[zenTHEgreat]

I've had an MacBook Pro from 2012 for a while now. I'm planning on upgrading the hdd to a ssd and bumping it up to 16 gb ram.

I mainly use this computer for school work, light programming (such as python, javascript, html, php, and etc), light gaming like diablo 3 and some streaming.

Over the past years using multiple versions of OSX I feel like some of the UIs causes the computer to run slower (when opening or quitting programs) and it typically takes a while for the OS to bootup

I like  OSx but I want to try something different, thats alot more smoother and be able to make it my main OS to boot up to. I've tried ubuntu and gnome and liked there simplicity greatly, i also liked using kali but I'm not too sure it would be great as my main OS to boot up to.
The only reason why I even used MAC OSX is to use pro tools for audio recording but i have drifted a way from that and what really urges me to get a different OS on this build is mainly due to  booting up other OS's in VMs take forever  on my current system build.

So my main question is what OS do you recommend installing for my  needs/wants? and why?

[mothered]

First and foremost, compatibility with applications, tools and the like must be considered when migrating to a new OS. For example, there's no point moving to the Windows platform If you don't have the resources to utilize It.

Once that's established, so too will the decision In selecting the OS.

[CleanZombie]

I am personaly in LOVE with Parrot Security OS although I miss that Conky is not working on it anymore but it has some great features and comes with most of what you would need although not sure about Diablo though!

https://www.parrotsec.org/

[m0dem]

If you don't want to use Ubuntu as your main system, you probably won't want to use any other Linux system. That pretty much leaves Windows...

Spoiler:

For the stuff you're doing (school work, light programming, and gaming ), all the Linux's will be pretty much the same except for looks.

[mothered]

booting up other OS's in VMs take forever  on my current system build.

If I may ask, what VM are you using and what's the specs on the Host (physical) system on which the VM Is running on?

[Synthx]

Maybe you could try some unix OS's out with a VM, and see what you like.. I would go with Debian, or Ubuntu, maybe even Arch.

[Blink]

I personally like Arch and OpenSUSE.

If this is you're first experience with Linux, go with Antergos or Manjaro. (you)

If you are already really deep in Linux and want to go for something new, try some version of BSD. (FreeBSD is the worst one) (I go into this category, but instead of a BSD, I'm trying OSX)

I've had a ton of issues with Ubuntu, and I've had some issues with Debian as a desktop OS (I've heard it's great for servers)

Fuck Windows. Get as far away from it as you can.

[Synthx]

Fuck Windows. Get as far away from it as you can.

lol, I completely agree with you on that one, I don't like windows much at all other than its more customizable than this Apple shit.

[Blink]

Fuck Windows.  Get as far away from it as you can.

other than its more customizable than this Apple shit.

I agree with you, but most of my time is spent browsing or in a Terminal emulator (iTerm2 in this case). The UI isn't very customizeable (because I dont feel like disassembling .car files) , but It's better than Windows when you only think about cli. (Fuck you too MS-DOS)

[Synthx]

I agree with you, but most of my time is spent browsing or in a Terminal emulator (iTerm2 in this case). The UI isn't very customizeable (because I dont feel like disassembling .car files) , but It's better than Windows when you only think about cli. (Fuck you too MS-DOS)

I don't even use a Terminal emulator, well, I use it to easily connect to my VPS, I have a preset that just ssh's to it when iTerm2 is started. I like the customization of Terminal. Its pretty nice, you can do a little bit of what you want, I'm all about the see through background and all that. Here is a GitHub repo with some nice Terminal themes!
https://github.com/lysyi3m/osx-terminal-themes