The Best Linux Distro: An In-Depth Experience with Ubuntu 18.04

Preface

Regular readers of my blog and WeChat official account should know that I'm a fanatical Linuxer with an obsessive fondness for Linux systems, so you shouldn't find it strange when you see this article. What you should really wonder, though, is: why do I say Ubuntu is the best Linux distro? Given my habits and style, shouldn't it be the big lizard (openSUSE) or Arch (Manjaro)? This article will answer these questions.

Why Ubuntu

Is the big lizard not good-looking? Or is Arch not easy to use? Why mess with the rabbit (Ubuntu)? First, here's my desktop:

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1. The big lizard looks great, but it's not the best

The openSUSE development team is also pretty much the KDE desktop environment development team, and they have that German strictness about details, so it can definitely be counted as one of the best-looking Linux distros.

However, the software repos of the openSUSE stable release seem a bit outdated, and the packages available for direct install aren't rich enough. As for Tumbleweed (the rolling-release branch), although the packages are all very new, it's not stable enough, with the constant risk of a broken rolling update.

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2. Arch is the way

In the early years on Baidu's Linux Tieba, there was an "Arch cult" faction that tried to convert every Linux user to the Arch camp. I have to say, anyone who has tried Arch will be won over by its high customizability and the richest package collection in the universe (Long live AUR!), then fall deeply in love with Arch and be unable to extricate themselves.

But the downsides of a rolling-release system like Arch are also obvious—see the openSUSE Tumbleweed section above. Still, Arch is truly a system that everyone who wants to learn Linux must experience!

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3. Still the familiar rabbit—Ubuntu

Ubuntu, as (supposedly) the desktop Linux distro with the largest install base, did not earn that reputation for nothing. Behind this rabbit is a commercial company. Although it's not a giant on the scale of Microsoft or Apple, Ubuntu's attention to detail ranks among the very best of Linux distros. Before the 18.04 release, Ubuntu's original Unity desktop environment really suited my taste. Unfortunately, for various reasons I couldn't make 16.04 my long-term daily driver, so my knowledge of the Unity desktop remains limited to a few brief install experiences.

As my long-term daily system, I can summarize Ubuntu's advantages as follows:

• As the largest Debian-based distro, it has a rich package collection
• As the Linux distro with the largest user base, it has a complete and huge community; any problem you run into can easily be answered in the community
• Compatibility with Chinese domestic software (e.g. Sogou Input Method, WPS Office, NetEase Cloud Music) is excellent. Almost all Chinese software for Linux released on official sites is built for Ubuntu, so compatibility is top-notch
• After switching to the GNOME desktop in 18.04, performance improved a lot, and looks and customizability improved enormously
• As for the rest, it's more that I just like the Debian ecosystem～

Screenshots

After some simple configuration and theming, the desktop looks like this. I think it's pretty OK～

The all-apps view. Icons are Moka, with very comprehensive coverage.

GNOME's built-in calendar can sync Google Calendar and Microsoft Calendar—very convenient!

GNOME comes with quite a few nice things. This TODO List is pretty good, though unfortunately it can't sync with Google Keep

Software Ecosystem

In the screenshots above there are already some handy little tools that come with GNOME. For daily Linux use, you're not missing any software except Tencent's WeChat and QQ. Honestly, with the JetBrains suite for development, that's enough for a programmer, and with Unix's complete toolchain, the Linux development environment is exceptionally comfortable.

As for Tencent's toxic WeChat and QQ, I solve that by running Windows 7 in a VirtualBox VM. Today's hardware is more than enough; the performance cost of a Windows 7 VM is almost negligible. I won't post screenshots, to save myself the hassle of redacting chat logs.

Ubuntu is a Debian-based distro. Through the apt package manager you can install a massive amount of software. If you can't find a package in the official repos, don't forget PPA, that godsend. PPAs feel like they occupy the same place as Arch's AUR—tons of third-party packages are published on PPAs, so you can say there's almost no software you can't find.

Development Experience

As for the development experience, Linux distros are all pretty similar. Install the JetBrains suite, set up VSCode, and writing code is a blast. The rest of the experience depends more on how smooth the system is. After using it for a while, GNOME's smoothness is very good. On my desktop (i5-8500 + 8GB RAM) there's no stuttering at all.

Some people were worried that after Ubuntu switched to GNOME, usability would drop. I honestly don't think there's any difference. Ubuntu's GNOME is ready out of the box—it looks pretty good without any configuration at all (well, except the wallpaper colors are kinda ugly).

For GNOME extensions I only installed a User Shell theme to enable Shell Theme. I don't install anything else. Extensions are made by third-party individual developers after all, with no guarantee of stability or security. Default GNOME already looks good enough; there's no need to mess around with this stuff—if you crash the system, it's not worth it.

Ubuntu or Windows?

This question has been asked countless times. I don't think there's any need to agonize over it. If you want Windows, use Windows; people who like Linux will naturally use Linux. There's no need for this kind of either-or choice.

Only kids make multiple-choice questions.

So the best answer is dual boot～ (and some people switched to Mac)

Windows is the #1 desktop OS, and neither Linux nor Mac can match its software ecosystem, so you must have a Windows system on hand. And then! The last few Windows 10 updates have had so many bugs I can barely stand it (don't tell me you haven't run into them—whether you have or not doesn't matter; what matters is that an obsessive person like me absolutely cannot tolerate Windows 10's various bizarre little bugs). Using Windows as a daily development system just doesn't work. Support for the Unix toolchain is extremely poor, installing and configuring various dev environments is extremely painful—it's really disgusting!

But for the occasional video work and such, I still have to open Windows. As for gaming, I don't play PC games (can't afford it), so that's not a concern.

Conclusion

I love Linux! And I enjoy the high productivity that Linux brings me.

PS: A lot of people in the comments asked for the desktop wallpapers, so here's a link: https://storage.deali.cn/wallpapers_2018-11-21.tar.gz

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