Which flavor of linux to use ?

[tServo]

Since life hasn't been awful enough for me in 2020 I'm thinking of sticking my toe in the linux pond for Cuda work. It will be under WSL2. My question is this threads title: as a noob, which linux should I try? I was gravitating toward Ubuntu but I was wondering if there is a better one for program development & testing.
TIA.

[VBCurtis]

Ubuntu has the gentlest adjustment coming from Windows, imo. It's also used by quite a few forumites, so you're likely to find ready advice relevant to running programs used by forumites.

[M344587487]

IMO normally which Linux distro to use boils down to which package manager you prefer with most of the rest being fluff. So just use Ubuntu, it's likely to be the path of least resistance as the repos are well stocked and third parties tend to specifically support Ubuntu if they bother supporting distros specifically. Cuda and WSL2 may introduce some wrinkles I'm not qualified to answer. Cuda seems like the kind of thing that loves to introduce a brick wall to the head of a noob, if I were you I'd spend a little while getting to grips with Linux in general first. As long as you don't rush into the deep end I don't think you'll regret trying Linux.

[EdH]

The majority of my machines are running Ubuntu and that's where I focused all my instructions for all the factoring packages like YAFU, Msieve, CADO-NFS, etc. I even have set up Ubuntu Virtual Machines on a Fedora Desktop. I do have some Debian machines that run a close second to Ubuntu, but they gave me some troubles that I didn't experience with Ubuntu. All are well now and the difficulties might have been from less Debian experience. All in all, I'd recommend Ubuntu as a first test.

[a1call]

Ubuntu used to be a great OS, Until they decided to make root access impossible. Setting it up with a password that you will have to look up will render it unusable.
Enabling root account with online procedures will still maker it not function properly.
My 2 cents.

[thyw]

I don't wanna bother with changing the Desktop Enviroment and xfce even with some weird unique choiches is still my favourite with the light/customizable/usable look, with some deep settings, and i am used to apt.
Currently using Xubuntu, but i would be fine with MX Linux or Linux Mint, similar enough, and both worked fine, but happened to choose Xubuntu. They also aren't at the mercy of canonical, good or bad thing. I didn't a problem with Debian, but don't like their schedule.

Arch/Manjaro has some great custom possibility with aur, not the biggest fan of pacman. Apt can be pretty slow, hard to deny.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by a1call

Ubuntu used to be a great OS, Until they decided to make root access impossible. Setting it up with a password that you will have to look up will render it unusable.
Enabling root account with online procedures will still maker it not function properly.
My 2 cents.

No need to use passwords. public key authentication works just fine.

There are a number of ways to get the effect of a root login. The easiest, perhaps, for interactive root shells is sudo bash

Another way, especially good for running remote scripts, is to put a public key in /root/.ssh/authorized_keys and have the local script present the corresponding private key for a ssh session. That is the process by which BackupPc gains root access to its clients' file systems.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by thyw

I don't wanna bother with changing the Desktop Enviroment and xfce even with some weird unique choiches is still my favourite with the light/customizable/usable look, with some deep settings, and i am used to apt.
Currently using Xubuntu, but i would be fine with MX Linux or Linux Mint, similar enough, and both worked fine, but happened to choose Xubuntu. They also aren't at the mercy of canonical, good or bad thing. I didn't a problem with Debian, but don't like their schedule.

Arch/Manjaro has some great custom possibility with aur, not the biggest fan of pacman. Apt can be pretty slow, hard to deny.

I use Ubuntu most everywhere, the exceptions being a couple of Gentoo systems. Like you, XFCE is the desktop of choice, except on a server which is text-mode only.

I would not recommend Gentoo to anyone unless you have some years of experience behind you. It is all too easy to follow the old advice: if it aint broke, fix it until it is.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by xilman

There are a number of ways to get the effect of a root login.

That may be so if you want to become root for some functional admin on a perfectly working system.
But if you are trying to become root to solve a technical fault then making it complex increases the risk that the fault also prevents your login.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by Nick

That may be so if you want to become root for some functional admin on a perfectly working system.
But if you are trying to become root to solve a technical fault then making it complex increases the risk that the fault also prevents your login.

BTDT. Many times. Especially on a Gentoo box.

I generally boot from a live CD/DVD/USB, mount the disks and then fix them.

[paulunderwood]

Ah the easiness of the Gentoo installer

My flavour of the month is Fedora -- worth a try.