I've been using the Linux operating system for close to 5 years now. My first foray was with Ubuntu 8.04 and ever since, I've been switching between distributions (a.k.a. distros) but I have always used Ubuntu as my fallback, and starting 2012, it was Mageia. But recently, I decided to just stick with Debian-based distros so I don't need to memorize a whole lot of troubleshooting and CLI commands.
Here's a list of the distros I wanted to use, in order of my preference:
- Debian 7 (Wheezy)
- CrunchBang 11 (Waldorf)
- Linux Mint 13 (Maya)
- Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin)
- (Tied) elementary OS 0.2 (Luna) or Pear OS 7
And here are some of my personal thoughts about said distros.
Debian 7 (Wheezy)
I really wanted to use this as my main OS as I feel it is very flexible in terms of total user control. Similar to what I felt when I used Arch Linux in the past, building a customized setup with the 'net install' ISO of Debian 7 was very empowering to me as a user. But I had to look elsewhere because the boot process of my system was rather inconsistent. Most times it would boot up. But sometimes, it just freezes, and I have to do a hard-reset just so it can reboot and finally continue to an up and running OS. Also, I get sound issues with PulseAudio. I don't know if both issues are because of hardware incompatibilities, I guess I need to investigate it further in the future. But I needed a working computer so I moved on.
CrunchBang 11 (Waldorf)
Hell bent on using a Debian-based (except Ubuntu) system, I landed on the web pages of CrunchBang. I have heard of this distro before but never really considered it because I thought it was based on Arch Linux (which I also like). And when I read that it's a customized Debian-based distro using Openbox, I had to give it a go. My preferred desktop GUI when I used Debian was LXDE and, if I wanted to go lighter, Openbox (with tint2 as the panel); CrunchBang fit the bill. Using virtualization technology to test it, I fell in love with CrunchBang immediately! With all my data backed-up, I installed it on my physical machine. And it worked fine for a couple of days, until after unmounting a USB device caused a kernel panic! I thought it to be a one-off event, but it started happening more. Also, the inconsistent boot up I experienced with Debian 7, I was experiencing them again in CrunchBang 11. So again, I said goodbye to it, and moved on.
Linux Mint 13 (Maya)
Out of personal options with pure Debian-based (except Ubuntu) distros (note: I say personal options, because there are a plethora of Debian-based distros out there, like Trisquel, etc. but those didn't make it to my personal list), I came back to Ubuntu-based distros. Now, there's nothing wrong with Ubuntu. In fact, I owe it all to Ubuntu as it paved the way for me to using Linux. But I don't like their decision with using Unity (more on this later). Good thing Linux Mint was there to pick up the torch. And it isn't the no. 1 distro in Distrowatch for nothing. It's what I would consider to be a n00b distro as everything (except for the kitchen sink) is thrown in there by default. Adobe Flash player works by default, codecs to play MP3s and M4Vs and other proprietary formats are there. I probably would consider it to be a distro that works out-of-the-box. Not much tweaking and such. I really didn't have any issues with the distro itself. It booted up reliably 99% of the time, sound issues were gone, etc. I guess the issue was with myself, I got bored! I got bored because I wasn't tinkering with the command-line to get things to work. Come to think about it, I think Linux Mint 13 (Maya) XFCE would be my new fallback distro if others don't work out well for me.
NOTE: I could have used Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) to satiate my hunder for using a Debian-based (and not Ubuntu-based) distro, and I would have used LMDE, but it's a (semi) rolling-release distro (not that there's something wrong with that...I like Arch Linux) and it didn't fit my needs. If you haven't gleaned already from my list, my main requirement is a long-term release distro, so...
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin)
Ubuntu is what got me started using Linux. I got my first laptop in 2008 and it had Windows Vista pre-installed. I've read all the flak and dissing regarding said OS received. So I downloaded Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron), wiped off Windows Vista, and the rest, as they say, is history. Now, when I got my new desktop rig setup earlier this year, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS was the first OS I installed into it. And like Linux Mint, I really didn't have any critical issues. It booted properly 99% of the time, sound worked alright, non-free drivers/codecs/plugins were easy enough to install. What killed it for me was Unity. What I really didn't like about it was the application panel was stuck to the left side of the screen and it couldn't be moved somewhere else. Also, the integration of the context menus to the top panel was annoying -- use case: I have some 80x24 terminal windows running during a typical session which I like to put on the lower-right corner of my 1920x1080 resolution screen. Now, I want to access the context menu, like 'Preferences' for the terminal emulator. So, I'd have to drag the mouse from the lower-right corner all the way to the upper-left corner just so I can click the 'File' menu. I know I can use keyboard shortcuts, but still, it can be annoying for non-maximized windows. But this doesn't mean I will never use Ubuntu again...but then again, with them ads popping up from Dash searches, BY DEFAULT, gets into your nerves quickly.
elementary OS 0.2 (Luna) or Pear OS 7
Both these distros struck me as what I would describe as a 'Mac OSX'-ish looking OSes. I haven't had extensive experience with Mac OSX (except for times when I walk into an iStore -- Apple products resellers where I'm located -- and tinker with their MacBooks on display) so I can't comment much if these 2 OSes indeed work as close as how a Mac OSX machine would work. And I've only tried running both on virtualized environments so I don't have much to comment on with regard to how they would kick it when installed on my physical machine. Both are Ubuntu based, elementary OS 0.2 (Luna) uses 12.04 LTS and Pear OS 7 uses 12.10 (a cue that I will most likely not go with Pear OS 7).
Pear OS 7 is what I would consider to be the closest resemblance to Mac OSX as far as I can say. The dock houses icons which are very, very similar to Mac OSX. I can probably surmise that Pear OS 7 was created as some of distro to be used by transitioning Mac OSX users to Linux (similar to what Zorin OS is to Windows users). It's aesthetically pleasing graphically and it totally screams 'MAC OSX!' to me. And similar to Linux Mint, Pear OS 7 comes with pretty much everything; Quote. "And it comes with thousands of free applications. Pear OS 7 does everything you need it to. It’ll work with your existing PC files, printers, cameras and MP3 players." Unquote. This will probably go very well with new Linux users as well.
elementary OS 0.2 (Luna) is also another distro that looks like Mac OSX at first glance. But what it really is is something simpler. I don't know what's so appealing about it, but I would say the closest adjective I can pin on it is elegant. Like Pear OS 7 (and Mac OSX), it is also dock-centric. What's probably great about this distro is that it follows the "a new version will be released when it's ready" philisophy, similar to that of Debian. That means that you are not "pressured" to update every 6 months to the next release of the distro which makes it somewhat stable in a way. Of course, it's based on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) so it will be supported until 2017. Unlike Pear OS 7 which throws everything into the fold, elementary OS has a much more minimalistic approach. It doesn't come with proprietary plugins and modules installed. That makes it somewhat harder for Linux n00bs to use out-of-the-box. It also comes with it's own desktop environment called Pantheon (a port of Gnome 3, I suppose) and it's own applications written from scratch like Scratch text editor.
Conclusion
So, what am I using now? Inasmuch as I'd hoped to use pure Debian, or pure Debian-based (except Ubuntu), distro, I have to say that the Ubuntu-based distros I mentioned above are what's giving me better experiences. As I mentioned, my first fallback right now would be Linux Mint 13 (Maya) but since discovering elementary OS 0.2 (Luna), I decided to give the latter a go. So as of this posting, I am using elementary OS 0.2 (Luna) as my main OS.
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