Is Trisquel the right libre-free OS for me?
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I'm looking for a libre-free linux distro that is good for programming (I'm sure they all are, but I wanted to get opinions anyway) and is also good for learning about how the operating system itself works. I can see this OS has a nice GUI and seems to be the only libre-free distro that is active enough to get regular updates.
Hello and welcome.
Linux is a kernel. Most people unfortunately call the OS just “Linux” but this is a mistake which some intentionally make and spread. We call it “GNU/Linux” to attribute the GNU project which started the free software movement, is the first project to build towards a fully free operating system and it is (specifically, GNU software) a big part of modern GNU/Linux distributions. Not only free software wouldn't exist without GNU, it is built around the principles that GNU started (the freedom to use, study, modify and redistribute) and with many tools that are part of it (including GCC, Coreutils, Autotools, Emacs).
I think that Trisquel fulfills your requirements. However, any typical GNU/Linux distribution is suitable for learning how it works and for programming (but only a few provide exclusively free software); they all provide close to the same functionality; only policy (such as including free software only), release cycle, user base size and its attitude, and default configuration vary significantly. What software you use for programming, and how you learn how the system works will make a much bigger difference.
Most of the documentation for Debian and Ubuntu is applicable to Trisquel, because it is derived from Ubuntu. The Debian Reference provides an acceptable overview of how the system works (I do not recommend reading it sequentially, use it as a reference instead, as its title says).
Parabola GNU/Linux-libre is 100% free software: https://www.parabola.nu
As far as I know, it is quite active. Being based on Arch, Parabola is arguably better to learn how GNU/Linux works: you have to install it from the terminal, to choose you own set of packages, to keep up with the latest software (Parabola is a rolling-release distribution) what means less stability... and more learning while solving potential issues. See https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/The_Arch_Way
Trisquel is very well suited as a OS for programming. What exactly do you want to program?
also remember that if you don’t like the default desktop environment
then you can always install a new one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_environment#Examples_of_desktop_environments
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