TeX Live
Ranked 6 of 12 typesetting systems by recommenders
Recommended as a complete, reliable LaTeX distribution with many manuals and wide platform support. Main caveat: the full install is 6 to 7 GB.
Recommended as a complete, reliable LaTeX distribution with many manuals and wide platform support. Main caveat: the full install is 6 to 7 GB.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 77%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Many well-written PDF manuals included
“I love that the Tex Live distribution comes with thousands and thousands of well-written manuals in PDF format”
Comment from 23 Mar 2026 in “Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline” “it comes with a large number of amazing manuals in PDF form”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “TeX Live 2026 is available for download now” Easy install that gets everything
“for most people the net install saves some headaches”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “TeX Live 2026 is available for download now” “you install the 6 GB and get everything”
Comment from 30 Apr 2026 in “The Lingua Franca of LaTeX” Regular new releases
“Congrats to all the TeXLive team on a new release.”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “TeX Live 2026 is available for download now” “So happy to see new texlive as well”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “TeX Live 2026 is available for download now”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Full install is very large
“you install the 6 GB and get everything”
Comment from 30 Apr 2026 in “The Lingua Franca of LaTeX” “Texlive it's huge (full instal it's over 7GB)”
Comment from 1 May 2026 in “CopyFail Was Not Disclosed to Distros”
Other typesetting systems people recommend
The four most recommended other typesetting systems, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 12 typesetting systems, rankedWhat people said
15 of the 17 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Disclaimer: I'm on the TeX Live team”
“TeX Live is regularly built on essentially every platform imaginable”
“Texlive it's huge (full instal it's over 7GB)”
“you install the 6 GB and get everything”
“GNU made Texinfo not be Texlive dependant for PDF/HTML output.”
“I love that the Tex Live distribution comes with thousands and thousands of well-written manuals in PDF format”
“it comes with a large number of amazing manuals in PDF form”
“Congrats to all the TeXLive team on a new release.”
“it's super reliable, and the end-users are mostly insulated from all the inner workings”
“All my projects will now break because it instantly becomes impossible to download from the previous version.”
“it has backward compatibility to the 80s”
“So happy to see new texlive as well”
“they’re building on creaky foundations. Even the way TexLive is released feels like something from academia than a real piece of software.”
“I've moved on to typst and hope to never touch latex again in my lifetime”
“for most people the net install saves some headaches”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.