notes:distro_comparisons
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Table of Contents
Notes
- The following list contains various operating systems and my opinions
- These are my experiences below; YMMV
- Any other distro or OS not mentioned was either not tested, or isn't worth using
Fedora Workstation
Good
- SELinux
- Vanilla GNOME
- Allows XFS and F2FS root partitions
Bad
- SELinux on servers (annoying)
- RPM Fusion (shoddy behavior with mesa-freeworld VA-API ordeal)
Conclusions
- RHEL/CentOS is mostly relevant in US business and thus makes Fedora a good choice to be familiar with for a Linux sysadmin
- Fedora is particularly clean and works well!
openSUSE Tumbleweed
Good
- Rolling-release
- Vanilla GNOME
- Allows XFS root partition
- Various Wine packages (standard, staging, standard with nine, staging with nine)
- Yast is nice for configuring the network on servers
- LiveUSBs automatically have persistence even when
dd'd directly to flash drives - Has
steamand other packages of interest that Fedora doesn't have in default repos
Bad
- None
Unsure
- AppArmor (it's not annoying, but it's not obvious what all it even protects)
- YaST is its own large suite that feels odd in a desktop environment
Conclusions
- The framework is great but it's not really interesting compared to the enterprise-feel of Fedora or desktop-friendly Ubuntu
- XFCE LiveUSB is a great sysadmin tool!
Ubuntu
Good
- All packages ever wanted exist in default repos
- The largest support for Linux apps; if it exists it likely supports Ubuntu
- Snap (I prefer them over Flatpak)
- oibaf PPA for graphics
- Liquorix and xanmod kernels
Bad
- 2023/10/28: Randomly hard-froze (REISUB didn't work); haven't had a distro hard-freeze in years but to be fair this could be because of Liquorix
Conclusions
- Ubuntu is the best distro for desktop Linux
macOS
Good
- Message sync between iPhone and macOS
- UI scaling (it somehow scales a lower res to a higher res while maintaining crisp text, and being compatible with programs not expecting this)
- Better performance with windowed applications with eGPU on internal screen
- Hackintosh builds are neat!
Bad
- eGPU needs 3rd-party software on
outdated“unsupported” Macs (automate-eGPU) - Creating custom resolutions needs 3rd-party program (SwitchResX, which is paid)
- Some games have significantly lower performance
- Limited hardware diagnostic apps, and most are paid
Conclusions
- Lacks the hard-grit of Linux and performance for games on Windows, but makes up for it being the best visually :p
- Might be interesting if using Apple's ecosystem
Windows 10
Good
- Best performance, by far, undeniably, no matter the GPU vendor for anything with graphics 1)
- The most reputable memory testing programs are Windows-only
- Best VR (virtual reality) support
- No hardware oddities (stuff just works and works as-expected, notably more-so than Linux)
Bad
- Some drivers are an absolute nightmare to source, but Windows Update does pretty well most of the time
Unsure
- WU forces an Alps touchpad driver that constantly polls the mouse pointer even when it isn't used, and has a service that eats CPU while doing it; WU does not offer an option to deny it, but Device ID restrictions save the day
- CRU developer claims an Intel driver bug causes issues (post)
Conclusions
- It just-works, and consistently
- The best option by-far for gaming and VR
Windows 11
Good
- Latest-and-greatest
Bad
- Can't hide clock in Taskbar
- Oculus in early 2023 still had inconsistent performance with Blade & Sorcery running at like 50 FPS
- Insider editions are notably slower real-world even on NVMe
Could not (mid-2023) disable Windows Defender nor its real-time scan permanently even with NSudo; it randomly re-enables
Conclusions
- Non-insider may be viable for a general Windows install
1)
Linux fanboys are pushing obvious inferiority to a concerning degree; I've tested a NVIDIA RTX 3060, AMD RX 6600 XT, and Intel UHD 630 and confirm this in 2023
/var/www/wiki/data/attic/notes/distro_comparisons.1698772980.txt.gz · Last modified: 2023/10/31 13:23 by Sean Rhone