Suggestions for OS and Learning

[Blues]

So I have been slowly inching into the Linux waters and am facing some more questions and wondering a bit which way is going to be best.

I have been using Raspberry Pi and their OS for DIY smart devices namely NAS and media servers and then I have also done some minor guided work on RHEL and finally I recently tried Nobara and CachyOS which I slightly favor the experience in Cachy at the moment.

So for me I am wondering if I should stick with CachyOS for my home stuff or should try going back to Nobara or another Linux my home system is basically for gaming and media ripping and compressing. I have seen some differences in the command line experience that makes me wonder if it might be a bit much to have and Arch based in the mix instead of sticking with a Fedora or Debian based. I have considers Bazzite and Linux Mint(regular and DE) but haven't installed them to poke around yet I was reading about Atomic and Immutable which from what I understand Bazzite is but not sure if that is good for me or if it will obnoxiously time my hands or slow me down.

To tie that all up are there any recommended books or cheat sheets I could buy and/or print off to help with knowing commands and which systems use which. I would like some books to really learn more about Linux in general but the cheat sheets would be handy to keep me from confusing myself.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I'll say, when I was into dabbling in *nix ...I enjoyed trying out the different flavors a lot. One resource that was great was DistroWatch.

https://distrowatch.com/

They have great resources there, a good drop down section for tutorials, tips, tricks.
And a list of the distros you can sort by popularity, click into each one, look at screen shots, and download bootable ISOs so you can "test drive" them on your hardware without installing.

 

[NETWizz]

It depends on what you want. No right or wrong answer ... okay well plenty of wrong answers, but someone will defend them.

I would pick a major Linux distribution that has a decent support lifecycle with regular updates and a good package manager.

***

If you want a Red Hat variant:
Fedora ==> CentOS Stream ==> Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Fedora releases one every six months and it is supported for a month after the next two releases, so like at least 13 months.

CentOS Stream is a rolling distribution that tracks the next version of RHEL. That means CentOS Stream 9 feeds RHEL 9, and it is supported for the life of the RHEL major version like 9.x (about 5 years). RHEL is supported for 10 years but 5 years is just maintenance support after mainstream. Basically, you should probably upgrade RHEL at least once every 5 years but it can go 10.

==> You do NOT need to pay for RHEL to download and install it, but will likely get update issues and nagging to register the system. I suggest Rocky maybe Alma if you want RHEL compatibility and immediate updates working ... it is a 1:1 parity and has great community support.

==> My personal choice is CentOS Stream for a desktop if it is Red Hat or Rocky for a server if Red Hat (unless RHEL is paid).


***

Like Debian style... I recommend Ubuntu. It has a 6 month release cycle like Fedora and 9 months of support.

Yeah that stinks, so get an LTS version released every 2 years with 5 years of standard support. You can do Ubuntu Pro (extended suport) for 10 years.

Debian Stable (is upstream ~5 years)

***

I really like Free BSD. It is one of my favorites.

Major releases like 15 are supported for around 5 years
Minor releases are supported until the branch ends.... Meaning 15.1, 15.2, etc... there will be new ones until the end of 15.x

In FreeBSD, it is very easy to upgrade to new points so like 15.0 to 15.1 will be easy.
Previous point is supported for 3 months after the next point is released.



My pick is FreeBSD for Servers otherwise Rocky, and CentOS Stream otherwise Ubutnu LTS for Desktops..

==>I do NOT like being pressured to move to a distro until I set aside time to do it, so support lifecycle is a must... Call me boring if you will, but I take a properly supported platform over novel and trendy


Which do I use most:
Windows Server 2022 and 2025
Windows 11
MacOS

 

[Diggs]

I used to be 100% Linux before I opened shop and then moved back to Windows to see and eat what my customers do. I still run Linux on several machines. My preference is Mint (Cinnamon for most machines and xfce for hardware constrained machines). Beside Distro Watch mentioned above, you can test drive almost any Linux distro online here - https://distrosea.com/