47
votes
Linux Distro Recommendations
I know this can be a bit of a heated debate sometimes, and with so many choices people will have their preferences. I wanted to hear some noob-friendly suggestions for me and some friends.
What distros would work well for an old laptop repurposed as a glorified Chromebook (web browsing, Netflix, emails, etc) with some light Steam 2D indie game usage? It would be borrowed by less tech savvy people.
What distros would work well for gaming desktops? Either current high end desktops or desktops that are a few years old.
For a noob friendly district, it doesn't get much better than Linux Mint. Should be very familiar to Windows users and easy to use.
For a gaming desktop, honestly I don't think it matters too much so long as you don't pick a specialized distro. Could honestly just use Mint as well, since it'll be easy.
FWIW, I believe Mint was the answer 10 or 12 years ago when I last did a Linux home server overhaul as well. That (power) sucker was on for years. Finally pulled the plug on it in 2018. Never had an issue and it doubled as an always-on workstation for crawling sites and longer processing jobs.
I'd second this one. I've been using Mint on a few machines and I'm very pleased with it. I put it on my parents' machines and they've done well with them. Even my grandmother does ok on it when she uses it (I haven't reformatted her machine just yet, learning curve and all that, but she qualifies as probably the noobiest of noobs and did ok using my machine for a bit).
Another vote for Linux Mint. Been a Mint user since 2017 and before that was an Ubuntu user since 2004. Love everything about mint.
In addition to that, I also use Window's 11 for work and I have a Chromebook as a casual house laptop which doesn't get used much.
Yeah, can confirm, Linux Mint is perfect for newbies to the Linux world.
I switched to Mint after having Ubuntu for like 2-4 years and updates completely destroyed the installation! It had like 2 app stores installed (with updates) and had to update using workarounds in the terminal.
tl;dr Ubuntu bad, Mint good
I have Kubuntu (a really screwy customized version where I removed KDE and put Cinnamon on it after a long time fighting with KDE) and with all of Canonical's weird crap, their insistence on snaps, and so on, I'm definitely considering making the jump to Mint at some point to get way from Canonical but stay in a debian-based land, probably the next time there's a big distro update
might add, choose the most recent LTS (long term support) release and you dont need to upgrade for some years. its what i put on my parents machines, they never have any problems with it.
If you ask me: Linux Mint or Debian for the laptop, Pop! OS, Fedora/Nobara or Arch (if you like tinkering) for the Gaming PC. I also wrote a blogpost about choosing a Linux distro a while ago which you might find interesting.
I agree with the rest but I would recommend against Arch in this case. There's constantly something broken that you need to fiddle with, which is not an experience someone dipping their toes into Linux would want.
I must have gotten lucky over the past decade, have never had any breakage on arch...
It definitely depends on your hardware. Kernel updates broke my display (Nvidia driver issues) every few months. The obvious solution was to wait to update the kernel until I knew that the driver had been updated, but it still happened occasionally.
Then I had WiFi driver issues with some updates that I had to troubleshoot multiple times.
So you may have been lucky or more careful, but issues updating with Arch are certainly not uncommon.
Heck, even as an old hand Arch is still a faff to use!
I'll second Debian. It's a low-effort distro, easy to get into after a few days and a pleasure to use.
I'd say Debian's not good for an uber noob.
What makes you say that?
I use it all the time. It targets technical users that are familiar with Linux or at least BSD. It’s low maintenance but would probably require OP to learn a bunch of different new concepts to do basic things (apt, ppas, etc.).
Even the installer could be confusing. It will ask you what DE you want. And it’ll let you install multiple at once. It’ll ask you if you want SSH. Sometimes the graphical installer doesn’t work (especially on older hardware) and you need to know the implicit keyboard commands to operate the ncurses installer.
Design is a big domain and programmers know how to design for programmers. But to design for a less technical user means you need to rethink a million little decisions.
That's all super valid, and I didn't think about the installation process. I find Debian absolutely rock solid once it's installed (both on the desktop and headless on servers), but you're right that it's not beginner friendly to get up and running.
I guess our definition of basic things might differ though, as I wouldn't expect many people to need to use apt or ppas or anything similar. Most DEs come with app "stores" these days, which would surely do for the majority of beginner users' needs, no?
Does Debian have that? I thought it was distros like Ubuntu and Mint that included app stores.
Yeah, they come as standard with most DEs now. They're straightforward front ends for the package manager, and I have yet to use one that isn't slow and awful, but they exist!
The only thing with Debian is that it doesn't include non-free repositories by default, so if you have any hardware with non-free drivers, finding those drivers and installing them can be a pain, especially if you're not used to the Linux ecosystem.
They split non-free into non-free and non-free-firmware, and as of Debian 12 (the current stable version) the non-free-firmware is included in the main installation media files. So, most hardware should work out of the box and you shouldn't have to do the "how do I install a network driver without a network?" routine anymore.
(Sent from my Debian 12 laptop)
Ah, good to know! It's been a while since I've installed Debian on a system that wasn't already supported, so I'm out of the loop.
Coming from Windows, Ubuntu is a pretty easy transition and has a fairly nice interface. Lots of support online if you hit issues. I'm also voting +1 for PopOS because I'm running it on a nearly defunct laptop that stays on all the time as a media server and it's doing great.
I second Ubuntu for a beginner. Problems happen in the Linux desktop and Ubuntu has a lot of resource availability and compatibility with other Debian systems and Ubuntu derivatives.
For an entry level Linux distribution I recommend Pop!_OS.
For anything else NixOS ;)
First, I acknowledge confirmation bias. I use what I am recommending.
Linux Mint, specifically the flagship Cinnamon desktop environment.
I've used it for.... a decade now? Yeah, I think around a decade, since transitioning away from windows.
It is extremely windows-transition friendly and easy to adapt to. So many of the keyboard shortcuts and intuitive use-feel are the same. It is, by this point, very refined and you no longer have to be some uber-experienced computer / software tech to get into Linux or to be able to troubleshoot your way to fixing everything and get your desktop working correctly. Most cases will just be a smooth install with no troubleshooting needed.
Especially for your 'noob-friendly' request - Linux Mint Cinnamon.
What OS are you coming from? Do you want a more Mac like interface or Windows like?
I have used Windows more and one of the friends asking has used Mac. I'd be interested in both of your recommendations.
I've dipped my toes into Linux off and on over the past decade or two, predominantly using the Ubuntu family of distros, and enjoy them. I've been happy with them on my old laptop, server, and gaming PC and within the past year, different Ubuntu flavors have become my daily drivers on each. As one of the most popular, support is fairly easy to find.
Regular Ubuntu uses the GNOME desktop environment which is fairly Mac like whereas Kubuntu uses KDE and is more Windows like. You can spin up a live USB of each before installing to see which feels better, but they're more or less the same under the hood.
They're part of the Debian family, which generally means that whatever apps and instructions are appropriate for Debian system will be appropriate for any of the related distros.
You'll largely be good to go out of the box with these installs, they'll handle drivers and software packages that'll give you a pretty capable and accessible OS without tinkering.
I haven't tried other distros as in depth so I can't earnestly comment on their accessibility. They've got their pulls for sure, but I find these ones to be the most starter friendly because of their popularity. There hasn't been anything I've needed to Google help with that didn't have hits for Ubuntu and advice was generally geared towards beginners.
My biggest gripe comes down to the app stores. Ubuntu (and Kubuntu) comes with two but they don't clearly distinguish which one is what and the default settings cause deb files (install files) to open in the wrong store that just tells you it isn't in the store versus the right store that actually installs it. But I've spent more text griping on it than it really impacts my use though since I stick to command line for program management and/or go to the actual program site.
Pop OS is sort of similar to MacOS with the dock.
Two potential recommendations:
Aurora, don't let the Github link scare you. This is built on top of Fedora Kinoite, their image-based KDE desktop, and is designed so you don't directly modify the underlying system. The intended workflow is to use Flatpak or containers (like distrobox) to add any additional packages you need. Since you're more familiar with Windows, KDE would be a solid recommendation. You'll likely need the Steam flatpak, which is two clicks to install. If you feel constrained by the Fedora Atomic system, which doesn't allow you to modify the root filesystem easily, you can use Distrobox to maintain a Linux install in a container and still have everything you want at your fingertips. It's in beta, but should be completely fine, and will be gold for the Fedora 40 release in a few weeks.
Bluefin is the blagship of the Universal Blue project, which Aurora is built on. It uses Fedora Atomic to create a system with "chromebook reliability," in that system updates are image-based and "atomic," meaning if a system update fails it didn't update, and you're on the pre-update image. To be fair updates within the same version are 100% fine, it's major upgrades that can cause issues for any distro, and the underlying technology here (ostree) helps prevent that.
I think both of these would provide a path of least resistance. They don't have any live images to test, unfortunately, but I try not to recommend something to newer users unless I'm 100% confident it's fool-proof, and that has been my experience with these.
For gaming I like Fedora Bazzite which is sort of a Fedora-based SteamOS sorta thing in the same family as the above two. In fact, the default desktop install looks like the Deck's Desktop mode. It's basically another Fedora Atomic system with some kernel tweaks for improved graphics workloads, and a built-in Steam installer. Same deal, everything is flatpaks or distrobox if you don't like the flatpak selection, but it's quite easy to use and if you follow their little questionnaire, you can have the right image for your system and have an easy install experience. You can choose the KDE desktop (more windows) or GNOME desktop (more... it's own cool thing) to customize your experience a bit.
Check out ZorinOS and PopOS. IMO, both are better options than Mint - they have better UI/UX, are more actively developed and have better hardware support (especially PopOS).
Another fan of Zorin OS here. It's made to be an easy change from Windows, and we use it for all you've asked about. I even resurrected an old ThinkPad, and it runs great on 12+ year old hardware.
OpenSUSE's out-of-the-box Snapper has saved my butt several times.
And YaST means you don't have to touch the terminal for a lot of things.
Just install it with one of the lighter DEs, IMHO.
SUSE also has the nicest KDE setup I've seen. Highly reccomend Plasma for any x86 that is less than 15 years old if you're using OpenSUSE.
It helps that KDE has been making leaps and bounds on bugfixes and speedups.
I know everyone recommends Mint to new users, however I have a different suggestion: Debian + KDE!
Really easy to use, extremely stable and even looks nice. No need for Debian testing or unstable on older laptops btw.
This is my go to for general Linux use for all.
Debian is the widest supported distribution of them all, dad and even grandad to all .deb based systems.
I run everything on my Debian Stable as bare metal. No docker (although I may have to going forward for AI stuff) installs, all source code built or deb installs.
For 99% of everything I have done I have not needed CLI, so anyone claiming that for a general setup is talking nonsense. I even used the GUI installer this time round, it was flawless for my install and configuration.
Debian and KDE simply works out of the box.
A left-field suggestion, since I don't think it gets mentioned enough: MX Linux
It's a debian-based distro with some really excellent tooling built-in. The LiveUSB features are probably not what you're looking for, but they allow for some next-level system portability. I've run Steam on it with no issues. I'd also say that all of the desktops they implement do a good job of offering sane defaults and beginner-friendly workflow, and they definitely consider low-spec machines in what they built.
I don't know if the hardware requirements fit your situation, but I've been using Mint for years.
It is the most end user friendly distro I have found.
If you don't want to think about it much then PopOS is great. If you want it simple but don't mind customizing things a bit then Mint is great. If you want a more office work oriented system I find Debian's KDE images work really well.
Really though unless you're dealing with hardware that is 10+ years old then the different distros and desktop environments will all perform about the same out of the box. I definitely recommend trying a few different distro live images to see what fits your taste.
IMO use immutable fs.
Fedora Silverblue or Kionite. Install applications with flatpak and manage permissions with flatseel
I run arch on my gaming desktop, but installed Kionite on my laptop. I prefer KDE over Gnome, but that's my personal preference. The only issue I've had with Kionite is installing apps directly from the flathub site by downloading the app link. Discover can't open them. But searching (which isn't great in discover) and installing works fine. You can also copy the terminal command from flathub to install via the terminal.
Quick question to you and @knocklessmonster:
I am a NixOS user, who has always gone back to Fedora for stability. While I have had a fine time with NixOS, it's absolutely dreadful with its error codes and seems to randomly fail without warning (many times, on startup). I've been interested in Kionite, but haven't found anyone that has properly explained the difference between stock Fedora, versus the Atomic Lineup, and the similarities/differences to NixOS.
Note: I've been a primary Linux distrohopper for the past 15 years, so I'm not new if that makes it any better for explanations? I realize I could just drop in, and likely will, but I just got this config for Nix all nice and shiny, so figured I would tag into this conversation.
Hopefully I can explain this. I tried to switch everything to NixOS for a bit, but couldn't get it on my second-hand 2012 Macbook Pro. I didn't even intend to use Fedora Atomic, but was able to accomplish what I wanted with it easier than NixOS.
Declarative syntax:
Fedora Atomic: Fedora Atomic images (for Desktop and Server) are confgured via declarative configurations which are then built into system images by a CI system. Most users won't go this deep on Fedora Atomic.
NixOS: NixOS is purely configured via its declarative language.
Atomic Updates: There are no partial upgrades. The Nix transaction or RPM rebase worked or you go back to the last usable state. Similarly, if it somehow breaks and the image is unbootable, you have the previous, or whichever pinned states you want to revert to (rpm-ostree does this for sure, but I believe Nix does?)
Differences:
Linux Filesystem Hierarchy Standard:
Fedora Atomic: Fully compliant with FHS, libraries sit just where they need to, anything like statically compiled apps and appimages work out of the box.
Nix: You can create FHS-compliant environments (i've never done this), but they aren't a thing OOTB.
"Image" building:
Fedora Atomic: You create a manifest, send it to a code repo connected to a CI system, build it, upload it to a repository like ghcr.io or quay.io
NixOS: typically you'll submit your build script to nixpkgs who build it centrally. CI builds the package, you define it in your configuration.nix.
Fedora Atomic has a recent benefit of the Universal Blue (uBlue) project, which aims to create a community around Fedora Atomic with customized images, and a straightforward process to build your own. This basically allows you to have what you need in a core system and then have Flatpak and containerized mutable installs elsewhere. A major benefit of even uBlue's base images is they include graphics and wifi drivers. These aren't recommended, generally, in favor of user-oriented images like the flagship Bluefin, Aurora or Bazzite. These also aren't discrete distros, but Fedora Atomic images, which can also be grabbed like so, using bazzite as an example:
You could run the above from a Fedora Silverblue install and basically have a new distro. System updates work the same way, such as what I did from Bluefin 38 to 39:
The above is like upgrading nix-channel to the latest version, running
nix-channel update, andnixos-rebuild switch. In the previous example we pulled unsigned images, you could then run the above command on those images to have signed versions, which is heavily recommended. Once you're on a "side," uBlue or Silverblue, you can get signed images from that side.Universal Blue was started as a community initiative to encourage building custom images. My only complaint is I legitimately do not have a need to build one.
Living in both
Living in both of these is fairly similar. I don't mean to be opinionated about your approach to this at all, but this is what I would do, and have in Fedora:
Declare what you need
Send to integration (Fedora Atomic: Github/Quay, NixOS, your system, in the sense of "package management"). NixOS is closer to the traditional model, in that package management is part of the system. NixOS lets you just add things to your system. To do similar on a Fedora Atomic system you'd have to layer packages, which is totally fine, but can require a little cleanup before re-basing.
Create a container,
Using
toolboxin Fedora,distroboxortoolboxin a uBlue image, or plain old docker or podman if you desire, and anything available in NixOS. Install apps, carry out tasks.Immutability
I don't have much here but there are two different approaches to "immutability" for different targets:
Fedora Atomic is an immutable system. Yes, you declaratively create the system as a dockerfile to build the OCI container that contains the system, but on your drive as your host OS you cannot modify it significantly with the use of rpm-ostree to layer packages. I can't
touch /usr/lib/testbecause I do not have permission to write there.NixOS's major goals are reproducibility and being declarative. I could modify the system on this go-round, but the change would not persist to the next rebuild if I modified any files that are contained in packages. Ideally those configurations would be configurable in configuration.nix anyway.
I think if you're fine with NixOS, you can use distrobox to rough out any rough corners you have with software, like Ubuntu-specific stuff, etc. Even the NixOS community wouldn't give you any guff for it (most chill, helpful community I've seen in FOSS next to BTRFS, I think). From a practical perspective I think both systems reach a similar goal via vastly different means.
EDIT: This reads like ChatGPT output, and it's kinda top-level. I spent last week deep-diving on it to find sore spots and sort of feel like something of an evangelist at this point. NixOS and Fedora Atomic are now my two favorite things happening.
Never assumed it was ChatGPT, great write up!
Right after I commented I decided "why not? I have a NixOS config waiting for me if I return". I switched over to Silverblue, and I have to say it's been great. Appears to be a lot more stable than NixOS in terms of just working right.
I've been exploring toolbox and distrobox, seeing how they fare. I am kind of surprised I had never installed distrobox inside of Nix before, this is absolutely amazing. Not having to deal with Nixpkgs is amazing (hate the Nixpkgs setup, everything is a merge request on git? really? and packaging is a nightmare). Really loving that I am on Fedora, but can install any application that's available on Debian, or my favorite, the AUR, over on Arch. It just works.
Some things I've found have to be installed directly on the image as a layered application, not a big deal since most of my applications live in either the Arch distrobox, or as a flatpak.
Quick note for anyone that I found on a blurb on a random post: If you use
rpm-ostree install ____ -A(the-Abeing important) you will be able to install most applications without having to a full reboot, or even a logout/in. It just runs.Once I spend some more time on Silverblue, I'll probably do a proper writeup but so far this has been much easier to wrap my head around than Nix (but even then, a Nix+Distrobox would be an insane combination, but I am comfortable so far here. It's just smoother.).
Some things could be better explained imo on the official documentation, but even in this very different type of Immutable OS, I am sure that immutable operating systems will be the future going forward.
Edit: I am also really digging that the OS configuration on Silverblue is written by the OS, not the user. A lot of the issues with NixOS is that their custom configuration language is strange and lackluster, and a lot of the problems arises from human configuring. Knowing that my configs are saved to a config file written by the OS automatically for later re-use/deployment is really nice.
The ChatGPT joke was more that it felt like a sales pitch than anything else.
Any examples? Rootful distrobox can handle virtualization, and just about anything else can be containerized in a distrobox. I use mine for real-time audio applications, for instance, but unfortunately haven't set up my hypervisor stuff yet.
A suggestion as well, which I missed here, is Distrobox, like the container technology it is built on, also has a manifest system which you can use to build out an environment with a simple command.
I haven't played much with layering and found Universal Blue's images to be perfect for avoiding it, especially since they include distrobox, proprietary firmware and even device-specific images, such as -surface and -framework builds (I have a Surface Go, and am aiming for a Framework this year).
I was looking at uBlues offerings, seems they did a lot of the same thing I've been trying to get some things working! I'll likely end up rebasing over to them.
Distrobox is absolutely fantastic, makes so much sense.
Nearly a week in, this has been absolutely flawless. Far less fiddling with internal settings and reading documentation that just barely exists, it's all there and its smooth sailing once I wrapped my head around the concept differences. Distrobox is amazing, and the speed + reliability of SilverBlue is really phenomenal, I had one critical failure and that totally on me. Rebasing is far too easy, switched to uBlue (Fed39 Kino-> Fed40 Kino-> Fed39 SB -> Fed39 uBlue -> Fed40 uBlue, and it just works) and that helped with a lot of things, and I might be mistaken, but FlatPaks are far more performant than I have ever had them working.
It's just a smooth operation. Thanks for the two of you for finally getting me to try it all out.
Note: I am staying away from
toolboxbecause distrobox w/ AUR seems to just run a lot better (still can't get over that I can have the AUR on fedora, insane).I'd look at the desktop environments first then the distro later, since for the average person the distro matters less than the DE itself.
I've not used it myself but I'd consider MX Linux first since it comes with XFCE, which can look boring out of the box but it is functional and light.
I've had experience with Fedora(GNOME) and Linux Mint(Cinnamon and MATE) and they're solid choices too, they can run on lower end hardware. Keep in mind that you pretty much can install most DEs on any distro but it may require some tinkering to get it working right.
I'm currently using Mint on a Laptop as a server and NixOS on another Laptop though I'm thinking of moving away from NixOS and into something else, no idea what yet.
Lots of people endorsing Mint Linux and I can corroborate that with a personal example: during COVID pandemic my uncle's laptop broke down. He used it for both personal and work affairs. Tech affinity is average, not super knowledgeable but willing to listen and learn. So I helped him set up Linux Mint on an older laptop as a temporary fix and he could make use of it well. We did the installation together and then I ensured that all major apps and hardware he used daily would work.That was easy with Mint and took about an hour. It then also really helped to give him a basic tour of how to search and install new software from the inbuilt app catalog, how to access your files or adjust brightness/loudness etc . Took about another hour, so nothing too deep. Included in that was a very quick tour of the terminal because that's invariably something you'll come up against when using Linux.
After some months he got a new laptop with Windows on it from work and went back to that. But he said that he generally liked Mint and found it easy enough to use as a daily driver.
My take is that for many people the operating system doesn't matter too much as long as they can access their daily workhorses (browser, email, conference/video calls, etc). Mint has broad hardware support and a good on boarding experience in that experience.
Personally I'm a big fan of Kubuntu which ships with the KDE desktop environment but I'm also more of a power user. Beautiful thing about KDE though is that it's layout is quite similar to Windows so many people will feel right at home. You can taylor and customize it to your liking and it offers many sensible ways to enhance productivity but even if you leave everything at the default settings and use it as-is it's a well thought out and pleasant experience.
Edit: choose long term support (LTS) versions if possible. This means your friends have to do larger operating system upgrades only every couple of years.
I know many people don't exactly love Google, but I recently decided to wipe Windows 10 from my PC and was looking for another distribution as well. I eventually settled on ChromeOS Flex.
I've been using it for about a week and I'm absolutely in love with it so far. It supports the installation of Linux apps within a container (so you don't accidentally botch your system) and the UX is by far the most polished I've ever seen. Sure, it's simple, but it's very usable. It's fast on older hardware, easy on the eyes, has useful features baked in like window snapping, a clipboard manager, emoji picker, theming, screen capture, and etc. You can try it from a thumb drive to kick the wheels before making a decision. Good luck!
For the old machine: I recently got into Q4OS, which tries to be a spiritual successor to Windows XP in design, and is otherwise largely stock Debian. I'm currently running the 64-bit version with Trinity as my desktop environment on an old Latitude D620 and it works like a charm.
My most modern computer, an Eluktronics MAG-15 I got in 2021 currently runs Windows 10 LTSC, but once that hits EoL I'll be going back to Xubuntu, or perhaps stock Debian with Plasma or Openbox as my desktop environment. Stability is paramount for my main computer needs and I've never had any major issue with it, though I admit I'm somewhere closer to 'Intermediate' rather than 'Arch Aficionado' on the scale of Linux users.
Linux Mint, I use it for schoolwork (I am a Computer Science Major) and it works totally fine.
I've been using Manjaro with KDE for about 8 years now. It was the first Linux OS I stuck with after deciding to exit Windows. Before settling with Manjaro I tried a few others, including Mint, but I found the support communities unwelcoming. In contrast, the support community of Manjaro is extremely newbie friendly.
It is a rolling release, based on Arch, so there are frequent updates (about once a month.) In all these years, I have had only one occasion where I had to reinstall everything due to a Manjaro update breaking things. I have had to do some tinkering on occasion, but like I said, support is fantastic. I have also broken my system a few times on my own, and I've had incredibly helpful support people spend hours with me to fix it.
Manjaro is really flexible too, especially with KDE. You can adjust almost anything to your liking, or you can just use as is.
If you never want to update, then Manjaro isn't for you. If you want to learn about Linux, though, I thing rolling releases are a great way to slowly accumulate knowledge and confidence. I really couldn't be happier using Manjaro.
Nothing at all agaknst you personally, but Manjaro is probably the only distro I would actively recommend against: https://manjarno.pages.dev/. TLDR: the Manjaro maintainers have a trackrecord of poor security and stability and have shown that they don't really learn from those mistakes. As an alternative, you can use the
archinstallinstaller included with Arch or you can use Endeavor OS if you want a GUI installer.I suppose folks can draw their own conclusions. I would disagree about the not learning from their mistakes. If I recall correctly, there was an issue with one of the main guys going awol, and with everything registered in his name, it took a while to sort all that out and reorganize. I'm also not to sure why anyone is very concerned about a SSL cert on an archived and therefore non-interactable old forum. I read a lot about security and have found them to keep up security updates at a brisk pace. As far as stability, I have 8 years of stability with them personally, so I am very happy to recommend them.
NixOs - deterministic Linux installation.
Didn't see it in the thread, not necessary beginner friendly, but I'm obsessed with NixOs. Nixos is the greatest Linux distro I have ever used. Every second with it is pure joy.
I'm not in it that deep. Just one config file for my whole system and a few shells for Dev environments. Not using flakes or home manager. Just enjoying the simplicity, predictably and stability as I play with my system.
If you're like me and can't stand Gnome, I would recommend the KDE flavors of Fedora or Manjaro. I've had nothing but trouble with Kubuntu.
Solus is a great option https://getsol.us/