I apologize if my english isn’t perfect in how you would say it daily, but I hope it’ll help with Linux popularity and as a reference for future days.
For this post specifically I want opinions regarding what would be best for school lab of tech vocational high school (for both computer networking and software engineering).
- Package update frequency:
- A. Years per update (Debian, OpenSuse Leap)
- B. Every 6 month (Ubuntu/Fedora)
- C. Rolling Release (Debian Sid or Arch but update whenever (every week/month/semester/year))
- Desktop environment:
- A. Gnome
- B. KDE Plasma
- C. Cinnamon
- D. Lightweight DE (XFCE, LXQT, etc.)
- E. Other DE (Mate, Budgie, etc.)
- F. Stacking Window Manager (Fluxbox, IceWM, Openbox, etc)
- G. TIling or Dynamic WM
- Community or Company Distro?
- A. Community Distro
- B. Company Distro
- Display server protocol:
- A. Xorg
- B. Wayland
- File System:
- A. EXT4
- B. BTRFS
- C. Other
- Immutable?
- A. Not Immutable
- B. Immutable
- Functionality
- A. General Purpose (Debian, Arch, OpenSuse)
- B. Specific Purpose (Debian Edu, Parrot Linux, AV linux, etc.)
Let me know your opinion, perhaps I missed some critical question or maybe some question above isn’t that important to consider.
- C
- B
- A
- B
- A
- A
- A
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I would be careful using Fedora Immutable as it is still fairly untested.
A stable base and Ansible is probably a safer bet
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Its unproven and still in beta
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Proven that it can run without issues. Proven that if you have an issue, you can fix it.
Don’t put untested software in prod
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You don’t put untested software in prod. You just don’t. It might be fine on your machine but don’t put on systems for others
I second this recommendation! I’d consider immutably a requirement here. For a little more stability, I’d stay one version behind the current release of Fedora (last 3 are supported at any time). So when 49 comes out, I’d stay on 39 and only update to 40 when 41 releases about 6 months later.
I’m going to say Debian or RHEL. Both are extremely well supported by software and very stable, but you’d get administration benefits with RHEL that you would be missing with Debian. Since these computers are public-facing I’m going to STRONGLY recommend against smaller distros like Zorin or Manjaro.
Debian and RHEL are proven to be stable for professional work. Debian is especially notable for being on the space station. RHEL is used by basically every company that uses Linux in an enterprise environment.
Ubuntu LTS with gnome or linux mint. Most available documentation, easy to use, hackable if needed. Make sure it doesn’t crash on the kids!
I’d go with a stable distro, like Debian, or Mint if you wanted something that’s also rather stable and easier to use (Ubuntu underlying structure has a lot of fixes/changes compared to debian).
Check zorin os, it’s Ubuntu LTS with a familiar look, and wine well integrated. Veyon sw then is probably good for pc control
I would probably do debian 12 with kde, xorg, ext4. Not familiar with debian edu though.
I would go with Xfce4 in this case as it is much simpler in terms of UI and complexity
I’d lean towards Xfce as well, but for other reasons; school computers aren’t typically the most beefy machines, so a lightweight desktop environment is probably preferable
Gnome will run on anything made in the last 10 years. Computers won’t last that long in a school environment.
Xfce4 is lighter but it isn’t that big of difference. Xfce4 might also have less of a learning curve.
The reason I suggested xfce4 is that it works well with Debian releases.
My experience with Gnome vs Xfce has been Gnome being sluggish; there’s a difference between running and running well/quickly
Opensuse tumbleweed. Its rolling release and gets lots of packages and is pretty stable NASA uses opensuse for there computers. I run tumbleweed on my laptop and btfs is really good and i havent had any issues minus one time i forced powered off while it was updating and it broke zypper. Plus side tho is the live boot can "upgrade an install and fix things like broken package managment. Aswell as opensuse is based off of rhel so package support is really good
@Fint0034 For those who have never used a Linux distro I would recommend first installing a VM to test a distro without damaging the local system. My suggestion is to always start with well-known and friendly distros like Ubuntu or MINT.
There are also distros that are meant specifically for educational settings:
https://itsfoss.com/educational-linux-distros/
Note that I don’t think that Endless OS restricts it’s usage.
Package update frequency:
With Ubuntu and with Debian there is also LTS (Long Term Support) to choose from. For Ubuntu this is five years for the default Ubuntu. I believe it is three years for the community flavors (Kubuntu, Xubuntu and so on). Personally I find the pushing of snaps and Ubuntu Pro by Ubuntu somewhat annoying and confusing, so I’d for Debian at your school.
Linux Mint
Debian, honestly.
Just wanted to say your English is wonderful.
thank u for your kind word
Linux Mint
