this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2023
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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What Linux distribution or distributions do you personally use?

I myself am a daily Void user. I used to use Devuan, but wanted to try rolling release and ended up loving Void!

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Debian. Several reasons:

  • It's trustworthy.
  • It's not going anywhere. Debian existed when I was a kid and it'll probably still exist when I draw my last breath.
  • I know how to use it, since, once again, I've been using it since I was a kid.
  • It has all the desktop environments.
  • It fully supports systemd. I do not miss the unreliability, slowness, and complexity of what came before that. (Normally I wouldn't mention this, but your former distro of choice exists solely for the purpose of not having systemd, so it's relevant this time.)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

The thought that Debian will continue into the future feels comforting. How cool it would be if in 5000AD kids on Mars or Europa are running Debian 100?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was a distro hopper once, then I saw the light of NixOS...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Tell me about it...

The only reason I might, in the distant future, ever consider changing again is this project, which hopefully would be something between NixOS and Qubes. But that is far in the future and not even that certain.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

NixOS. Declarative config with opt-in state is awesome.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Same here. It's made my life a whole lot easier since on previous distros, I had to depend on documenting manual hacks I had done.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Fellow NixOS traveller. I used Nix for work and never saw the appeal of a whole OA built around it but when I saw a tutorial with the declarative config I was instantly sold.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Ubuntu for life. Unpopular opinion i know, please don't stone.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I use Debian with a patched version of motif window manager. The 90s never ended:

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Linux Mint. Nothing beats your computer just working when you have shit to get done.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Same. Mint, because n00b.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Linux Mint with Mate DE.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Arch on everything, including servers. It's just so easy to install everything via the AUR & configure everything easily. Plus the wiki is amazing. Although it is a pain to setup sometimes

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

NixOS everywhere (except for one server which I have yet to migrate from Rocky to NixOS)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Debian 12 for now is a great investment for the next 5 years, tho.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Arch baybeeee 💯💯💯

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Does SteamOS count? My steam deck is my current “Linux” machine.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Ubuntu or Kubuntu. Long are gone the days where I used to tinker with different Linux flavors.

Fortunately, I can afford powerful enough systems so I do not have to be worried about optimizing every single aspect of the OS.

I want things just to work out of the box. I am aware that this applies to more distros than Ubuntu, but I just do not have the time and energy anymore.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Just Ubuntu. I have tried plenty of others but Ubuntu just seems to tick most boxes for me.

EDIT: I am looking forward to the new Pop! when it comes out, I will surely give it a try, No idea if I will switch then though.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I use gentoo everywhere, from my nas to my webserver and my pc and laptop.

With binhost and distcc it’s really not bad and the customizability is just unmatched.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I use opensuse with kde and I love it. Have been using it for 2 years now.

For server use at home I use Ubuntu Server and Alma Linux (mostly)

At work it is all RedHat.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

OpenSUSE, Tumbleweed on workstations (KDE) and Leap on my server.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I used to use Void as my main distro, but then the developer drama made me shy away from it (keep in mind, this was like forever ago and I haven’t looked at Void at all since). After that I floated around trying everything, from Gentoo to the BSDs (I know, not Linux). Nowadays I use OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. I got tired of doing everything manually and OpenSUSE just makes everything so much easier to use, IMO.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

I got tired of doing everything manually

Perhaps check out NixOS

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Manjaro. I am a guy of habits, so I never really distro-hopped, I once tried to install Arch and failed to configure everything so I tried endeavour and failed too (which would mean I am not a tech guy either ;). Ultimately, I'd say that the distribution does not matters much once you are used to it, you can always get what you want from any of them. The only thing I really like in comparison with others is pacman :)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I have a few dozen computers and most run Pop!_OS.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Manjaro + SteamOS. Wanted to refresh myself on gaming with Linux/Proton prior to the Deck launch and Manjaro seemed the most similar. Helped that my Win11 install decided to crash explorer.exe every 5 seconds around the same time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I use Manjaro, but I run it like vanilla Arch (for example pacman/yay and not pamac). I find this to be a sweet spot for me - rolling releases are so incredibly nice, and Manjaro being slightly slower than Arch is good from a stability standpoint in my experience.

I use ZFS all over the place, including the root storage pool on my home server, which has overall been a great experience with systemd-boot.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Fedora, because it just works and it ships recent software versions.

I also like Fedora Silverblue, and projects like ublue are very interesting in my opinion.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Could you explain what you find interesting about Silverblue ?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I use Arch Linux with KDE Plasma myself

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Moved from Arch to Nix and loving it!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

What do you most like? Thoughts on why others should give it a shot?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

My laptop is on Manjaro and has been running flawlessly for years ...such a great experience with gnome 40+

My desktop is also on Manjaro, and things could not be more different. No Wayland, no animations in the gnome desktop, visual glitches since the last update ...guess it doesn't play well with Nvidia drivers. Anyone managing something decent with gnome+Nvidia?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Currently... Slackware on main laptop. Slint (Slackware-based) on mini-pc. MX Linux (fvwm respin), Void, and OpenBSD on old laptop. NsCDE is desktop on all except MX.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I love to see Slackware representation in these threads, easily my favorite distribution of all time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I've gotten used to Slackware in 25 years.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

Fedora Workstation, I'll probably switch to Fedora Silverblue one day whenever the transition is easier for my setup without having to layer lots of extra packages or mess with the immutable system.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

Arch

I find that bugs in linux programs (and they will happen regardless of distro) are more easily tweaked in systems that do minimal modifications to upstream programs and keep them updated regularly with what the developers release

Also AUR makes it easy to install pretty much anything without having to add ppas, new repo links, etc

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago

Ubuntu LTS, since 08.04.