Linux distro for webmaster

In the near future my employer is going to buy us new notebooks, something like i7, ~16gb RAM, SSD. I have to decide if I want to have Windows on my new machine.

My job is to build websites, do some simple image manipulation and check if it works ok everywhere (i use VMs).

I use Win 8. I know there will be no problem to find appropiate software for me for both Windows and Linux. I want my computer to be
-as fast as possible
-stable
-as configurable as possible
-able to connect 2 or 3 additional monitors (extend, not duplicate) without configuring something every time

What I hate about new operating systems is they try to be good on traditional PCs AND touch-screens (win8, ubuntu, gnome3) at the same time. In addition new OSes look beautiful (everything is big, shiny and animated) when I prefer raw style (like GNOME2).

I've had Linux before (Ubuntu, Debian, Arch). I can spend a lot of time configuring something, reading and learning but it has to work: I don't want to do overtime every few days.

The problem is once I say I don't need Windows I won't get it for next 3 years...

My question: Do you think Linux would be better for me? If so, what distribution?

Get Windows - you can always dual-boot Linux. As for the distro - LFS?

LFS...it's preety hardcore I'll think about it.
Is gnome 3 classic a good idea?

Windows+software & Linux+software...I don't think SSD will be big enough.

From what I've read, I'd avoid Gnome3 classis. I do like cinnamon (Mint15), and use it, along with Lubuntu 13.04 and Fedora 20. If I wanted stability, I'd probably go with CentOS with an XFCE or LXDE desktop (I just don't like KDE, although it's extremely configurable; just a personal preference)

If you can afford 16GB of RAM in a laptop, you can afford a bigger SSD.

I wouldnt even think about using LFS if you are here asking 'what distro?'. Its great if you want to learn the ins and outs of linux, its crap for real use unless you are _very_ expereinced..and even then its just going to eat more time for no productivity increase.

Debian, maybe slackware, or posibly even centOS are some of the distros I'd look at.

If you dotn like unity or gnome3, try one of the other desktops. There are plently around.

If you don't like Windows 8, why stick with it?

If you liked Gnome 2 and hated Gnome 3 and Unity (I know just how you feel!) then get Mate or Xfce. I'd say go for Salix:
- Xfce
- based on Slackware, so very stable and supported for about 5 years
- hundreds of extra programs (with dependency resolution) so you don't spend hours messing around with Slackbuilds (though they work if you really want to).

I think it will be a good idea to install a Linux base OS. I havent never use LinuxMint but lots of user just love it, you could install that. The tools you need for work are going to be available in all Linux Distros. Only stuff that is Microsoft proprietary wont be available in Linux.
Good luck to you

" something like i7 ?
a i7 laptop/notebook cpu is VERY different than a desktop i7 cpu


and by "something like" are you sure that these notebooks will not be ARM CPU's


Preinstalled win8 on a laptop/noetbook might NOT be able to dual boot even win7 let alone any Linux install using the "secureboot shim"

you might have to pick one or the other

-- better CHECK and make 100% SURE first
and if they are ARM cpu's
you might not have much of a choice in the software you can use on win8

If you can afford 16GB of RAM in a laptop, you can afford a bigger SSD.

It'll be given to me and I have noting to say

a i7 laptop/notebook cpu is VERY different than a desktop i7 cpu and by "something like" are you sure that these notebooks will not be ARM CPU's

I know these notebooks are about 3500PLN (~$1200) so I THINK about configuration like i7 3630QM (i know it's slower than desktop i3...), 16gb DDR3 (because I said 12gb is enough now, in 2 years i don't think so), and 60GB or maybe 120GB SSD ('cause 120GB+ are very expensive in Poland). And it won't be ARM, because my boss is not an idiot

Preinstalled win8 on a laptop/noetbook might NOT be able to dual boot even win7 let alone any Linux install using the "secureboot shim"

Well, UEFI would solve my problem with chosing the best distro :/

I would not suggest LFS as a distro if you want something that will work out of the box to get stuff done for your employer. I'm currently trying to get LFS working in a VM on Mageia and haven't gotten past chapter 5 yet, after poking at it for two weeks. (The "make install" for GCC keeps throwing errors, though I'm making progress--it's throwing different errors.)

I would stick with one of the major distros and pick one that is oriented towards stability, rather than bleeding edge.

I think Ubuntu and Fedora change too frequently, and Ubuntu seems to be wondering off to someplace inhabited only by itself.

If you primarily want to be able to do web development and run VMs for testing on this box, CentOS might be a good choice. I know that a number of webhosting services use CentOS to run their VMs.

Also, part of MS's spec for "Secure Boot" (not to be confused with UEFI), is that secure boot should be able to be turned off.

Originally Posted by pp_1 It'll be given to me and I have noting to say 16gb DDR3 (because I said 12gb is enough now, in 2 years i don't think so)

Either you have some input, or you dont.

For myself, I wouldnt be sugestting 16GB/i7 laptops as a bulk buy....even if some people in your organisation might use 16GB, its not a good idea to buy a bunch of quite expensive laptops because a few % of the organisation might like more cores/more RAM. You may also have issues with nvidia 'optimus' or 'switchable graphics' as most top end laptops tend to come with nVidia or AMD GPUs.

8GB/dual core should be more than enough for most users for at least the next 3 years.

Originally Posted by pp_1 I know these notebooks are about 3500PLN (~$1200) so I THINK about configuration like i7 3630QM (i know it's slower than desktop i3...),

Ummm...no, the i7-3630QM is not slower than a desktop i3.

The fastest i3 desktop is 3.5GHz (and that is a only just released 'haswell' i3-4340 CPU). The i7-3630QM goes to 3.4GHz (turbo) and has twice the L3 cache of the i3. Anything that uses multipule cores, or 'likes' L3 cache will be faster on the i7. Single core only programs that dont like L3 cache might run about the same speed.

For me LFS is not a distro, it's a learning thing.

If you are willing to spend some days in the beginning, go with gentoo, as once it's running, it's going quite smooth and overall FAST , even when it's a rolling release distro.

If you want a distro which can be installed quickly and runs stable, go with Slackware.

They both privide KDE, or XFCE4 as DE and nearly all the others can be installed. (Maybe with exception of Gnome on Slackware)
You have to take into account, that you need to work as root quite often, if you will have to configure Apache, Mysql etc. or copy files to vhosts, which may not be accessible as a normal user.

So a distro like Ubunto where root is evil is just slowing down the workflow.
Also dependancy hell can be annoying when you need to switch between several Apache or Php versions.

We do webdevelopment and hosting and we are using Slackware on all servers which need to run without too much maintenance time and for developing on Desktop Computers we use Gentoo for more than 2 Years now and for me it is really nice to have 3 different php versions like 5.3 , 5.4 and 5.5 at the same time

I would suggest go for centos, with the hardware you would be running you could go for KDE It works great and you could always switch off the KDE effects if you don't like them and also they are highly configurable.