Which one(s) and why?
Debian for most of my machines, rock solid and works. I’ve had 0 problems with Debian on any computer its downloaded on. And I personally don’t need very up to date packages.
On my main computer (currently Windows due to hardware compatibility issues on Linux), I’ve flip flopped between Pop and Fedora depending on how much I need 3D graphics applications.
Xubuntu… It’s light weight and pretty much everything is kind of Debian or kind of redhat anyway…
The charm of rolling my own died off when I got old enough to buy better hardware if I wanted to go faster…
Nobara because I primarily game but need some tools that are only available natively for Debian and Fedora based distributions.
I am a Linux novice, but have been dabbling for a long time. I had to laugh at myself when I realized I was “distrohopping” because I wanted to try out different DE’s. I just made the connection that rather than hop, I can simply install a different DE.
I hopped 10 times in 6 months. Settled on Manjaro for latest gaming related software like drivers, kwin, etc and and it’s package manager gui, which is horrible but it works. Easiest distro to game on for me.
Fedora.
Pretty up to date, reliable, spearheads new developments that go on to benefit the Linux desktop as a whole, they don’t make a bunch of crazy alterations to the DEs they ship.
And to think I was reluctant to try it for ages because the name sounds like it’d be some neckbeardy distro.
And to think I was reluctant to try it for ages because the name sounds like it’d be some neckbeardy distro.
When Linus Tech Tips did their month-long Linux challenge, they vetoed a viewer suggestion to use Fedora because they thought it was a “meme distro”.
I use Fedora btw
Why would you ever think it was a meme distro? Red Hat has been around forever.
tips fedora
m’distro
Because of the fedora-wearing neckbeard stereotype.
Which one(s)
Arch.
why?
- The Arch-Wiki
- I like pacman
- The Arch-Wiki
- I wanted a rolling release distribution.
- The Arch-Wiki
- It just works. I had only one more serious problem in ~8 years of running Arch
- Did I mention the Arch-Wiki?
you forgot arch wiki
EndeavourOs makes it super simple too
So does archinstall.
The Arch wiki really is amazing. It’s also still very useful for Linux stuff in general. The qemu page has come in handy more than a dozen times.
Yeah, I use Mint and the Arch wiki is still one of my first stops when I have an issue
Is Manjaro good if I want in on this Arch goodness but don’t want to spend hours configuring stuff? Coming from Fedora
Endeavour is better for that, after the install you’ll have plain arch but with a bunch of stuff installed and already set up
I haven’t used it personally but I’ve seen a lot of folks bad mouthing Manjaro.
Lots of complaints of instability and it being poorly run project. One of the more objective complaints I’ve read is they have a slower replace process so security fixes then Arch.
I really have bad luck with Manjaro, even when I don’t use the aur it always breaks on me. I just stick to arch, I started with it and I’m sticking with it.
If you plan to use the AUR, absolutely not.
If you don’t plan to use the AUR it’s probably fine, but I haven’t used it personally in the last few years so I’m not sure.
@SubArcticTundra @Haven5341 I personally think Manjaro is a false good idea.
You’ll have an “out of date” system (i.e., one-month-old) but packages from the AUR which are made for the up-to-date system.
Quite a nightmare to use IMO (and that’s not talking about Manjaro leadership and certificates problems)
I’ve been running it on my work laptop for 6 years at this point and I’ve had no major issues I couldn’t solve.
Having said that, I recently switched my gaming rig over to endeavour and it’s been great.
I haven’t used Manjaro myself but I heard that it is not as good as Arch. Rumors I heard where that it is not as solid as vanilla Arch. YMMV.
I am now at NixOS. I like the reproducibility and immutability of the distro, but the documentation is far from great and configuring the OS you want is not that straightforward. I also don’t like that even though it has a great number of packages, they tend to be slightly outdated.
I am not sure if I will stick with it, but I really like that I can create very specialised configurations that are also portable. I am currently using KDE but I am thinking of switching to Hyprland once I get more comfortable around NixOS and home manager/flakes, as nothing beats tiling managers in my opinion.
Did you have to learn the Nix language? I like the idea but I found all the different commands you have to use confusing…
You can get pretty far with copy-pasting. If you want to try it out, you should first realize that there’s always 10+ different ways to do the same thing. Stick with what works and with what seems the most intuitive to you.
Personally, I suggest going straight for a flake-based setup. Flakes are somehow still labeled experimental, but they’re actually mature and broadly adopted.
I also settled on NixOS after Ubuntu -> Arch -> Debian -> Fedora -> Silverblue -> NixOS. Couldn’t be happier and no plans to leave.
NixOS/hyprland is the perfect blend of practicality and fun for me
It works pretty solidly, sometimes doing something others can do imperatively in a single command can be a pain though
After trying out a few distros over the last 20 years or so (
openSUSE, Ubuntu, Debian, Arch, Fedora and Silverblue were the ones I actively used for a stretch of time on desktop, Debian and CentOS on server), I also landed on NixOS.Who knows what the future brings, but things feel more settled to me than they ever have. Maybe that’s because there’s a (declarative) solution for every custom setup, it’s just a function of time and profiency in Nix. Or maybe it’s because I invested quite a bit of work into a trivially reproducible setup for most of my machines and workflows (all in one glorious version-controlled flake), that the sunk costs are too high to switch elsewhere.
I’m still willing to experiment with DEs/WMs, currently running Gnome on my main and Sway on weaker machines. Hyprland is a bit out there for my taste, but I’m really looking forward to giving Cosmic DE a try once it’s ready.
Nixpkgs is actually one of the most up to date software repositories. (~90% according to repology)
You may be using a release channel which will only be updated for important security updates.
Debian Woody > Red Hat 7.0 > Slackware 9.0 > Slackware 10 > Debian > Ubuntu > Mac OS > Ubuntu > Arch.
At least for desktops and laptops.
For servers I’m still primarily running Debian (and one instance I’m running Arch).
The reason why I settled on Arch is primarily because the combination of bleeding edge and being stable enough for daily driving it. The AUR also adds sooo much, that there is nothing I really don’t need to manually install anymore.
For servers, I basically want a rock stable system. Hence why I’ve chosen Debian Stable.
Started with OpenSUSE because it supported our Proprietary CAD software ( Choice was Redhat or SUSE ) As a bonus nVidia hosts its own repo for SUSE and OpenSUSE so no graphic issues with CAD. Then Arch because of the buzz. Manjaro EndeavorOS Ubuntu PoP!_OS Clear Linux Mint ElementaryOS Fedora NixOS
Now main machines run OpenSUSE and wifes 12 yr old laptop is NixOS.
Why? OpenSUSE is really dependable and updates are flawless, if i tinker and break something a rollback at boot is a quick fix, which is imortant since it is my daily work work-station. While you could set up btrfs and grub snapshots in other systems, I like that it comes baked in, and all the EFI/ TPM / Secure-boot stuff works with no messing around.
As for wife’s machine , she is not tech savvy and Windows was too complicated for her (and so damn slow), so GNOME on NixOS (fast) is a clear workflow; and since she likes things exactly the same in order to comprehend a system , the config files make it easy to re-replicate the exact setup.
SUSE -> Mageia -> Ubuntu -> Manjaro -> Mint -> Manjaro. Been on Manjaro for 4 years now.
Desktop? I settled on Arch and Fedora.
Server? Debian. Although technically I never distrohopped on servers, been using Debian since the beginning of time.
Stopped hopping when I realized most distros are just debian with certain things pre-installed or pre-configured. Decided to compare base distros, and settled on Gentoo for its powerful features, transparency and customizability.
I used Void Linux for a while, but now I am staying on NixOS. It’s got great features that I’ll probably miss on other distros.
Settled on Linux Mint Debian Edition.
I just want reliability, a beautiful desktop and great support. Plus 100% community based - Debian + Cinnamon.
No corps like canonical or red hat and no heavy maintenance routine like Arch.
Ubuntu > Fedora > Ubuntu > Arch > Ubuntu
