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this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2026
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Linux
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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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Mint for most users. OpenSUSE for more technically competent users.
I think OpenSUSE is a great choice for anyone who wants to actually learn Linux, which is what the OP asked for.
openSUSE is good as long as you have an AMD GPU. For users of NVIDIA GPUs, openSUSE is a headache because of the constant mismatch between the open kernel modules and the rest of the driver packages. I had to use a script that checked whether the packages were matching each other before updating. Otherwise, the system could break for weeks until the drivers in the repository were updated.
Can you tell us more about this? I've been running tumbleweed with an nvidia GPU for a few months and the only issue I've run into was once recently, when the key for the nvidia repo had expired, preventing me from updating at all. I tried again the next day or two and it had been resolved. I would like to know what else to expect. I've heard of occasional issues with tumbleweed and nvidia driver versions before, but didn't know if it was something that had been resolved.
Sure. I used openSUSE as my daily driver for a couple of years, and after switching to open-source kernel modules, a common problem was when the modules would be updated but their versions wouldn’t match those of nvidia-video or other NVIDIA packages. Or when the kernel would be updated but the kernel modules would lag behind (which happened even more often.) Because of this, some components would get updated while others wouldn’t, leaving you with dGPU drivers that didn’t work.
I had to roll back the system using snapper and lock packages until the problem was resolved.
Thanks! What do you mean by switching to open-source kernel modules? I've heard of people having to lock packages with tumbleweed before. I'm glad that I haven't run into these issues so far.
It seems that nvidia drivers are a common cause of issues in many distros. I had heard of Fedora being a difficult one to work with nvidia drivers, but then if I search the web for nvidia issues, a bunch of message threads about exactly that come up for each distro. I would love to switch to AMD GPUs, but apparently they don't work as well as or aren't as widely supported as nvidia ones for graphics and video applications. The whole thing is a pain.
Some time ago, the entire NVIDIA driver stack was proprietary, but recently the kernel modules have been made open-source for new graphics cards. Only older GPUs still use closed-source modules. If I'm not mistaken, GPUs from the 2000 series and newer have switched to open-source modules.
I see, thank you!
This is how I roll (tumbleweed joke here) but the addition of NixOS on my wife's computer because she needs it to be exactly how it was if the hardware changes. (She's not good with tech and Windows was too frustrating for her, so it is Nix and Gnome DE)