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Which Linux distro do you use, and why?
So, according to my memory, I asked this question on Tildes "not that long ago."
Then I checked.
Chat, it was a LONG time ago. Excuse me while I crumble into dust.
Anyway, given that the Linux landscape looks very different than it did not that long ago in 2018, I figure we're due for another topic like this:
- Which Linux distro do you use, and, most importantly, why do you prefer it?
Debian. That’s it for everything (servers, Pis, desktops, laptops) with the one exception of Pop OS on my computer with a new Nvidia card that’s not well supported even by Debian testing. It feels like the least hassle possible. Great support from 3rd parties, very stable, no enshittification (like Ubuntu).
As far as I’m concerned the natural state of any computer is to run Debian. Anything else is an aberration.
For my main computer, my misgivings with Debian are crusty old packages. Bad enough I deal with those at work. Is this true, or just common misconception?
I have my "server" (strong word for it) set up with Ubuntu Server, which I don't love for the same reason as you said. Very tempted to swap to Debian at some point, don't care much about bleeding edge features there (most containers anyways...).
You can use Debian testing to improve that matter. It’s probably not very different than a recent Ubuntu. I use stable but I don’t do anything too fancy and will reach for a backport if there’s ever any issues.
Have you made the move to COSMIC on your Pop!_OS installation? I'm curious as to what your thoughts are if you have.
The computer is running Cosmic. No complaints. I don’t really fuss about with my DE or WM anymore.
I use Fedora with Gnome. I like Fedora, I don't really like Ubuntu, I use my laptop for both software development and recreation so I generally like it to Just Work™, which Fedora usually gives me!
I use Linux Mint, and have for about nine years. It was originally an easy transition from the Windows world, and I've found that it does everything I need.
On the rare occasions I've run into an issue, there is a lot of help available for this operating system and the Linux Mint forums have been welcoming for those of us who aren't technically proficient.
Fedora + KDE. It's a good blend of easy to use and new packages (which I care about for a few things I do). Haven't had many issues with it, so I haven't really looked into swapping. I like KDE pretty well, but also used GNOME for a long time and liked it fine.
I have used Ubuntu, Manjaro and Arch in the past. I didn't like snaps (felt slow, maybe I'm wrong) so Ubuntu's insistence pushed me away from it. Manjaro was OK, but it also just felt like secondhand Arch, so I moved to the real deal. Arch I was very happy with, until I had to set up a new computer and thought "no, I don't want to do all the setup again" (this was before archinstall script, that might have changed my mind). But Arch + i3 served me very well, while I was using it.
The only remotely tempting thing I see is Arch-like + dw{m, l}. I like that you can actually read the source, and I don't have to learn some new bespoke configuration to customize it (my main issue with i3; I wanted a tiling WM, but frankly have no patience for learning all the configs). I've set it up on an old laptop. I like it, but I'm not yet willing to put in the effort to customize and daily drive it.
Started out on Ubuntu back in 2007, wanted the GUI for an old laptop. Switched to Debian somewhere around 2012, and haven't looked back. Are some of the packages old as fuck? Yes. But it's also bedrock stable, I think my longest uptime was just over 4 years before I finally updated that kernel. And I know how to use it. I tried Gentoo, Arch, and Pop over the years just to experiment. But Debian forever has me in its clutches, and I'm happy to be in them.
Fedora Bazzite, their "Kinoite" KDE variant.
I don't love Redhat as much as I once did, but it's well-maintained and I can goof off playing almost any games (that don't require DRM I was going to hate in principle anyway) without having to think very hard.
Kubuntu 25. I tried a lot of distros over the last couple years and every one had some weird pain points in what i wanted to do or stuff would take more time to setup than what felt worth it. Pop_OS and Mint were two I tried most recently since this is a gaming machine and those get recommended as "just works" for games, bur neither one was doing it for me. I ended up downloading Kubuntu just because I wanted to try KDE 6. I've run Debian on my home server for a decade so I'll always be biased towards anything built on it. I ended up loving the new plasma desktop in Kubuntu and it has been the easiest distro to just play games on. One command to install the nvidia drivers and pretty much everything just works.
Related, does anyone know why there is so much vitriol towards Ubuntu users in certain communities? I've pretty much never paid attention to linux discussions online. It's crazy how frequently I've asked about stuff in different discords and people suddenly don't want to help if i mention I'm using a Ubuntu distro.
Some people harbor some ill will towards Canonical for the way they've handled a number of things, or ideas that some Linux users don't like that Canonical has tried to make into a thing (snaps, for instance), and I consider myself in that camp (I disabled snaps and dislike some stuff), even as a user of Kubuntu currently. However, whether I used it or not, I'd never turn that ire towards any users and would always be glad to help when people ask.
The Linux community (as with any, but they are quite vocal in Linux) still has its subset of assholes that judge anyone that doesn't use Arch, or whatever. There are a lot of nice people too. But there's certainly an arrogant subset that acts in a very particular elitist way and Canonical and users of its products probably become an easy target for that gross behavior to aim at. They view what they use as superior and balk at the idea of helping someone that uses something "inferior". Lots of overlap with the reply-guy and "just use <thing>" crowd too
I suppose that makes sense. I am also in the camp of hating snap, but I've ignored it for so long I sorta forgot that its the default for a lot of Ubuntu stuff now. I'll take useless package manager I can ignore over a lot of the other issues I've ran into with Linux lol
Dang, that thread predated me ragequitting Windows in 2019. I used OpenSUSE Tumbleweed pretty extensively then until about 2022, when I formatted EndeavorOS as an experiment because I was sick of fighting Discord. Haven't switched back, it works well enough that I've been too lazy to pave over again.
Gave up on using fun distros on my Raspberry Pis, went back to boring Raspbian. It works 100% (tho I now get this weird thing with the ethernet port stopping working randomly, I suspect a hardware issue).
I really want to get roaming home directories going across the 4ish machines in regular use so that each person can customize the bejesus out of their desktop and not be tied to a single machine. But I really don't have time to futz with it at the moment so will probably just keep assigned machines with the kids sharing.
My wife gave Zorin a spin, but we were both irked by their rebranding of many things...which is great for a unified brand for newbies but is *really" confusing after the 4th conversation along the lines of "You can use KDE Connect to control the TV now" followed up with "What's KDE Connect? Is it like Zorin Connect?"
OpenSUSE is like the weird cousin that everyone ignores in the corner, but felt more refined than most other distros once you got the initial codec issues sorted out. Partially because their default is to install all the optional dependencies, so stuff tended to have less "why is that not working." Zypper is hands down one of the best package managers out there.
Pop_OS! 24.04 with KDE. I had worked with COSMIC for a bit, but found some features still missing from the configuration that was causing scaling issues with my monitor setup (2K and 4K). Mainly around optimizing for gaming seemed to favor KDE or GNOME, so I tried KDE first and was happy with it.
Archlinux since like 2010! Mainly I like to be able to control everything about my OS and understand it deeply. I use it for my main laptop and my home server.
I use Gentoo because portage is the best package manager I’ve ever used
Currently main PC is running Kubuntu 24.04 LTS with Cinnamon instead of KDE. Mostly just because I chose it a long time ago, it worked well enough, and now that I've had enough inertia of using it on my main PC for this long, it's going to be annoying to switch if I decide to do so at some point. I am thinking about trying AwesomeWM on it tho
Couple of other machines I have (laptop, low-power living room TV pc) are running MX Linux. I like their way of doing things, their built-in MX tools, and I'm at the point where I think I prefer XFCE as a DE. At some point I might go MX on my main PC too.
I run an OPNSense DIY router, an Unraid server, and a DietPi (very lightweight Debian running on an old Dell micro PC) print server.
I have another "test" machine that I'm currently trying out CachyOS on also
I do still have one Win10 box around and that's simply for music production because there are a lot of annoyances/caveats/etc for my particular setup that makes me avoid Linux for that purpose for now
Gentoo, because:
USEflags let me put less stuff on my system, avoiding things I don't want or need (some dependencies, "features"), instead of apps having every possible feature compiled into themFor installations on other people's laptops that I don't want to have to maintain too much, I've turned to KDE Neon, which users can relatively easily update themselves.
Fedora with Sway.
I really like Sway. I really dislike that I basically have to build a DE around it. Really wish that something like "Separating the Wayland Compositor and Window Manager" gets popular so I can just swap my preferred WM into an existing DE.
All servers run Debian, except firewalls which run OpeBSD, and desktops run Ubuntu which is of course Debian on the inside. I guess I do a lot of embedded stuff on Raspberry Pi OS, which is based on Debian again.
I used to on Slackware back in the day but I’m not about that life anymore.