Former distrohoppers, where did you settle down?

Presi300 , 3 months ago

At 1st it was arch, used it for about a year and a half, but dropped it after they broke grub. Then I went to fedora for a while, which I like a lot, however I’m running Gentoo atm

loaExMachina , 3 months ago

Bodhi Linux (when trying out on a 32 bit laptop) -> Xubuntu (main laptop) -> Linux mint (the distro I’ve used for the longest time, both on main laptop and a desktop got along the way). On the side, I briefly tried Arch first on a wm (as well as Haiku and TempleOS), and later, debian on that 32 bit laptop for earlier. That’s when I first went for a minimal install with i3. Later switched to Arch with i3 on tower, and just yesterday, Debian, also with i3 on main laptop.

My reasoning behind using these two different distros for essentially the same type of setup is that my laptop is more likely to be the only computer I have at my disposal when I urgently need it, so stability is more important, I can’t run the risk of having an update break it. I can be bolder and test more stuff on my desktop knowing I have a backup if mess up. Arch on my desktop is also partly because I use it to play games on Steam, and since SteamOS is based on Arch, I figured it’d have better integration.

Secret300 , 3 months ago

Fedora and I can’t point down a specific reason other than it kinda just works. Their jank, because every distro has some time of “jank”, feel more reasonable than other distros jank.

Itookmyprozac , 3 months ago

Mandrake > Debian > Ubuntu > Mint & Arco Linux & MX Linux.

These three distros are the chosen ones in my case. I’ve been using them in my main computers for a couple of years now. It’s the right mixture.

Flaky , 3 months ago

I’m probably going to stick with Arch, or maybe EndeavourOS.

I’ve hopped from distro to distro but I always keep coming back to Arch. The reason I use Arch is that it’s my weird sweet spot of “DIY” and “it just works”. It gives me a blank slate at first, but it lets me paint the canvas with whatever I want, however I want. It allows for some weird setups (like VFIO, for instance) and the wiki really helps with that. I don’t really use the AUR nowadays unless it’s for a package only available there, so I can’t say anything about that. I use Flatpak nowadays. Some people might prefer the AUR, that’s good for them! Right now it’s just not for me.

If I do distro-hop again, I’ll probably go for EndeavourOS just to have an Arch install that leans heavier on the “just works” side of things.

Dezvous , 3 months ago

Windows 11 because I now have hardware that’s completely incompatible with Linux

yianiris , 3 months ago

It would take years for MS to catch up to the hw covered by linux, some of it not even released in a market.

If you are talking about specific MS licensed hw with unpublished non-open non-free-firmware that MS orders to cut off other OSs then I can see this being true.

If you are falling for the Nvidia trap, I feel sorry for you.

@Dezvous @tet

Dezvous , 3 months ago

I’m specifically referring to my sim racing gear. Its drivers and accompanying software are not supported by Linux and have no plans to ever be supported by Linux.

sxan , 3 months ago

Arch. Or, rather EndeavourOS. I’ve lived with several distros (daily driver desktops, laptops, servers) for years: debian, Ubuntu, Gobo, gentoo, Redhat, CentOS, Arch, Artix, and EndeavourOS. Redhat was my least favorite, and EndeavourOS probably my most.

I’m currently running Endeavour on my desktop, Artix on my laptop, and vanilla Arch on several servers and ancillary devices. All of the Arches are basically the same day-to-day, except Artix; Artix is the lightest, but also the most work, and I probably wouldn’t choose it again.

I like Arch because - for me - it’s been stable and pain-free from dependency-hell, of which Redhat distros were the worst. I will not go back to any point release distro - rolling release has been so much better for me. The Arch wiki is the best source of Linux information on the internet, and the AUR has almost everything in it, and is easy to contribute to. PKGBUILDs are easy to write; it’s hardly any more work to put one together to install something and have it managed by the package manager, than to not.

I’m interested in playing more with some of the source-based distros like void, alpine, tinycore, venom, and kiss; my experience with gentoo leads me to believe I won’t be happy with any as daily drivers.

However, I’m very interested in Chimera.

Jean_le_Flambeur , 3 months ago

Startend with ubuntu, didnt like “appy”, mobile feel of gnome, switched to manjaro KDE, loved it but kept breaking and I wasn’t smart enough to fix

Settled on good Ol Debian KDE, miss the AUR but things are stable and working

Still got a win pc to play league, work with office and make music though.

Flaky , 3 months ago

EndeavourOS might be worth a try if you miss the AUR, but if you don’t like the maintenance associated with Arch’s rolling release strategy then I’d stick to Debian.

FluffyPotato , 3 months ago

It’s been over like 10 years but it has gone something like this Windows -> Ubuntu -> Debian -> Mint -> Windows -> Ubuntu -> Solus -> Fedora -> Arch -> Manjaro -> Windows -> POP_OS -> Arch -> Manjaro

catguy , 3 months ago

@tet my first computer was a ubantu mini PC I have used almost every major distro and now I use fadora because I like gnome on my laptop

Cyberflunk , 3 months ago

Bookworm

mac , 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago)

Arch ecause of the large amount of software available on the AUR.

I set it up with SwayFX, Alacritty Firefox & Sway Lock. Slap your favourite text editor on there and you’ve everything you need.

gingernate , 3 months ago

Ubuntu-kubuntu-mint-debian-manjaro-opensuse tumbleweed-Fedora. Been on fedora for a few years, anytime I try something different I come right back. I want to like openSuse but I ways seem to have some weird ass issues with it

GustavoM , 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago)

Arch linux. Minimal install, hyprland. $ROOTSYS* set to ro, ~/.cache and ~/Downloads to tmpfs. alsa, bemenu, wine-staging, lutris. Couldn’t be happier.

mac , 3 months ago

What does setting fstab do there?

GustavoM , 3 months ago

Eh, did a little “oopsie” there, my bad.

mac , 3 months ago

Well what does setting it to ro do?

pingveno , 3 months ago

Pop!_OS. I previously got stuck on tiling window managers, but I found that they have prohibitively large amounts of setup involved. It’s also not uncommon for support applications to be poorly maintained or to have a poor UX. Pop!_OS’s desktop gathers everything together very nicely into a working shell with minimal setup, but still has that sweet, sweet tiling WM.

mac , 3 months ago

This kind of setup works best for me, a desktop environment with a tiling window manager on the top, that way I can use it like a normal desktop for most things and can hop back and forth between apps I use a lot all on the home row with the window manager.

pingveno , 3 months ago

Yeah, I’ve really liked the flexibility it gives me while leaving behind hassle. Before I had tried XMonad and AwesomeWM with various tray apps for things like wireless networking. I enjoyed using them, but I did not enjoy the amount of work I put into set up. Sure I like tinkering, but there’s a certain level where I just want to have a dependable, working system so I can get on with my day.

mac , 3 months ago

Exactly this! I used to enjoy tinkering with my configuration a lot and then it got stressful as I kept finding new things to add or tweak and change and never ended up getting work done.

I love how simple sway is, even if I’ve added a few extra visual features with the fx version (at least it’s pretty to look at). The configuration is basically set your used apps to keybinds, choose how you want windows to look and be spaced, add a few key bindings.