The 2025 Linux Tier List

Its been pretty difficult to find a nice distro for digital art and gaming, thought i've found it with Garuda Linux, but it's arch and sometimes it has bugs and would like something more stable.

What cursor are you using?

Debloated Windows 11 is the best. You suckers

I started off with Ubuntu when I began first using Linux... at the time I was duel booting with Windows Vista & realised I was using Linux more & more for my everyday tasks.... then finally ditched Windows altogether. I have used Kali for testing my network & routers security... these days I tend to just use Linux Mint which I find just works great.

Big fan of nobara linux. It’s built off of fedora so you get fedora package manager, but it also just looks nice out of the box with a lot of gaming apps ready to go. I always felt linux mint was so ugly. Nobara gnome is pretty slick looking 😎

Windows is the best operating system.

CachyOS for me, its the only distro i have used that makes all my gaming stuff work, plus it's Arch based so i can use all the pacman commands and AUR and stuff which i love.

fedora fits me,... for now 😜

I just installed Ubuntu, this is my first time Linux experience, sometimes it is slow.

Change naked vanilla Arch for Artix or at the very least Endeavor (KDE or Cinnamon).
Debian is Devuan (+ Cinnamon. XFCE is "fine too". KDE can be used as well).
"Windows" is Zorin (XFCE is fine, but other non-GNOME DEs are still better).
"Ubuntu" is Snapless Mint (Cinnamon, but XFCE is "fine too").
Fedora is Nobara (KDE is more than enough).
Mint is LMDE (Cinnamon is more enough).

That's basically that. All five "main flavors" right there.
No need to ever try anything else, unless you have absolutely irresistible itch to Terminal/CMD yourself, then it's also Slackware and Alpine. Every other Linux distro is a meme.

Switched to mint two weeks ago, didn't think that my old PC can load os or software that fast. Surely there is no Adobe package, and decent video editors, but i can live without that, glad that my steam library works perfectly out of the box.

I have been using Linux for over 20 years, and use Mint daily. It's not because it's Windows-like, or because it's easier than other distros. It's still Linux, and still just as configurable. But it just works, too. It's pretty much ready to go after install, and has everything I want in a desktop computer.

IF I want to know Chris Titus's opinions and picks - I'll watch his video. Thanks.

Mint user.

Elementary serves no purpose.. Budgie serves no purpose... Mate is pretty much abandoned... Unity serves no purpose... I would say LXDE is abandoned but LXDE isn't really an environment...

Thnx for the video , can you talk about nobara and cashy os

linux fedora security guide please .

I concur with a number of others here that categorizing Mint as "new users" sells it short. It ultimately falls into a "just works" category as a solid alternative to Windows for any Linux proficiency level.

Ubuntu forever! 😎
Or Mint. Both are perfect for everyday use, for most if not all possible computing tasks, for vast majority of people.

Ubuntu's saving grace had quickly deteriorated over the years. Being a debian derivative that used proprietary firmware allowed it to support almost all hardwardware out of the box. Conversely the second thing i'll always do with Ubuntu when I have to install it is install Synaptic. I have no time for snaps. Interesting side note both Parrot and Kali are debian based.

Addition:
I said that then after I finished making the comment you bought in Tails OS which is also Debian OS. Even Qubes is a hybrid of Debian and Fedora.

I use Mint and I have Fedora and Debian in VMs. I've also used Suse, Solaris, Desktop BSD, Ubuntu and maybe a couple of others that I've forgotten about. I'm not interested in deep-diving into an OS any more. Been there and done that. If you're looking to replace Windows, then Mint, Ubuntu or Fedora are perfectly fine. I can play every Steam game I've tried on Mint. I gave up on Arch because my time is simply too valuable. The only reason I still have a Windows VM is that no tax software runs on Linux.

This was way too pacific, I want the WAR VERSION of this tierlist.

I concur

When I first switched to Linux I was using ubuntu, after two weeks I switched to fedora but after 4-5 months I got bored with flatpak and installed arch linux to use aur and now I use arco linux because it is easy to install. It has been almost 2 years since I started Linux and I think everyone's last linux stop will be arch linux or nixos. Nixos is too complicated for me so I prefer arch

I think that Tuxedo OS and Linux Mint are really good.

regardless of what people think of Ubuntu, I believe Linux would not be as popular or as user friendly if Ubuntu hadn't existed.

Arch should be renamed "Death Threat Linux" because they seem to be happy with those on their forums and in their Discord as long as they target the "right" people.

Suppose it depends what yr after. I just want to use a computer, and using Win for 30 years, want a familiar desktop environment. Not interested in different environments like the gnome environment. Horrible. I moved from Win 10 to Manjaro with the Plasma desktop a few months ago. Wanted Debian to work, but it was too glitchy. Now use Kubuntu as well as it's Plasma 6 on Ubuntu. I swap between them.
If Linux is ever going to be a serious competitor to Win, the geek has to be taken out of Linux developers.

Why you hate gentoo :(

I'm having a great time with Fedora and Plasma, life is good.

The biggest problem with tails and the live boot is that you may need drivers to make your WiFi adapter working or another device so you end up with a very secure os that is offline. I know you can setup encrypted space to put those drivers but I can tell you installing drivers every time I boot into the system is not ideal.

Gentoo isn't here because it's the best, and defeats the purpose of all the others.

How about Nobara distro is good for day-to-day use?

OpenSUSE. Not that stable and better for power users.

Some Distros put their exact name in the boot menu. Others use something very generic the problem with Linux is that there are far too many. BTW. Universal blue is rock solid.

Love to see DaVinci Resolve installed on Almalinux. I've only seen Rockylinux do this as an alternative to centos rhel.

It's "best" when no major disfunctions pop up and this depends a lot on hardware, which in my case keep putting MX23 on top of my list after months of patient evaluation, which Fedora failed mainly because of its poor speed performance, Ubuntu its refusal to reboot after a fresh install a couple releases ago, Debian its horrible jerky video playbacks in VLC until i found a magic spell not needed before, besides broken access to old Windows partitions. By chance i'm no longer dealing with Atom CherryTrail tablet exotism, looking for 'bootia32.efi' at boot time, but there again i recall MX was among the very select few to save my day - too bad it's not even listed!!

A: I want a stable distro
B: OpenSUSE

A: Now I want a rolling release distro who doesn't break
B: OpenSUSE

A: Something between both?
B: OpenSUSE

A: But I want something supported by a enterprise for my business...
B: OpenSUSE

A: But also supported by linux fans...
B: OpenSUSE

A: But I want something that can use a Windows user...
B: OpenSUSE

A: But I want.....
B: OPENSUSE!!!

My criteria are desktop usability and slick performance, with no drama and no learning curve. So:
PCLinuxOS with KDE, hands down. Has completely ruined me for other distros.
If for some reason I can't use this... OpenMandriva/KDE (rolling) or Fedora/KDE.
LMDE if I have to (not fond of Cinnamon).
Maaaaybe Devuan/KDE (now that it's sort of cloned the PCLOS way of life).
With some nose-holding, Debian/KDE.
If the choice is Ubuntu/Gnome, suddenly Win10 looks good.

Fedora Gnome, meh... Fedora KDE the GOAT!

No MX ??!

No Slackware and Gentoo, unsub ;)

So if you like ricing, nixos is a godsend, especially if you tend to break your system, because nixos is genuinly impossible to break, every single other os i have broken and had to reinstall multiple times, nixos happened once because of drive corruption, and any other time i had broken it i could just roll back and it worked perfectly. I say its honestly overall one of the best, but only for people who really like customizing their config, otherwise some other distro with a default gnome/kde desktop will be good enough.

CachyOS has become my daily driver. I get all the power of arch with all the neat stuff the CachyOS team does. It's honestly become my preferred way to use Arch.

cachyOS here

Antix linux for old computer

Elementary is for Mac users who have little to no windows experience.
My wife has only used macOS because she learned on one in middle school in 2000 and then because of that Mac was the computer her family had. Once she graduated high school she never had too much need for computers outside of all the typical tasks e-mail and documents and web browsing, so old MacBooks were always her thing. In order for Pop OS to be actually a good she would have to first reorient herself to what windows was like. Again, she just never cared to learn anything else because Macs filled every need she had for her computers.

I guess the moral of the story is nearly every mainstream OS is good for the vast majority of people. If you just learn one it’ll probably work for you.

You should make one of these Linux charts that filters out systemd. You'd be left with the linux distros actually worth looking at.
Also to note, only 1 out of 10 machines I stand up is linux. 9 out of 10 are FreeBSD so I have some bias in the 'no systemd' world.