Which Linux?
 

Not really a newbie--- I've been using Linux as my primary OS at least since the late '90s. Now I have a dilemma. I want a rock solid, stable OS. I tried Fedora, and really liked it, but it cannot use the driver for my Pantum 2502w Printer. Currently, I'm using Pop OS. It's ok, and it can run the printer driver, but, like MOST Ubuntu distros, it's fraught with weirdness. Typing is funny, not always reliable. The screen tends to jump around on some sites, causing me to click on things I never intended to click on. Open SUSE was to weird, coming from straight up Debian. I just don't know what's out there now.

You might want to give LinuxMint Mate a try. I have found it to work "right out of the box" with most hardware.

Some sites deliberately do that to try to get you to click on a link to advertising instead of what you intended to click on.

The latest Fedora comes with (I think) the 5.17 kernel, which is pretty dern new, and I'd expect it would have all the latest drivers. I don't know if Fedora comes default with non-free drivers.

Pretty much all the mainstream Debian based distros use the Stable branch, and are typically solid.

Rather than distro hopping, maybe it will better serve if you can give details about your hardware, and the specific issues you are experiencing. Things like typing issues could be an incorrect keyboard region setup. Things like "screen jumping around on sites" could be the browser rendering slowly due to connection speed, or you need to try a different browser.

If you had Debian, you had rock solid. What's the deal with that printer? Is Pantum made by Canon? Is it an IP printer? Why can't you make it work?

If you don't want a Debian or one of its bazillion derivatives, openSUSE, or Fedora, there aren't all that many non-derivatives left. Among those that aren't derived from something else (that still exists), try Mageia or PCLinuxOS for conventional pre-builts, or for those you build yourself, Slackware or Gentoo. Or, visit http://distrowatch.com/ for over 100 distro names to choose from. If openSUSE was "too weird", you probably need to stick with a Debian. I've been using only openSUSE as primary OS since I gave up trying to use OS/2 as primary over a decade ago.

If the driver is in Debian, any derivative will be able to install it; if not, download the driver & install it manually.

As others have said problems with web sites are almost always doe to bad coding. I could list some with menus that don't work, that won't work at all with some browsers, that over-write themselves, and so on.

Your typing problem could probably be solved, if you'd told us what it was!

What was wrong with Debian? It can be a real pain to install and configure but, once it's working, it works. If you want more user-friendliness, I too would suggest you try Mint, as the cleanest of Debian derivatives.

If you found SUSE weird, then you probably want to steer clear of other KDE-default distros. On the whole, you'll get less niggles with the default desktop as it's the one most of the developers are using.

Thanks for the advice, guys. I've been thinking about going back tp Debian. That's what I used for years. My Son works in IT, and he was who convinced me to give Fedora a try. His criteria for "fully functional and stable" are different than mine, obviously. Like I said, I liked Fedora just fine, except the printer issue. I couldn't even get it to install manually!--- it just refused to do it.I'll look at the latest version of Debian. Debian always felt like I was more in control anyway.


I'm on a Lenova Thinkpad 420, BTW--- 8 mg ram, I5 2520 x4.

Fedora's focus is on innovation, not stability - for people who want to upgrade their OS every 6-12 months.


As already mentioned, DistroWatch can help there.

In addition to checking the popular/trending list on the right (play with the dropdown for different results), you can search based on criteria such as https://distrowatch.com/search.php?basedon=Debian&notbasedon=Ubuntu

I've settled on LTS distos myself (Fedora is only in a VM for nostalgia purposes). KUbuntu (both 20.04 and 22.04) is my daily driver on all my systems. Ubuntu has been solid as a rock over the last few years for me. I do recommend Linux Mint Cinnamon to the 'coming from Windows' newbies though.{edited} Mint comes with most everything you need to get started (some call this bloat). Disk space is cheap though, so not a concern.

gnigma,

I can recommend EndeavourOS which is based on Arch Linux and is very solid and stable. It is simple to install.

https://endeavouros.com/

https://www.linuxandubuntu.com/home/...arch-right-way

Under Desktop Environments tick the boxes for:

1. Base-devel and Common packages.

2. One of MATE, Cinnamon, XFCE4, Gnome etc.

3. Printing-Support (plus any others you may need, such as Nvidia).

Install EndeavourOS and then in Terminal install the pantum printer driver:

I have a second generation Pentium dual core which runs Debian just fine and quite responsive, while I also have a fourth generation i5 dual core four thread which is on Linux Mint, less responsive. Both are HP laptops with SSD disks with the i5 having the better SSD (Micron vs Kingston) and both are using the Cinnamon desktop. That is an HP 650 low end laptop compared with an HP Elitebook 850 G2. Just FYI, Mint seems bloated compared to Debian.

If you ask ten Linux users to recommend a distro, you will easily get 20 recommendations.

I tend to favor rock solid over bleeding edge. My favorites and Debian (I'm partial to Sid), Mageia, and Slackware.