Linux for a web designer/developer
 

Hi all,

I've used many flavours of Linux over the years and many different desktops environments. However I create a few websites and tend to stick with good old Windoze 7. Notepad++, Photoshop, cuteFTP and Inkscape are generally my go to software.

My desktop machine is getting pretty old by today's standards, a 3hz dual core 64bit box.

Anyway, would love to wipe the drive and put on a Linux distro but no idea which distro and desktop environment would suit my needs?

Really like the visuals on Plasma 5 but find that quite buggy since it came out, also like the Windows feel as it is something I am used to.

Is it worth me sticking to a Plasma 5 distro as I feel comfortable using it? I simply want a pleasing to look at distro, has a windozey type desktop and the distro can cater for my web design needs.

Don't like to ask for recommendations as that I am sure has been done to death, but I am afraid I have to ask!!

As mentioned, my machine is a pentium d925 dual core (64 bit), 2gb ddr2 ram, 100gb drive.

Really tempted by the Manjaro Plasma 5 distro, looks get but otherwise any other folks here use a Linux distro for web design?

Thanks.

As a newbie stick to a known distro with good support (forums) imho, btw Plasma 5 is not a Linux Distribution it's a theme for KDE (a desktop manager, eg a graphical system interface)

[edit]
Sorry, I just see the Manjaro web site :)
Looks good, I don't know this distribution

maritimesbob,

I have to agree with keefaz.

You cannot go far wrong with Linux Mint 18 MATE 64 bit or Ubuntu 16.04 MATE 64bit.

MX-15 is another distro which would fit the bill for your hardware.

If you like a Windows style distro, try Zorin OS (based on Ubuntu):
http://zorinos.com/tour.html

Having said that, the MATE menu is very much like W7 (see attached screenshot).

https://www.quora.com/Which-Linux-ve...for-web-design

A couple of things to think about.

Eye candy is heavy, it's compute- and memory intensive; i.e., slow. Lean is better (particularly with 2GB RAM -- might want to invest in another couple of gig). Lean that you might like is Xfce (task bar at the top, bottom or either side, desktop icons to launch programs, sort of a Windows look and feel). Xfce is lean, no fluff, no bother and not buggy.

What you'd really want is a solid, dependable distribution that includes everything you need to, well, do stuff you want to do. Multiple editors, multiple browsers, multiple choices and, if you're missing something, and easy way to get and install additional software as needed.

Bottom line is that I'll recommend Slackware (no, Slackware is not "hard"). You do a full install (it'll fit just fine in about, oh, 10G or so, so you won't use up you 100G drive, plenty of room to grow). It's fast, it's efficient, it's rock-solid. There are plenty of Linux tools for web design, pretty much any (or all) of them are freely available. You pick your default window manager at installation, I just pick Xfce because I like its look and feel (and there's no eye candy loading things down). You may like KDE, chock full of eye candy and whizzie stuff. There are other window managers to pick from and you can easily change from one to another if neither Xfce or KDE fills the bill.

Slackware will run just fine on your hardware (it pretty much self-configures for the hardware). I run full installation Slackware on a couple of Dell Dimension 8600's (dual core, 32-bit, 10 years old) -- I use those machines for data base servers and they work just fine. I also run full installation on a 64-bit Dell Inspiron laptop and my "main" machine a Dell 64-bit desktop. Every single one of those machines work just fine. Install and go.

Worth your time to take a look.

Hope this helps some.

Debian (Jessie or Sid or both side by side) Xfce (++) the most free you can get. ;)

Thanks for all the advice, lots to think about.

What are members thoughts on OpenSuse KDE? It seems to get very positive reviews and the KDE desktop seems to be the most stable of the distros that come with KDE (plasma 5).

I'm also looking at Zorin, and a couple of Mate releases.

XFCE is also interesting and a very light desktop. I always had it down as not being updated for a long time. Has that changed?

Personally, I am a big fan of the openSUSE distro, and use it myself. The latest release does come with KDE5, and I like the way it looks, and (as with MOST distros), you can run KDE, Gnome, XFCE, Enlightenment, among other desktop environments...that's up to you. However, as said previously, eye-candy is resource intensive.

If you make your $$$ doing development, I'd spend some $$$ on a new machine, and enjoy more options and all the eye-candy you want. Newegg has a refurbished Dell laptop, Core i5 CPU, nVidia nvs3100 Graphics, 4GB ram, 250GB hdd, for $237. Upgrade ram, and you're still out the door cheap, with same factory warranty, and a BIG step up from where you are now.

Leap or Tumbleweed?

Absolutely, my machine is getting binned for a better setup. I do anything more intensive on my laptop which is far more powerful but I do miss a proper keyboard, mouse and other peripherals!

As a web developer, you might be interested in the Brackets code editor (http://brackets.io/) - I started using that when I came over from Windows. If you do give it a whirl, the SFtpUpload, spell-check and UTF8 converter extensions are worth installing.

Also, it's pretty easy to set up your own testing LAMP stack server on Linux (there are quite a few guides and tutorials kicking around). Me, I use XAMPP for Linux because I was familiar with XAMPP from my Windows days.

Personally, I wouldn't run KDE on a 2GB machine as a web developer (what with our need to have loads of things running at once), Xfce will be faster. Manjaro Xfce is a nice distro/desktop environment combo but if you're a first time user then I would go for Linux Mint Xfce (version 18 will be out very soon but there will be upgrade path from 17.3), or Xubuntu, purely because of the amount of support out there, the ease of use of apt-get and the number of deb packages, and the existence of PPA repositories. Once you get the hang of things, you can easily try other distros out.

If you're worried about the frequency of releases of Xfce (although you shouldn't really be), then MATE is probably your next best choice.

"web design" in not Linux specific.
Yes, you could "web design" from your "smartphone" over toaster wifi.

Use whatever makes you happy, I have no experience with Manjaro, or "Plasma"
All my web designs work.
You certainly want the latest. Not sure what your needs are, exactly.

If you do get a better setup, then two of the advantages of KDE are the file manager Dolphin and the text editor Kate.

As regards your current software usage, I personally now use GIMP instead of Photoshop, the Brackets SFtpUpload extension and Firefox's FireFTP for my FTPing (the former for uploading while I'm editing, the latter for fuller FTP control), and Inkscape which works in Linux.

I use Tumbleweed now, but have two other machines running Leap.
No reason you can't get a proper keyboard for a laptop. I use a bluetooth mouse and keyboard (built-in bluetooth on laptop) with zero problems...and most wireless keyboard/mouse combos are not only cheap these days, but come with a tiny USB receiver. Plug it in and off you go. Not sure what other peripherals you have, but unless it's exotic and/or old, you should have no problems.

Thanks for all the info. Out of the lower resource distros/desktops, which in your opinions is the most attractive and themes the nicest? I appreciate it will simply be a work station for me but I do like an nice desktop environment to work from.

I do have a thing for the latest flat trend, aka the Lollipop type look of Android.

Really thinking over an XFCE distro of some kind.

I have been using Manjaro (with Openbox, would not recommend this for you) for some time and really like the ease of install and setup information via both the Manjaro web site and Arch (which it is
extended from). If your machine can handle KDE and you like it then go ahead, but as others have said, I would probably suggest XFCE with the configuration you have.

:twocents: