What is/was your distrohopping journey?

deadbeef79000 , 27 days ago

Over the last three decades…

• DOS/Win (Games)
• … Various Windows … (Games)
• RedHat 6 for learning about this Linux thing
• LFS for shits ‘n’ giggles
• Ubuntu (for drivers that just worked)
• Debian (for minimalism)
• Ubuntu (for comfort)
• Fedora/Ubuntu

JadeEast , 28 days ago

DOS, ProDOS, Windows 3.1, Windows '98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 7, Puppy, Mint, Bodhi, Trisquel & Debian.

QualifiedKitten , 28 days ago

I’ve used Windows since I can remember… at least since Windows 95, then probably early 2000’s, added OSX into the mix. I currently use an old Mac Mini as my Plex machine, and the computer provided by my employer runs Windows.

My “journey” began around 2015 on an old Dell laptop that I set up to dual boot Windows and Linux. I tried 2 or 3 distros, one of which was probably Ubuntu, before settling on Mint. I remember having enough minor issues with Mint that I kept booting back to Windows, and eventually stopped booting to Mint at all.

Then one day, I have no clue what I was trying to do, but I was confident that I knew what I was doing, so I just went for it without pulling up the instructions. Welp, I ended up deleting my bootloader, or something like that, and now couldn’t boot to any OS. I tried using my parents’ Mac to create a bootable USB, but that wasn’t working. I wound up buying and returning a random open box laptop from Best Buy just so I could create a functional bootable USB. I also found help from a very kind internet stranger who walked me through the process to fix my bootloader. They happened to only use Arch btw, so that’s what we used to get my laptop fixed.

That whole drama really scared me away from fiddling with it for a while, then I just got busy and had no motivation. That laptop is collecting dust and still dual boots Windows (7?) and headless Arch. I’m thinking of fiddling around with Linux again, but most definitely need something more noobie friendly than Arch without a DE.

Steamymoomilk , 28 days ago

Windows xp > windows 7 > windows 10 > manjaro (broke it with the aur) > arch (broke again) > kbuntu > fedora > fedora silverblue > Nixos > Gentoo

Now i compile with 14 core xeon 2697 v3 48gb of ram and vega 64. Peak machine and distro

steeznson , 28 days ago

Windows -> MacOS -> Windows -> Ubuntu (2012) -> Arch (2013) -> Gentoo (2016)

Gentoo cured my distrohopping

Zucca , 26 days ago (edited 26 days ago)

Gentoo cured my distrohopping

Kinda the same with me, I’ve been using Gentoo the most of my life.

dwzero , 28 days ago

DOS, to Windows XP, to Xubuntu, to Kubuntu, to Nix OS. In hindsight I should have probably tried Arch, but Nix was the first one to sell me on something else, and Arch just seems like a downgrade from Nix.

RmDebArc_5 , 28 days ago

Windows -> Ubuntu -> Mint -> Fedora -> Pop -> Manjaro -> Garuda -> Debian -> Zorin -> Endeavor -> feren -> opensuse tumbleweed -> opensuse leap -> KDE neon -> blendOS -> MX -> Debian + peppermint (on old laptop) -> Mint cinnamon + Mint XFCE -> Fedora atomic -> Fedora

Additionally: rasbian on pi, alpine for VM, puppy for usb, steamos on steam deck

Charadon , 28 days ago

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

bismuthbob , 28 days ago

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 , 28 days ago

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 , 28 days ago

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)

forgotmylastusername , 28 days ago

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 , 28 days ago

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.

owatnext , 28 days ago

Windows Vista → Debian (pre-systemD) → Devuan → Void Linux.

I don’t like systemD.

I still have Windows installed as a dual boot setup for Adobe CC.

Parabola , 28 days ago

macOS, then Linux Mint, then Arch Linux, then EndeavourOS, then Artix Linux, and now Parabola GNU/Linux-libre.