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What is/was your distrohopping journey?

For me it was:

Windows (for many years) -> Ubuntu (for a year) -> Arch Linux (for half a year) -> Void Linux (literally 2 days) -> Artix Linux with runit (a month) -> Gentoo Linux (another month) -> Debian (finally, I don’t plan on changing it).

Also, when trying to switch from Gentoo to Debian, I fucked up all my data with no backup.

What was your journey?

EDIT: Added Windows

LeLachs ,

Mine was Windows XP -> Ubuntu -> Xubuntu -> Windows 10 -> Kubuntu -> KDE Neon -> back to Kubuntu -> Manjaro -> Endeavour OS -> Fedora -> Debian -> NixOS

I also have a separate Laptop for financial things running Alma Linux and a Gaming PC running bazzite

Kiuyn ,
@Kiuyn@lemmy.ml avatar

For me it is like this: Window–>ubuntu(a month)–>kubuntu(a week)–>Opensuse tumbleweed

I also tried Nobara, zorinos, arch and bazzite but never actually use them

Charadon ,

Desktop: Windows Vista Home -> Windows 7 Home -> CentOS 7 -> Debian 8 -> Arch Linux -> OpenSUSE Leap 15 -> Debian 10 -> Slackware

Slackware is probably where i’ll be for the rest of my time on Linux, as unlike other distros, I have no major complaints.

I’ve always hosted stuff at home, even as a kid, so for my homeserver:

Server: Windows XP Pro -> Windows 7 Pro -> CentOS 7 -> CentOS 8 -> Artix Linux -> NetBSD -> OpenBSD -> SmartOS

I don’t miss the days of using WAMP on windows lol

umbrella ,
@umbrella@lemmy.ml avatar

its pretty much ubuntu since i started using linux, with some peppering of other distros i tried out over the years for a few months at a time.

i’m on this perpetual state of kind of wanting to hop because of the usual canonical shenanigans, but like, its working.

regitseroms ,

Windows 98 -> Vista -> 7 -> 8 (long time)
Attempted Linux Mint for a day or two
Windows 10 (long time)
Windows 10 + Pop OS (June 2021)
Windows 10 + Tumbleweed (Switched after couple months of Pop OS)
Tumbleweed (Dropped Windows after not using Windows for 6+ months)

Zangoose , (edited )

I’m not the biggest distrohopper but I have tried a few, both on my laptop and desktop. I still keep windows around on a dual-boot but I’m basically only using it for the odd game or two and also onenote (obsidian + excalidraw comes close but nothing really has a seamless transition between pen and typing text like OneNote)

Early 2018 and before:

Windows only

2018-19:

  • Ubuntu 18.04 (desktop),
  • Ubuntu 18.04/18.10/19.04 (laptop)

2019-2022:

  • Manjaro w/ KDE (desktop),
  • Arch Linux w/ GNOME (laptop)

2022-2023:

  • NixOS (laptop, for literally a day because it didn’t have a package I needed to make my laptop work correctly)
  • EndeavourOS (kde on laptop, qtile on desktop)

2024:

  • No changes to the desktop setup,
  • NixOS w/ KDE and also a half-functioning hyprland setup on the laptop now that the package got added.

Future?

Maybe if I can get my NixOS config to a point where I’m happy with it I’ll switch my desktop setup to that as well, in theory it should be pretty painless since i’m already using a flake setup split across multiple modules. I do really like that I can experiment with my setup without the risk of actually breaking anything since NixOS is semi-immutable.

If I don’t stick with NixOS I’ve also been thinking about trying fedora, opensuse, or an immutable distro, or otherwise just moving my laptop back to either Arch or EndeavourOS since that’s what I’m familiar with.

Sheldan ,

Windows 95 - Windows Vista - Windows 7 - Ubuntu - Fedora - back to Ubuntu Think that’s it, can’t recall the years exactly The switch to Ubuntu was like in 2014 or something

ruckblack ,

Windows for a long time before I knew what OSes were. I never liked how locked down MacOS is so I’ve never used that. Then I tried Ubuntu in college, mostly to play with. Then tried Arch, fucked up my system a couple times and reinstalled, then tried Manjaro because I’d heard it was more stable and less fuss. And now I’m back on Arch. I think I’ve finally mostly figured it out over the last decade lol, I haven’t had a problem with my install in years.

bismuthbob ,
@bismuthbob@sopuli.xyz avatar

I played around with Mandrake and Debian around the turn of the century. A bit of a break, but then I started dual-booting Ubuntu in the Windows Vista/X86 OSX era. I jumped to Xubuntu and started running Linux by itself on several machines around 2012.

I largely shifted to Arch around the time that snaps came out because they weren’t playing nice with some of my low-end machines. Nowadays, mainly Arch. Exceptions: Fedora on my M1, Debian Bookworm on an old x86 tablet and any time I set up WSL on a Windows machine.

GamingChairModel ,

For my personal devices:

  • Microsoft products from MS DOS 6.x or so through Windows Vista
  • Ubuntu 6.06 through maybe 9.04 or so
  • Arch Linux from 2009 through 2015
  • MacOS from 2011 through current
  • Arch Linux from 2022 through current

I’ve worked with work systems that used RedHat and Ubuntu back in the late 2000’s, plus decades of work computers with Windows. But I’m no longer in a technical career field so I haven’t kept on top of the latest and greatest.

zongor ,
@zongor@hexbear.net avatar

Classic Mac OS 7.5.3 -> 8.5 -> 9.2 -> Windows 2000 -> XP -> Vista -> 7 -> 8.1 -> 10 -> Pop!_OS (for a few years but eventually wanted a KDE based distro) -> Garuda Linux (for a few years but wanted to try out nobara for gaming) -> Nobara (for now, great for gaming, frustrating for programming because of package differences) and other unknown reasons)

erwan ,
  • In the 90’s: Slackware, then RedHat, then Debian, then Progeny (Debian based), then shortly Mandrake (RedHat based)
  • Early 2000’s: RedHat Japanese edition, TurboLinux (because I was in Japan and Japanese IME was almost impossible to get working on non-Japanese distributions)
  • Then I had fun with Gentoo looking at my terminal compiling stuff everyday and fixing broken package because I followed advices to activate crazy compilation flags
  • 2004: Ubuntu, that I used for nearly 20 years
  • Last year: switched to Fedora
0x0 ,

What happened last year?

zero_spelled_with_an_ecks ,

The Shakahola Forest Incident, for one thing.

erwan ,

Nothing in particular, for the past few years I didn’t like the direction Ubuntu was taking but I stayed because I was too lazy to switch and it didn’t feel that bad.

So I’m not sure exactly what was the last straw, maybe part of it was me getting a Steam Deck, discovering flatpak and understanding how bad snap was compared to it.

sfera ,

I just realized that I used Ubuntu for 20 years. I might be interested in switching to Fedora. How ist your experience so far?

erwan ,

It just works, just like Ubuntu before they started pushing snap down everyone’s throat (which is what made me switch eventually.)

I had a bad image of RedHat/Fedora’s package management from the time deb was much superior, but no they caught up and are on the same level (I know, it’s probably been a while).

I also like how they mostly package upstream without too many changes. When Ubuntu started upstream was a bit lacking so making changes was necessary to get something that looks like a consistent OS rather than a patchwork of packages, but now it’s no longer needed. Ubuntu is no longer the only distribution with that level of polish.

forgotmylastusername ,

For some reason I memory holed the first distro I used. There’s only vague recollection. I think it was SUSE or something. When Ubuntu came around I tried Linux again. That’s when I started to get the hang of things.

OpossumOnKeyboard ,

Windows->Mac->Ubuntu->Fedora->Arch->openSUSE->and finally Debian when bookworm released and I’ve been very happy with it, plan on staying for the foreseeable future.

Still dual boot windows (with no Microsoft account connected) for gaming. But I don’t game nearly as much as I used to and when I do I don’t want to worry about anything working, I just want to ply with friends. Though from what I hear gaming on Linux is getting better all the time.

Procapra ,
@Procapra@hexbear.net avatar

I played with linux a bunch between 2014-2019 but I was not ready for the commitment of learning a new operating system. In 2020, I started to get annoyed at how bad windows 10 was getting, and at some point I saw the insider previews of windows 11 and put my foot down.

I fully switched to linux in 2021, I started with a brief spell of manjaro. I hated it.

2022 I had alot going on in my life and didnt use a computer very much at all because I did not have internet access.

Towards the very end of 2022 I moved and got a laptop which I put Fedora on. I used this daily until the first half of 2023

Sometime mid 2023 I switched to opensuse and I used that for a few months before finally switching over to Debian which I still use now.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I prefer LTS distros. I very rarely need new software besides for maybe WINE, but I can get that from the winehq website easily enough so its not a big deal. If I could get drivers to play nice out of the box, I would unironically put alma linux on my laptop and run it the full 10yrs.

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