What is your preferred daily driver distribution?


Considering switching away from Fedora and to another distribution. Does anyone have any suggestions for distributions I should consider?
in reply to bbsm3678

in reply to bbsm3678

Arch Linux

Reasons:
- Pacman
- the AUR
- community driven
- bleeding edge
- pragmatic stance regarding closed source software
- sane defaults
- minimalism, build your own without too much compiling
- the wiki

This entry was edited (2 years ago)
in reply to bbsm3678

Here's an incomplete list of my daily drivers since...well, I'm old.

  • QNX Neutrino
  • Mandrake 7.2
  • RedHat 7.1
  • Went back to Windoze for quite a while
  • Gentoo
  • Ubuntu (quite a leap there)
  • OS X
  • Linux Mint
  • Debian
  • LMDE
  • Fedora
  • KDE Neon
  • macOS
  • Fedora Asahi

I'm sure I've missed the odd one or two (and I regularly jumped back and forth with Debian/Ubuntu/Mint for years and years).

I used to distro hop a lot, so if I only used it for less than a month, I haven't bothered to list it.

This entry was edited (2 years ago)

diybone doesn't like this.

in reply to allywilson

  • Speak & Spell
  • 150 things in 1 from Radio Shack
  • Simon
  • CP/M
  • DOS 2.1 - 6.22 ?? (DoubleDOS)
  • Dos + Desqview X (I spell that right?)
  • Slackware (Linux 0.99pl13) (home)
  • Windows 95 & Linux
  • DEC OSF-1
  • OS/2 Warp (work) / Slackware Linux (home)
  • Windows 98, 98se & Mandrake Linux
  • Domain Aegis (Apollo workstations) (w) & Mandrake and maybe Redhat Linux (h)
  • HP-UX (w) & Mandrake Linux (h)
  • SunOS & Solaris & HP-UX & Aegis & AIX & os/390 (zSeries) & IRIX (w) & Redhat or Mandrake Linux (w & h)
  • PClinuxOS
  • Gentoo
  • Linux mint / Ubuntu
in reply to bbsm3678

  • Mint, because it works with a minimum of effort.
  • OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, because it's more up to date than Mint, it's a rolling distro, it works, and in the rare event of a problem it's easy to roll back to a snapshot.
This entry was edited (2 years ago)
in reply to bbsm3678

If you are a KDE user or are interested in it, I've been running KDE Neon for a few months and don't plan on changing any time soon. Stable release, Ubuntu LTS based without the forced snaps (though snaps are in the repos if you want them), comes with the standard Ubuntu LTS repos and flatpak installed out of the box, with the one difference there being that it will update to the latest stable version of KDE software as it's released. Basically a de-snapped Kubuntu LTS with all the latest KDE stuff. Works great for me.
in reply to Papamousse

CP/M. Ya got me there. I guess I can say EOS though ( Coleco ADAM ) and Tandy DOS 2.1.

If you don’t want to jump straight into Arch, give EndeavourOS a go. It is only 20 packages on top of the 90,000 you get in Arch ( so, it is Arch ) but it is a breeze to install and is sensibly configured out of the box. Once installed, it is Arch ( don’t let the elitists tell you it isn’t ). It uses the real Arch repos and runs the real Arch kernels. Of course, if you have the time, vanilla Arch may be even more fun.

in reply to bbsm3678

in reply to bbsm3678

Arch.

People think it's really challenging and brittle, but everything seems to always work no matter how often I update (or don't) and the wiki is top notch.

I actually chose arch initially because when you go to forums to troubleshoot problems there is always an ubuntu answer and an arch answer, and the arch answer is almost always shorter.

in reply to bbsm3678

Unpopular choice here but Ubuntu LTS with ubuntu-debullshit (vanilla gnome, replace snap with flatpak).

My main factors:
- stability of the LTS
- drivers and HW support
- tons of resources online
- already use Ubuntu for servers and Raspian on my Pi

I’ve had my fun distro hopping in the past but I just want a low maintenance system nowadays.

This entry was edited (2 years ago)
in reply to bbsm3678

EndeavourOS, it just works really well and never breaks. The only time I had an issue was when I was using the Zen kernel and it locked up installing league of legends and watching a YouTube video at the same time. Using the mainline kernel though gives me no issues.
This entry was edited (2 years ago)
in reply to bbsm3678

Everyone immediately want you to use their distribution of choice. However no-one can really answer this unless you include more information about yourself and your Linux experience, objectives, what kind of tinkering you're comfortable with, what you expectations are, etc.
in reply to bbsm3678

My journey roughly went like:

  • Mint + Cinnamon
  • Mint + i3
  • MX Linux + i3
  • Debian + i3

Right now I'm using Debian + i3. It's pretty lit

My main reason is that Debian is a very stable, very popular distro, that isn't a fork of another distro. The fact that it's stable means issues are more rare; the fact that it's popular means when issues do pop up, there are much higher odds that I'll find others who ran into them before; and the fact that it isn't a fork means that I can just prefix "debian" to any search, rather than say having to contend with it being potentially a "debian" issue, or an "ubuntu" issue, or a "mint" issue. In fact, debian is popular enough that most of the time I could just prefix "linux" to a search, rather than "debian".

While there are distros that market themselves on other merits, it seems to me that the main goal of an operating system is to be a stable foundation. I wanted to pick something that would let me have a good time with i3; Debian seems one of the most straightforward choices. I considered arch, but in the end Debian seems like the lower-effort option.

This entry was edited (2 years ago)

PseudoSpock doesn't like this.

in reply to kilkil

agree.
you mention debian and arch. I have also tried both of them.
the problem with arch (rolling distribution) is that you are forever updating and you never know what exactly has changed in the system and you have to look.
You can still have so much experience and solve problems, but they always cost time. all this from a daily user perspective is crap.

from a security point of view, new software can contain security loopholes just like old software.
i'd rather have a stable base where i can easily keep an eye on changes than daily updates.

This entry was edited (2 years ago)

PseudoSpock doesn't like this.

in reply to bbsm3678

I try so dang hard not to use Linux Mint because I have been using off and on since 2008 but always come crawling back to it when I run into some esoteric issue on another distro. It just hits the sweet spot of what I understand computing to be. I have desperately tried to use various forms of arch. OpenSUSE, fedora, debian, and a whole host of others and eventually get frustrated for some probably solvable reason and go back to my sweet, my love, my wart covered X11 using, 5.15 running, stale boring life mate Mint.
in reply to bbsm3678

I only use Arch, it's really stable and easy to fix if something goes wrong thanks to the excellent arch wiki.

But I recommend PopOS for anyone who just wants something good looking and stable and who doesn't need the latest packages all the time.

This entry was edited (2 years ago)
Unknown parent

lemmy - Link to source

1984

I use Arch default. Stay away from Manjaro... If you want to try arch with a good installer, try endeavouros.com/.

Its really just arch with a nice installer and a friendly community where you can ask questions. It's specifically designed for that purpose.

This entry was edited (2 years ago)

PseudoSpock doesn't like this.

in reply to bbsm3678

in reply to mark

I wanted to like Guix very much, but eventually found it extremely inflexible. You will miss a lot of packages that are not trivial to create in Scheme yourself. Also a lot of packages have issues that no one wants to fix, or it takes half a year (e.g. being able to use NetworkManager for an eduroam/university wifi connection).

It's also not possible to just compile a package yourself because the directory structure is totally different.

I don't think Guix will ever become more flexible, I've given up on it

in reply to bbsm3678

Fedora (with Plasma) and I don't plan on moving to another distro until something tangible happens. Switching my distro based on hypothetical situations would keep me from ever staying on any distro for very long.

That being said if I had to use another distro, I feel like I'd try out Debian stable, while using Flatpaks and Distrobox to get up-to-date software. That feels like it would be a good approximation of the excellent middleground that Fedora has.

in reply to bbsm3678

For now, it's Debian 12 with KDE Plasma. But I'm really interested in Immutable Systems. I like OpenSuse Kapla, but the KDE Integration is still in alpha. There are still a few shortcomings with the only flatpak approach, like the fact that the Steam Flatpak can't provide smooth wireless controller support because of lacking permissions.
Unknown parent

lemmy - Link to source

nestEggParrot

Whats a good way to start with nixos? Are there default configs to start from?

Everytime I go to the site to try I postpone for some reason, but mainly apprehension of deviating too mudh from debian base which has been my most used distros.

And how recommended is it to have nix package manager in popos or any debian based?

Unknown parent

lemmy - Link to source

LeFantome

Sorry I did not see this sooner. EndeavourOS is my favourite by far. I loved Manjaro when I used it and thought detractors were exaggerating its problems. Then I had a string of problems all clearly linked to poor management and now I strongly recommend that nobody use Manjaro ever. Once I started to use EndeavourOS, I realized that Manjaro incompatibility with the AUR was causing me constant problems without me realizing it. I was attracted to Garuda and did use it for about a week. It was not for me in the end but that could just be preference.

The thing about EndeavourOS is that, once installed, it is essentially just Arch. There only only just over a dozen EndeavourOS packages on top of the 80,000 or so vanilla Arch ones. So, EndeavourOS is basically just easy to install with decent defaults. Manjaro has its own repos and they are incompatible with the AUR ( trust me ). Garuda departs from Arch a lot more. That could be good or bad depending on your preferences.

Unknown parent

lemmy - Link to source

LeFantome

They do bill themselves as terminal centric but honestly I do not get that.

The whole point of the distro relative to Arch is the graphical installer. It sets you up into a nicely configured desktop by default. There are graphical tools for configuring most things.

I think the main reason they say that is that there is no graphical package manager by default. So, even to install one, you need to use the command line at least once. They pre-install yay though so yay -S pamac-gtk or yay -S octopi will solve that problem ( I do not like pamac myself though ).

It is basically just Arch once installed though so I guess it has fewer tools built in than many distros.

Anyway, I don’t own EndeavourOS stock. No big deal if you prefer something else.

Unknown parent

lemmy - Link to source

nestEggParrot

Pop doesnt have snap installed in my recent install.

I don't like gnome in particular but I am too lazy to setup a proper WM on my work laptop for fear of braeking and losing work.

Have tried fedora gnome with their pop-shell it worked fine otker than a few differences. Some odd behaviors like move next workspace would move it to first or last.

Nvidia is a pita. It prevents my machine from waking from sleep and I can't even close the lid because I cant turn off sleep on lid close.

Unknown parent

lemmy - Link to source

nestEggParrot

I too prefer to have just iGPU which the recent ones are more than sufficient for most of my needs. But wanting to try some ML and that most configs with 16+ RAM offerings are mostly gaming laptops with nvidia.

Although I've had some display issues without nvidia too. Previous laptop had issues connecting external monitor. Only some distros had that issue so possibly a misconfiguration or incorrect library was used.