2017: The Year of the Linux Desktop

It has already been predicted many times, but I personally believe that 2017 is going to be the Year of the Linux Desktop. Let me explain why:

Late October 2016, Apple unveiled its groundbreaking new MacBook Pro. Besides some expected hardware refreshments like a newer CPU and a blazingly fast NVMe SSD, it now also comes with some new features such as the Touch Bar and less connectors than ever. Even The Verge can only put it this way: None of Apple's additions improve professional workflows yet, and its subtractions will lead to plenty of headaches...

However, this blog post is not about Apple and their recent changes on the MacBook Pro at all. What this move by Apple did cause, is a lot of people switching from OS X to GNU/Linux. And why wouldn't you? I mean, Wired reported that Linux took over the Web. Now, it’s taking over the World. The Internet we use today really couldn't exist without Linux. Even your mother can run Linux.

One of the reasons why the (software) developer community was so fond of the MacBook Pro's, was the combination of a thin, light-weight device with excellent battery life and a Unix-based operating system. However, the competition has been catching up with great laptop series like (for example) the Lenovo ThinkPads and the Dell XPS and Precision series. They might not have aluminum unibodies, but besides that the Linux hardware support is doing extremely well in my opinion.

We will now continue on to the most opinionated part of this blogpost, what would be the Best Linux Distro for you then, you might ask?

• If you always want the latest, greatest releases of software, and don't mind investing time to install Linux exactly in the way you want it, try out Arch Linux; they also have one of the largest and most up-to-date Linux wiki's I have ever seen. In case you are too lazy to do the manual setup, try more beginner-friendly Arch-based distro's like Manjaro, Antergos or Apricity.

• If you like stability, pick the Universal Operating System Debian and never look back; Debian stable is rock-solid stable, Debian testing has more recent versions of software and is also very stable, or if you want the latest, greatest releases of software but are just too much in love with apt (and you should), go with Debian unstable and you will be living on the (bleeding) edge. If you run a server and need to follow online tutorials on how to achieve certain results, you might need to go with Ubuntu as most tutorials are focussed it. And a honorable mention for Linux computer retailer System76's Pop!_OS.

• If you really need something that looks as slick as OS X (or macOS), go with elementary OS; a fast and open Ubuntu-based replacement for Windows and macOS. Or pick the beautiful Debian-based deepin.

• If you want to try something completely new and fresh, go with NixOS; the Purely Functional Linux Distribution with a unique approach to package and (declarative) configuration management and has atomic upgrades and rollbacks.

• Last but not least, if you are crazy about containers, you should really check out CoreOS Container Linux and read this blogpost.