{"id":7046,"date":"2019-01-01T05:25:48","date_gmt":"2019-01-01T05:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/?p=7046"},"modified":"2019-01-08T10:13:56","modified_gmt":"2019-01-08T10:13:56","slug":"the-state-of-desktop-linux-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/2019\/01\/01\/the-state-of-desktop-linux-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"The State of Desktop Linux 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

A snapshot of the current state of Desktop Linux at the start of
\n2019\u2014with comparison charts and a roundtable Q&A with the leaders of three top
\nLinux distributions.<\/em><\/p>\n

I’ve never been able to stay in one place for long\u2014at least in terms of which Linux distribution I call home.
\nIn my time as a self-identified “Linux Person”, I’ve bounced around between a
\nnumber of truly excellent ones. In my early days, I picked up boxed copies of
\nS.u.S.E. (back before they made the U uppercase and dropped the dots
\nentirely) and Red Hat Linux (before Fedora was a thing) from store shelves at
\nvarious software outlets.<\/p>\n

Side note: remember when we used to buy Operating Systems\u2014and even most
\nsoftware\u2014in actual boxes, with actual physical media and actual printed
\nmanuals? I still have big printed manuals for a few early Linux versions, which, back then, were necessary for getting just about everything working
\n(from X11 to networking and sound). Heck, sometimes simply getting
\na successful boot required a few trips through those heavy manuals. Ah, those
\nwere the days.<\/p>\n

Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE\u2014I spent a good amount of time living in
\nthe biggest distributions around (and many others). All of them were
\nfantastic. Truly stellar. Yet, each had their own quirks and peculiarities.<\/p>\n

As I bounced from distro to distro, I developed a strong attachment to just
\nabout all of them, learning, as I went, to appreciate each for what it
\nwas. Just the same, when asked which distribution I recommend to others,
\nmy brain begins to melt down. Offering any single recommendation feels
\nsimply inadequate.<\/p>\n

Choosing which one to call home, even if simply on a secondary PC, is a
\ndeeply personal choice.<\/p>\n

Maybe you have an aging desktop computer with limited RAM and an older, but
\nstill absolutely functional, CPU. You’re going to need something light on
\nsystem resources that runs on 32-bit processors.<\/p>\n

Or, perhaps you work with a wide variety of hardware architectures and need a
\nsingle operating system that works well on all of them\u2014and standardizing
\non a single Linux distribution would make it easier for you to administer
\nand update all of them. But what options even are available?<\/p>\n

To help make this process a bit easier, I’ve put together a handy set of
\ncharts and graphs to let you quickly glance and find the one that fits your
\nneeds (Figures 1 and 2).<\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/p>\n

Figure 1. Distribution Comparison Chart I<\/em><\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/p>\n

Figure 2. Distribution Comparison Chart II<\/em><\/p>\n

But, let’s be honest, knowing that a particular system meets your hardware
\nneeds (and preferences) simply is not enough. What is the community like?
\nWhat’s in store for the future of this new system you are investing in? Do
\nthe ideals of its leadership match up with your own?<\/p>\n

In the interests of helping to answer those questions, I sat down with the
\nleaders of three of the most prominent Linux distros of the day:<\/p>\n