Whats the most reliable daily drivable OS?

[Capriso]

Just been wondering whats the most reliable OS of them all.
Im not talking about some niche OS thats run on a server 24/7.
I mean like something a normal Joe would daily run without issues and disturbing updates.

If you got one let me hear it

[stj]

Debian Linux.

[petehall347]

ubuntu which is debian based

[Capriso]

I think Debian is a bit shallow, tho i can understand ubuntu. It does tick the user friendliness and i guess the LTS version is pretty reliable

[stj]

Debian's advantages are being the foundation it gets fastest updates and has the biggest repo's
unfortunatly it has a website that is one step from a telnet era bbs!!

incidentally, windows is not a daily driver, it's a "waymo"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWgrvNHjKkY

[kinojk2]

I agree with Ubuntu/Mint/Debian, Ubuntu has the most support of the three, but 99% of the time, answers you find on Ubuntu support or forums will apply to the same issue if using Debian or Mint

[CapLeaker]

Debian / Ubuntu now and way back I used CentOS / RHEL.
That CentOS server I built with 100% used parts in 2007 and ran 24/7/365 on an online UPS to 2022 when I replaced it with a raspberry Pi due to a HDD failure. The new PI is using a customized stripped version of Ubuntu.

[kane_smith]

If you want something super reliable for daily use, I’d say go with Linux Mint — it’s stable, lightweight, and doesn’t force annoying updates.
If you prefer something more mainstream, Windows 10 is still one of the most stable Windows versions out there.
For a smooth, no-hassle experience, macOS is also very reliable (if you’re okay with Apple devices).
Honestly, Linux gives you the most control, while Windows/macOS are easier plug-and-play.
Depends on your comfort, but Linux Mint is a safe underrated winner

[stj]

if your switching from windows you want the KDE / Plasma desktop enviroment.
it's the most similar.

[CapLeaker]

Linux mint too bloaty for a server. Stick with Ubuntu.

[Agent24]

Some flavour of Linux. It's a lot more stable than Microslop's Slop-coded Winslop SlopOS that's for sure.

If you are interested, try several different ones and various different desktop environments. You won't know what you like the most until you try them... great thing is you can boot most Linux distros from USB and run live without having to install. So you can easily try several out and see how you feel about them.

Download a program called Ventoy and make a bootable USB drive you can just copy a bunch of ISOs onto.

Debian based distros are usually more stable than some others, as has already been mentioned.

[redwire]

Trying Mint but is seems slow and it has an update for my Intel CPU microcode that I haven't looked at as it's surely going to slow it down.

[Agent24]

Trying Mint but is seems slow and it has an update for my Intel CPU microcode that I haven't looked at as it's surely going to slow it down.

Hmm, slow in what way exactly? Are you running from live USB or did you install it? Live boot will always be slower since USB/DVD is slower than your hard drive.

[redwire]

I installed Mint on an old PC to try it out i7-4790K 3.8GHz, 4GB DDR2, on an SSD drive. The "business" graphics card I know is slow but I found Win7 ran faster on the rig. I'm trying to get a better graphics card and see if that is it.

[CapLeaker]

I installed Mint on an old PC to try it out i7-4790K 3.8GHz, 4GB DDR2, on an SSD drive. The "business" graphics card I know is slow but I found Win7 ran faster on the rig. I'm trying to get a better graphics card and see if that is it.

What kind of video card is / was this?

[Agent24]

I installed Mint on an old PC to try it out i7-4790K 3.8GHz, 4GB DDR2, on an SSD drive. The "business" graphics card I know is slow but I found Win7 ran faster on the rig. I'm trying to get a better graphics card and see if that is it.

So you have graphical slowness? I assume you have Intel integrated graphics? You can post the output of lspci terminal command, that will tell what the GPU is.

Which desktop environment did you choose? Mint has multiple options

[redwire]

Mint 22.3 cinnamon, radeon HD3450
I'm assuming the H/W is slow but it does take a few seconds to run something. If I click on Brave browser, maybe 3 seconds or more to come up. Not snappy.
Mint looks really good once I figure enough basics that I know Windows has, like perf manager or task manager.
Next I'm going to learn and run FreeCAD wish me luck.

[Agent24]

HDD or SSD? Load times will be longer on HDD of course. Your hardware doesn't sound too bad really. Brave is probably not the lightest browser since it's based on Chromium.

[CapLeaker]

Also RAM, and Ram speed does effect this. Oh sale make sure you use a SATA 3 cable they are not all the same.

[stj]

chromium is a bastard, every tab you open spawns a new running copy of the software!
it eats ram real fast!