Title is quite self-explanatory, reason I wonder is because every now and then I think to myself “maybe distro X is good, maybe I should try it at some point”, but then I think a bit more and realise it kind of doesn’t make a difference - the only thing I feel kinda matters is rolling vs non-rolling release patterns.

My guiding principles when choosing distro are that I run arch on my desktop because it’s what I’m used to (and AUR is nice to have), and Debian on servers because some people said it’s good and I the non-rolling release gives me peace of mind that I don’t have to update very often. But I could switch both of these out and I really don’t think it would make a difference at all.

  • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de
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    10 minutes ago

    I wanted a mainstream option but not Ubuntu, and one that was preferably offered with KDE Plasma pre-packaged.

    So I ended up deciding between Debian and Fedora, and what tipped me to Fedora was thinking: Well SELinux sounds neat, quite close to what I learned about Mandatory Access Control in the lectures, and besides, maybe it will be useful in my work knowing one that is close to RHEL.

    Now I work in a network team that has been using Debian for 30 years, lol. Kind of ironic, but I don’t regret it, now I just know both.

    And fighting SELinux was kind of fun too. I modified my local policies so that systemd can run screen because I wanted to create a Minecraft service to which I could connect as admin, even if it was started by systemd.

  • Shanmugha@lemmy.world
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    23 minutes ago

    Arch, moved here from Ubuntu when I realized I have a good idea of what I want installed and have no need for a bunch of things to get bundled into the OS

  • Peter G@discuss.online
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    24 minutes ago

    Manjaro, because Arch-based, rolling release, but with a dev test cycle to try to eliminate breaking patches.

  • WQMan@lemm.ee
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    44 minutes ago

    EndeavorOS;

    Gives the benefit of having latest up-to-date packages for gaming, while negating the downsides of having to configure the OS or graphics driver upon installation.

    Honestly, if think EndeavorOS comes with full UI support to download stuff from AUR and Flathub, I think it would become a pretty solid OS for any casual user looking to get into Linux. (Well, unless they are religiously against Arch. Then again your casual user probably don’t even know what ‘Arch’ is or care enough to be religious about it.)


    Also yea, usually you run Ubuntu LTS or Debian Stable on servers unless your company paid for some licensing.

  • qaz@lemmy.world
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    43 minutes ago

    I use OpenSUSE Tumbleweed because it focuses more on KDE than GNOME, is quite stable, and has snapshots to roll back to in case something does go wrong. I don’t want to mess with my OS, I just want it to work reliably. I do use Debian on some devices (like my server) but the software (especially in terms of GUI apps) is very outdated and it doesn’t come with the other features of OpenSUSE out of the box.

  • Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works
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    2 hours ago

    I currently use Bazzite on my old laptop, just wanted to try out immutable distros and I like to stream games from my rig to it sometimes so completely functional steam was a nice addition. Plus learning about flatpaks and app images over installed packages has been interesting.

    Then on my servers Debian/Proxmox and usually Ubuntu server in LXCs for more updated APTs then Debian, though I mostly run docker for my web apps rather then native APTs.

    I work for a company that has a java program that functions on Linux but is nowhere near the level of support provided for mac/Windows, so I’m the Linux guy for our dept and when a customer is running into issues on a distro I’ll spin up a vm on my homelab and see if I can rum through an install and get it functional.

    So far the only one I literally couldn’t get installed was Slackware lol I even figured out how to get it functional in ChromeOSes Linux subsystem.

  • jcr@jlai.lu
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    2 hours ago

    Using void linux because it has no systemd init system (it uses its own “runit” init system) ; and it is a natutal development after using Debian for a long time and wanting to understand more about gnu/linux system.

    Also, it is very reliable with a lot of packages. It is standard enough so using info from arch, debian or other distro works.

    But the origin was I could not understand how systemd was managing the system and it felt really contrived to go around it, so I began using void and that’s the story.

  • aspoleczny@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. Recently I bought cheap Surface-like x86 tablet on a rather recent hardware, and running Debian and its cousins required more tinkering than I was willing to do, so I decided to go with a more modern rolling release. Tried Arch for a few months, bricked it from mixing stable and testing branches, tried Fedora, and finally settled in Tumbleweed. I like it for being on the bleeding edge and exceptionally stable at the same time, perhaps thanks to robust OpenSUSE Build Service automated testing. And it is from a European company, that can’t hurt.

  • Drew@sopuli.xyz
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    2 hours ago

    It’s Debian. It’s well-supported by software and super stable and open.

  • Drunk & Root@sh.itjust.works
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    3 hours ago

    i use gentoo because i love the package manager and how in control i am of my desktop and for servers even though not linux ive been using open bsd because of secure it is and lightweight helps squeeze out little bit more performance from mt shit vps lol

  • meh@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    2 hours ago

    debain, with xfce if i need a desktop. mostly because i started on xubuntu. started learning sysadmin stuff when all i could afford was a potato with salvaged computer components shoved in it. xfce considered that excessively over powered. ended up loving the way i set up my xfce env, and probably wont change it much over the next 20yrs because theres no need. so when cononical got extra gross it was easy to just move to debian and carry on with my life.

  • Dogiedog64@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    I recently moved to Fedora KDE Plasma after years on W10, simply because I don’t want to use W11 and its AI bullshit. So far, it’s been a great time, and I haven’t noticed any major performance issues, so I’m happy with it. Having to update everything every few days is pretty novel though, and ‘sudo dnf update -y’ makes me feel like Hackerman, king of all Hackers. I think I like the customization options most though. I get way more control over what happens on my PC than W10 ever gave me, and it’s all wrapped in a very user-friendly GUI. Overall 8.5-9/10.

    • Hadriscus@lemm.ee
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      1 hour ago

      yay I want to install Fedora Plasma when I get a new drive, see if I can gradually switch (for real this time)… Plasma has a new pen tablet utility for Wayland, and since I use my tablet exclusively… when my Windows 10 is EOL I will switch for sure. Good to know it runs well for you

      • Dogiedog64@lemmy.world
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        29 minutes ago

        Yeah, I also use a pen tablet for some stuff, and it handles it decently well. One issue I’ve run into with it is that if I turn my monitor off while the tablet is plugged in, there’s like a 50/50 chance the monitor won’t load video unless I turn the tablet on too. It’s funky. Otherwise, getting my RTX4070 up and running wasn’t too hard. It’s a good distro for idiots (me).

  • JAdsel@lemmy.wtf
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    5 hours ago

    Primarily Garuda these days. It’s basically Arch with some user-friendly additions. The major reason I tried it on a then-new gaming laptop was the actually really good IME hardware detection and minimal fuss NVIDIA setup using their latest drivers.

    I was having enough headaches trying to get graphics actually working properly on the Debian-based distro I had been using, that I said fuck it and tried something that would hopefully get things working for me so that I could at least see that configuration to figure out where I’d been going wrong. Then I liked it enough that I have mostly just stayed there on this machine. (Did finally get things fixed on the other side, though.) But, I was already fine with Arch, which probably helps.