What Makes a Linux Distro | Why Distribution doesn't matter

This video goes over what comprises a Distribution. Here is the bulleted list of everything I go over in the video:
Timestamps:
0:37 Boot Mode (UEFI or Legacy)
1:10 Type of Disk Partition (ZFS, BTRFS, EXT4)
4:15 Package Manager (pacman, apt, yum/dnf, zypper)
8:43 Display server (Xorg, Wayland)
10:25 Display Manager (Based on Display Environment)
11:04 Display Environment (KDE, Cinnamon, Mate, GNOME, XFCE, LXDE, etc.)
--Not Featured (Bungie, Enlightenment, Deepin)

[mattcroat]

I've been watching a lot of your content recently and you're absolutely crushing it.
Would love to see a series on recovering from disasters—how to fix potential issues (messed up grub, display manager) as to arm ourselves with knowledge on how to approach those things.

[TheMack]

Seeing how many online Linux distro reviews talks about "important things" like background wallpapers and icon sets, this video brings a gust of fresh air of knowledge. Thanks!

[kevinklement]

The main thing drawing me to arch is not pacman or the AUR, though those are great. The best thing about Arch is the wiki. People say Arch is harder to use than Ubuntu. I disagree. Trying to figure out how to do things on Ubuntu is next to impossible because there's no decent documentation. You end up trying to follow instructions on random blog posts that are usually aimed at three versions ago. Arch is easy because the wiki tells you what you need to do for almost anything you want to do.

[terranrepublican]

10:50
The standard display manager for Plasma has been SDDM since ~2014 :D

[Steve-fzit]

Found you in suggestions! I started using centos for my school to save some money and I love it. Thank you for the introductory content, it is very helpful!

[dstinYwOw]

Great video! But you forgot about 3 other differencies between distros:
1. Different placement of libraries and their naming;
2. Different compile flags used by package maintainers of distros;
3. Different kernel configurations between linux distros.
+
Be aware of that, that Debian packages are compiled with boost libraries, Ubuntu is not and It's hard to replace each other.

[KeepItTechie]

Great video man!! Keep up the good work!

[aitchpea]

I just spun up an Ubuntu Gnome distro in a virtual machine for the sole purpose of trying out your configuration script. Had to restart the session to finalise the changes, but it worked beautifully. I'll be recommending it to anyone who wants to use Linux but keep it looking like their old OS. Very nice work, sir!

[Khyree_Holmes]

It's always good to see a CTT video!

[gb__]

Nice video, but two inaccruate things:
- The preffered KDE Plasma Display Manager is SDDM, KDM is old and deprecated
- Nowadays the DE is called Plasma, KDE is the community that creates FOSS software

[mitchelvalentino]

LXDE will still be around for a while, but its successor is LXQT, and that’s where development is focused. For example, Lubuntu 18.04 LTS still uses LXDE, whereas Lubuntu 18.10 and later releases have switched to LQXT. Both are fantastic.

[shindousan]

4:23 Of course the package manager must be good at resolving dependencies and conflicts, but the quality of the repository is what really determines whether your life will be easy or not, and Debian's repository is by far the best. Ubuntu gets all the rave because it comes with the non-free drivers that make everyone's lives easier, but the Debian team is the one really doing the high quality work.

[Ronit_Ray]

Cinnamon is more bloated than Plasma now though, at least in terms of RAM usage. Also Elementary is Pantheon. Enlightenment is Bodhi.
Great vid as always!

[jeremyleonbarlow]

While Cinnamon looks like Windows out of the box, you can make it look a whole lot like Mac in about 2 to 3 minutes time, definitely less than 10 minutes time, if you prefer a Mac-like look too, which makes it not a bad desktop for someone migrating from Mac, if they know how to use the command line and how to look for MacBuntu tweaks for Cinnamon with their search engine of choice.

[JamesWilson-pqqp]

That initial DVD or pen-drive with the Distro on it is so important to get people on to Linux. If it don't look good, we've lost them, possibly forever. Sure you can make the changes afterward, but the first impression is what "closes the sale." Oh if we could only hire a marketing department to get this off the ground. Somebody please put together a quality ISO. Mint is the best so far ....

[Sventimir]

A desktop environment is still composed of a lot of smaller elements and it is especially useful to know about these, because with that knowledge you can pretty much discard a DE altogether and just build one for yourself, like I do. So first of all you need a session manager which lets you login into the graphical environment. You already mentioned that, although you didn't mention my favourite one, which is lxdm. Very lightweight and not coupled to any concrete set of programs like parts of bigger DEs usually are. The next thing is a window manager. There are a lot of them, but each falls into one of two categories. There are standards (Windows-like) window managers and tiling window managers, which are especially loved by more experienced users. They stand out by the fact that they automatically maximise usage of your screen's surface. So if you open a new window, it's automatically displayed on full screen. If you open another, the screen is shared between them automatically, so that everything remains visible and the screen is still completely covered by windows at the same time. I use XMonad, which has the inconvenience of depending on Haskell compiler GHC, but if you're programming in Haskell anyway, that's a bonus rather than a liability. :)
Beside session manager and a WM you also need some way of starting programs, so probably some kind of menu or sth like that. However, it's not necessary, you could start programs form the terminal if you like to use it or dmenu is interesting minimalist option, which opens just a small bar at the top of the screen in which you can type the name of the program to start. It also suggests programs similar to what you have typed already and has auto-completion. You also probably want a status bar, xmobar is one such standalone status bar that I use, but there are probably more to choose from. Finally you probably want a file manager. There's plenty of those too, but I rarely use one, as terminal is much more efficient for most use cases. Also most DEs display files from a particular directory on the desktop, which I don't need (because again, I use terminal most of the time), so never tried to configure that, but I'm pretty sure it's possible too.
One particular advantage of such specific setup is that it's almost completely mousel-ess. Some the elements that I choose are already keyboard-centric by themselves (terminal or dmenu for instance), others give the possibility to configure keyboard shortcuts for most important task (that's especially important for a WM, in which you'd like to have shortcuts for closing windows and moving them around without using the mouse!). This combined with usage mostly revolving around terminal makes me rarely reach out for the mouse and mostly having my hands on the keyboard, which is so much more efficient. It takes some time to get used to, but efficiency boost is definitely worth it. :)

[digitalsparky]

I personally use xfs on some systems due to it's considerable performance IO wise for small read/write - fantastic for database and gluster hosts. I also use it on my main desktop, so I recommend giving it a go :).

[ai.simplified..]

Best linux tutorial i, ve ever watched.

[Sintax]

I wish you made this video around 2007 it took me a few years just to find out everything you are talking about for my self ...i'v jump on so meany Distribution's .trying to find that silver bullet. i loved the video

[johnclyde]

ZFS would be challenging for devices with low RAM, such as old and/or low end laptops, because it uses a lot of RAM. But for everyone else it sounds really good