I have a fairly elaborate home network of computers. Two servers running Ubuntu acting as nfs and samba storages (one backs up the other), Windows 10, and 11 workstations, Mac workstations, and Linux workstations.
My question is about Linux. Ubuntu used to be small and nimble. But I'm not so sure about the latest version, 22.0.4. It seems bloated, and I am even having stability issues. Samba disconnects periodically and randomly. ntp service fed by gpsd simply doesn't recognize the GPS device (worked on 20.0.4). Plainly put, it feels it's coming closer to how Windows used to be.
I'm not trying to find the best, as it really is a matter of opinion and use case. But I am curious what Linux distributions everyone is using for server and workstation duties. Would guys mind sharing that information with short descriptions on why?
Thanks in advance.
TL;DR
Not Linux but:
Solaris 10 because of the ZFS filesystem (huge management feature set and top reliability), professional, complete doc and great compilers including Fortran.
NetBSD because it has the best package management system I have seen, and saved me a long time ago when a machine was dying and nothing else would run on it.
OpenBSD because it's thin, light, and the devs care about correctness and safety/security. Lots and lots of innovations.
Linux:
Slackware because it's a good blend of letting you set up your box how you want, giving you a fair shot at eliminating bloat, while also offering a lot of packages.
Fedora Workstation (with a bunch of package groups removed) since I got tired of playing home sysadmin. Works great, have never had a problem.
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Longer version:
I have a bunch of boxes in two locations running various OS including some Linux.
Desktop machine has been Fedora for the last 4 or 5 years, before that I ran Slackware for 10 years or so. While I really liked that a couple of guys wrote packaging tools so I could make my own packages, it started to be too time-consuming and my priorities changed, so in the end I went with a packaged-managed distro (Fedora, as mentioned) and I'm completely happy with it. Nothing ever breaks. Also have a laptop from hell running Fedora. And I use Fedora for WSL on my Windows 10 Pro boxes. I don't like Windows, but WSL has made me dislike it a lot less... and I need Windows for work sometimes.
Main desktop lately has been Win 10 Pro. Without WSL I would not have done that.
I run OpenBSD on some Fuloong boxes which are file servers and emulation hosts.
I run FreeBSD on a Xeon box as a NAS, Samba, minidlna. I have another Xeon box running Fedora which I use as a backup box. Both of these boxes are also emulation hosts.
I have a bunch of Sun rack servers running Solaris 10, with S8 and S9 in zones. I have made accounts on these boxes available in the past for a couple of open source projects that I follow/followed.
I have DietPi on some RPI boxes, and NetBSD on Odroid.
Solaris 10 is my favorite do-everything OS, but for various reasons I don't use it as a desktop anymore although I did for a few years. 11 has been out for a long time, 10 isn't being developed anymore, the source for patches I had for S10 dried up. But and I haven't wanted to go to 11. Still useful as a server and development box but not a viable desktop choice unless you like hurting yourself. Sad, because S10 and CDE are so awesome, and nobody does ZFS like Sun did.
You could look into OpenBSD, NetBSD, or FreeBSD (in no particular order) if you would consider not using Linux. They're all perfectly good as desktops and servers, I'd choose FreeBSD if server use was more important than desktop, Net or Open if desktop was more important. Not that OpenBSD can't be used to make a great server, it certainly can. But ZFS is very important to me.