Best Linux Distro as a Guest in a Win 10 System

[buster]

WARNING! This thread was started over six years ago, and much of it is no longer useful. I use only Mint or Kubuntu now. Drag and drop can be dicey with xfce distros, so I avoid those. These two selections update well and don't use too many resources.

                               {Questions can still be asked at the end of the long thread.}

I use a virtual Linux distro on my relatively new laptop without affecting my boot management system, mostly because it'ss easy to install, experiment with, or remove. And the best distros seem to operate as well as I'mm used to with a full install.

I allocate two cpu cores, and 2 gig of ram. I also use about 50 gig for the virtual hard drive.

I have a number of tests â€" ease of install, drag and drop with Win 10, graphics such as TuxRacer and Kpatience, desktop sophistication/practical nature, ability to handle heavy use and quickness. A perfect score would be 20.

Mageia 6 Plasma (A descendant of the great Mandrake)

Install: 1. Probably the most awkward and lengthy of the five distros.
D and D: 0. I couldn’t get it to work, even after looking for files on Synaptic.
Graphics: 3. Kpat wins stutter. Tux worked fine.
Desktop: 3. Seems fine. Usual KDE.
Heavy Use: 4. Never used it enough to find out too much. TOTAL: 10.

So because of the inability to use drag and drop, useless to me.

Xubuntu (A little gem!)

Install: 4. Simple and quick.
D and D: 2. I suppose a 2. I could only get it to go Guest to Host, and not the reverse.
Graphics: 4. Perfect.
Desktop: 3. Fine.
Heavy Use: 4 No tie ups.

The one way drag and drop makes it less than ideal for moving media file to it. So no. TOTAL: 17.

Deepin (An astonishing distro.)

Install: 4. Easy and quick.
D and D: 2 I suppose. Again, as with Xubuntu, it’s one way. Odd.
Graphics: 3
Desktop: 4. Superb. Everything you need is connected to the screen in some way. Takes a while to figure out though.
Heavy Use: 1. As a virtual machine it has a tendency to slow down!

Quite amazed as how positive I am about this distro now. But not as a virtual distro. TOTAL: 14.

Mint Linux  (Popular for a reason.)

Install: 4. Simple.
D and D: 4. Worked once I found the vm files on Synapic.
Graphics: 3. Kpat celebrations stutter.
Desktop: 4. Lovely. Used the theme Jason demonstrated. Very attractive and productive desktop.
Heavy Use: 1. I have actual frozen the desktop with too much running.

For me Mint has always been a bit heavy. In virtual this is accentuated. TOTAL: 16.

Ubuntu Mate (Pleasant but not exciting.)

Install: 4. Simple.
D and D: 4. Worked from the get-go.
Graphics: 4. The only distro that handled everything perfectly.
Desktop: 3. Functional, easy and reliable. Ho hum.
Heavy Use: 4. Never saw a problem. Pretty smooth.

One odd quirk, in my full install and the virtual install of Ubuntu Mate, ‘magnet links’ don’t call up qBittorrent. I had to create a desktop icon for qBittorrent and I use drag and drop. Works fine, but a bit clunky. TOTAL: 19.

Conclusion: I can use Mint or Ubuntu Mate for everything, but prefer Mate for what we loosely call work. Deepin and Xubuntu are fine except as a ‘complete’ system, though Deepin can slow down on you. And poor Mageia sadly doesn’t work well enough as a daily use distro in virtual.

 Virtuals are an easy way to use Linux if you still need Windows, and you don’t want complications.

[Jason]

Thanks for sharing, Harry! Were you using Virtualbox to do the testing or VMWare?

[buster]

VMWare. Seems the easiest and I know it. Quick and easy for me because I've used it so much. Solid.

[buster]

Been playing some more with Deepin. Surprisingly good desktop tricks and shortcuts. Very rich and creative. Keep being surprised. Seems unusal - but very good. The magazine 'LinuxVoice' says it's their choice as best Linux for beginners.

Hope the attachment works.

[Jason]

Nice screenshot. Looks like Numix icons (I think?) that Mike likes and I have to admit, look pretty good here.

Btw, you can click Preview before you save a post to see how it looks. It should show the attachment, too.

[buster]

And another surprise. For me a rare event with virtual machines - Win 10 and Deepin see each other over the local 'lan'. They see each other under 'Network". File movement is easy both ways. (No communication between Deepin and our other computers.) Be cool to communicate between a virtual and a real other than the host.

[Jason]

Be cool to communicate between a virtual and a real other than the host.

You can do this. You need to change the guest to Bridged Networking mode under Network settings:

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Workstation-Player/12.0/com.vmware.player.win.using.doc/GUID-D9B0A52D-38A2-45D7-A9EB-987ACE77F93C.html

[fox]

Nice review, Harry; I really like your Deepin screenshot. Bear in mind that using a VM means you don't test the distro's use of the hardware, i.e. a distro that works well on a VM could still have trouble on bare metal. Having used VMware Fusion on my Mac, I never had a problem with any Debian-based distro. But if you tried something like Arch or Solus, you might find that the additions don't work very well. Incidentally, I once tried Deepin on my iMac and was unable to get it to install.

[buster]

Mike (who should have been hiking in this beautiful weather rather than playing with computers  ) wrote:

"a distro that works well on a VM could still have trouble on bare metal"

I understand Mike, but my current practice is NOT to install. If the virtual performs exceptionally well, and if in fact I can have files from host and guest on the screen at the same time, it is a huge advantage for me, and far less work. Two, or three I suppose, OS's running side by side, with only one machine booted, is not only cool, but also cheap.

And there is not as much clutter around the room for Marilyn to complain about.

Virtuals have a bright future at our house.

[ssfc72]

This is wierd!  In order for the attachment to show, I have to login to the Forums.  Otherwise, the attachment does not display??

Been playing some more with Deepin. Surprisingly good desktop tricks and shortcuts. Very rich and creative. Keep being surprised. Seems unusal - but very good. The magazine 'LinuxVoice' says it's their choice as best Linux for beginners.

Hope the attachment works.

[Jason]

This is wierd!  In order for the attachment to show, I have to login to the Forums.  Otherwise, the attachment does not display??

That's strange. Thanks for pointing this out. I'll look into it.

[Jason]

I was tempted to fix it and then claim you were getting senile Bill, but I didn't because I'm a nice guy ;-)  It should be working now.

[buster]

Thanks for fixing it Jason,

I thought that was the way it had to be with your forum software.

[buster]

By the way, I don't think Deepin is suitable for use as a practical virtual OS, unless you are careful. It will tie up when overloaded with activity.

[buster]

Continuing with virtual installs with Win 10 (Thank you Jason) as host:

#1. My simple upgrade to Ubuntu Mate 17.10 resulted in so many after install problems it was easier to delete and reinstall 17.10. Very nice system with lots of easy ways to change the desktop theme through tweaks. Everything works. Better than previous edition.

#2. The new Linux Lite 3.6 works very well in virtual. Does everything you need and pretty quickly too. Good appearance. Drag and drop to win 10 doesn't work both ways, but copy paste does.