I ended up voting for Mint because I've had Ubuntu 14.04 hang twice on updating itself and after one update, it introduced a driver issue that forced me to install a proprietary Nvidia driver. Mint has given me no such hassles at all. Downloading Qubes as I write this. The more I read about it, the more I want to try it.
Linux mint only allows update levels 1-3 by default.It is considered risky to allow levels 4-5 and there is enough info about this. Ubuntu however does not make the distinction and updates everything without giving the user any info or warning. This was the basis of the debate between canonical and the linux mint team in regard to the repsective security of each distro. http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/linux-mint-ubuntu-security.html http://www.howtogeek.com/176495/ubuntu-developers-say-linux-mint-is-insecure-are-they-right/
I've never had Ubuntu cause any problems after updates. There again, I bought a laptop preinstalled with Ubuntu.
The specific area where it hangs is updating Grub. I have Grub installed in the Ubuntu system partition and the update doesn't seem to like this. It is also something that should be optional unless there is some serious security flaw in the old version of Grub. The same version of Linux can do much better in one machine vs. another. The Nvidia issue was in a Lenovo W510. I recently replaced it with a W520 which has a faster CPU and dual Nvidia and Intel graphics GPUs with a much better Nvidia GPU. I just put the disk with Ubuntu in the W520 after reverting to the original open source driver. It worked fine with none of the issues of the W510 which included completely freezing and forcing a shutdown of the system on some apps and Firefox having DPI scaling way off so all the the text was huge.
That's funny, I am using a W510 (the model with i7-Q820) for Qubes. I bought it refurbished for around 300 bucks then. It's been working very well so far. I recently upgraded it to 32GB of RAM (it was cheap on black friday sales, about 120 bucks). I read on the mailing list, that there could be trouble with 32GB but I didn't experience problems so far. I still have to upgrade to the latest version, though. Considering the costs, I am pretty satisfied with the performance, better than most of the latest laptops you can buy for that money.
All the Lenovo W series are pretty cool power laptops. The greatest advantage of the W520 over the W510 is that it uses much less wattage than the W510 under light loads. It gets about double the battery life or more. I also got it for the ability to use mSata drives in the WWAN slot. The quad core i7 and 4 ram slots which allow for up to 32gb make either model ideal for virtualization and emulation.
I've read about the power consumption. You have to be careful to get the 135W power plug or else the performance is limited. The first thing I checked was the AC adapter. There has also been an exchange for certain models (some danger of fire) but fortunately my model was not concerned. I would have liked the mSata a and less power consumption but the W520 has been much more expensive at the time I bought mine.
I think hardware OEM compatibility is one of the main problems Linux has. The only way I see this being addressed is when individual distro distributors work more closely with hardware manufacturers. Shuttleworth has attempted this and Lenovo inter alia specifically produce Ubuntu compatible machines. After suffering some compatibility problems with my old laptop I bought a Lenovo G500 laptop preinstalled with Ubuntu 14.0.4 LTS. I find Ubuntu a reliable OS and I've been running the Lenovo successfully for over a year now. My old laptop ran with Ubuntu for over 18 months before I retired it. Unfortunately it was prone to the dreaded Ubuntu black screen of death occasionally. I'd used Ubuntu on and off for several years (we also had laptops running it at work and they all ran fine) and I was sufficiently impressed with Unity to actually buy a machine with Ubuntu. Although certain sections of the tinfoil hat brigade attack Ubuntu or Shuttleworth all too regularly these days, I think he's taking it in the right direction, and has recently made a large deal (Kylin) with China. As virtually all hardware is manufactured in China, this could bode well for hardware compatibility in general. http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/ubuntu-kylin
I have to agree with Mr Daveski, I've chosen to use Ubuntu as my main OS now, and I've never had any real problems with it in the past, whereas others like Mint and Debian have actually seemed more buggy and glitch-prone. Granted, I stick with the LTS releases, but still. Ubuntu serves me well.
It will be hard to beat Microsoft's monopoly. The Linux community has to unite and develop more standards like pulseaudio and systemd. OEM's are not willing to deal with mess of Linux in regards to libraries, versioning, package formats and package managers, and etc. Hopefully VALVe will save Linux on the Desktop, just like CODEMASTERS and maybe DICE in the future. If the next Crysis comes to Linux that is a good start. What we can't keep doing is start developing new standards that will only devide our community. The problem is that developers have huge egoes, they care only about their own arses. Either we unite, or fail. Or see only Ubuntu/Mint comming to OEM's.
I wouldn't worry about the future of Linux. It's omnipresent in the back end of IT and runs all kinds of things from hand held media players to the web servers running the sites of all the corporations we like to complain about. The different desktop distros are just one facet of Linux and the diversity is a strength, not a weakness. A lot of the perspective we're getting in this tread is from those of us who are coming from primary Windows use who have no qualms with a few proprietary blobs if it makes the OS work for them. Windows is pushing a lot of its users elsewhere with the way it is going. The great thing about Linux is that there is a flavor of it for everyone and as diverse as it is, the base is always the same. Not to mention that it has noticeably better performance than Windows and makes much better use of system resources so you can have a modern and update OS on Xp era hardware. I'm putting it on quad core i7s and Core Duos that are 8 years old and I'm getting good results on both extremes.
Fail as far as breaking the M$ monopoly. Yes no overthrowing that by Linux for at least 10-20 years if ever. But Linux itself will be around forever. Pie in the sky things or M$ mistakes that could throw Linux into the forefront. M$ charging annual fees of $99 or more for OS updates. M$ locking out users (legal ransomware) not paying annual fees. I'm sure there's more but they'd have to be as drastic as the 2 mentioned. Otherwise the public's too passive to drop M$. I'm calling it the LiTwitFace, LiFaceTwit, FaceTwitLi, FaceLiTwit, TwitLiFace or TwitFaceLi effect.
I think it's great if you can revitalise older hardware but OEM's really need to make hardware that is guaranteed reliably compatible with specific Linux distros. This will only happen when distro distributors work more closely with the hardware makers themselves.
Linux as we know it today? I have my doubts I guess we'll have to wait until fate hits Linus so that we can meet the new "boss".
Linus is 45 years old now. Considering he could retire when he's at most 70 or 80.... I guess we can expect Linux to stay relatively the same project for at least 20 years.
I voted for Fedora but I use the Cinnamon desktop which is from the Mint developers. Mint is a great distro.
