Looking for distro recommendations - Pawb.Social
Between wanting to do more with local LLMs, wsl annoyances, and the direction
tech companies have been going lately, I think it’s time I start exploring a
full Linux migration I’m a software dev, I’m comfortable in the command line,
and I used to write the node configuration piece of something similar to chef
(flavor/version agnostic setup of cloud environments) So for me, Linux has
always been a “modify the script and rebuild fresh” kind of deal… Even my dev
VMs involved a lot of scripts and snapshots. I don’t enjoy configuration and I
really hate debugging it, but I can muddle through when I have to Web searches
have pushed me towards Ubuntu for LLM work, but I’ve never been a big fan of the
window Managers. I like little flourishes like animation and lots of options I
can set graphically, I use multiple desktop multiple monitors I’ve tried the one
it comes standard with, gnome, and kde (although it’s been about 5 years since
I’ve last given them a real shot).
I’m mostly looking for the most reasonable footprint that is “good enough”,
something that feels polished to at least the Windows XP level - subtle
animations instead of instant popups, rounded borders, maybe a bit of
transparency here and there.
I’m looking at Ubuntu w/ - kde w/ plasma (I understand it’s very configurable, I
don’t love the look and it seems to be a bigger footprint - budgie (looks nice,
never heard of it before today) - kylin (looks very Windows 10 which is nice, a
bit skeptical about the Chinese focus) - mate (I like the look, but it seems a
bit dubiously centralized) - unity (looks like the standard Ubuntu taken to it’s
natural conclusion) - rhino Linux (something new which makes me skeptical, but
pretty and seems more like existing tools packaged together which makes me think
the issues might not impact actual workflow) - anything the community is big on
for this, personally I’d pick opensuze, but I need to maximize compatibility
with bleeding edge LLM projects My hardware and hard requirements are: - nvidia
1060ti - ryzen 5500u - 16g ram - 4 drives nearly full, because it’s a computer
of Theseus running the same (upgraded) vista license that came with the case
like 15 years ago - multi desktop, multi monitor - can handle a lot of browser
Windows/tabs - ideally the setup is just a package mana ger install script with
all my dependencies - gaming support would be nice, but I’ll be dual booting for
VR anyways I’ve been out of the game for a while, I’d love to hear what the
feeling is in the community these days (Side note, is pine as cool a company as
it seems?)
