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Linux Distribution Review and Survey (2022)

Know yourself and your unlikely partners.

Legend

Below are the symbols used to denote different types of notes taken during distribution reviews, aggregated in tables in the following sections.

✓ : Good feature(s) planned for implementation in AOSC OS.
? : Questionable feature(s), further discussion needed.
× : Anti-feature(s), flaw(s), and bad decision(s) to not repeat in AOSC OS.

Manjaro

Date of Review: 20220424
Version: 21.2.6

Type	Remark
✓	A news aggregator for community/distribution news and PSAs.
✓	Pre-installed backup application: Timeshift.
✓	Graphical utility for installing NVIDIA drivers.
?	OnlyOffice as LibreOffice replacement, where possible.
?	A snazzy and semi-graphical (font-dependent) shell prompt.
×	Messy application menus.

Deepin

Date of Review: 20220430
Version: 20.5

Type	Remark
✓	Extremely fast browser and LibreOffice launch times (deepin-turbo?).
✓	Out-of-the-Box Experience (OOBE) wizard on first boot.
✓	Audio effects on login and other system events.
?	Virtual machine detection and warning about possible performance penalties.
?	A/B partiton scheme for more efficient and reliable system upgrades.
×	Sluggish installation UI.
×	No final confirmation between configuration wizard and installation.
×	Useless installer log.

Pop_OS!

Date of Review: 20220430
Version: 22.04

Type	Remark
✓	Defaults to a larger TTY font.
✓	Fast, squashfs-based installation (parallel decompression).
✓	Out-of-the-Box Experience (OOBE) on first boot.
✓	Eddy, a graphical .deb package installer.
✓	Popsicle, a USB backup media creator.
?	Mandatory installation media checksum verification (skip unavailable).
?	Full-disk encryption option on installer.
×	Poor layering handling with modified GNOME Shell.

openSUSE

Date of Review: 20220430
Version: Leap 15.3

Type	Remark
✓	Graphical GRUB menu for both installation media and installed copy.
✓	"Boot from Hard Disk" entry on installation media GRUB menu (detects whether openSUSE was installed on the hard disk; displayed if detected).
✓	Option to check installation media.
?	Option to enable automatic login during installation.
×	Ugly boot splash.
×	Poor colour scheme and contrast on installation UI.

ZorinOS

Date of Review: 20220507
Version: 16.1

Type	Remark
✓	Option to update system on installation.
✓	Mandatory installation media checksum verification (possible to skip with ^C).
✓	Out-of-the-Box Experience (OOBE) on first boot.
✓	LibreOffice launches much faster
?	"Power Off" entry on installation media GRUB menu.
?	"Eject media" prompt on installation media reboot.
?	OnlyOffice as LibreOffice replacement, where possible.

Ubuntu

Date of Review: 20220507
Version: 22.04

Type	Remark
✓	Introduction to pre-installed software and possible alternatives during installation.
✓	Power profile configuration GUI (future feature to upstream KDE).
✓	Fast LibreOffice launch.
✓	Recovery media creator.
?	Pre-installed Remmina.
?	Installation begins during configuration.
×	Sluggish installation UI (Ubiquity).
×	GNOME with all its flaws...

Kubuntu

Date of Review: 20220513
Version: 22.04

Type	Remark
✓	Fcitx5 as default input method framework, works on first boot.
✓	Fast LibreOffice launch.
✓	"usb-creator-kde" for creating backup media (let's fork it?).
✓	More comprehensive peripheral support: Thunderbolt (kcm-bolt) and Wacom (kcm-wacomtablet).
✓	Pre-installed backup manager (KUp, kup-backup).
?	Release note avaiable pre-installation.
?	Pre-installed BitTorrent (KTorrent) and Remote Desktop Protocol (KRDC) clients.
?	Pre-installed firewall manager (KFirewall, using firewalld or ufw).
?	Pre-installed partition manager (PartitionManager, KDE project; use GParted instead?).
?	Blur effect disabled by default.
?	Include games on default KDE installation?
×	HTML files opened with Kate by default.
×	Inconsistent L10n settings: incomplete language packs and confused KDE localization settings (stating that language packs were not installed when they were)
×	No L10n support for LibreOffice.

Ubuntu MATE

Date of Review: 20220522
Version: 22.04

Type	Remark
✓	OOBE dialog and a quick navigation for pre-installed software.
✓	Fast LibreOffice launch.
✓	Screen narrator (Orca); KDE equivalent available?
✓	Fcitx5 as default input method framework, works on first boot.
?	Pre-installed gufw firewall manager.
?	Sound effects for login and desktop.
?	Preinstalled BitTorrent client (Transmission).
?	Evolution as default e-mail client.
?	Webcamoid to augment Webcam functions (like a simple OBS).
?	Out-of-tree `v4l2loopback` driver for virtual video input devices.
?	"Boutique" application store for recommended applications, with detailed introductions and reviews.
×	L10n provided via (unreliable and incomplete, such was the case with LibreOffice) language packs.
×	Loads of updates on first boot, before language packs could be installed.
×	Two bluetooth managers (MATE and Blueman).
×	No graphical configuration tool for Fcitx5.

Linux Mint Cinnamon

Date of Review: 20220529
Version: 20.3

Type	Remark
✓	"Mint Upgrade" offers mirror tester.
✓	Fast LibreOffice launch.
✓	Windows XP "Security Center"-like user suggestion application (asks to enable backup via Timeshift).
?	Hardware detection and listing tool at Live medium boot menu.
?	OOBE/Onboarding wizard starts by default unless unchecked.
?	A wizard for creating progressive Web application entries (webapp-manager).
?	Pre-installed BitTorrent client (Transmission).
?	Pre-installed IRC client (HexChat) joins #linuxmint channel on first launch.
?	A flash drive formatter?
×	Installer runs localedef for all locales (takes years).
×	Ambiguous "Skip" button on installer (Ubiquity) for seemingly key steps.
×	Asks to install extra graphical drivers on Qemu, then prompts that no driver was necessary (with a big tick mark on the UI).
×	Applications freeze on exit occasionally.
×	HYpotix TV channel streamer... but nothing works.
×	Dated Sunpinyin as default Simplified Chinese input method.
×	Two backup applications pre-installed.
×	Sluggish software center UI - Python applications with loads of fading animations.

MX Linux

Date of Review: 20220605
Version: 21.1 (non-AHS)

Type	Remark
✓	Help message for each installation step.
✓	Option for RTC as local time.
✓	Snapshot manager saves current system state into live installation media.
✓	"MX Tour" as a short visual guide for new users.
?	"MX Tools" as a collection of (not so) distro-specific administration tools/utilities.
?	Uses gfxboot for MBR by default.
?	Option to migrate Live media state to installed system.
×	Live system froze on first boot.
×	Installer does not have any i18n support.
×	Ugly installer UI with a narrow log window.
×	No confirmation before installation - procedure starts after partition selection.
×	Tips only showing after user configuration wizard - not much time to read.
×	Peculiar desktop layout, with logoff menu button on top left and application menu button on bottom left.
×	Multiple backup tools (MX Snapshot + luckyBackup).
×	Midnight Commander on a desktop distribution.
×	Messy init system situation (sysvinit as PID 1, runit as extra tools, and systemd for desktop sessions).
×	Systemd not PID 1, but pre-installs systemd tools - most report errors and will not function.

UOS

Date of Review: 20220605
Version: 21.3 (revision 13000034, Home Edition)

Note: Most of the remarks overlap with Deepin since UOS is a rebranded version of Deepin.

Type	Remark
✓	Out-of-the-Box Experience (OOBE) wizard on first boot.
✓	Audio effects on login and other system events.
?	Virtual machine detection and warning about possible performance penalties.
?	A/B partiton scheme for more efficient and reliable system upgrades.
?	Included an Android compatibility layer to run Android applications.
×	Sluggish installation UI.
×	No final confirmation between configuration wizard and installation.
×	Useless installer log.

UbuntuKylin

Date of Review: 20220611
Version: 22.04 Professional

Type	Remark
✓	Out-of-the-Box Experience (OOBE) wizard on first boot.
✓	Device Manager-like Hardware information application.
?	Mandatory Live media verification (skippable via ^C).
?	Windows 7-like desktop interface.
×	50GiB disk requirement for automatic partitioning (but not for manual partitioning: 25GiB).
×	Useless installation progress indicator (stuck at 96% throughout installation).
×	Systemd service failures.
×	Boots to TTY login prompt... then X11.
×	Desktop crashes randomly to a blank screen with a cursor (VirtualBox).
×	File manager pops up on first boot... for some reason.
×	Pre-installed Fcitx 4 does not come with Qt support - but self-developed applications uses Qt.
×	Opt-out distro telemetry.
×	Two scanner applications and music players installed by default.

elementaryOS

Date of Review: 20220611
Version: 6.1-stable.20211218-rc

Type	Remark
✓	Out-of-the-Box Experience (OOBE) wizard on first boot.
✓	Clean application menu.
?	Mandatory Live media verification (skippable via Esc).
?	An application for system maintenance (file clean-up, etc.) scheduling.
×	Installer UI (Ubiquity?) takes ~30 seconds to respond after language change.
×	LiveCD's "Boot from HDD" option does not work.
×	"Purchase" button for paid applications crashes App Center.
×	Default video player fails to launch.
×	No zh_CN locale option by default in settings application.
×	Ambiguous name for "Chinese" language pack.
×	zh_CN locale paired to Bulgarian (then Denmark?!) regional formats.
×	Random, rapidly repeating PolicyKit agent crashes.
×	Uses an IDE as default text editor.
×	Automatic system update does not check space availability, crashes desktop.

Miscellaneous Notes

Type	Remark
?	Option to enter DeployKit from LiveKit GRUB menu.
?	Games and music during installation (as with Magic Linux).
?	Offline installer (bundled with tarballs).
?	Overlay tarball for NVIDIA driver.
×	Incomplete KDE localisation data (KWrite, Elisa, etc.).