Which Linux distribution would you use now?

[tech30338]

I have been running the same distro for years and now im basically forced to wipe the install and start from scratch because they stopped rolling updates. I was using Elementary OS version 5 and as you can see the Ubuntu release it's based on doesn't do updates anymore.

elementary OS Version    Released    Ubuntu Release    Ubuntu Maintenance Updates
0.4 Loki                            Sep 9, 2016    16.04 LTS    April 2021
5 Juno                            Oct 16, 2018    18.04 LTS    April 2023
5.1 Hera                            Dec 3, 2019    18.04 LTS    April 2023
6 Odin                            Aug 10, 2021    20.04 LTS    April 2025
6.1 Jólnir                            Dec 20, 2021    20.04 LTS    April 2025
7.0 Horus                            Jan 31, 2023    22.04 LTS    April 2027

I want to ask what people here are using. I want something that is easy to install that has full disk encryption features during the install on the GUI. And basically something without privacy unfriendly bloatware (like Ubuntu).

I would also like something that doesn't force you to wipe your stuff and start from scratch every 2 or 3 years.

I was looking at n0nce's guide on OpenSUSE. I have never tried that one. Not sure if meets the criteria but having a guide is really nice and would save a lot of time. But there's not much documentation in regards to Bitcoin, most of it is Ubuntu or Debian based. Someone commented this:

SUSE is rather painful to get in to in some aspects. I did many custom deployments of OS and post install automatic configuration. Suse frustrated me because they put things in different places compared to  most of the other distros, and have an extremely capable and complicated installation control file. Unfortunately, it is not easily created and the documentation is partially missing. To allow users/admins to make use of control files; ALL the possible valid options must be listed in the documentation and this documentation needs to be in a well known or easily found location. It is only AFTER investing considerable time that I came to appreciate the odd and different over-engineered aspects of SUSE. It is very powerful.

So I would rather use something more common. I want to be able to search for stuff and find answers.

mocacinno has a guide for CentOS, but it hasn't been update in 3 years so probably there's some stuff that changed.

Does anyone maintain any other guides for different distros? Im interested in mostly a Bitcoin Core node to form transaction in a desktop install, and a watch-only wallet to broadcast them and check funds, and do this through Tor with a laptop.

There has to be a simple OS that just works. But I guess im going to need to go with Ubuntu based ones so that will require full updates every 2 or 3 years when LTS versions run out of updates. And since I use full disk encryption im going to need to reinstall the whole think backing up the wallets and resync. I guess I can do that every few years. In that case I would try the new ElementaryOS but I would like to know what people hereare using, please let me know so I decide what to install.

The most common is Ubuntu since there is community support, and easy to install, also meets your requirement, they have upgrades but ofcourse even those who are familiar with linux always do backups when worse happen they have something to restore, you are responsible on what you run on linux or ubuntu, it won't run it unless you say so, even the firewall, 5 years is already long enough, what are you trying to achieve? security updates or application updates? I've been using ubuntu for years now I'm still have one running ubuntu 16, also someone using slackware though it has different purpose and still running for almost 10yrs or more now, without issue.

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[Greg Tonoski]

to be a simple OS that just works.

SystemRescue just works: https://www.system-rescue.org/

[LoyceV]

SystemRescue just works: https://www.system-rescue.org/

That's not an OS for daily tasks:

SystemRescue (formerly known as SystemRescueCd) is a Linux system rescue toolkit available as a bootable medium for administrating or repairing your system and data after a crash.

[LoyceV]

their beginner guide (~) heavily involve terminal usage.

I would argue it's good to learn to use the command line (and vi), but it comes with a steep learning curve. After that, it's much more powerful and faster than using a GUI.

[PrivacyG]

I would argue it's good to learn to use the command line (and vi), but it comes with a steep learning curve. After that, it's much more powerful and faster than using a GUI.

Back in my school days I was told GUI is only for the lazy and if I wanted to be cool and fast I should learn Command Line instead.  It took me a very long time to understand this because to the average human the Command Line looks like something straight out of a NASA computer.  First seemed like a joke.  But ended up being true.  It is much faster and easier.  And you are even told every thing that happens in background most of the time too.  Easier to tell why some things go wrong sometimes and can monitor how things run.  Things you do not get with Windows or most of the very user friendly focused Operating Systems and GUIs.

Amazing to say the least.  I recommend any body who is bored to start learning how to use a Terminal, it is a fun process and helps with your mental too.  They say your brain is less likely to degrade if you keep learning new things.

[takuma sato]

I've tried Mint on a live CD and it comes way too bloated for my taste, too many media related software that I don't need for this purpose. A basic text editor, a spreadsheet editor, and basic dependencies to compile Bitcoin Core as well as Tor should be it. Im either going to use Xubuntu or try the latest Debian release. Seems pretty easy to install nowadays compared to back then. Does anyone here use that distro at all? It comes with a full disk encryption setting on the wizard.
I'll try automatic partition setting and just encrypt the whole thing. Im not sure if it encrypts the boot partition too, but I want it to encrypt for sure swap and home. Some people don't realize these may remain unencrypted and leak your data on there.

I would argue it's good to learn to use the command line (and vi), but it comes with a steep learning curve. After that, it's much more powerful and faster than using a GUI.

Back in my school days I was told GUI is only for the lazy and if I wanted to be cool and fast I should learn Command Line instead.  It took me a very long time to understand this because to the average human the Command Line looks like something straight out of a NASA computer.  First seemed like a joke.  But ended up being true.  It is much faster and easier.  And you are even told every thing that happens in background most of the time too.  Easier to tell why some things go wrong sometimes and can monitor how things run.  Things you do not get with Windows or most of the very user friendly focused Operating Systems and GUIs.

Amazing to say the least.  I recommend any body who is bored to start learning how to use a Terminal, it is a fun process and helps with your mental too.  They say your brain is less likely to degrade if you keep learning new things.

I used to be console-command only but I realized sometimes you just want to rely on a graphical interface. When manually crafting a raw Bitcoin transaction for instance, you can screw up somewhere by entering the stuff manually. I would rather do it on the GUI. Granted, you always have maximum control with the terminal but this comes with great responsibility, and I don't want to gamble screwing up in the process specially in the context of irreversible transactions. Same goes for full disk encryption. One could write a bible about LUKS setups with the command line but I would rather stick to the basics and get it done on the GUI, unless I really needed something so specific that I required to enter it manually.

[BlackHatCoiner]

I would argue it's good to learn to use the command line (and vi), but it comes with a steep learning curve. After that, it's much more powerful and faster than using a GUI.

Depends on what precisely you use it for. Simply editing text which could be also done using nano might be worth it, but when writing code, you have tools such as VSCode which provide another level of comfort and efficiency. Even better if you install the vim plugin and gain the advantages of vim, including VSCode's.

To me, the answer on that matter is simple. Learn a little bit of everything when it comes to the terminal, but don't put the terminal above everything. Knowing vim has particularly only helped me when editing files via an ssh-ed terminal. I can write code much faster and more correctly on VSCode.

[NotATether]

I've tried Mint on a live CD and it comes way too bloated for my taste, too many media related software that I don't need for this purpose. A basic text editor, a spreadsheet editor, and basic dependencies to compile Bitcoin Core as well as Tor should be it. Im either going to use Xubuntu or try the latest Debian release. Seems pretty easy to install nowadays compared to back then. Does anyone here use that distro at all? It comes with a full disk encryption setting on the wizard.
I'll try automatic partition setting and just encrypt the whole thing. Im not sure if it encrypts the boot partition too, but I want it to encrypt for sure swap and home. Some people don't realize these may remain unencrypted and leak your data on there.

In that case, use Debian and then replace the default GNOME desktop with an XFCE desktop.

You don't need to encrypt the boot partition, it has no data of interest to inspectors except for maybe your kernel version and the name of the operating system(s) you are booting.

I would argue it's good to learn to use the command line (and vi), but it comes with a steep learning curve. After that, it's much more powerful and faster than using a GUI.

Depends on what precisely you use it for. Simply editing text which could be also done using nano might be worth it, but when writing code, you have tools such as VSCode which provide another level of comfort and efficiency. Even better if you install the vim plugin and gain the advantages of vim, including VSCode's.

vim is not so bad since I already know how to use it, but to this day I still find nano convoluted to use (and don't get me started on C-X C-C emacs).

[takuma sato]

I've tried Mint on a live CD and it comes way too bloated for my taste, too many media related software that I don't need for this purpose. A basic text editor, a spreadsheet editor, and basic dependencies to compile Bitcoin Core as well as Tor should be it. Im either going to use Xubuntu or try the latest Debian release.

I just tried installing Linux Mint on VM and amount of the bloat isn't as bad i expected. But since it's too bloated, your option is limited to Debian or manually uninstall the bloat. And i expect Xubuntu has many bloat for you needs since the ISO alone has size 2.8GB.

I've tried Mint on a live CD and it comes way too bloated for my taste, too many media related software that I don't need for this purpose. A basic text editor, a spreadsheet editor, and basic dependencies to compile Bitcoin Core as well as Tor should be it. Im either going to use Xubuntu or try the latest Debian release. Seems pretty easy to install nowadays compared to back then. Does anyone here use that distro at all? It comes with a full disk encryption setting on the wizard.
I'll try automatic partition setting and just encrypt the whole thing. Im not sure if it encrypts the boot partition too, but I want it to encrypt for sure swap and home. Some people don't realize these may remain unencrypted and leak your data on there.

In that case, use Debian and then replace the default GNOME desktop with an XFCE desktop.

I don't recall Debian has default DE since you need to chose the DE either when choosing ISO or during installation. Is that no longer true?

The image that shows up here doesn't look like it has the desktop interfaces separated:

https://www.debian.org/

The download button leads to this file:

https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/debian-12.2.0-amd64-netinst.iso

This requires internet connection to install. Im assuming this contains all the different interfaces. Also im not sure if this will work with an nvidia GPU. Has anyone tried? it may give error since it has free firmware. In that case you may want to try this:

Non-free Firmware

This Debian image build only includes Free Software where possible. However, many systems include hardware which depends on non-free firmware to function properly so this build also includes those firmware files for those cases. See the Debian Wiki non-free firmware page for more information.

https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/weekly-builds/amd64/iso-dvd/

And when it comes to partitions, im just going to select it to automatically make whatever partitions are needed, will this encrypt the /home and /swap partitions? I just want to make sure that full disk encryption is applied, but I don't want to screw around with manually doing things. So during the wizard I enter the encryption LVM setting and enter a password, it does encrypt the whole thing?

Edit: Found this:

https://xo.tc/setting-up-full-disk-encryption-on-debian-9-stretch.html



According to this, only the sda5_crypt volume is encrypted? what about the swap one?

Also looks like interfaces are included within the iso:

[BenCodie]

Linux mint is user friendly but is it really the best option if hardening is something that is being kept in mind?

Tails and whonix are great but good luck making these your daily drivers. Of course. Qubes is a similar story, huge security and privacy benefit, ability to isolate into VMs, but a mission to make it a daily driver.

I've been experimenting with Nix OS, which is secure in the sense that it runs from one core configuration file which you can see changes if any are made (great for security and auditing, life is easy). I've also been watching Parrotsec create their Parrot software. Debian based, seems to work and quite hardened out of the box.

I think these are much easier than tails and whonix from my little experience, everything is easier than Qubes but if you manage to use that as a daily driver and become experienced with it, you have done a hell of a good job! I'm yet to try and properly conquer it.

[linux.poet]

While I currently use kubuntu for my daily driver, I wouldn't use it for a web server or anything that I was concerned about leaking data to third parties.

For Bitcoin and secure crypto transactions, I would look into Manjaro or any Arch distribution powerful enough to handle the necessary software.

[tech30338]

While I currently use kubuntu for my daily driver, I wouldn't use it for a web server or anything that I was concerned about leaking data to third parties.

For Bitcoin and secure crypto transactions, I would look into Manjaro or any Arch distribution powerful enough to handle the necessary software.

Linux has desktop and server OS, while you can use desktop OS for the webserver it is recommended to use server OS for web servers, more likely to use minimal iso image for that since you will only need to run what is needed for the web servers,
Linux flavors are safe, if they have been compromised it means you messed up the configuration firewall and permissions.

[vv181]

And when it comes to partitions, im just going to select it to automatically make whatever partitions are needed, will this encrypt the /home and /swap partitions? I just want to make sure that full disk encryption is applied, but I don't want to screw around with manually doing things. So during the wizard I enter the encryption LVM setting and enter a password, it does encrypt the whole thing?

According to this, only the sda5_crypt volume is encrypted? what about the swap one?

AFAIK, device_mapper indicates the "drive" is pointed to the decrypted drive of vda5_cypt, so, the swap partition is on the encrypted disk.

I don't recall Debian has default DE since you need to chose the DE either when choosing ISO or during installation. Is that no longer true?

They do still offer the option on Debian 12.

[mocacinno]

once again... i'll be pushing for my work distro, just because i think it's an under-appreciated distro that can easily stand up to other (more popular) ones... i'm not affiliated with suse, but by working with them for many years, i grew to love how this distro works...

I usually don't use gui tools, but when i hear the words "encryption", "just works" and "easy" floating around, i automatically think about yast2 (also available as an ncurses based tool from the gui).

on a test vm, i added a new virtual disk... here you see the lsblk output (sdc = the new device)
This is SLES (suse linux enterprise server) because i didn't have a recent opensuse image to deploy on the test vm... But opensuse also uses yast2, so the screens should be comparable



i started the partitioner of yast2, here's sdc (unpartitioned). I just had to click the "add partition" button at the bottom of the screen



the add partition wizard was started



some more questions





here, i'm asked if i have to format the device, the partition id, wether or not an entry should be make in the /etc/fstab... And a simple checkbox to indicate the device should be encrypted



if selected, you need to enter a password


some next/next/next/finish/ok buttons follow (not screencapped)

and we end up here (lsblk output)



offcourse, when booting, you need a terminal to enter the passphrase...



I would also like to dedicate a couple of minutes talking about safety. Thinking linux is always more secure than (for example) windows isn't completely correct... A recent, popular, stable, out of the box, linux distro is allmost always more secure than a recent, plain-vanilla windows installation... But not completely secure. And if you do a bad job configuring and maintaining your linux partition it can be less secure than a well configured and maintained windows installation.

Suse is knows as a secure distro, you would not believe how many flags pop up if you run the stig profile trough openscap on a plain vanilla installation... It took me ages to close most of the "gaps", but it's allmost impossible to get a perfect score. Next to this, security vulnerability's are found (and patched) on a daily basis, there ARE virusses targetting linux distro's... And then there's the PICNIC problem, every piece of software has config you CAN (and probably will) mess up, sometimes resulting in a (small) attack vector.

Once again, i'm a big linux fan... I come from managing actual unix systems and rolled into linux many (many) years ago... And i can say that a properly setup, patched, mainted, monitorred,... linux distro can be *very* secure. I can honestly say that i'm convinced my linux servers are more secure than the windows servers in my company... Linux is great for beginners all the way to veterans, but thinking it's 100% safe is not a good idear.

[PrivacyG]

Suse is knows as a secure distro, you would not believe how many flags pop up if you run the stig profile trough openscap on a plain vanilla installation... It took me ages to close most of the "gaps", but it's allmost impossible to get a perfect score. Next to this, security vulnerability's are found (and patched) on a daily basis, there ARE virusses targetting linux distro's... And then there's the PICNIC problem, every piece of software has config you CAN (and probably will) mess up, sometimes resulting in a (small) attack vector.

There will never be such thing as PERFECT Security.  There will always be gaps.

I tend to believe Linux offers better Security than Windows only if the user continues the same behavior they had when they had Windows installed.  Browsing the same pages.  The same websites.  Downloading from the same sources.

If your behavior changes from typical Windows user to paranoid Linux user then you are going to visit more Privacy oriented websites.  You will download from more Privacy oriented sources.  You will change your behavior.  I would say for the better.  But on the other hand there will be more Linux targeting viruses on such websites than if you search for things the usual user of Windows would.  As a consequence you are going to probably have about the same Security you had on Windows.

Also remember there is a Terminal we are supposed to use.  This gives us control but it is pointless to think of it as more secure if the user has no idea what they are writing into it.  Installing DEB files from unknown sources or with out verifying their legitimacy beforehand.  Downloading packages from the Internet instead of using the Terminal for this purpose.  Installing 'App Stores'.  Modifying and doing things as SU.  There are many ways some body could mess up badly even with the 'safest' Distro.

I would argue it is a steep learning curve but also a steep way to more Security.  The more you learn, the less likely an attack.  Any body who has never used Linux before.  If you want to separate from Windows and move to it, go ahead.  But I really do recommend you first experiment with it.  Get some old laptop and start messing with Linux.  See what is good or bad to do.  Learn.  When you are ready and feel safe to move permanently, go.

[takuma sato]

Suse is knows as a secure distro, you would not believe how many flags pop up if you run the stig profile trough openscap on a plain vanilla installation... It took me ages to close most of the "gaps", but it's allmost impossible to get a perfect score. Next to this, security vulnerability's are found (and patched) on a daily basis, there ARE virusses targetting linux distro's... And then there's the PICNIC problem, every piece of software has config you CAN (and probably will) mess up, sometimes resulting in a (small) attack vector.

There will never be such thing as PERFECT Security.  There will always be gaps.

I tend to believe Linux offers better Security than Windows only if the user continues the same behavior they had when they had Windows installed.  Browsing the same pages.  The same websites.  Downloading from the same sources.

If your behavior changes from typical Windows user to paranoid Linux user then you are going to visit more Privacy oriented websites.  You will download from more Privacy oriented sources.  You will change your behavior.  I would say for the better.  But on the other hand there will be more Linux targeting viruses on such websites than if you search for things the usual user of Windows would.  As a consequence you are going to probably have about the same Security you had on Windows.

Also remember there is a Terminal we are supposed to use.  This gives us control but it is pointless to think of it as more secure if the user has no idea what they are writing into it.  Installing DEB files from unknown sources or with out verifying their legitimacy beforehand.  Downloading packages from the Internet instead of using the Terminal for this purpose.  Installing 'App Stores'.  Modifying and doing things as SU.  There are many ways some body could mess up badly even with the 'safest' Distro.

I would argue it is a steep learning curve but also a steep way to more Security.  The more you learn, the less likely an attack.  Any body who has never used Linux before.  If you want to separate from Windows and move to it, go ahead.  But I really do recommend you first experiment with it.  Get some old laptop and start messing with Linux.  See what is good or bad to do.  Learn.  When you are ready and feel safe to move permanently, go.

I would say you are already compromised by default no matter what you do if you run a Windows machine. Your entire operating system is essentially a backdoor since your code is unknown, so anything goes. A Linux user is going to be protected from that, since most software developers on Linux have an open source philosophy and such mindset and environment is free of viruses since if your code is open source, no one is going to bother with putting bad stuff on it anyway.

There's also the fact that anyone that bothers enough to look up a Windows alternative should already have some minimum knowledge of not downloading pirated software, visiting websites that tend to have scripts and so on.

As far as Debian, im going to go with version 12 since I've decided it's the best approach. SuSe is too niche for me and other alternatives are either bloated or lack documentation.

[Wind_FURY]

Whonix only runs as a Virtual Machine.  There is no way you can INSTALL it as a stand alone Operating System.

There are two ways of running Whonix.  Qubes or Virtual Machine.  Qubes is kind of hard to get accustomed to if you are not a fan of new UI and if you are unprepared a new, overhauled experience with a Linux distribution.  I like Qubes because it gives you many options.  You create what they call 'Domains' which are pretty much Virtual Machines.  You can create a Windows 'Domain' with no Internet connection.  All Domains are separated.  They do not interfere.  Any USB you insert has to be assigned to Domains you want it to be assigned to.  Any thing you do is pretty much happening in separate Virtual Machines and Qubes is just an offline desktop to manage them.  Think of it as running multiple computers all on the same monitor.

Best part of it is that the main management desktop known as dom0 is offline while you can run online Domains.  With this being said.  If a Domain is hacked it is almost impossible for the virus or hacker to get to dom0 let alone another Domain.  It is overkill like you say however.  Unless you truly care about top notch Security.

Like I said however.  It is hard to get accustomed to it.  You will have to do a lot of documentation.  Reading their install documentation is very important too.  You will learn a ton of important things about keeping high levels of Privacy and Security while running Qubes.

Qubes offers full disk encryption in the Install GUI and is extremely Privacy friendly.  It has pretty big system requirements however.  There is an exhaustive list of computers tested with it.  Maybe it is helpful to you.  https://www.qubes-os.org/hcl/

Now that I wrote this all I realize I sound like a walking Qubes advertising billboard!

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Tails is fun and all but because of its amnesic properties it is not a great Operating System for daily use.  It was not meant to be a daily driver or to be used occasionally with Persistent Storage anyway.  So I do not recomment doing a Persistent installation of Tails.  What I like about it is the amnesic property of it.  But this makes it only a great temporary Operating System.  It is perfect if you need to quickly boot up Tails for an Internet search.

In some cases Tails is more secure and can offer more Privacy than Qubes can.  But for your needs this might not be it.  Would not recommend any body to run a Full Node on Tails.  Defeats the purpose of Tails and probably builds loop holes too weakening the Security you should have.

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Since you are looking at some Debian distros.  Why do you not just install the blank version of Debian?  Download and install only the first CD file from https://www.debian.org/CD/http-ftp/.  That will install the most stripped version of Debian.  Last time I checked, the stripped version of Debian is 100 percent Open Source.  Then you can install any non free driver or package you like by downloading it from https://www.debian.org/distrib/packages.  This is the most hard core way you can go if you do not trust any thing and any body.

What I like about Debian is pretty much ANY issue you will ever encounter with Debian will be about one or two quick searches away.  There is an entire community for this distro.  It is Debian after all.

Warning.  This means you will encounter a lot of problems you will have to fix by yourself one by one until you can get to run the things you need properly.

You will probably not even have Wi Fi drivers after installing the first CD.  Probably will not need that if you are using Ethernet any way.  You can look up drivers for any thing that does not work.  I doubt you will not find a way.  Internet is your friend.

But there is a bit of work to do if you want to keep it as clean as possible and this is the best way to do it.  Who needs display driver which is proprietary.  Who needs Bluetooth adapter.  Who needs all that B S.  I like it raw.

There are many other distributions but I would not trust them.  Fewer contributors and users means more loopholes.  Tails, Qubes and Debian are pretty much Top 3 for people who do not trust their computer and Operating System much.  Ubuntu is probably the most popular distribution across the Linux community but even Ubuntu is based on Debian.  Why run something that has been built on top of Debian when you can run Debian itself.

Other Privacy oriented distributions are more focused on Security than Privacy it seems.  Kali and such.

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Or give them all a try.  See which you like most.  Maybe you fall in love with one and keep it.

You could also "virtualize" the different tasks that you do by merely using a distro like Linux Mint as your base OS + VirtualBox. The base OS should NOT be used for anything else except to run your VMs to avoid it getting infected with malware and being exploited.

You can install VirtualBox and install different operating systems to separate your Bitcoin activities from your emails, browsing, and porn. Porn should be in its own VM. If that VM gets infected, it won't spread to your base OS and your other VMs.

Linux Mint is probably good as a base OS + use Lubuntu for your VMs.

[LoyceV]

You could also "virtualize" the different tasks that you do by merely using a distro like Linux Mint as your base OS + VirtualBox. The base OS should NOT be used for anything else except to run your VMs to avoid it getting infected with malware and being exploited.

Isn't Qubes OS more suited if you want to virtualize everything?

Linux Mint is probably good as a base OS + use Lubuntu for your VMs.

That works very well too

[rwishmila]

Look for an LTS version, they are supported for 10 years usually after being released. In case you are using a bit old laptop, look for a lighter distro like XUbuntu to make the best out of your resources.

[ABCbits]

You could also "virtualize" the different tasks that you do by merely using a distro like Linux Mint as your base OS + VirtualBox. The base OS should NOT be used for anything else except to run your VMs to avoid it getting infected with malware and being exploited.

Isn't Qubes OS more suited if you want to virtualize everything?

It's also worth to mention VirtualBox usually is slower than KVM even though it's easier to setup and use.

Look for an LTS version, they are supported for 10 years usually after being released. In case you are using a bit old laptop, look for a lighter distro like XUbuntu to make the best out of your resources.

LTS version for which Linux distro? While Ubuntu LTS receive 10 years support, you only get first 5 years for free unless you willing subscribe Ubuntu Pro.