Solus OS

[BikeWhisperer]

I know there are a few of you that enjoy using Linux as either your main OS or as a hobby. I've been using Linux as my main home OS since 2007 and for the most part have stuck with Ubuntu and Mint (and close derivatives). But I've also played with other distros from Fedora to Manjaro to OpenSUSE along with some independent distros. Two I have recently played with over the past year have been very good. If you're a KDE fan, KaOS is an Arch like (but not based on Arch) independent distro that is pretty cool. But the one that I am now using as my main distro is Solus OS with the Budgie desktop.

The great thing is that Solus OS is very easy to install and use so you don't have to have anymore experience in Linux than you would installing Ubuntu or Mint. The software selection is good (as expected, not as good as Ubuntu/Mint but pretty much everything you need is there). If you're looking for something new or looking to leave Winblows, I highly recommend giving Solus OS a try.

 

[JohnnyJohnson]

Almost anything has to be better than 365 day Microsucks!

 

[csandste]

Was giving some thought to installing Ubuntu Budgie but heard it's larger and slower than Ubuntu Mate or Mint Mate, my two go-to's.

How does U Budgie compare to Solus? Is Solus notably larger than Mate distros? Does Budgie bring something to the table that Mate lacks?

Have an extra machine running Peppermint Linux and another one that I have access to. All about ten years old. Maybe I'll give Solus a try before Ubuntu Mate 18.04 is released.

 

[csandste]

See that Solus also has MATE as an alternate. My primary Mint computer is rather low end and seems to run better with MATE than Cinnamon. So I'd probably go with Solus Mate. Wonder what that would gain me over Mint MATE or Ubuntu MATE? Any thoughts?

 

[BikeWhisperer]

Originally Posted By: csandste
Was giving some thought to installing Ubuntu Budgie but heard it's larger and slower than Ubuntu Mate or Mint Mate, my two go-to's.

How does U Budgie compare to Solus? Is Solus notably larger than Mate distros? Does Budgie bring something to the table that Mate lacks?

Have an extra machine running Peppermint Linux and another one that I have access to. All about ten years old. Maybe I'll give Solus a try before Ubuntu Mate 18.04 is released.


Why would I use U Budgie? Budgie is developed by the Solus team and is their flagship DE. Much like Cinnamon on Mint, I have to assume that since the team is focused on Budgie on Solus OS, putting the desktop on a different base distro will always have compromises that hinder its performance. Solus OS will be more up to date and Budgie fixes and performance increases will be pushed to Solus OS way before they show up on U Budgie.

Ubuntu MATE LTS is very solid, and if total stability is your main concern then trying a newer independent OS may not be your thing. Like any rolling release distro there are always risks involved. But so far my experience has been no issues with any of the updates.

 

[beanoil]

elementary is my goto Linux for a while now. Mac look and feel.
Watt OS is a really small Linux with a file manager and browser. You can build it up to fit whatever need you have.

 

[BikeWhisperer]

Originally Posted By: beanoil
elementary is my goto Linux for a while now. Mac look and feel.
Watt OS is a really small Linux with a file manager and browser. You can build it up to fit whatever need you have.


Any distro that ships with Epiphany as its included browser should scrapped immediately. Worst browser I've ever used, can't go 10 minutes without it crashing.

 

[BikeWhisperer]

Correction, it was Midori that Elementary shipped with that was such a terrible browser. Perhaps Epiphany is better but why they wouldn't just put Firefox or Chromium in there is beyond me.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: BikeWhisperer
Correction, it was Midori that Elementary shipped with that was such a terrible browser. Perhaps Epiphany is better but why they wouldn't just put Firefox or Chromium in there is beyond me.


Epiphany is the "stock" browser for the Gnome desktop, from which most of these in-house desktops are forked. Epiphany functions more to show web content for other apps than as a stand-alone browser these days. Both Epiphany and Midori seek to be minimal, standards-compliant GTK-based browsers for low-spec systems. I have found both to be useful in that narrow capacity; but not very useful as a daily driver.

The problem with both Firefox and Chromium/ Chrome for distros that want to remain minimal and have a consistent UI is that neither use GTK exclusively for drawing their UI (and therefore tend to need a lot more RAM just to sit there and idle).