Suggest me a Linux distro

RHChan84 wrote in post #16193754
I have both Ubuntu and Mint on a USB stick to run them on any PC. It works great.

You only need about 4 GB USB stick for each. That is also another way to run them without installing anything on your PC and you can still use it and save files and whatever you might need. Of course with a 4gb stick, it limits you to about 2.5GB of free space but it's good enough for me to test out.

This is a very good point that I don't think has be mentioned yet. Whichever distro you choose to try will have a Li ve version (usually). Just load the ISO on a flash drive using Unetbootin or a similar software (USB boot drive creator) and try it out without commitment.

Pendrivelinux.com has all the info for creating a Live USB/CD/DVD. And multiple distros to try.
Good thing is that its USB and you can flash multiple times.
I go back and fourth between the two and I like both Ubuntu and mint.

I ended up a pretty nice laptop that someone was tossing out, with a dead HDD, but it had an SD card reader. So I loaded up Ubuntu on a 8GB SDHC and it worked pretty well, really. The Install was SLOW, but after it was installed, it wasn't half bad.

But if you are just looking for a demo, I'd suggest downloading VMware player (free) and installing a couple Linux virtual machines to try them out. Much simpler and cleaner than dual boot.

And don't judge speed using VMWare and LiveUSB. Use VMware and LiveUSB to judge how you like the distro and see how they differ and see what you like.
I went from LiveUSB to VMWare and then installed dual boot and dual boot was lightning fast for me. LiveUSB and VMware was quick but dual boot was much quicker and snappier.

Amamba wrote in post #15977252
Should I use 32 bit or 64 bit ? Are there any issues installing and running LR under 64 bit Linux ?

Do not use 64-bit Mint in a virtual machine - there's a good chance odd things will start happening graphics wise. They may have fixed this issue by now, but I haven't heard of it.

I have not had any luck with LR in Linux other than using Virtual Box and installing whatever version of Windows. I have been running Ubuntu for the last few years with Windows as a VBox guest when need.
I started using Bibble a few years ago and still use it today (as Corel AfterShot Pro) for Raw editing and organization.

Amamba wrote in post #15977252
Should I use 32 bit or 64 bit ? Are there any issues installing and running LR under 64 bit Linux ?

Is lightroom available for linux?

I'd go with the 32 bit distro. It's bound to be more stable.

If you are using a a liveDVD/USB or virtual machine then I would do 32. If not then 64. I have been using 64 for a few months and it has been good to me.

I'm familiar with KDE but not Mate or Cinnamon. What are the advantages/disadvantag​es of each?

KDE is a heavier window manager. Cinnamon is supposed to resemble gnome desktop, but a lighter version... I might be wrong.