I’ve been working and testing to switch my main PC (used for work like audio recording, music, and general multimedia) and have been playing with Ubuntu Studio on my laptop. Loving it so far but I keep seeing people talk about CachyOS, Bazzite, or the new Debian Trixie.
I’m having trouble finding what’s really different about all these distros aside from how they look or slight changes in how they do things (I know Ubuntu Studio has a low latency kernel which seems important for what I need to do). Is there a big difference? Like, if I go with Ubuntu Studio am I gonna end up wiping everything and installing CachyOS or Bazzite or something in a month because it’s better? Or are all these distros basically the same thing with a different look and feel and as long as I choose one that gets regular updates, it doesn’t matter fundamentally?
I’m trying to grasp the Linux concept but being a Windows user my whole life I’m struggling to ‘get it’. Instead of trying to understand in the contex of Windows or Mac, is a better comparison Apple/Android? Like iPhones would be similar to both Mac and Windows (you don’t get to choose much) and Android would be Linux (I know it’s built on it haha) and it’s really just a bunch of different options to do the same thing?
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It’s the difference between Windows 11, Windows 11 Pro, Windows 11 for Enterprise, and Windows Server 2025.
There are differences, but not dramatic differences. Some are just better tuned to certain users than others.
These days the things that really differentiate distros are: installer, default desktop environment, packaging, packages.
The main differences are:
- package management (how you install new programs)
- release model (fixed vs rolling)
- default desktop environments (the GUI / look and feel)
Agreed.
Though if you get off the beaten path, you get things like system supervisor, system compiler, C library, and core utils.
But most Linux distros are systemd, GCC, Glibc, and GNU utils. Which brings us back to your list.
Workflows are different, configuration files can be different, and package names (not just management) can be different.
Additionally, release cadence (how fast you get new stuff, even when considering fixed releases), stability, performance (how were the packages compiled), and custom patches that aren’t part of the original code (*shakes fist angrily at Manjaro*)
If you don’t like Manjaro for that then your going to hate steamOS. Lol
I don’t like how the manjaro team does it specifically. A lot of the time i’ve seen packages break in Manjaro that work fine in Arch, then Manjaro users come into Arch forums acting like its an Arch problem when it isn’t.
Also, their driver install helper causes more problems than it solves, which was especially highlighted in the transition to open source official nvidia drivers. Couldn’t install the open source ones for the longest time, and couldn’t install the right ones from the repo with pacman directly. Caused some major issues for a friend I was helping.
Helped him switch to proper Arch and all the issues went away.
Valve on the other hand puts extreme effort into maintaining stability. I use it regularly and have zero issues, though I use it as-is out of the box.
Yup. Until you get into stuff like immutable distros, because that’s a whole different animal.
From a new users perspective, a lot of the main ones will probably feel very similar and the main difference you’d notice is stability and compatibility. Don’t overwhelm yourself with choices, just choose a easy to use, high user base, well supported distro to start on (Fedora, Ubuntu, Mint) and if you don’t like it move to something else later
Appreciate it. I’ve decided to stick with Ubuntu Studio as long as I can duplicate my workflow before I make the switch. Think I got into my own head and indecision took over haha.
As you see, there are 1000 different opinions, heh.
My take is it’s about user patterns.
Every distro has different maintenance expectations, different tolerance for bugs and keeping stuff up to date and working. That’s the flavor difference: it’s all the same packages just served to you a different way.
As an example, Arch Linux has an expectation for the user to pay attention to maintenance. Read their excellent wiki. Update frequently, and pay attention to errors and warnings when you do. There is one version of Python, so update your stuff to work with out. The “reward” for being so hands on is stuff getting automatically fixed quickly.
CachyOS is just a preconfigured version of this, with presets and experimental features tailored for gaming. But it’s largely not divergent from the underlying Arch system: you could switch from an arch install to CachyOS packages with zero fuss.
Contrast with Ubuntu. It is meant to be more “hands off” with staged and delayed updates. There are many versions of Python present in the same system, so old stuff works without changes. But the consequence is you may have to live with certain problems you run into, or risk breaking your system trying to fix them.
Fedora is somewhere in between, with the addition of an emphasis on free software. And a consequence of that is, for instance, no first party support for Nvidia. Bazzite builds on top of that by expensively modifying it into a stable platform for gaming, but you’re also dependent on a relatively small group of maintainers.
So I guess one question is how involved with your computer do you want to be?
IMO, coming from the systems administration side of Linux, the most significant difference was package management and availability.
RedHat and clones were very conservative and focused on services like web, database, etc. With IBM purchasing RHEL, many switched to Ubuntu. Ubuntu is also favored by devs because the packages were more up to date.
Ultimately my choice of distro came down to what packages are available under the package managers.
I found a couple of packages only under the AUR so I go Arch.
But what I want from Linux, and what makes it Linux to me is the DE. So I could use Fedora Gnome or EndeavourOS gnome and just go with whichever is best for my use case.
Just pick something with KDE Plasma and you’ll be fine. Cachy, Debian, and Bazzite are all good.
A Linux distribution is just the Linux kernel distributed with various other pieces of software that make it usable. Often times, there are multiple software projects that aim achieve the same goal by going in different paths. These are packaged together by the distro maintainers who mostly do this out of passion.
Different distros prioritize different aspects of the software they package and they do this in different ways. To make the best choice for you, it is best to try and understand what each distro aims to do. Here are a few examples out my head:
- Debian is a traditional distribution that aims to keep the system stable for a few years. They do backport security patches, but slow rollout of feature updates is a deal-breaker for some people (like me).
- CachyOS (based on Arch Linux) compiles it’s packages utilizing newest CPU instructions which may lead to slight performance gain on newer hardware. They also ship some kernel patches optimizing it for gaming use cases.
- Bazzite is based on an atomic/immutable version of Fedora. The aim here is to provide a system that makes it very hard for users to mess it up, using containerization technologies. It also means that installing packages in the traditional way is not very feasible or recommended. You are supposed to install packages without root access and using technologies like flatpak. It also includes some gaming specific kernel patches similar to CachyOS, but not as many.
I wanted to write a long-ass comment until I remembered the existence of the following excellent guide: https://lemmy.ml/post/18268622 . Please give it a read 😉.
I’ve stickied that to this community.
That guide is so awesome! Thanks for showing me.
IMO distros are just “how little work do I need to do before I get this to work the way I like?” You can make any distro work practically the same if you want it to.
You’re on the right track. Linux technically refers to the kernel, the low-level core of the operating system that everything else interacts with and is built on top of. Distros are just collections of components that have been standardized by some group or company.
Linux Mint is heavily customized Ubuntu with a different DE and all of Connonical’s stuff removed. Nobara is a gaming-focused distro built on Fedora with a bunch of kernel modifications and pre-installed software to help games run better. CatchyOS is just Arch but with a really friendly installer that allows less advanced users to still enjoy many of the heavy customizations and cutting-edge software of Arch, etc etc.
Think of it like an engine. You can use the same engine in a bunch of different vehicles. You can also make modifications to the engine itself, but it will still essentially be the same engine.
The #1 rule for new Linux users, especially ones who aren’t interested in becoming power users or tinkering with their OS, is if you’re happy with your distro, stick with it.
There’s no objective “correct” distro. The best distro for you is the distro that works and you feel comfortable with.
Lots of new users become worried that they are missing out on some major improvement in their experience of Linux or feel like they picked the “wrong” distro because some random user dissed it. Don’t pay attention to that, if your distro does everything you need it to do and you enjoy using it, there’s no reason to go looking for something better.
Now of course, there’s nothing wrong with checking out other distros, and if you are somebody who likes to tinker with your setup and doesn’t mind risking breaking things sometimes, then by all means, distro hop away. Almost all distros have a “live boot” option, which allows you to test the OS off of a flash drive without having to install it on your computer. It’s a great way to quickly get the look and feel for a new distro without having to commit.
And of course, there are tons of Linux YouTubers who do reviews of distros, so you can watch those to also get an idea of the different options out there.
Because of the nature of FOSS and the linux ecosystem, you can make most distros look and feel just like any other, so that’s always an option too.
This helps a lot, thank you. I’ve been feeling overwhelmed about making sure I pick the best distro and there’s a lot of info bombardment. Additionally, I love this stuff so I know in a couple months there’s a good chance I’ll want to use another distro and I don’t want to wipe everything again haha.
I use my PC for work, freelance audio production, voiceover, music, etc. I’ve been testing Ubuntu Studio on my laptop and it seems to be going ok so far (learning curve and lack of software aside) but I keep seeing people shoot down Ubuntu. Everyone seems to be talking about Bazzite and CachyOS but honestly I’m getting the impression they don’t use Linux for much more than just gaming.
It all feels a little gate-keepy in ways and I got overwhelmed haha. Think I’ll just keep chipping away with Ubuntu Studio and see if it’ll do the trick for my main PC. Thanks again.
I used Ubuntu Studio many years ago when I was going through an electronica phase lol. It worked fine for me.
Don’t sweat it, there will always be the hot new distros on the block. Right now it’s Bazzite, CatchyOS, and NixOS, back in the day there was Garuda, Arco Linux, Bunsen, MX Linux, and a ton of others. Some are still around, some are long gone. Doesn’t mean they are bad distros, many of them are/were great, but don’t choose a distro just because everybody is talking about it.
Plus, as you get more experience with Linux, the differences matter less and less. There are only a handful of package managers, and unless you have some very specific technical requirements, they all do the same thing and work the same way.
“apt install firefox” becomes “yum install firefox”, or “pacman -S firefox” it’s all pretty much the same under the hood.
And if you use KDE Plasma on different distros, the Discover store works the same across distros, same with any other GUI package installer.
If you keep getting better and get into home lab building or just have several different computers, you might end up using a bunch or distros at the same time on different machines.
Right now across all my physical computers and virtual machines in my home lab, I currently have 9 different distros installed on various machines. Different distros for different purposes.
My general #JustWorks laptops and VMs use Linux Mint, my hardcore gaming rig uses Nobara, my test junker laptops run Debian 13, Void Linux, and Arch for testing random software and messing around. For my Docker containers, I run Debian 12 as the base, for my Minecraft server, Ubuntu Server, my Steam Deck is SteamOS which is just Valve’s heavily modified spin of Arch, and my main lab’s Type-1 hypervisor is XCP-ng, which is basically Fedora under the hood.
@Jack_Burton Distros within the same “family” (e.g. Debian, Ubuntu, Mint) are mostly the same with only small differences between them, while the different families have wildly different approaches to various things.
Ubuntu is broken, or will be broken. It has been that way since the beginning.
Really? I thought Ubuntu was one of the main distros?
If you haven’t noticed yet, the Linux community gets pretty divisive about distros. For what it’s worth, my friend swears by Ubuntu. Personally, I use Linux Mint, which is based on Ubuntu, and my issues are pretty infrequent or troublesome.
Sure, but it is just Debian with their crap bolted on.
The last two times I installed Ubuntu somewhat recently, it was broken at the install. I fixed it, but it shouldn’t be that way. The hardware was nothing exotic or interesting either.
It has always been troublesome.
Some are very different to each other, Arch and Debian where the former is at the bleeding edge of software and the later is the most conservative distro out there. Some are very similar, Ubuntu and Kubuntu where they are the same distro with a different desktop environment and default software.
