tetFormer distrohoppers, where did you settle down?
MyNameIsRichardI settled on openSUSE Tumbleweed because it’s rolling and reliable. I chose KDE Plasma long before I chose my distro.
Same. Although I am running Debian on the server.
millionUsing this right now. It’s been a little less stable then I’ve heard other people claim, I had about a day and half where I was consistently freezing up 5 minutes after login. After that was patched it had been fine.
The real test for me is if I can walk away from it for 3 weeks and update the system without the world exploding. That was what always broke Arch for me.
All my problems have been of my own making. Also I updated one computer after 18 months or thereabouts and it was fine although I wouldn’t recommend leaving it that long on a computer you actually use!
I used to use Leap but I switched to the Tumbleweed repos and updated with no issues. It did take a while though.
Arch, cause it has everything I needs + I don’t have to reinstall between big updates (Arch is Rolling release)
ipsircI want to settle on Debian Stable, I really do, but I use Hyprland, so I’ll have to wait until we get Debian 13 (hopefully 13 and not 14 lol).
pelotronHyprland is surprisingly easy to build/install from source.
Even on Debian 12? That’s what I’ve installed now and I really want to give it a shot.
I guess I could have taken solving the depencies for granted. I’ve built and installed it on both Arch and Fedora but obviously those repos would be more up to date.
Yeah, I switched to AwesomeWM for the time being, but I’ll be honest, I’m getting fed up of it all. I think I’ll try Fedora later and if that doesn’t work for me… I really don’t know what I’ll switch to.
Fedora has an official package of it as well.
Yeah. I’m on Fedora currently and it turns out that, through Copr and rpmfusion, I could get everything set up and all my packages installed so I’ve been on it for a few days now, and with dnf5, install speeds are actually good so I’ve decided to stick to it, and I think I’ll keep on using it for the foreseeable future, probably at least until the release of Fedora 40 (at which point, if all my packages and Copr repos are updated for Fedora 40, I’ll probably upgrade to it, as it seems there is really nothing better for me out there (I’ve tried Arch, NixOS, Tumbleweed, Debian, Ubuntu, Void, and many others and they all lack something I need). So, Fedora might just become my forever distro, but who knows? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
I’m not much of a distro hopper, but I have tried a few, and somehow both my desktop and laptop have landed on Fedora…
flying_sheepHow is Arch “making things difficult for oneself”?
I set it up once 8 years ago and have since migrated my install across several SSDs.
Still runs like butter.
EngywookArch. Minimal, fast, rolling and it doesn’t break. Plus, the AUR and the Wiki are unvaluable.
OOFshootI thought Arch was notorious for breaking all the time? Is that a specific version of Arch?
Dunno, during 8ish years I have only hada couple of minimal problems due to updates (and the solution was promptly available on Arch homepage). Can’t speak for other, though.
That’s not my experience - have been using arch for around four years and it broke only once by not letting me log into the system after I failed to update pam configs after the system upgrade.
We’re using Arch 2
(No it doesn’t, it just has some bugs here and there, e.g. my media keys don’t work after a couple days of uptime (gnome). I stopped actively looking for and reading the release notes years ago as it just works… and if it doesn’t, I still have a btrfs snapshot from before the update)
This is a misconception. Arch breaks only if you mess enough with AUR. If you keep with official repo and maybe Flatpaks, you’ll be fine
You can use AUR with moderation as well and you’ll still be fine
FubarberryI tried Manjaro for awhile and had some major system breaks. Manjaro is/was often pitched as newbie-friendly arch, so having it break made me think arch was going to be even worse.
Been running endeavour for a few years now though, and haven’t had any real issues. Much smoother than my Manjaro experience.
anon5621Agree about manjaro they doing really weird things about their system and it’s breaking.
KoryOh I completely forgot about RedHat! Yes, that was my first one too. Then Ubuntu was kinda the thing to go to and it worked for a good while until it just didn’t work for me anymore.
Today I’m on Mint because it was the first distro I tried that was able to get the Wifi working on my super old/bad HP Laptop. I started to like it and then also moved to Mint on my desktop. Running it for a year now and since my PC isn’t the youngest anymore, I doubt I will switch distro again anytime soon.
Deebsterunvaluable
You’ve edited this post and left this in (or added it!?) so I suppose you mean it!
I just made a mistake, sorry :-P English us not my first language.
I was just joking; it’s clearly a typo and I don’t think anyone misunderstood (or maybe even noticed).
No problem, man ;-) I didn’t take it as an offense. Have a nice day!
Which one(s)
Arch.
why?
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.
SmokeInFogYeah, I use Mint and the Arch wiki is still my first stop when I have an issue
SubArcticTundraIs Manjaro good if I want in on this Arch goodness but don’t want to spend hours configuring stuff? Coming from Fedora
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.
neo (he/him)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.
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.
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 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.
No. Manjaro is more likely to break than arch because they hold of updating their pakages. What you are looking for is EndavourOS. I consider it to be “the new manjaro”
LuellaI’ve been using manjaro for around a year. It broke on me once, probably my fault, idk. I enjoy it! I’ve distro hopped many places and a year is a long time for me, so much about it is right for me. You’ll certainly get a worthy experience of what arch is capable of, I believe.
That being said, I plan on swapping to arch really soon.
Endeavour is better for that, after the install you’ll have plain arch but with a bunch of stuff installed and already set up
NyanixI’ve been daily driving Manjaro for 4 years without any issues. Generally speaking I’d recommend seeing if there is a flatpak for an app before using AUR. I don’t update as soon as updates are out though, so usually any issues there may have been have been shmoothed over before I get to it.
you forgot arch wiki
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.
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.
refreezeI also settled on NixOS after Ubuntu -> Arch -> Debian -> Fedora -> Silverblue -> NixOS. Couldn’t be happier and no plans to leave.
quantenzitroneNixpkgs 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.
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 it’s actually mature and broadly adopted.
You can start with getfleek.dev and transition to nix after you settled and fleek isnt enough anymore.
Another vote for Nix!
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.
SatyrSackWhen 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”.
Why would you ever think it was a meme distro? Red Hat has been around forever.
Because of the fedora-wearing neckbeard stereotype.
tips fedora
m’distro