macbook pro 14 - linux distribution

[asrikar]

what the best linux distribution to install on 'macbook pro 14' 'vmware fusion 12.2.1'

[ColoradoMarmot]

Check the preview guide for information.

[Technogeezer]

Having played around with the tech preview for a while now, here are my personal observations and choices. Your mileage will vary.

I've been inclined to use either Ubuntu or Open SUSE Tumbleweed.

Ubuntu can be a bit of a pain finding an Ubuntu Desktop release for ARM, though. The 20.04 LTS "Focal Fossa" desktop links noted in the guide still work. The 21.10 "Impish Indri" link in the preview guide is dead. It's been replaced by 22.04 "Jammy Jellyfish" daily builds - which have exhibited difficulties in installation on Fusion in the past (but's now somewhat stable). The Ubuntu server versions seem to be pretty straightforward to find an ARM release and you can add graphical components after installation if you wish.

The surprise to me is SUSE. While not in the guide, I decided to give it a whirl while answering a question here in the forum. My Linux comfort zone had been in using Red Hat derivatives (Fedora, Centos). I'm pleasantly surprised with it and it's quickly becoming my go-to. YaST for system administration beats anything that RHEL has to offer IMHO. And Tumbleweed's pretty much a rolling release and easy to upgrade - you don't have the pain of upgrading whole Linux releases (such as RHEL 7 to 8). You do have to make sure that you disable Wayland in a manner similar to what's been noted in the preview guide. 

I've installed Fedora and it works fine, but I never developed a real taste for it. Never tried the Debian or Photon releases. 

[albatros99]

Suse Linux 15.3 Server and Desktop works fine!

Also Open Enterprise Server 2018 SP3!

Try it, test it, you will enjoy!

cg

[ColoradoMarmot]

Ubuntu is definitely a bit of a pain having to update the kernel manually.  Debian I never did get working fully.

[Technogeezer]

As an aside, I just installed the latest update of Open SUSE Tumbleweed (I believe it was released on 11/28).  It contains a 5.15 (!!) kernel so I didn't have to go through the gyrations of finding a newer kernel... (Unlike Ubuntu, the SUSE 5.15 kernel actually boots - never could get a 5.15 kernel working on Ubuntu).

I'm liking Tumbleweed's update methodology. It's a complete distribution update and done pretty regularly - seems like there's one every 2 - 3 weeks. And you get to choose whether you want to keep what you have working or update the whole environment at once.