Linux Distro Deal Breakers.

[Guest TNFrank]

Over about the last year and a half I've done quite a bit of Distro Hopping so I've checked out quite a few different Distros with different desktops and core systems. I've come to identify a few things that are "Deal Breakers" for me when shopping for a new Linux Distro.

1) Can't/Won't find my wifi out of the box. If a Distro won't find my wifi right out of the box then IMHO it's not worth messing with since all I have are laptops that need wifi to work properly. Also, if I have to hunt down Networking in order to get wifi working it tends to put me off a an otherwise good Distro.

 

2)Hard to install/won't install. If I boot to a DVD or Live USB and it won't bring up the Distro then for all practical purposes there's not much else I can do. Also, if I do manage to boot into the DVD/USB but it's next to impossible to install then again, there's no real reason to go any further. If I can get it onto my computer then it's no good to me.

 

3)No Bluetooth support. Some Distros find my Bluetooth straight away(Point Linux 2.3) and others need a bit of poking to get it working(Manjaro) but others are impossible and no matter what you try you just can't get Bluetooth working. I need Bluetooth support to use an OBD II program to read codes so if there's no Bluetooth, it's a deal breaker.

 

4)Poor Software choices in the Repos. As much as I love Point Linux 2.3(based on Debian Stable with MATE DE) there's no Gqrx or Handbrake in the Debian Stable Repos and in order to use those programs you have to jump through the tar.gz hoop to install them. Manjaro, on the other hand, does have those programs in the Repos so they're easy to install and use. This is one major reason why I've moved from Point Linux 2.3 to Manjaro, it's all about the software.

 

There's other things that are deal breakers for me as well like limited desktop availability. Yes, I know you can go into Terminal and add any desktop to a Linux Distro that you want but it's just nice to have the one you want right out of the box. Unity and KDE are deal breakers, don't really care for either one. Netrunner looked interesting but having a KDE desktop really turned me off of using it. If they'd come out with an Arch based Netrunner with Xfce I'd probably be all over it if it picked up my wifi, had bluetooth support and was easy to install.

 

Anyway, just wanted to share this stuff with ya'll mostly because of my latest adventure with Antergos. It installed easily, I could pick my desktop and it was looking good but with no bluetooth support and with it not finding my wifi on my NC4400(it did find it on my NC6400 and they use the same Intel PRO/Wireless wifi card, go figure) it was a deal breaker for an otherwise nice Distro that would have been more Arch Like then my current Manjaro install.

So, what are some of your deal breakers when it comes to a Linux Distro. Share them with us if you want.

 

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