Alternatives to Ubuntu logo

Alternatives to Ubuntu

Linux, Arch Linux, Fedora, openSUSE, and Windows are the most popular alternatives and competitors to Ubuntu.
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What is Ubuntu and what are its top alternatives?

Ubuntu is an ancient African word meaning ‘humanity to others’. It also means ‘I am what I am because of who we all are’. The Ubuntu operating system brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the world of computers.
Ubuntu is a tool in the Operating Systems category of a tech stack.
Ubuntu is an open source tool with GitHub stars and GitHub forks. Here’s a link to Ubuntu's open source repository on GitHub

Top Alternatives to Ubuntu

  • Linux
    Linux

    A clone of the operating system Unix, written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across the Net. It aims towards POSIX and Single UNIX Specification compliance. ...

  • Arch Linux
    Arch Linux

    A lightweight and flexible Linux distribution that tries to Keep It Simple.

  • Fedora
    Fedora

    Fedora is a Linux-based operating system that provides users with access to the latest free and open source software, in a stable, secure and easy to manage form. Fedora is the largest of many free software creations of the Fedora Project. Because of its predominance, the word "Fedora" is often used interchangeably to mean both the Fedora Project and the Fedora operating system. ...

  • openSUSE
    openSUSE

    The openSUSE project is a worldwide effort that promotes the use of Linux everywhere. openSUSE creates one of the world's best Linux distributions, working together in an open, transparent and friendly manner as part of the worldwide Free and Open Source Software community. ...

  • Windows
    Windows

    A series of personal computer operating systems produced by Microsoft as part of its Windows NT family of operating systems. ...

  • Windows 10
    Windows 10

    It is the latest iteration of the Microsoft operating systems and has been optimized for home PC performance in a wide variety of applications from serious work to after-hours gaming. ...

  • Debian
    Debian

    Debian systems currently use the Linux kernel or the FreeBSD kernel. Linux is a piece of software started by Linus Torvalds and supported by thousands of programmers worldwide. FreeBSD is an operating system including a kernel and other software. ...

  • CentOS
    CentOS

    The CentOS Project is a community-driven free software effort focused on delivering a robust open source ecosystem. For users, we offer a consistent manageable platform that suits a wide variety of deployments. For open source communities, we offer a solid, predictable base to build upon, along with extensive resources to build, test, release, and maintain their code. ...

Ubuntu alternatives & related posts

Linux logo

Linux

2.7K
2.2K
40
A family of free and open source software operating systems based on the Linux kernel
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PROS OF LINUX
  • 16
    Open Source
  • 11
    Free
  • 8
    Reliability
  • 5
    Safe
CONS OF LINUX
    Be the first to leave a con

    related Linux posts

    Rogério R. Alcântara
    Shared insights
    on
    macOSmacOSLinuxLinuxGitGitDockerDocker

    Personal Dotfiles management

    Given that they are all “configuration management” tools - meaning they are designed to deploy, configure and manage servers - what would be the simplest - and yet robust - solution to manage personal dotfiles - for n00bs.

    Ideally, I reckon, it should:

    • be containerized (Docker?)
    • be versionable (Git)
    • ensure idempotency
    • allow full automation (tests, CI/CD, etc.)
    • be fully recoverable (Linux/ macOS)
    • be easier to setup/manage (as much as possible)

    Does it make sense?

    See more
    John Calandra
    Data Manager at The Garrett Group · | 8 upvotes · 206.4K views

    There is a question coming... I am using Oracle VirtualBox to spawn 3 Ubuntu Linux virtual machines (VM). VM1 is being used as a data lake - just a place to store flat files. VM2 hosts Apache NiFi. VM3 hosts PostgreSQL. I have built a NiFi pipeline that reads flat files on VM1 and then pipes the data over to and inserts it into the Postgresql database. I left this setup alone for a while, and then something hiccupped on VM3, and I had to rebuild it. Now I cannot make a remote connection to Postgresql on VM3. I was using pgAdmin3 on VM3, but it kept throwing errors - I found out it went end-of-life in 2018 and uninstalled it. pgAdmin4 is out, but for some reason, I cannot get the APT utility to find/install it. I am trying to figure out the pgAdmin4 install problem and looking for a good alternative for pgAdmin4 that I can use to diagnose the remote database connection problem. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

    See more
    Arch Linux logo

    Arch Linux

    513
    517
    92
    A lightweight and flexible Linux distribution that tries to Keep It Simple.
    513
    517
    + 1
    92
    PROS OF ARCH LINUX
    • 15
      Large Community
    • 13
      Package Manager
    • 11
      Customizable
    • 10
      Arch User Repository
    • 10
      Rolling Release
    • 9
      Bleeding Edge
    • 8
      Extensive Documentation
    • 7
      Arch Build System
    • 6
      X86_64 architecture supported
    • 3
      Can fix bugs yourself if you know how to
    CONS OF ARCH LINUX
    • 3
      Systemd only
    • 2
      Only X86_64 architecture is offically supported
    • 1
      No Guided Installation
    • 1
      System maintenance
    • 1
      Unstable
    • 1
      Comparatively fewer offically supported packages

    related Arch Linux posts

    Shared insights
    on
    UbuntuUbuntuLinuxLinuxArch LinuxArch Linux

    I once used Ubuntu as my exclusive Linux distro, but then I decided to switch my primary operating system to Arch Linux.

    While more difficult to install, Arch Linux offered more flexibility during the installation process which allowed me to customize my system to fit me perfectly. With Ubuntu, instead of installing everything i did want, I had to remove everything that I didn't need.

    See more
    Shared insights
    on
    Kali LinuxKali LinuxArch LinuxArch LinuxLinuxLinux

    I do find Linux-based systems to be cool! However, I am confused when it comes to which Linux operating system to use. I cannot make my mind between Arch Linux and Kali Linux. Guys, give me some advice if you would be so kind.

    See more
    Fedora logo

    Fedora

    450
    464
    80
    Operating system based on the Linux kernel, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project
    450
    464
    + 1
    80
    PROS OF FEDORA
    • 20
      Great for developers
    • 9
      Great integration with system tools
    • 9
      Represents the future of rhel/centos
    • 8
      Good release schedule
    • 6
      Reliable
    • 5
      Fast
    • 5
      Docker integration
    • 3
      Latest packages
    • 3
      Updated with Bleeding-edge software
    • 3
      Great for ops teams
    • 3
      Has SeLinux
    • 2
      Awesome community
    • 2
      Complies with International Standard
    • 2
      Python distribution
    CONS OF FEDORA
    • 1
      Bugs get fixed slowly from kernel side
    • 1
      Systemd
    • 1
      Much less support from Wiki
    • 1
      Boring
    • 1
      Less packages in official repository
    • 1
      A bit complicated
    • 0
      Slightly difficult to install for beginners

    related Fedora posts

    Tim Abbott
    Shared insights
    on
    DebianDebianUbuntuUbuntuFedoraFedora
    at

    We use Debian and its derivative Ubuntu because the apt ecosystem and toolchain for Debian packages is far superior to the yum-based system used by Fedora and RHEL. This is large part due to a huge amount of investment into tools like debhelper/dh over the years by the Debian community. I haven't dealt with RPM in the last couple years, but every experience I've had with RPM is that the RPM tools are slower, have less useful options, and it's more work to package software for them (and one makes more compromises in doing so).

    I think everyone has seen the better experience using Ubuntu in the shift of prevalence from RHEL to Ubuntu in what most new companies are deploying on their servers, and I expect that trend to continue as long as Red Hat is using the RPM system (and I don't really see them as having a path to migrate).

    The experience with Ubuntu and Debian stable releases is pretty similar: A solid release every 2 years that's supported for a few years. (While Ubuntu in theory releases every 6 months, their non-LTS releases are effectively betas: They're often unstable, only have 9 months of support, etc. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone not actively participating in Ubuntu the development community). Ubuntu has better integration of non-free drivers, which may be important if you have hardware that requires them. But it's also the case that most bugs I experience when using Ubuntu are Ubuntu-specific issues, especially on servers (in part because Ubuntu has a bunch of "cloud management" stuff pre-installed that is definitely a regression if you're not using Canonical's cloud management products).

    See more
    Marcel Kornegoor

    Since #ATComputing is a vendor independent Linux and open source specialist, we do not have a favorite Linux distribution. We mainly use Ubuntu , Centos Debian , Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora during our daily work. These are also the distributions we see most often used in our customers environments.

    For our #ci/cd training, we use an open source pipeline that is build around Visual Studio Code , Jenkins , VirtualBox , GitHub , Docker Kubernetes and Google Compute Engine.

    For #ServerConfigurationAndAutomation, we have embraced and contributed to Ansible mainly because it is not only flexible and powerful, but also straightforward and easier to learn than some other (open source) solutions. On the other hand: we are not affraid of Puppet Labs and Chef either.

    Currently, our most popular #programming #Language course is Python . The reason Python is so popular has to do with it's versatility, but also with its low complexity. This helps sysadmins to write scripts or simple programs to make their job less repetitive and automating things more fun. Python is also widely used to communicate with (REST) API's and for data analysis.

    See more
    openSUSE logo

    openSUSE

    101
    147
    13
    The makers' choice for sysadmins, developers and desktop users
    101
    147
    + 1
    13
    PROS OF OPENSUSE
    • 4
      Stable
    • 3
      Lightweight for server
    • 2
      Snapshot
    • 2
      Rolling release
    • 2
      Reliable
    CONS OF OPENSUSE
      Be the first to leave a con

      related openSUSE posts

      Windows logo

      Windows

      951
      705
      2
      A group of several graphical operating system families, all of which are developed by Microsoft
      951
      705
      + 1
      2
      PROS OF WINDOWS
      • 2
        Lovely
      CONS OF WINDOWS
      • 2
        Proprietary
      • 1
        Not free to use

      related Windows posts

      Shared insights
      on
      UnityUnityElectronElectronmacOSmacOSWindowsWindows

      We want to create a 3D web and desktop(Windows and macOS) application with a lot of functionalities. This is a 3D furniture customization application in which we give options to add, delete, scale, move, rotate objects. Something like a floor planner. We are also going to add AR and VR.

      I am thinking about using Electron or Unity. Please recommend what should I choose for this purpose. Please consider that we have to develop for web and desktop (windows and mac) all platforms.

      See more
      William Miller

      We are developing an AWS IoT app for large boats. The IoT devices have sensors all over the boat for engine oil pressure, position, water depth, fuel level, crew location, etc. When the boat has internet, we interact with AWS cloud using lambda and Amazon DynamoDB. When the boat is offshore, the captain and crew still need normal and emergency alerts and real-time sensor information. The crew might have an Android or IoS phone or a Windows or macOS PC to receive alerts and interact with sensors. We may use the AWS GreenGrasss edge computing solution and either MQTT or HTML for that function.

      Question: We want to develop a cross-platform client to run on Windows, Mac, Android, IOS, and possibly Linux. We are primarily Python programmers, so PyQt or Kivy are options for us, but we have heard good things about React Native, Flutter, Xamarin, and others. We think an AWS Greengrass core on an RPI4 could communicate to the client with MQTT or a local webserver with a client web interface.

      Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

      See more
      Windows 10 logo

      Windows 10

      405
      368
      10
      The most secure Windows ever built
      405
      368
      + 1
      10
      PROS OF WINDOWS 10
      • 3
        On 4gb other applications less likely to run smoothly
      • 2
        The best developer tools for all devices
      • 1
        Slow
      • 1
        Best for Indonesian PC Users
      • 1
        Great is if you have 8b ram and a 128gb ssd minimum
      • 1
        Complies with JIS Standard
      • 1
        Editors choice. But not suitable on 4gb ram. Alth
      CONS OF WINDOWS 10
      • 2
        Worst OS to run on 2GB of RAM
      • 2
        Slow, slow and slow
      • 2
        Lags really much on low end devices
      • 1
        Acts posh
      • 1
        Can't fix bugs yourself

      related Windows 10 posts

      Justin Dorfman
      Open Source Program Manager at Reblaze · | 3 upvotes · 35.8K views

      I have been using macOS for 12 years. I can't imagine switching to another operating system since I have all of my hotkeys memorized. Windows 10 has made some drastic improvements like adding GNU Bash/Linux to win developers over from unix-like systems, I just don't feel it is there yet. Maybe I'll give it a shot next time I need a new laptop. 🤷‍♂️

      See more
      Debian logo

      Debian

      14.3K
      10K
      147
      The Universal Operating System
      14.3K
      10K
      + 1
      147
      PROS OF DEBIAN
      • 52
        Massively supported
      • 47
        Stable
      • 18
        Reliable
      • 7
        Turnkey linux use it
      • 7
        Aptitude
      • 6
        Customizable
      • 6
        It is free
      • 4
        Works on all architectures
      CONS OF DEBIAN
      • 9
        Old versions of software
      • 2
        Can be difficult to set up on vanilla Debian

      related Debian posts

      Labinator Team

      At labinator.com, we use HTML5, CSS 3, Sass, Vanilla.JS and PHP when building our premium WordPress themes and plugins. When writing our codes, we use Sublime Text and Visual Studio Code depending on the project. We run Manjaro and Debian operating systems in our office. Manjaro is a great desktop operating system for all range of tasks while Debian is a solid choice for servers.

      WordPress became a very popular choice when it comes to content management systems and building websites. It is easy to learn and has a great community behind it. The high number of plugins as well that are available for WordPress allows any user to customize it depending on his/her needs.

      For development, HTML5 with Sass is our go-to choice when building our themes.

      Main Advantages Of Sass:

      • It's CSS syntax friendly
      • It offers variables
      • It uses a nested syntax
      • It includes mixins
      • Great community and online support.
      • Great documentation that is easy to read and follow.

      As for PHP, we always thrive to use PHP 7.3+. After the introduction of PHP 7, the WordPress development process became more stable and reliable than before. If you a developer considering PHP 7.3+ for your project, it would be good to note the following benefits.

      The Benefits Of Using PHP:

      • Open Source.
      • Highly Extendible.
      • Easy to learn and read.
      • Platform independent.
      • Compatible with APACHE.
      • Low development and maintenance cost.
      • Great community and support.
      • Detailed documentation that has everything you need!

      Why PHP 7.3+?

      • Flexible Heredoc & Nowdoc Syntaxes - Two key methods for defining strings within PHP. They also became easier to read and more reliable.
      • A good boost in performance speed which is extremely important when it comes to WordPress development.
      See more
      Tim Abbott
      Shared insights
      on
      DebianDebianUbuntuUbuntuFedoraFedora
      at

      We use Debian and its derivative Ubuntu because the apt ecosystem and toolchain for Debian packages is far superior to the yum-based system used by Fedora and RHEL. This is large part due to a huge amount of investment into tools like debhelper/dh over the years by the Debian community. I haven't dealt with RPM in the last couple years, but every experience I've had with RPM is that the RPM tools are slower, have less useful options, and it's more work to package software for them (and one makes more compromises in doing so).

      I think everyone has seen the better experience using Ubuntu in the shift of prevalence from RHEL to Ubuntu in what most new companies are deploying on their servers, and I expect that trend to continue as long as Red Hat is using the RPM system (and I don't really see them as having a path to migrate).

      The experience with Ubuntu and Debian stable releases is pretty similar: A solid release every 2 years that's supported for a few years. (While Ubuntu in theory releases every 6 months, their non-LTS releases are effectively betas: They're often unstable, only have 9 months of support, etc. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone not actively participating in Ubuntu the development community). Ubuntu has better integration of non-free drivers, which may be important if you have hardware that requires them. But it's also the case that most bugs I experience when using Ubuntu are Ubuntu-specific issues, especially on servers (in part because Ubuntu has a bunch of "cloud management" stuff pre-installed that is definitely a regression if you're not using Canonical's cloud management products).

      See more
      CentOS logo

      CentOS

      12.9K
      8.4K
      53
      The Community ENTerprise Operating System
      12.9K
      8.4K
      + 1
      53
      PROS OF CENTOS
      • 16
        Stable
      • 9
        Free to use
      • 9
        Reliable
      • 6
        Has epel packages
      • 6
        Good support
      • 5
        Great Community
      • 2
        I've moved from gentoo to centos
      CONS OF CENTOS
      • 1
        Yum is a horrible package manager

      related CentOS posts

      Marcel Kornegoor

      Since #ATComputing is a vendor independent Linux and open source specialist, we do not have a favorite Linux distribution. We mainly use Ubuntu , Centos Debian , Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora during our daily work. These are also the distributions we see most often used in our customers environments.

      For our #ci/cd training, we use an open source pipeline that is build around Visual Studio Code , Jenkins , VirtualBox , GitHub , Docker Kubernetes and Google Compute Engine.

      For #ServerConfigurationAndAutomation, we have embraced and contributed to Ansible mainly because it is not only flexible and powerful, but also straightforward and easier to learn than some other (open source) solutions. On the other hand: we are not affraid of Puppet Labs and Chef either.

      Currently, our most popular #programming #Language course is Python . The reason Python is so popular has to do with it's versatility, but also with its low complexity. This helps sysadmins to write scripts or simple programs to make their job less repetitive and automating things more fun. Python is also widely used to communicate with (REST) API's and for data analysis.

      See more
      Shared insights
      on
      UbuntuUbuntuOpenStackOpenStackCentOSCentOS
      at

      Hello guys

      I am confused between choosing CentOS7 or centos8 for OpenStack tripleo undercloud deployment. Which one should I use? There is another option to use OpenStack, Ubuntu, or MicroStack.

      We wanted to use this deployment to build our home cloud or private cloud infrastructure. I heard that centOS is always the best choice through a little research, but still not sure. As centos8 from Redhat is not supported for OpenStack tripleo deployments anymore, I had to upgrade to CentosStream.

      See more