Choose a Linux distribution

When we’re thinking about installing Linux on our computer or in a virtual machine we’ve got to make some choices before we can even begin installing Linux. Before we can make those decisions, we’ve got to get on the same page about some terminology.

What even is Linux?

Linux is an overloaded word, it can mean at least two different things:

1. Linux can mean an entire operating system, or
2. Linux can mean just the “kernel” for an operating system.

What’s an operating system? An operating system is one or more pieces of software that manage hardware resources and provide a consistent “interface” for programs (not a GUI, but a set of “functions” to ask for things to be done like reading and writing files). An operating system usually consists of a “kernel” and a suite of utilities that a regular human can interact with (like a shell or a GUI).

What’s a kernel? A kernel is a big piece of software (usually written in C (Linux) or C++ (Windows), but sometimes written in newer languages like Rust (Redox)) that does the low-level hardware resource management.

The Linux kernel is an operating system that’s written in C and is used everywhere (it’s on your computer right now; if you’re using an Android phone, it’s also in your pocket!).

When the Linux kernel is put together as a complete operating system, it’s usually bundled with “GNU” utilities. You’re more than welcome to read about the entire idea of GNU/Linux, but be forewarned: this is a deep rabbit hole.

What is a distribution?

Linux can be minimally distributed as the kernel plus the GNU suite of utilities, but it would be really minimal. Installing new software would be painful and tedious. Browsing the web would pretty much be impossible (this isn’t a challenge; yes, you could do it, but gosh, it would be painful).

When we are getting a “Linux operating system”, we’re usually choosing a “distribution” of Linux. A distribution (also often shortened to “distro”) is a complete package that usually consists of the following:

• The Linux kernel
• The GNU suite of utilities
• Many other command-line programs that are useful, but not part of the GNU suite of utilities.
• An init system, a program that starts up other programs when your computer starts up.
• A package manager that you can use to download and install other programs (instead of downloading and compiling source code).
• A desktop environment (or DE); a GUI that you can use to run graphical programs like a web browser.
• A suite of graphical software (e.g., LibreOffice, Firefox).

There are a lot of distributions to choose from:

Like a lot a lot. Seriously. Open this image in a new tab and just scroll.

Why?! Why are there so many???!!! (Can you sense the exasperation in this?)

Here’s the short answer: there are so many because people get just annoyed enough to make something new, and because they can.

Anyone can make a new Linux distribution (yes, even you!) because Linux and most of the software that come packaged in distributions are free and open-source.

How should I choose one?

OK, so there are a lot. Like a lot a lot. But that’s overwhelming. How do I choose?

Here are some questions you can answer that will help you decide which of the popular Linux distributions you should choose:

• Do you want an OS that has a friendly user interface, or are you OK using the command-line to do most things?
• Do you want an OS where it’s very easy to ask for or pay to get help, or are you OK reading lots of documentation to help you out when you get stuck with something?
• Do you usually want the latest and greatest versions of software, or would you prefer to stick with stable and secure, even if it is older?

The most popular distributions are the best starting point; here’s a list of some popular distributions:

• Ubuntu (user friendly; easy to ask or pay to get help; tries to compromise between stability and keeping up to date with the latest and greatest).
• Fedora (user friendly; easy to ask for help; tries to compromose between stability and keeping up to date with the latest and greatest).
• OpenSUSE (user friendly; easy to ask or pay to get help; tries to compromise between stability and keeping up to date with the latest and gratest).
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (user friendly; pay to get help; focus primarily on stability).
• ArchLinux (not user friendly, most things are done on the command-line; easy to ask for help; trying to keep up with the latest and greatest sometimes at the expense of stability).
• Debian (user friendly-ish; easy to ask for help; focus primarily on stability).

For the purposes of this course (and the rest of the topics this week), we recommend that you choose Ubuntu. Ubuntu is easy to use, has a very large community of users to get support from, and has a company backing it (Canonical) that you can pay for support you, if you need it.

That said: if you’re interested in trying something new, or you want to go through the process of making your own choice, you can use a tool like Distrochooser to help you.

Why use Linux at all?

“My computer came with an operating system (Windows, macOS). Why would I want to use a different operating system at all?”

Here’s why I (me, Franklin) use Linux on my computers:

1. Linux is free. Windows and macOS come with your computer, but they are not free. They are neither free as in speech nor free as in beer. You pay for Windows and macOS when you buy your computer. For Windows: if you never use the Windows installed on your computer, you can (in theory) request a refund from the manufacturer of your computer.

   Linux is free as in beer (you do not need to buy Linux, it’s freely available on the internet), and is free as in speech (not only can you download and use it for free, but you can also read its source code, modify its source code, and republish its source code).

   I consider both of these to be important.

2. (Get ready to put on your tin foil hats) Windows is slowly becoming free as in beer (you don’t pay anything for it), but the reality is that Microsoft is making money from users by showing ads ([1], [2], [3]) and Microsoft collects a lot of data about your usage.

3. Linux distributions make it easy for me to do what I want to do with my computer. I spend a lot of time writing in vim (mostly code and Markdown). I write a lot of code in Java and C. I spend a lot of time on the command line (I use fish). Installing and using all of these tools is straightforward or trivial with Linux distributions.

   Microsoft is making it easier to do that (I do spend a lot of time using the Windows subsystem for Linux), and tools like Homebrew make it easier for me to do that in macOS, but why use systems where it’s just now being made easier when it’s already easy in another system?

4. Linux distributions give me choices about a lot of things. Even when I’m picking a distribution like Ubuntu that’s made a lot of choices for me, I can still make decisions about what I want later on:

   • I can use different terminal software (Terminator, kitty, Hyper).
   • I can trivially change icon themes.
   • I can completely switch desktop environments (Gnome, KDE, Elementary).
   • I can even go without desktop environments and use bare window managers (berry, enlightenment, Hyprland).

Of course, these are idealistic reasons to use Linux. Why shouldn’t you use Linux?

1. There are still issues with some (generally the newest) hardware. Linux is barely running on Apple Silicon. Sleep doesn’t always work on the newest laptops, or it does with tinkering. That said, Linux works surprisingly well on older hardware.
2. Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, many (but fewer than before) commercial games do not work on Linux at all. Yes, there’s Wine; yes, there are web versions of Office; yes, Steam and Proton are amazing; but they aren’t drop-in replacements for everything.
3. Getting support can be harder. The Windows community is… to say that it’s huge is an understatement. The market share for Linux is lower than “Unknown”. That said, you can pay for support (but that sort of negates the whole “free” thing), and the support communities for Linux are generally welcoming and helpful.