Moving icons on panel to order I want. Will start learning it now, for at least testing. So many settings in Plasma….
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Too many settings in Plasma, right. Fortunately I’m a very basic girl with a very basic approach to GUI design, and Mate does everything I need/want (Cinnamon doesn’t) so I have no immediate need to dabble with Plasma.
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Ya, I was wondering the same thing, Bex. Karmi is on Linux since 96 and has problems with the timewatchyclock? That shit appears automatically for me. When installing we’re asked where we dwell, don’t we? Linux installers are clever enough to figure out not only our local time but the format as well. At least my beloved Calarames installer has those things sorted. One Linux, I forgot which, wanted my express permission to use the “internet time” instead of local time or so. I was, like, too stupid to know the difference so I was like I’m a fuxn netizen, ain’t I? Klikkyklik … problem solved.
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Everything about Linux is “Fragmented” (Linus Torvalds) including each desktop environment. I live in America, but setting the clock, keyboard, etc. for that ‘n English doesn’t change the Digital clock in all versions of KDE Plasma. So far, Manjaro is only one I’ve tested recently that does (getting ready to double-check that because I don’t know)…AlmaLinux didn’t, Garuda didn’t, and a couple more that I am retesting for a newbie post KDE.
That clock was one reason I never tried Plasma more often…other was opening folders ‘n files wid one-click of mouse button instead of two-clicks, the panel seems difficult to put icons in the order you want, etc.
Garuda KDE Dr460nized has a dock in the middle, but you can move it, and remove it, and add panel/s instead. Plasma is not a one-suit fits all… 😉 However, many Distros now have KDE Plasma as their default, and DE’s like Cinnamon or Mate are handled by the communities (not always reliable).
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I can’t say anything about KDE/Plasma, particularly not about how it works in Garuda or Alma but I’m kinda good in Cin and Mate. For me it doesn’t matter much if I get the bare primitive af Mate from Endeavour or the lovingly curated Mint and Manjaro versions. 5 more minutes of tweaking and finetuning is all it takes for me.
And Cinnamon, if you really want the best experience, you best stick with Mint. Mint devs developed Cinnamon and they are building Mint around Cinnamon as well. That’s why everybody says about Mint that “The Shit Just Works!”
But I bet that Manjaro took a big bite off Mint’s blueprint so their version will be equally fine. I noticed they seem to have taken a lot of stuff from Mint, also the hardware detection, since they’re aiming at the same user-friendlyness. I wouldn’t wonder if their Cinnamon is identical to Mint’s.
My further path in Linux will depend greatly on the outcome of Becca’s Manjo/KDE testing. I’m supidupi comfy in my recent setups and in no hurry to switch desktops. Haven’t even switched my two mini Lenovos on since months.
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Nothing wrong wid “comfy” – 😉 Yeah, New Gnome broke Dash to Panel extension on most ‘Root’ Distros I use, so recently moved to looking for ones wid Cinnamon. However, many I wanted to test had Plasma as defaults, then Plasma Girl showed up (we all know who!) so I asked a question on going from 24h to 12h clock…ooops! 😉 Most desktop environments have a “Date & Time” where you can click a button to switch from 24h (if that is the default setting), but Plasma’s “Date & Time” doesn’t do ‘Dat!?! Took me almost 2 years to find out the “Configure Digital Clock” trick if the clock is set for the military 24h standard. You are my Muse, but Plasma Girl has been a great help also…trapezbreen as well.
Took me that long because I didn’t like getting out of my “comfy” zone either!!! 😉
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“military 24h standard”
Grrrr. Nobody in the whole world calls it “military” time because nobody likes the military, neither their own and even less the American. And it pains me to say that your military seems to be smarter than all the civilian population.
I guess most people would be pissed off to know Americans call the totally harmless civilian 24h time system “military”.
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Of course the Germans use the 24h military clock ‘n tHiNk that is standard everywhere. Germans are genetically always looking for a back to stab, in hopes of starting another World War. Check what the old Romans said about Germans… 😉
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Yes, I know the one, Tacitus I guess,said the German landscape is so ugly, only a mother could love it. Apart from that I didn’t hear much complaints about a people they just invaded. Maybe after Arminius kicked their asses in the battle of the Teutoburg Forest they found out the Teutons weren’t good victims to exploit.
Anyway, as far as I know Germany was always on 24h time, long before anybody invented any military. And it’s just logical that military uses the same time as everybody else. Alsooooo, our time format is hh:mm:secsec, your military format is hhmmsecsec. It’s a thing completely of its own, probably in order so they can make plans with allied armies n stuff. In Europe nobody needs that since we’re all on the same 24h system.
So when I make an appointment for 19:00 tonight nobody will ask me if that is in military time. Because it isn’t. It’s just time.
And the last offensive war Germany had started was on orders from Washington, when the Bundeswehr (illegally according to our constitution) attacked Serbia during the Yugoslavian civil war in the 90’s. You should be proud of us for being such loyal henchmen and bombing democracy into every little Balkan village.
Fuuuuk, I’m so happy to be out of there. 😐
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Very well, Bex, I guess you choose the right DE. KDE is the most versatile and micro-tunable thing ever. Too much for little Orci. But I fail to see the connection between a desktop and bleeding edge. When you run KDE on Endeavour you’re surfing the bleeding edge, when you run it on something Debian then you’re years behind the curve, and cool only in your own special way. 😉
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I think of bleeding edgers as those who use vanilla Arch and type all their commands on the terminal, eeek!
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Bleeding edge are distros who get all the latest packages sent downstream right away, yes, for example Arch. I wouldn’t know where to draw the line and if Manjaro with its 2-weeks cooling period is still the bleeding edge or not. Prolly not.
But anyway, this has nothing to do with your chosen desktop. I falsely understood you ruled out KDE from being bleeding edge.
BTW, the very few occasions when I need to install or de-install software or stuff, I’m using the terminal as well. The very few commands I know enable me to do a buncha stuff without needing to klikker thru layers of GUI boxes. It’s elegant and speedy.
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