Debian not recommends testing for everyday using. You definetely have to look at the site. Afaik it is basically a bad version of unstable that gets slow updates and it is only for testing purposes.
Packages from debian unstable trickle down to testing in 8-10 days usually if all the other criteria are met. But I have also heard that important security updates go straight from unstable to stable and then come to testing at a later time. When is that later date I have no idea.
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
Pop_os for my laptop and desktop. I use these machines for dev work and gaming. I want to spend as little time as possible doing maintenance. Debian for all servers and containers. Very stable, maintenance doesn't take much effort.
If I was running a pure gaming system I'd probably go with Arch.
Love that list. I am also old. I used SLS, Slackware, and stuff with the .99.x release numbers I switched to Red Hat around 4.1 I think and went to Mandrake from there. And then…
I built Arch (twice I think) but only ever in a VM to have a look around, never made it my daily driver. Used Manjaro for a couple of weeks, but I wouldn't say it was a daily driver either.
The biggest selling point for Fedora IMO is the way it handles UEFI and Secure Boot. I haven't found anything comparable. Securing the proprietary garbage running on your main board is critical regardless of your OS.
Can you elaborate or point me to some resources? I'd like to hear more about this because I've wondered for a while what to do about Secure Boot on my machine.
I have been running OpenSUSE Leap on my home server for 3 years, and I moved from Fedora after many years to OpenSUSE Tumbleweed on both my work and home (gaming) PC. I am super happy!
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.
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.
EndeavourOS is good, I was frequently using arch wiki on other distros so it's handy to have it actually apply accurately to my distro. AUR is super handy as well.
I could use regular Arch, but I appreciate the simplified installation.
I use btrfs actually as well, but mainly just for compression/deduplication. I've been meaning to get snapshots set up but haven't gotten around to it yet.
I think we have a very different definition of quick, my friend. I've been on Linux for about a year and a half, most of which on Arch and recently on NixOS.
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.
I'm the wrong one to ask because every time I try something else, I end up returning to Fedora.
But what you switch to depends on why you want to switch:
Want to learn more about how Linux works? Install Arch the Arch Way, or try out Void.
Want a different DE? Well, you've got Fedora Spins if that's your main goal, but KDE Neon lets you try out the latest stable KDE stuff, which is fun!
Looking for a rolling distro but don't want the extra complexity of Arch's minimalist philosophy? OpenSuse Tumbleweed is fantastic.
Do you really want to dig deep and have total control of your system? Look into Gentoo or Linux From Scratch.
I've done most of these and more, and I'm happy to recommend something more specific, but I can't without knowing what you're looking for.
If you don't know what you're looking for, and just want to do something different, then do what I do when the distrohopping bug strikes: check out several distros' websites, pick a couple that appeal to you,
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I'm the wrong one to ask because every time I try something else, I end up returning to Fedora.
But what you switch to depends on why you want to switch:
Want to learn more about how Linux works? Install Arch the Arch Way, or try out Void.
Want a different DE? Well, you've got Fedora Spins if that's your main goal, but KDE Neon lets you try out the latest stable KDE stuff, which is fun!
Looking for a rolling distro but don't want the extra complexity of Arch's minimalist philosophy? OpenSuse Tumbleweed is fantastic.
Do you really want to dig deep and have total control of your system? Look into Gentoo or Linux From Scratch.
I've done most of these and more, and I'm happy to recommend something more specific, but I can't without knowing what you're looking for.
If you don't know what you're looking for, and just want to do something different, then do what I do when the distrohopping bug strikes: check out several distros' websites, pick a couple that appeal to you, then research those a little deeper, maybe rum them on a virtual machine for a bit. If you find one you like, back up your critical data and go for it!
I'm currently trying out Garuda on my gaming Desktop, and a already kind of want to ho back to my safe space after two weeks. Don't get me wrong, I totally see why folks like it, but it's not for me.
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.
Ohhh, I'll have to check this out. I've been gradually moving away from Ubuntu toward Debian for a while because Snap is hot garbage and I don't want to have anything to do with it.
I've been switching between Arch and Debian for the past 5ish years. I don't really notice much of a difference, other than Arch has updates much more often than Debian Testing usually does. I like how meta-packages in Arch are more minimal than the ones in Debian, but that's a very minor thing.
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.
I use Debian with kde and its been great. Went from debian 11 to debian 12 without reinstall and then use void and devuan on my other computers and arch mobile on pinephone.
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.
Manjaro with KDE. I've only been running Linux for a month, and found Arch a bit intimidating, so to me Manjaro was the closest I dare fly to the sun. Really liking it so far.
I used to love Manjaro. It seems great when you use it. Word of warning though, it will break on you at some point. When it does, instead of abandoning Arch distros completely, consider giving EndeavourOS a shot.
Thanks for the tips, and the heads up. EndeavourOS was on my list when I tried to figure out what to go for, so I'll definitely try that when Manjaro breaks.
Used Arch for over 5 years. I don't know if having a child changed me but I realised I'd lost a lot of time I had that I spent just fiddling with configs to get stufftpo my liking so went from Arch xmonad to PopOs and Gnome.
It has been stable and doesn't have the snap bullshit that comes with Ubuntu.
Endeavour os with kde! Used to run manjaro and I think it's a good stepping stone, so you know what you like and not, what to keep... For example, I didn't know about oh my zhs and p10k, and if it wasn't for manjaro I wouldn't have know about that and owils be running the default bash console.
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.
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.
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.
Linux Mint: Debian Edition. After watching a YouTube review I decided to take a break from Arch and give it a try, I'd always like Cinnamon, and I really like this.
Cinnamon, last I tried it, has a bug which causes it to run games with compositing enabled. The setting that's supposed to disable it for games, only works until the next boot.
Arch on my main pc, and Ubuntu on my server, only reason it's Ubuntu is I needed 6.2 kernel for my Intel arc encoding card and debian based for the arrs
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.
One thing that drives me away from Endeavour is that it bills itself as terminal centric and I am trying to go away from terminal hell that most Linux installs get to. Just in OpenSuse, I was having to dive in and debug xone when I just wanted to start playing rocket league. I used Linux as a daily driver from 2008 to 2012 and eventually bounced back to Windows due to wanting to play games. Every year I check back in with distros people recommend and I just don't have the care to maintain a Linux install. I don't need to maintain a Windows install, windows literally does it for me and very successfully in my experience.
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.
You can have secureboot on mint. On mobile but I'll search up a link when at desk. It's not terribly hard given Mint is derived from Ubuntu. Should come up in a search if you're impatient
I cannot recommend NixOS enough, it's such a good distribution but on the other hand it's quite tough to learn as it deviates a lot on how distributions do things. It still uses a standard stack (glibc, systemd, GNU tools and all) but the nix tools which include the package manager are totally different from what other distributions offer. It's very solid, yet flexible. It offers a lot of packages by default. I've switched my machines to it because of the advantages.
Arch is great as a rolling release distribution with solid repositories (lots of packages and quite up to date) and it's very close to upstream with a more traditional approach to the distribution tools. In fact there aren't really any apart from the package manager by default. I feel this is one of the most comfortable distributions if you want to learn how a classic Linux system is structured. I ran Arch for about 15 years and didn't really have anything to complain about and I learned more about Linux there than with Ubuntu and Debian.
Please note that neither o
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Depends on what you're looking for.
I cannot recommend NixOS enough, it's such a good distribution but on the other hand it's quite tough to learn as it deviates a lot on how distributions do things. It still uses a standard stack (glibc, systemd, GNU tools and all) but the nix tools which include the package manager are totally different from what other distributions offer. It's very solid, yet flexible. It offers a lot of packages by default. I've switched my machines to it because of the advantages.
Arch is great as a rolling release distribution with solid repositories (lots of packages and quite up to date) and it's very close to upstream with a more traditional approach to the distribution tools. In fact there aren't really any apart from the package manager by default. I feel this is one of the most comfortable distributions if you want to learn how a classic Linux system is structured. I ran Arch for about 15 years and didn't really have anything to complain about and I learned more about Linux there than with Ubuntu and Debian.
Please note that neither of these are what one would consider beginner-friendly distributions.
For me it's tumbleweed at the moment it's defaults like btrfs and snapper are how I used to setup fedora. Then there's the tools like OBS and yast that are super useful it's rolling but well tested before it gets to you
i like fedora a lot, but its updates got a little too far ahead for me. So i recently switched to debian 12, and with flatpaks and their more-current mesa components, everything is working on my desktop as well as it was before, especially games on steam (flatpak) and in bottles.
I'm using Debian 12 stable and I do everything on it, even gaming. I use flatpaks to keep certain apps that benefit from being up to date, and I install backported kernel and mesa when they release for more performance (amd gpu).
I've been on and off with vanilla Debian for years while distrohopping, but I tried out Debian 11 testing and everything just worked for me, am still using that same install but I'm sticking to stable branch now.
Also, proprietary drivers are now officially supported by Debian as of Debian 12, and are available to install out of the box without needing to search for them or add the non-free repositories now, which was a pretty big roadblock for a lot of people.
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
Documentation is not enough good for me to care and I hate when there are multiple ways to do things, I still did not understand how I should install programs on NixOS
For all the praise I give Debian, I still just run Kubuntu and call it a day.
It's not that Debian's particularly hard to install or set up (pretty quick and easy after you've done it enough times, though there is also the Live CD with Calamares for an easier install), and it's honestly better than (*)Ubuntu in terms of official repos (at least Sid is), but I sometimes just find it simpler to install Kubuntu, unsnap it, remove apport, and get on with everything else.
Maybe I'll go MX or something at some point and just enable systemd because I use it and out of the "anti-systemd" distros, it's the most "hey, if you want to use systemd, no prob".
Actually, for Debian, another good option is Spiral Linux. It's basically just Debian, but with btrfs, snapshots, and zRAM all set up (from the same dude who does GeckoLinux, so very familiar with btrfs). Maybe once the new Bookworm-based ISO is up, I'll switch over.
Arch for the last 8ish years. I'm interested in switching to something immutable and with a declarative package manager, but every time I try something else I end up back on arch. It works and has all the packages I use ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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.
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.
I've found success installing Steam and other stuff using distrobox on openSUSE Kalpa. The initial setup isn't as easy as installing a flatpak, but after a quick distrobox-export it's totally seamless.
Nah, it's more of a "when it's ready" type thing. You can see updates on their blog but by the looks, it'll be another 6 months or so before a real release candidate is ready.
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?
I'm pretty happy on Ultramarine. Its like Fedora but with more repos by default, media drivers, more DE options, and a bunch of more reasonable defaults for daily all-purpose use.
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.
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.
transistor
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CAPSLOCKFTW
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
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LeFantome
in reply to FQQD • • •FQQD
in reply to LeFantome • • •dark_stang
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •Pop_os for my laptop and desktop. I use these machines for dev work and gaming. I want to spend as little time as possible doing maintenance.
Debian for all servers and containers. Very stable, maintenance doesn't take much effort.
If I was running a pure gaming system I'd probably go with Arch.
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Jontique
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •As soon as the new COSMIC DE is ready I will switch to Pop on my desktop as well.
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allywilson
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •Here's an incomplete list of my daily drivers since...well, I'm old.
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.
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LeFantome
in reply to allywilson • • •Love that list. I am also old. I used SLS, Slackware, and stuff with the .99.x release numbers I switched to Red Hat around 4.1 I think and went to Mandrake from there. And then…
You never used Arch? Not even for Asahi?
allywilson
in reply to LeFantome • • •PseudoSpock
in reply to allywilson • • •chi-chan~
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •btwOS.
I can't tell you if it's *your* cup of coffee. You should decide it by yourself.
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chi-chan~
in reply to chi-chan~ • • •- Pacman(!)
- Minimalistic approach
- ArchWiki
- AUR
- Rolling-release model
- Bleeding-edge softwares
- Community that would call me out if I didn't read the wiki (yes, IMO it's a positive)
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Amy :3
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •Fedora Workstation. It's fast and stable.
Everything I use is available either as a Flatpak or a RPM.
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Efwis
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •EndeavourOS with KDE
Same systems as vanilla arch for packaging such as pacman and AUR
Archwiki instruction work without modification
Great forum community without the incessant RTFM
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Grangle1
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •Fubarberry
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •EndeavourOS is good, I was frequently using arch wiki on other distros so it's handy to have it actually apply accurately to my distro. AUR is super handy as well.
I could use regular Arch, but I appreciate the simplified installation.
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in reply to mortrek • • •mortrek
in reply to Fubarberry • • •Papamousse
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •I'm old too
I may try Arch on a old laptop just to play with it.----
theshatterstone54
in reply to Papamousse • • •I think we have a very different definition of quick, my friend. I've been on Linux for about a year and a half, most of which on Arch and recently on NixOS.
LeFantome
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.
harl3k1n
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •blendOS — Beautiful. Efficient. Elegant.
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s20
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •I'm the wrong one to ask because every time I try something else, I end up returning to Fedora.
But what you switch to depends on why you want to switch:
I've done most of these and more, and I'm happy to recommend something more specific, but I can't without knowing what you're looking for.
If you don't know what you're looking for, and just want to do something different, then do what I do when the distrohopping bug strikes: check out several distros' websites, pick a couple that appeal to you,
... show moreI'm the wrong one to ask because every time I try something else, I end up returning to Fedora.
But what you switch to depends on why you want to switch:
I've done most of these and more, and I'm happy to recommend something more specific, but I can't without knowing what you're looking for.
If you don't know what you're looking for, and just want to do something different, then do what I do when the distrohopping bug strikes: check out several distros' websites, pick a couple that appeal to you, then research those a little deeper, maybe rum them on a virtual machine for a bit. If you find one you like, back up your critical data and go for it!
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DarkUFO
in reply to s20 • • •like this
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s20
in reply to DarkUFO • • •Dolphinfucker420
in reply to s20 • • •atomkarinca
in reply to Dolphinfucker420 • • •Enter the void
Void Linuxlike this
joekeen likes this.
ryomensukuna
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •MX Linux
LMDE
Tlox likes this.
atlasraven31
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •Zorin OS. No muss, no fuss. I've been wanting to hop to Endeavor or Pop! just to do something different.
I mainly play games and watch movies.
like this
Soleil, Zoop and oaklandnative like this.
dream_weasel
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.
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LeFantome
in reply to dream_weasel • • •abrasiveteapot likes this.
dallen
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.
GitHub - polkaulfield/ubuntu-debullshit: Purges snaps, installs flatpaks, and restores vanilla GNOME
GitHublike this
Sparrow, eleanor, SirSauceLordtheThird, Soleil, thedæmon, frippa, Webby, Leer10, belated_frog_pants, slano, hebuardo, Jummit, Zoop, augustus672, sdoorex and whysofurious like this.
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Veraxus
in reply to dallen • • •like this
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IrritableOcelot
in reply to dallen • • •commie likes this.
astroturds
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •like this
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Veraxus
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •Debian + GNOME.
Historically I've been a huge fan of Ubuntu, but I just can't tolerate Snap any more and started moving away from Ubuntu in general.
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IRQBreaker
in reply to Veraxus • • •DARbarian
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •like this
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in reply to eleanor • • •eleanor likes this.
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in reply to bbsm3678 • • •like this
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in reply to bbsm3678 • • •like this
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in reply to bbsm3678 • • •ProtonBadger
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Hexadecimalkink
in reply to ProtonBadger • • •cafeina likes this.
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in reply to bbsm3678 • • •like this
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in reply to bbsm3678 • • •like this
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LeFantome
in reply to Dranadia • • •qayxsw10987 likes this.
Dranadia
in reply to LeFantome • • •greyfrog
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •Used Arch for over 5 years. I don't know if having a child changed me but I realised I'd lost a lot of time I had that I spent just fiddling with configs to get stufftpo my liking so went from Arch xmonad to PopOs and Gnome.
It has been stable and doesn't have the snap bullshit that comes with Ubuntu.
it_a_me likes this.
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wviana
in reply to greyfrog • • •blue_struct likes this.
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potajito [he/him, love/loves]
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •kilkil
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •My journey roughly went like:
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.
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trclst
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.
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rodbiren
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •like this
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arthurpizza
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •like this
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in reply to arthurpizza • • •arthurpizza likes this.
shark tongue
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •like this
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Max-P
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •like this
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Mx Phibb
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •like this
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in reply to Mx Phibb • • •MentalEdge likes this.
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in reply to bbsm3678 • • •sounddrill likes this.
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happyhippo
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •LeFantome
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •like this
speckonthesponge, eric, muhyb, wviana, qayxsw10987, abrasiveteapot, cafeina and astra1701 like this.
MJBrune
in reply to LeFantome • • •LeFantome
in reply to MJBrune • • •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.
MJBrune
in reply to LeFantome • • •LeFantome
in reply to MJBrune • • •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.
MJBrune
in reply to LeFantome • • •Leer10
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •like this
NanoooK, dubba, honung and blue_struct like this.
transistor
Unknown parent • • •kabouterke likes this.
1984
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.
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MJBrune
in reply to 1984 • • •cafeina likes this.
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1984
in reply to MJBrune • • •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.
EndeavourOS
EndeavourOSlike this
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MJBrune
in reply to 1984 • • •barusu
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •I'm considering to switch from Fedora to Debian stable with Flatpaks for the available apps (more up-to-date and more isolated).
But I'm also considering NixOS atm
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The Zen Cow Says Mu
in reply to barusu • • •like this
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Jacob Urlich 🌍
in reply to bbsm3678 • •NanoooK
Unknown parent • • •like this
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Hexadecimalkink
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •like this
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don't like this
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istdaslol
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •It’s just like Mint but I had way less issues than with any other distros.
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Jayb151
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •like this
abrasiveteapot, galil3o and ladyanita22 like this.
abrasiveteapot
Unknown parent • • •syaochan likes this.
Laser
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •Depends on what you're looking for.
I cannot recommend NixOS enough, it's such a good distribution but on the other hand it's quite tough to learn as it deviates a lot on how distributions do things. It still uses a standard stack (glibc, systemd, GNU tools and all) but the nix tools which include the package manager are totally different from what other distributions offer. It's very solid, yet flexible. It offers a lot of packages by default. I've switched my machines to it because of the advantages.
Arch is great as a rolling release distribution with solid repositories (lots of packages and quite up to date) and it's very close to upstream with a more traditional approach to the distribution tools. In fact there aren't really any apart from the package manager by default. I feel this is one of the most comfortable distributions if you want to learn how a classic Linux system is structured. I ran Arch for about 15 years and didn't really have anything to complain about and I learned more about Linux there than with Ubuntu and Debian.
Please note that neither o
... show moreDepends on what you're looking for.
I cannot recommend NixOS enough, it's such a good distribution but on the other hand it's quite tough to learn as it deviates a lot on how distributions do things. It still uses a standard stack (glibc, systemd, GNU tools and all) but the nix tools which include the package manager are totally different from what other distributions offer. It's very solid, yet flexible. It offers a lot of packages by default. I've switched my machines to it because of the advantages.
Arch is great as a rolling release distribution with solid repositories (lots of packages and quite up to date) and it's very close to upstream with a more traditional approach to the distribution tools. In fact there aren't really any apart from the package manager by default. I feel this is one of the most comfortable distributions if you want to learn how a classic Linux system is structured. I ran Arch for about 15 years and didn't really have anything to complain about and I learned more about Linux there than with Ubuntu and Debian.
Please note that neither of these are what one would consider beginner-friendly distributions.
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Destide
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •like this
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thax
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •like this
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The Zen Cow Says Mu
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •like this
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Nia (she/her)
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •I'm using Debian 12 stable and I do everything on it, even gaming. I use flatpaks to keep certain apps that benefit from being up to date, and I install backported kernel and mesa when they release for more performance (amd gpu).
I've been on and off with vanilla Debian for years while distrohopping, but I tried out Debian 11 testing and everything just worked for me, am still using that same install but I'm sticking to stable branch now.
Also, proprietary drivers are now officially supported by Debian as of Debian 12, and are available to install out of the box without needing to search for them or add the non-free repositories now, which was a pretty big roadblock for a lot of people.
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mark
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •like this
ZenFriedRice, secret301, worldofgeese, kixik and jayemecee like this.
jack
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
blue_struct likes this.
secret301
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •blue_struct likes this.
halo5
in reply to secret301 • • •secret301 likes this.
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🧟♂️ Cadaver
in reply to secret301 • • •like this
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Zatujit
in reply to secret301 • • •like this
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comicallycluttered
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •For all the praise I give Debian, I still just run Kubuntu and call it a day.
It's not that Debian's particularly hard to install or set up (pretty quick and easy after you've done it enough times, though there is also the Live CD with Calamares for an easier install), and it's honestly better than (*)Ubuntu in terms of official repos (at least Sid is), but I sometimes just find it simpler to install Kubuntu, unsnap it, remove
apport, and get on with everything else.Maybe I'll go MX or something at some point and just enable
systemdbecause I use it and out of the "anti-systemd" distros, it's the most "hey, if you want to use systemd, no prob".Actually, for Debian, another good option is Spiral Linux. It's basically just Debian, but with btrfs, snapshots, and zRAM all set up (from the same dude who does GeckoLinux, so very familiar with btrfs). Maybe once the new Bookworm-based ISO is up, I'll switch over.
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in reply to comicallycluttered • • •comicallycluttered likes this.
Sky Cato
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •like this
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in reply to Sky Cato • • •Blu likes this.
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fox
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •RustyOperator likes this.
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in reply to bbsm3678 • • •like this
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Radioactive Radio
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •Gush
in reply to Radioactive Radio • • •bizdelnick doesn't like this.
Gush
Unknown parent • • •RustyOperator likes this.
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in reply to bbsm3678 • • •blue_struct likes this.
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in reply to kyub • • •like this
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Zatujit
in reply to ladyanita22 • • •krash
in reply to ladyanita22 • • •I read somewhere that NixOS users are really loud and act eerily similar to arch users.
(~I use nix btw~)
halo5
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •like this
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halo5
in reply to Gush • • •like this
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fernandu00
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •jayemecee likes this.
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in reply to bbsm3678 • • •like this
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wolandark
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •True Blue
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.
Rhabuko
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •like this
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in reply to Rhabuko • • •like this
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Zatujit
Unknown parent • • •Janis
in reply to Zatujit • • •LOL. old man.
mint mate is good for performance..
what do you use for gaming?
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joel_feila
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •nestEggParrot
in reply to joel_feila • • •merthyr1831
in reply to nestEggParrot • • •nestEggParrot likes this.
ursakhiin
in reply to Gush • • •nestEggParrot
Unknown parent • • •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?
nestEggParrot
Unknown parent • • •merthyr1831
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •flashgnash
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •amminadabz
in reply to bbsm3678 • • •nestEggParrot
Unknown parent • • •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.
nestEggParrot
Unknown parent • • •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.