Recommended Linux Distribution

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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I’m using KiCad 5.1.9 on Arch Linux with LXQt desktop, without issues. My machine: an old Eurocase notebook, i7 2nd gen, 8 GB RAM, 120 SSD + 350 HDD.
I admit that install Arch from console is a complicated work, not suitable for novices.
But once Arch is fully installed with a desktop environment of your choice, it runs smoothly, and its rolling release design keeps all your programs, libraries and drivers always up to date with upstream development.
I choose LXQt as DE due its very low requirements on RAM (my system initially runs on 280 MiB), and its “old style” (I’m “application-centric”, far away from “desktop-centric” and “graphical bells and whistles” guys).
Happily, Arch Linux is officially supported by KiCad team. Thanks you, very much!

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For Ubuntu beginners, I recommend the biennial “LTS” releases rather than the 6 monthly. Updated KiCad is available for the LTS on a PPA.

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Hi,
Time has come for me to migrate from Win 7 to something else but windows 10 that I consider to be a spyware that’s my opinion and I fully share it with myself ! It’s been a PITA when some years ago microsoft forced users to update to W10, installing telemetries and nasty beacons. It took me several days to revert to a clean Win 7.
That said, I read this thread with attention and I have a question concerning the kicad packages.
I hate automatic installations and I’ve no skills in software compiling. I don’t know if compiled versions without installers are available for Linux and if they are compatible with several distros.
Can somebody reply ?
TIA

What do you mean by “without installers”? In general Linux distros don’t use “installers” but software is packaged in some repository. You have to choose a distro and learn to use its package management system. Some supported systems for KiCad are in the download page. Flatpak is basically a cross-platform package but I recommend it only if there’s no native package for the system. It needs a large ecosystem which is first installed on the distro, like a distro inside a distro. And flatpak packages arent’ so well integrated to the rest of the system.

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Thanks @eelik. Usually, my preferences go to some kind of zip (rar, tar, …) archive that can be extracted in the selected path then run.

Under Windows, except very special cases, The programs I’m compelled to install go to D:\My_installed_pgm… instead of the usual C:\program files. All the others ones are either portable versions or copied under the selected directory.
I’m expecting the same with Linux. The download page doesn’t seem to offer such packages.

I’m just at the very beginning of my adventure !

OK, now I understand, but mostly software isn’t installed that way on Linux. Usually nearly 100% of all software and applications, and actually also all parts of the OS itself, are installed with the package system of the distro. To get something else you have to compile yourself.

On the other hand flatpak is a sandboxed system, so it gives some insulation. But honestly, I don’t see any practical or theoretical good reasons to avoid the native way on Linux distros.