Best Linux Distributions for 2024

hello there my name is Gary Sims and this is Gary explain so as we are hurtling now into 2024 it's time to look at what would be a good Linux Dro for you to use in this year if you're a beginner I've got some suggestions for you if you're a bit more of an expert I've got some suggestions for you we're going to look at all the popular dros and try to help you pick one that let you dangle your feet in the whole Linux thing including some ways you can try without necessarily destroying or overwriting everything in your main computer so if you want to find out more please let me [Music] explain okay then let's get cracking the best Linux dros of 2024 so what is a Linux drro now a desktop operating system doesn't matter whe that's windows or Linux or Mac OS or any other desktop operating system that has been in the past is made up of different parts and this really is you know a an executive summary of course it's a bit more detailed than this but you're going to need the core of the OS which is called a kernel in this case the Linux kernel and I have several videos here on this channel about what is a kernel what is a Linux kernel you can check those out you're going to need the desktop environment itself so something that has you know windows and mouse support and you can move things around and then that also implies a way to write programs for that desktop environment so an app developer can create whatever app it needs so there's going to be some uh apis and some graphical tool kits and ways of doing that there's a set of underlying Services these are just a few there are much more than this networking Graphics audio security updates all these things need to be part of the uh the desktop operating system and then on top of that you need the user applications so whether that's a web browser or a word processing Suite or a game okay and then these to be a way to install those and of course the way that Windows install things is different to the way that Mac OS install things on Mac OS you just drag generally an application from the archive directly into the applications folder in Windows there's normally have a setup program you double click and then you go through the various steps and it installs it how does that happen on on Linux so a Linux drro distribution that's what drro means is a mix and match of all of those different things cuz there's not just one of each of those things in fact there are lots of different versions so there's a version of the Linux kernel so uh there are long-term support versions there are bleeding edge versions there are versions that have got you know bespoke backport patches that a particular Linux drro might want to include so it's not just although there is the official Linux kernel that gets published uh and lus you know releases that that's never what you get in a Linux Linux Dro there's always something uh different about it often the main thing is whether it's going to get long-term support or not and then of course there are the desktop environments and there are a whole bunch of them maybe 20 or so of them gnome KDE mate lxqt xfce are some of the popular ones uh but there are others so there are the way you write a program with gnome the toolkit the apis is different to the ones with KD KD itself is based on QT Q so you got lxqt so there's always different ways of writing uh these desktop apps they come with their own apis their own desktop toolkits now the only good news is is that most Linux distributions include the libraries for the major ones which means if a particular app is written for particular desktop it will still probably run because it can call the right libraries to bring up the window but underlying the way you write a gnome program the way you write KD program they're they're very different and then you need a way to install security updates so that means that the people providing the Linux disc Dr need to have a mechanism in place for actually providing those security updates so that's not just the Linux kernel you know the desktop itself little programs like a zip program or an editor or the web browser they all get updated when there are security issues found so how does that get handled through the Linux drro the smaller the drro the less popular it is the less people working on it if it's a hobby one then there are going to be less people less time giv over to providing uh these updates if it's a big name one then there are going to be more resources available for providing those updates then on top of that you need a way to actually install the application so let's say that a web browser has been written but how do you get it and there are lots of different ways it's not just like Windows or Mac OS where there is one kind of standardized way you have these things called a package and a package manager and a package will install the dependency so if a program is relying on another open- source project you have to install the first one first and then you install the second one which depends on it and there are various different packages uh the the Debian and the Ubuntu uh packages are Deb files and those are supported by those and all the variations of those os's okay and then you've got the kind of the Fedora and red hatway and that's an RPM R red hat p package manager Red Hat package manager so that's a different way of doing it and they're not compatible with each other uh you can't you know that you use Debian packages on Debian you use Fedora and red hat RPMs on on those operating system Arch has got a different one called called Pac-Man then there are self-contained packages like app Images snaps and flat packs these are these provide a way of all of the software that you need being put under one kind of directory very much like how Mac OS does things uh and uh they're all there so when you pick a Linux drro you're also investing in this this kind of package system as well so the huge number of combinations of these different components means there are a massive number of Linux distributions so you can have an Ubuntu with a mate desktop or you can have an Ubuntu with KDE desktop and then you could be using flat packs rather than using de files or you could be using a different networking something or a different security up mean that you can literally and a different Linux ker you can literally mix and match these and there are just so many combinations and that's why there are so many uh lots and lot lots of Linux distributions and this leads to lots of choice good thing lots of confusion bad thing the existence of so many Linux dros is simultaneously the source of Linux greatest strength and its greatest weakness so if you say oh I got my family member or my colleague or my friend to switch to Linux well that's great but they may have switched to Ubuntu rather than switching to something else and then they come along with someone else say oh I use Linux as well and then of course it all looks completely different because the different package manager different desktop operating system different underlying tools different Linux kernel version you it it can be very very confusing so what are the best Linux dros for beginners so my first recommendation would be go to Ubuntu I consider it the de facto standard it's stable well known has a huge Community you can't go wrong by installing uh Ubuntu you're not going to be left sort of with like no support and no future versions you don't know what's happening and there's no Community this is really going to be very easy and here is a picture of wuntu running it's kind of got this side uh bar here start button kind of down here and then this would be typical window open up here up here is your your start uh and shut down button but that's the kind of way it looks now as I said because there's so many different desktop environments one thing you'll notice is that as we go through these dist they all look very different so that's that's part of the uh as I said the choice but also so the weakness mangaro would is a userfriendly intuitive uh Dro with good installation process good Hardware detection now it uses this rolling model release which means that uh you don't just get uh you know the next version with Ubuntu there's always another version every six months with this one it's kind of it's the same version it just gets updated incrementally sometimes even on a on a daily basis and there are other distros like that as well it's a different way of doing it and this is what uh mararo looks like again it's a desktop so of course you get Windows you get a start menu you get desktop icons there's a clock there's a shutdown button just a question of where they are and what the theme is and how it all kind of fits together and then popos I I like this one as well you Ubuntu base with a custom gnome desktop from uh a Linux company called system76 now they make Linux computer Linux desktops Linux servers Linux uh laptops and they have this version of Pop OS because it's kind of their offering so that's good because there's a business behind it there's a commercial operation behind it and they're offering this OS to go with their Hardware so it is Linux it is based on Ubuntu but it's got their twist to it and they've got a huge set of online videos and documentation to help people get started and here is a picture of uh popos I do have uh at least one popos video here on this channel just going through quickly uh how it all kind of fits together now again you see here the the the start BS in the middle there kind of like Windows 11 uh and and so on so it's just about the theme and The Styling and then of course the tool kit as I mentioned earlier that's used to create it now of course there's going to be lots of people who immediately jump down to the comment say why didn't you mention and then they'll be mentioning their favorite Linux drro so I'll do a few more notable mentions here there are of course others as I said there is so much Choice uh and I'm really trying to reduce that level of choice so that people have a Target cuz if you say here's 100 Linux dros pick one that's not very helpful so so Elementary OS Endeavor M OS MX Linux zorin OS is very popular Linux Min again very popular they're all good uh operating systems all good versions of uh Linux for for beginners uh pick one and uh and take a dive I'll also just talk briefly about experienced users and it experts if you're an experienced Linux user then in one sense you don't need my recommendations because you already have that experience so I'm pretty sure you have your favorite dro however if you are an IT expert so you're very tick Savvy uh so you're happy to get your hands a bit dirty you're happy to do things then there are some other dros that we could mention Debian is the uh the source really of many uh Linux deskt Ubuntu is based on Debian and then Debian is there uh as a thing itself so it's stable Community Driven known for its commitment to free software it doesn't like including anything that's not free even in a binary blob for a driver or something like that it's it's like no no we want to keep everything as open source as possible extensive packages available uh and there is uh a Debian running there uh on the desktop running gnome of course so again same kind of thing you're always going to see a window and then way to in ways to interact with that desktop open Susi is a very good one as well known for flexibility multiple desktop environments suitable for both desktop and servers and here's a picture of that running and art Linux you have to have that if you're doing a Linux uh list of distributions lightweight rolling release like I mentioned earlier on very much a DIY approach popular among Advanced Linux users who prefer a Hands-On approach to setting up the system basically you've set up a lot of it yourself uh but Arch gives you that that ability and here is Art running with KDE in this particular instance and then the final one I'd like to mention is uh kly Linux because that is specifically designed for ethical hackers Network penetration cyber security professional so it comes pre-installed with a whole bunch of tools so if your job is to maintain your network uh in an organization and you also want the tools to help you manage that Network and also the tools to help test that Network it's robustness uh and so on there are a whole bunch of tools that come uh in kly Linux as well by default and some people say you can still use it as your main uh desktop Linux distribution as well because it doesn't just give you the command and of course it comes with a desktop and so on so uh often the Choice there of uh professionals and here is Kye Linux running uh there again lots of ones that people say why didn't you mention this Alpine Linux very popular because it's not built uh using the ganu tool so it's gnu free that's very popular gentu uh slackware because it's been around literally for decades uh NYX OS so all of these are good ones that you might want to try now some of you are saying why haven't I mentioned anything that in the red hat or Fedora line and there are various versions of that including of course red hat and Fedora well following red Hat's decision to no longer release the source code for its drro then I no longer recommend any dros that help red hat in its goals so basically no red hat from me okay where to start if you're new to Linux what should be your first step now you've chosen one let's say you've opted for Ubuntu what should your first it be there are four ways to test try use a Linux distri distribution install it directly on a PC uh on your main PC if you're sure of the way forward and there's no better way than just to jump in feet first but please please please make sure you have a backup of all of your data because once you install it uh depending on how you install it but the chances are it's just going to overwrite the operating system you've already got there so you'll lose let's say windows and you lose all your documents you can dual boot which means you get both of them and you get a menu at the beginning to say do you want to boot into Linux do you want to boot into windows but if you're installing this on your main PC please please please make sure you have a copy of everything that you need from that PC another maybe slightly safer way would can install it on some kind of spare PC uh a good way to try l no danger of losing your data you get time to play with it it's kind of sitting to the side uh you can probably pick up a a relatively decent uh secondhand desktop from 50 to $100 then you just plug in an extra keyboard and a mouse hopefully you may be a pick up a secondhand screen if you haven't got a secondhand monitor but you know for $100 or you know around about there you could have a second PC up and running and then you just can play around with it and learn without jeopardizing your main current workflows you can install it in a virtual machine so use Virtual Machine software like hyperv or virtual box so that runs on your existing desktop and I have a fun video on here when I show a virtual machine running inside a virtual machine running inside a virtual machine if that's I found that quite interesting so it's a safe way to learn Linux because you just run it there inside that window on your main desktop you can learn all about how it's done the packages the networking the desktop environment applications how you install everything and it's safe because it's just there inside of that virtual machine and then the a final way I recommend is you can boot from directly from the USB so many l Linux distributions including Ubuntu allow you to boot from a USB and then use Linux from the USB without installing it and then when you shut it down and pull out the USB you get back your old PC it's often called a live drro here for example when you boot up Ubuntu you do get this option here try Ubuntu which doesn't make any changes to your computer okay you can install it but if you do try then it just runs from the USB here they say from from the CD uh and in fact I did that literally uh yesterday I needed to do something on a PC I wanted to get access to it via Ubuntu I booted it up used the try Ubuntu did the thing I want to do and then when I shut it down again of course it was able to reboot up into Windows afterwards okay that's it so my name is Gary Sims this Gary explains I really hope you enjoyed this video if you did please do give it a thumbs up love to hear from you in the comments about uh have you tried uh Linux are you going to try in 2024 and please do let me know how you get on okay that's it I'll see you in the next [Music] one keep [Music] keep

Channel: Gary Explains

Views: 98,212

Keywords: Gary Explains, Tech, Explanation, Tutorial, Linux, GNOME, KDE, MATE, LXQt, Xfce, Ubuntu, Debian, Manjaro, Pop!_OS, openSUSE, Arch, Arch Linux, Kali, Kali Linux, Zorin OS, Alpine Linux, Gentoo, Slackware, Nix OS, Elementary OS, Endeavour OS, MX Linux, Linux Mint

Id: 9xBK2KpYxyg

Length: 16min 40sec (1000 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 08 2024