Post #3578038

2026-07-01 23:17 UTC

Heavens help me, I'm asking for linux distribution advice on fedi. 🫣 It's becoming increasingly clear that I'll need to jump ship from Ubuntu very soon. I've been using linux as my only os for several years now, and I originally chose Ubuntu because I wanted web searches for " " to generally just give me an answer. But every release has made things harder (like avoiding snap) and canonical seems dead set on driving their os into the GenAI void. So I need recommendations! Is there a distro out there that has a strong anti-AI (or at least AI critical) stance that will mostly just work for laptops (reliable sleep on lid shut is a must)? With a strong community and good governance structure? Maybe with good zfs support? And rolling releases and up to date packages available? I've looked into basic Debian and Chimera, but I'd love to hear folks' thoughts on those and other options. (Boosts welcome)

Replies (9)

@serigala_tropis@lgbtqia.space 2026-07-04 10:58

@peter_mcmahan@mas.to come to elementary OS, it's a queer friendly, queer founded Linux distro that really don't support the use of AI.

Open ##3578037
@slothrop@chaos.social 2026-07-02 05:08

@peter_mcmahan@mas.to I moved from Ubuntu to Debian Stable several years ago, and haven’t regretted it. Essentially, Debian seems to have taken inspiration from Ubuntu to become a bit friendlier, but thankfully they haven’t imitated the annoying bits.

Open ##3578415
@klymilark@wall.fallcounty.omg.lol 2026-07-04 11:20

@peter_mcmahan@mas.to if you sti want $error $distro searches to work well Linux Mint will likely be a good bet, since at that point it's just popularity. It's still Ubuntu based, so will likely be somewhat familiar, though not the same. I've also helped someone install MX Linux, and CachyOS, and they seem to work well. Cachy is rolling, seems to have a decent community, and I haven't noticed any issues with lid shutting. No clue on zfs though, didn't try that or look for it

Open ##3578420
@levitte@mastodon.nu 2026-07-04 12:02

@peter_mcmahan@mas.to Debian. Zfs is an installable set of packages (including a dkms package), but not default because of licence differences. Not a biggie in my mind (I've got that running on my server)

Open ##3579125
@chasxith@woof.tech 2026-07-04 12:04

@peter_mcmahan@mas.to Unsure of their AI stance but I've been very impressed with MX Linux. Things "just work" on pretty much any hardware I've put it on (from a 2011 Macbook Pro to a 2020ish Lenovo gaming laptop) and everything seems to work very well. No issues with drivers and it seems to be very snappy and responsive even on older hardware.

Open ##3579204
@thatprivacyguy@eupolicy.social 2026-07-04 10:34

@peter_mcmahan@mas.to Given you already use Ubuntu, Debian would be a sensible choice.

Open ##3583483
@bnlandor@mastodon.social 2026-07-02 02:41

@peter_mcmahan@mas.to openSUSE Tumbleweed (rolling releases) or Leap

Open ##3598656
@pileczka_gaia@chaos.social 2026-07-02 06:13

@peter_mcmahan@mas.to I've switched from Ubuntu to fedora a few releases ago and am happy with that so far. Their ai policy is rather weak, but existent and at least rather critical than enabling (which for major distros is probably the best one can realistically hope for, given that even things like vim are vibe-coded nowadays 🫠) https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/council/policy/ai-contribution-policy/

Open ##3598659
@peter_mcmahan@mas.to 2026-07-04 14:10

Tons of excellent ideas here, thanks! Leaning towards just going with debian, since I don't really want to spend a huge amount of time setting up and configuring. My sense on Debian for the GenAI stuff is that the devs and community are skeptical but not altogether opposed if licensing / quality issues are "solved." Kinda milquetoast but I suppose pragmatically an ok choice given the state of things. elementaryOS and Mint are other nice options. But upstream seems like it will leave me with flexibility. I still like the idea of Chimera, both for its overall technical approach and the community around it, but at this point it would probably still require a lot of handholding.

Open ##3626227