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.

  • Fliegenpilzgünni@slrpnk.net
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    3 hours ago

    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 GTS variant 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 have

    • latest: synchronous with Fedora
    • stable (default): features are two weeks behind
    • gts: 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 distris change too often”.

  • Onno (VK6FLAB)@lemmy.radio
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    6 hours ago

    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.

  • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
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    4 hours ago

    I can vouch for Linux Mint / LMDE; their pre-installed software and defaults seem very sensible and I need far less set-up, fixing and fiddling (esp. with NVidea hardware; the open-source driver refused to make anything run on GPU with my Asus ROG Strix GTX 970) then on bare-bones Debian or Ubuntu LTS.
    All four mentioned here have very stable and safe release schedules.

    Bazzite’s defaults help a lot with gaming (and that stupid NVidea driver) and the initial welcome-screen helps you install the Steam, Lutris, OBS, etc. you want and leave out anything you don’t. It’s actually helpful, really!
    I do want to add Bazzite’s team seems to have only one person who can sign releases, and they did misplace a key at least once leading to nobody receiving updates until they replaced the key in their installation.
    Their team management does not seem the best; assuming this was a one-off thing Bazzite can still be a great, stable choice.

  • Shareni@programming.dev
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    2 hours ago

    MX (Debian + Nvidia + tools to make use easier).

    Debian: Release cadance seems too slow for my preference.

    Install OBS and other software from flatpak

  • data1701d (He/Him)@startrek.website
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    5 hours ago

    I like Debian. To save you the misery, though, you should probably just use the OBS Flatpak with it. I used to be a “native” pedant, but these days, I at minimum consider Flatpak a VERY necessary evil, if an evil at all.

  • BlueSquid0741@lemmy.sdf.org
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    5 hours ago

    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.

    • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
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      4 hours ago

      stable release
      NixOS

      Yeah, nah. Let them have Debian/LMDE, or (Atomic) Fedora, instead.

        • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
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          4 hours ago

          And that setting up, and updating it, takes much technical knowledge, a lot of time, and the packages and their updates come from whoever on the internet much like the AUR.
          For stability, I would not recommend NixOS, at all.