I’d like to settle on a distro, but none of them seem to click for me. I want stability more than anything, but I also value having the latest updates (I know, kind of incompatible).

I have tested Pop!_Os, Arch Linux, Fedora, Mint and Ubuntu. Arch and Pop being the two that I enjoyed the most and seemed the most stable all along… I am somewhat interested in testing NixOS although the learning curve seems a bit steep and it’s holding me back a bit.

What are you using as your daily drive? Would you recommend it to another user? Why? Why not?

  • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
    4·
    1 year ago

    Debian stable, the os for 50 year old nudists.

    It’s the stable branch of one of the oldest distributions around.

  • katy ✨@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    2·
    1 year ago

    Don’t yell but Fedora/Ubuntu was my first exposure to Linux so I’m prejudiced toward them. I didn’t have a lot of exposure to 'nix in the 90s since the family only had Windows.

    • notfromhere@lemmy.one
      0·
      1 year ago

      What put you off Arch? I just started using it on an old (2015 era) notebook and it seems pretty decent so far

      • marmalade@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        1 year ago

        Nothing really. Arch is still great, I just kept having stuff happen where I’d suddenly find out there was a new bug in something at inopportune times. Just the nature of being bleeding edge. Nothing broke severely, but like if you want to join a Zoom call or play a game with friends or something, having something break randomly that you have to fix, even if it just takes a quick search or 5 minutes of troubleshooting can get tiresome.

        Also, all of the customization stuff that Arch allows is not as appealing to me anymore since my skill level with Linux has reached a point where I can get super granular with pretty much any distro. Add to that flatpak reducing my need to depend on the AUR, and there you have it.

  • mrmanager@lemmy.today
    31·
    1 year ago

    Arch because I like simple.

    Other distros are an exercise in patience I think. Each Ubuntu version has different names and versions of stuff like docker, mysql and everything else. It’s really annoying to work with. I assume all six month distros are like that. And you have to add extra repos, keys and whatnot for it to even find things.

    With arch, since it’s rolling, I just install the latest version and I already know the command. It’s always the same. Always.

    There are many reasons I like arch but the simplicity of the installations is one of my favorite reasons to use it, and the fact that it’s always the latest version.

  • TiffyBelle@feddit.uk
    21·
    1 year ago

    Debian. I always come back to Debian.

    It’s just a rock solid, multipurpose distro that has everything. If you have an issue with some older software versions, you can just track testing or sid and treat it as rolling release or use flatpaks for GUI apps.

    To me, Debian is almost perfect.

    • mrmanager@lemmy.today
      0·
      1 year ago

      I wouldn’t call it rock solid… It was running old versions of kde with lots of bugs. Bugs that had been fixed months ago.

      So I don’t know. It’s good we have choice but I don’t personally see Debian as more stable than arch. I see it as having older bugs than arch.

      • aport@programming.dev
        2·
        1 year ago

        KDE could fix 80% of it’s bugs overnight and it will still be the most bug-ridden DE by a longshot

  • Hibby@lemmy.ml
    1·
    1 year ago

    For desktop Linux, I use Arch. It’s a community driven base distribution, so the needs of the community are what drives development and there are no financial decisions of a company that get priority, which is refreshing. It also has access to the latest and greatest that Linux has to offer.

    They have a philosophy of expecting basic effort from users and to have a tinkering mindset. Historically, Arch devs and users have a reputation of being grumpy greybeards, but many of the rough edges have been rounded off in the last few years. If you are willing to do a bit of reading or watching some YouTube videos, it’s not really that hard.

    You can really build a lean and powerful machine that has just the software you want on the system with Arch. All it takes is a little effort and willingness to ask for help from the community after you have tried and failed to solve problems yourself. It’s really not the badge of elitism to use Arch in 2023. It’s never been easier to use and doesn’t blow up on you nearly as often as the reputation implies. Just use good hygiene and make snapshots so if you blow it up, it’s only a 5 minute recovery.

  • unknowing8343@discuss.tchncs.de
    1·
    1 year ago

    You tried most of them. You found Arch enjoyable, so I’d stick to that for the Wiki, the community, and flexibility.

    NixOS looks interesting too, but nothing beats Arch in terms of having so much software at one-click distance with the almighty AUR.

  • denny@feddit.de
    1·
    1 year ago

    I tried quite a few of distros and I keep on going back to Fedora. A lot of things come out of the box such as Flatpak, it won’t pester you about the password when you just want to install a app and i barely find myself solving issues with command line.

    My other two favorites are Mint and Pop, i can recommend these to beginners and I really just like a good out of the box experience, avoiding command line where possible. Are there others that tick these boxes?

  • Lemmchen@feddit.deEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    For the past six years it has been Kubuntu, but I think it’s time to finally abort Canonical and their idiosyncrasies and choose Debian as a KDE base, especially now that Debian 12 includes non-free firmware by default.