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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Help me choose linux's best option for public school lab (distro, desktop, etc.) (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I apologize if my english isn't perfect in how you would say it daily, but I hope it'll help with Linux popularity and as a reference for future days.

For this post specifically I want opinions regarding what would be best for school lab of tech vocational high school (for both computer networking and software engineering).

Package update frequency:

A. Years per update (Debian, OpenSuse Leap)
B. Every 6 month (Ubuntu/Fedora)
C. Rolling Release (Debian Sid or Arch but update whenever (every week/month/semester/year))

Desktop environment:

A. Gnome
B. KDE Plasma
C. Cinnamon
D. Lightweight DE (XFCE, LXQT, etc.)
E. Other DE (Mate, Budgie, etc.)
F. Stacking Window Manager (Fluxbox, IceWM, Openbox, etc)
G. TIling or Dynamic WM

Community or Company Distro?

A. Community Distro
B. Company Distro

Display server protocol:

A. Xorg
B. Wayland

File System:

A. EXT4
B. BTRFS
C. Other

Immutable?

A. Not Immutable
B. Immutable

Functionality

A. General Purpose (Debian, Arch, OpenSuse)
B. Specific Purpose (Debian Edu, Parrot Linux, AV linux, etc.)

Let me know your opinion, perhaps I missed some critical question or maybe some question above isn't that important to consider.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Immutable distros aren't bad and can be a good thing. I just think it will take time before they are able to be troubleshooted by someone who may not be all that familiar with Linux.

Maybe I'm just hesitant to use something I don't understand. As far as updates go theoretically you shouldn't need to roll back if your testing is good enough. Reliability is why you use something stable and review each update before deploying. There needs to be a testing and validation pipeline for each update. Then again, that is not really possible for a one man team. In that case I would recommend setting up a generic image that spins up and creates a new machine id and keys before getting taken over by Ansible automation.

This is the kind of stuff that is used to admin thousands of VMs. Maybe it is simpler to use immutable distros but I haven't heard much from people who use them.

Overall I think I'll give them a shot in a VM. As for the user asking for help I'll just let them decide what's best for there needs.

If you have more than a handful of VMs Ansible is the answer