Hello, and thanks for the comments so far…I have barely scratched the surface of Linux distros but I’ve seen Mint (which is comfortably similar to Win95…Win7) and like it. A bit disturbed of course by the fact that it isn’t ‘fully supported’ by KiCad. Fedora (which I am test-driving as a “live distribution”) I already find uncomfortable, inasmuch as there is no obvious way to Maximize / Minimize windows…I can’t imagine wasting time dragging corners up and down all day long…
Kubuntu has similar UI feel as Windows and is based on Ubuntu if this helps you.
I’ve recently tried Ubuntu, Mint and Kubuntu and I’ve settled on Kubuntu.
I would not put too much weight on whether it is “officially supported” for KiCad.
I’ve never had any problems with KiCad on Mint, and installation via the repository as described on the KiCad Website is kept up to date and “just works”.
If you start with Linux, your main concern should probably to start a distribution that is both friendly to beginners, and is quite popular, so lot’s of info can be found when you encounter some “weird” problem. Mint ticks both those boxes.
Long ago Knoppix started with bootable Live CD’s, but these days over half of the distributions can boot from an USB stick. Mint is also among them.
It is not too difficult to make a multiboot setup, but if you’re not too tight on money, then my advise is to buy an EUR30 SSD and install linux on that. That way you can set in the BIOS (UEFI) of your PC from which disk it boots, and you can even pull the plugs from the SSD of your Other OS, as extra security that not a single bit gets changed on it (for example by user mistake and partitioning the wrong drive).
A typical Linux installation is below 20GB, but if you add some big programs it grows quite rapidly. KiCad is over 5GB, and I have both V5.1.x and V5.99 installed. I use a 40GB partition for Linux itself, and a 3TB HDD for data. 40GB is a bit smallish when installing big programs, but 60GB should be plenty for installing lots of programs.
If you’re curious about other distributions and their popularity, then have a look at
https://distrowatch.com/
Which kind of Mint do you use? There are definitely at least some kinds where there are major graphics issues with KiCad that we cannot fix.
Currently I’m running Linux Mint 20.1 MATE 64-bit.
paul@medion:~$ uname -a
Linux medion 5.4.0-64-generic #72-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jan 15 10:27:54 UTC 2021 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
paul@medion:~$ cat /etc/os-release
NAME="Linux Mint"
VERSION="20.1 (Ulyssa)"
ID=linuxmint
ID_LIKE=ubuntu
PRETTY_NAME="Linux Mint 20.1"
VERSION_ID="20.1"
...
VERSION_CODENAME=ulyssa
UBUNTU_CODENAME=focal
Up to a few months ago I was running Linux 19.something with Xfce.
It’s also quite logical that there are problems with KiCad on LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) KiCad uses a PPA to install KiCad, and PPA’s are an Ubuntu thing and they do not work on a “pure” Debian System.
I also do not consider myself a very knowledgeable Linux user. I just do not have much interest in fiddling with an (any) OS. I have an extreme dislike for both windoze and the fruit brand, and this leaves some linux distibution as pretty much the only option for me.
@paulvdh I assume you don’t see https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/issues/3801 ?
@Miceuz I assume you’re running Cinnamon then? Maybe we can update the website to say that MATE works better than Cinnamon if that’s true
Indeed, I’m not affected. That issue was also closed 3 months ago.
I am affected by the possibly related issue: https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/issues/5690
(And also contributed a comment with screenshot to that thread).
It was closed because it was an issue that only affected Linux Mint (as far as we know) – we don’t leave issues open that only affect unsupported platforms
No issues for me on Mint 20.1 Cinnamon… it could depends on video graphic drivers or graphic card
Yeah, I understand. My comment was not intended to offend in any way.
Fedora MATE usually works very well - since that is the one I use (I don’t think we consider it supported though technically). If the Mint version has any issues then they maybe caused by stuff Mint does. I know Cinnamon has several issues that we can’t fix because they are in the window manager (such as problems assigning the right icon with the open windows).
I am typing this using Ubuntu Mate 20.04.1 LTS.
I am a fairly recent user of Linux, and that is one of the reasons that I was given the recommendation to use this version by a friend of mine. The Desktop Environment can pretty much be set to whatever appearance you want… though for some reason I can’t get the 24 hour clock to work yet.
For a new user, the Software Boutique is a nice way to install common quality software.
Nice thing is that new computers are very fast and Linux is fairly small. Most versions can also be run “Live” off the USB drive without doing an actual install onto the hard drive. One can experiment with all the variations in a fairly short period of time.
ON EDIT: (“a lot” of the Open Source variations)
You read my post as somehow suggesting that forum users “BUY Them All” for evaluation???
Ubuntu Mate is FREE OPEN SOURCE! And, one can try any other FREE OPEN SOURCE Linux Distribution in far less time than any Windoze installation that I’m aware of.
And, KiCad Stable seems to work just fine with this Distro.
KiCad nightlies are next to be tested.
All of them?
And in a short time ???
[Edit] Some say life itself is short.
No need to try all of them. You basically have to decide on 2 things: which desktop environment you want and which package management ecosystem. So try Fedora XFCE, Opensuse (kde), Debian (gnome), Ubuntu mate, Mint (cinnamon) and that covers pretty much all popular choices of both. If you hate yourself try arch too.
Once you know those 2 things you can pick a distro and if needed install alternative desktop, for example if you like apt and KDE you can get Kubuntu or Debian KDE. Or if you like yum with mate you can install that on fedora.
Everything else is meaningless eye candy at best and distro specific collection of bu… khm, “features” at worst. So stick with popular choices and pick your own wallpaper.
Just my humble opinion.
Well, actually, no there is one other important issue—if you are new to linux. If this be the case, then you may want to choose a linux distribution that also has an active forum – so you can get help if you run into a problem that you can’t solve yourself. As you can here. That is the other think I look for when I choose a distro.
All of the popular choices I mentioned have active community and plenty of searchable info on the net.
ROFLMAO!
Do you remember when installing WinXP took most of 12+ hours? …on the most capable hardware at the time?
Yeah, 5 or 10 minutes to “Live” boot each Linux distro would now be less of a PITA in my opinion.
It may just be due to my perception of how much time it took doing it “the old way” via optical drives.
Grab a thumb drive, download the (OS Image) of Ubuntu Mate, as well as Balena etcher, and run “Live” Ubuntu Mate in less than an half-an-hour(<30 minutes). With Balena etcher already installed, configured, and learned… the next distro should be even faster to evaluate it’s “Live” version.
KiCad is Open Source, as such my post/s recommendations are based upon keeping Open Source solutions.
Sorry for misguiding everyone. I can’t see my bug on Linux Mint started from LiveUSB, I have tried Cinnamon and Xfce.
It definitely has to do with my system as it is. It’s 5 year old Mint installation that undergo several upgrades. I have tried running Mate, Cinnamon and Xfce on my installation - I can see the bug in all wm. But if boot from LiveUSB - I can’t see my bug on KiCad 5.99.
So I guess Mint can be considered as working no problem with KiCad?
I seem to remember other (less major) issues with Cinnamon in particular, but I don’t know off the top of my head what they are
I used Ubuntu for 9 years. Since 1 year, i am using Lubuntu and all applications like Kicad, FreeCAD, KDEnlive and more work fine. Lubuntu needs less resources than others distributions.
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