I need recommendations for a stable release distro for OBS Studio livestreaming and light video editing. This machine will be shared between several users who are techies, although not necessarily Linux (they’re coming from Windows). I don’t want to worry about things breaking because of an update, or to start a shoot only to find problems once we’re live.
Nvidia and nonfree codecs should be treated as first-class citizens. H.264 w/ AAC will be everywhere with this workflow.
Some thoughts:
Linux Mint Debian Edition: Currently my top choice. It just works?
Fedora Bazzite: My second choice, maybe with auto-update disabled. Seems a bit risky though in the case of security updates to packages.
OpenSUSE: I run Slowroll on my laptop and work desktop, however recent package management errors relating to codecs and the packman repo have spooked me away.
Debian: Release cadance seems too slow for my preference.
I recommend you Aurora. It is basically Bazzite, which you already suggested, but without gaming stuff.
Why do I recommend you that?
- The auto updates are amazing. Don’t disable them. It isn’t like on Windows, where it just randomly says “Updating, please don’t shut down your PC” midst working. They get just staged, so they are only applied passively on the next boot. You don’t notice them.
- Rollbacks: If an update introduced breaking bugs or whatever, you can just keep holding the space bar while booting, and you can select the image from yesterday. Everything is left how it was yesterday. You probably never have to use that feature anyway, the system is super reliable.
- The release schedule. This one is the most important aspect for your case. uBlue (Bazzite, Aurora, Bluefin, etc.) started offering different variants/ tags if the same image.
There’s now a
GTSvariant around, which uses the last big release of Fedora, which is still kept up to date maintenance wise. So, you are always half a year behind in terms of new features, but it has been tested for half a year more than regular Fedora or the other images. When you choose the more conservative GTS variant, you’ll get way fewer surprises.
After installation, you can hop into the terminal and use the
ujust rebase-helper, where you can select which image variant you want to havelatest: synchronous with Fedorastable(default): features are two weeks behindgts: already said, last release, but still secure and more polished.
I think it is the perfect balance for you between “Debian is too stale” and “Fedora and many other distros change too often”.
This sounds great.
I use Debian for anything that matters. The release cadence means that stuff just works and keeps working. You cannot beat the documentation and I’ve been using it for 25 years.
I’m not touching anything Redhat / Fedora with a barge pole.
Not sure what the attraction to Mint is.
Never used OpenSUSE.
Since you’re a Linux old-timer, what’s your beef with Fedora, if you don’t mind sharing?
That’s a big question, but I don’t trust Red Hat after the stunts they’ve pulled over the years. Here’s a taste.
Ah, I see. It doesn’t particularly bother me, but I can appreciate why it might bother somebody else with different values.
Thanks!
It goes well beyond bother.
In my opinion, the biggest issue is that software with a GPL licence is not permitted to be distributed without making the source code available, which Red Hat restricted to only paying customers, and in doing so added a licence restriction which is not permitted by the GPL.
They are now profiting off the work of every developer who ever contributed to the software they’re selling and none of those people are getting paid.
I see that, now that you explain it that way. That does seem ethically questionable.
I’ll have to take some time to learn more about the details, so I can make my own informed decision.
is support a factor in your decision? if so i would go with opensuse since it has options to let get enterprise support should you end up needing it. (anecdotally: redhat & canonical’s support are better; ESPECIALLY landscape since you mentioned nvidia & proprietary codecs, but it is very pricey)
MX (Debian + Nvidia + tools to make use easier).
Debian: Release cadance seems too slow for my preference.
Install OBS and other software from flatpak
Flatpak solves some of these. It would allow newer software on Debian. They’re packaged with codecs, so you don’t need to bother with Packman on Tumbleweed.
Does LMDE do wayland? If not, I wouldn’t bother.
Bazzite or some other Fedora variant. Nobara has some tweaks for nVidia, full codec support, and specifically supports programs like daVinci Resolve, KDenlive and OBS Studio in the Welcome screen. Not an immutable distro like Bazzite though, which depending on how you like to install stuff, might not be a bad thing.
NixOS or Fedora.
