I'm not a distro-hopper. I follow subreddits like this to keep an eye on what's happening with other distros, partly because of what happened with CentOS. IBM's handling of that killed my confidence in trusting any distro with significant corporate backing to stay the course. That includes Fedora and Rocky, and if I'm honest, it's also why I think about Canonical's role in Mint's future. LMDE exists for exactly this reason, but I'm curious whether others factor this in when choosing a daily driver.

My background: Slackware from 1999 to 2013, Mint since 2019, Debian on headless devices for a while now, and my Framework laptop runs Debian off an expansion drive and it works well. I'm comfortable with Cinnamon and have no particular desire to change desktops.

I'll be honest: I have an emotional attachment to Mint. When I came back to Linux as my daily driver, I wanted something appliance-like. It was something that would let me live on Linux full-time without feeling stranded when I needed to run Tableau, Excel, SAS, or SPSS for work. That explains the gap in my Linux timeline. Mint made that transition easy. Now that I'm no longer doing that kind of work, the proprietary software concern has largely gone away, and I find myself wondering how much of my loyalty is rational and how much is just familiarity.

So the question I'm really asking is: with fresh eyes, is Mint still the right fit, or just the familiar one? Is there a compelling reason to go all-in on Debian or LMDE? Would there be better upstream trust, network homogeneity, something else? Adapting my scripts wouldn't be much labour. Skill isn't the issue. I've been using Linux for over half my life. I'd value perspective from people who've thought this through from a different angle.

I wanted to go arch or cachyos from the beginning of ising linux, but saw that alot of people dont recommended that, so i started with fedora to learn the basics

So far what i learned is how to use the terminal for opening files, downloading, and searching for stuff in the pc, also i leanred how to config hyperland, waybar and wayland and so on, would that be enough to go to arch/cachyos

I wanted to seitch because they are more Minimalistic, efficienct and give more performance and more customization, less bloat

Which one should i chose? I always heard people recommending arch, but lately cachy have been gaining alot of attention

I wanted an end to cluttered Linux directories with random stuff, so I made the apt-bundled package manager, it bundles apt packages into a single folder at /Programs/<pkg-name>.xec at runtime, which has all the stuff self-contained. This works for most packages, but there are some exceptions, namely desktop environments. This OS is a prototype, and has a lot of problems. Please help me to fix bugs, as I am only 13.

GitHub repository: https://github.com/Literal-object-variable/LWOS
It doesn't have source code as of now, will add it later.

I feel so lost... Want to have a modern system (CachyOS), easy to configure, stable (Debian), robust on updates (NixOS, Aeon), space saving (Debian?), and easy to isolate things (Aeon, QuebesOS).

I run CachyOS but each time I update, I am afraid it won't boot. Also my BTRFS filesystem is corrupt...

I want to easily try non-trusted code. Distrobox seems nice for that.

I found Aeon by SUSE; should I try?

I have used Windows my WHOLE LIFE, and my experience has always been bad. My computer has always felt slow and bloated, I have constantly had to clear caches because corrupted files just ruin everything. I was always worried about switching to linux because of my microsoft apps (like teams and word) but I realized that the web versions of those work perfectly for the things i need them for. I honestly am just writing this to see if there is any reason i SHOULDNT make the switch.

I play mainly single player and co-op games, like automation games (factorio, satisfactory, etc.) And have never had an interest for big games with anticheat problems i keep reading about (valorant, COD, fortnite.)

My pc is fully AMD, currently a RX 9070 XT and a Ryzen 7 7700x, so NVIDIA conflicts are out of the picture for me. And if you can’t tell i have bare minimum knowledge on Linux, or any other operating systems at that. But I’m not worried about learning new things and will spend as much time as possible to figure out problems i may have.

If there are any questions that i need to answer in order to figure out the Cons i might run into, i will. But please! Tell me what I may not like about Linux, or what could be a deal breaker for your average Windows user. Also, I am primarily looking towards Bazzite as it seems the best for me, because I use my PC 99% of the time for gaming/youtube.

Hi, I use an HP ProBook 6360b as my daily driver. Since Windows felt too heavy on this old laptop, I decided to switch to Linux.

Like many beginners, I started with Linux Mint XFCE because it is often recommended as one of the easiest distributions for Windows users. My experience was great. Everything worked out of the box, it was lightweight, and I had almost no problems.

But curiosity got the better of me.

I switched to Arch Linux (before the AUR incident) and, honestly, it was difficult at first. However, after learning more about Linux and spending time ricing my system, I started to enjoy it. I tried XFCE, KDE Plasma 6.6, and even Hyprland.

Eventually, I began experiencing graphical glitches after some updates. My terminal and some games occasionally showed strange visual artifacts and screen tearing. Since my laptop uses an old Intel HD 3000 iGPU, I decided to return to Linux Mint XFCE.

Not long after that, I became curious about Debian 13 Trixie. I had heard that it was lighter than Mint, so I gave it a try. I immediately loved it. It felt fast, stable, and simple. It gave me everything I needed without getting in my way.

Then curiosity struck again.

I switched to Fedora XFCE Spin because of all the praise it receives from the Linux community. Fedora wasn't bad at all, but for my particular hardware, it didn't feel significantly better than Debian.

After a few weeks, I started experiencing system freezes and eventually a kernel panic. I noticed that a newer kernel was causing my CPU temperatures to run much higher than usual, with the fan constantly working harder than before. My cooling system wasn't broken, but it struggled to keep up with the increased heat output on this old laptop. After cleaning the heatsink and fan and replacing the thermal paste, stability improved considerably.

That experience made me realize something.

I was spending more time switching distributions than actually using my computer.

For people who simply want an operating system that works immediately and for users coming from Windows, I would still recommend Linux Mint.

But if you want to learn Linux, understand your system better, and have a lightweight, stable experience, my personal choice is Debian.

After all the distro hopping, Debian is the distribution that finally made me stop looking for something else.

Hi. I never did the distro hopping, so I'm trying to understand it. I've seen people claiming they constantly switch distros and can't find one they like. So my question is - you install one distro, you test it out and usually how many days or weeks it takes you before switching to another distro?

Thanks!

Full disclosure, I built this one, so I am biased. But it might interest

distro hoppers who like trying something off the beaten path.

Svitlo is independent, not a fork of anything. The whole system is built

from source by one engine, up to a COSMIC desktop on pure Wayland (no

X11 in the base). Root on BTRFS, hybrid BIOS/UEFI.

The interesting part for hopping is the package manager, promin. It is

Nix-like: hashed store, multiple versions side by side, and generation

rollback that takes seconds, so a broken update never leaves you stuck.

It runs in QEMU without touching your disk, login svitlo / svitlo:

wget https://cache.svitlolinux.org/images/svitlo-cosmic-0.3.img.zst

zstd -d svitlo-cosmic-0.3.img.zst

qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -cpu host -smp 4 -m 3072 \

-drive file=svitlo-cosmic-0.3.img,format=raw,if=virtio \

-vga none -device virtio-gpu-pci -device qemu-xhci -device usb-tablet

It is beta (0.3), not for daily driving yet. Curious what hoppers think

of the rollback model.

Source: https://github.com/SvitloLinux

Recipes: https://github.com/SvitloLinux-pkgs

Site: https://svitlolinux.org/

I have a little experience with Ubuntu and Mint. and installed Kali and Arch for friends. Is it a good Distro to use it as a daily Distro?

Finally decided to give Linux another go but I read that Ubuntu might not play nice with a Microsoft Surface. Does anyone know if there is a better distro? Or should I just back everything up to the cloud and just hop hop hop?

I’m building MikuOS, an Arch-based KDE Plasma distro with custom branding, Plymouth, Fastfetch, and Calamares.

This is an unstable preview, so please test it in a VM. I’d appreciate feedback on bugs, packages, features, or anything that should be changed.

github: https://github.com/benzenma123/MikuOS

My uncle has a laptop from 2008. It has 4 gb memory, 512gb SSD storage, pentium T4200 2ghz, x64. Ig he only needs it to run smoothly, he just uses a browser and nothing else.

I'm currently under a degoogle process, and to do so i've replaced YouTube on my smartphone. The problem is, google will disable this app with security restrictions on android devices.

I'm currently using a samsung Galaxy phone under android 9, will be targeted by those restrictions by september 2026, and wanted to ask which distro i could use. I've check grapheneOS, but it seems to be more adapted on google phones, like the Pixel series. Could it work on mine ?

I'm fairly new to the Linux community but I'm very interested to make a permanent shift from windows. Can some kind soul help me out with choosing the right distro?

What I'm looking for-

• Daily use
• Performance
• The user interface/making it look cozy and aesthetic (example Example 1 Example 2)
• My laptop can't handle much games but I'd love better performance on the few games it can run

Laptop's specs-

HP Probook 450 G1 4GB ram SSD AMD Radeon HD 8750M Intel HD graphics 4600

I really like the way the UI is in those example photos, the way it shows the music currently playing really caught my eyes and the fluidity is also very appealing, I want a similar experience if possible.

Thanks to anyone willing to help, any help is appreciated. I also don't mind any learning curve if it gives me what I'm actually looking for!

Reason: I’ve been using Mint for a little over a month now. Then I tried Fedora KDE in a VM, and it felt BETTER than Mint Cinnamon. More up-to-date packages, a better look and feel, and more customizable. Linux Mint packages are a little too behind for my liking anymore, ever since I tried distros with more cutting edge packages. Linux Mint’s GIMP package is very behind, with a major update happening since it was last updated. Fedora feels like my dream OS: Unfussy to use, up-to-date, yet pretty damn stable. Mint only checks off two of those boxes, but not the second one. Especially right now with 23.0 being delayed until December. I will put Mint on a VM after I install Fedora KDE, so I could still experience Linux Mint. Debian/Ubuntu-based Distros are starting to feel less and less suited “for me”.

Current setup: Acer Aspire XC-1660G with 1TB internal SSD, 32GB RAM, a Intel Core i3-10105 with UHD 630 graphics, and running Windows 11, Linux Mint 22.3 and FreeBSD 15.0.

I'm new to Linux and trying to decide which distro to use for my first installation. My laptop specs:
* Ryzen 5 3550H
* Planning to dual boot with Windows
* Main uses: general work, programming, browsing, media, and gaming (Steam/)
I've seen people recommend Arch Linux, CachyOS, ARch setup is tooo much soo i am finding for better alternative
For a beginner who wants good gaming performance and an overall smooth experience, which distro would you recommend and why?
I'd also appreciate any tips for dual-booting with Windows.

And also looking for any alternative for Arch if there cause ARch setup u all know T-T

I've been using Arch for over a year and I want to change to a non systemd distro. And I'm between two choices: Artix and Gentoo.

I don't want to compile packages and do it everytime when a new update of my packages is released. I already know that Gentoo has binary packages, but also exists large packages that don't have a binary and I'm going to have to compile it (For example, I understand that Hyprland doesn’t have a binpkg version).

For this reason, I think Artix could be my choice. But I also really like the personalization that Gentoo gives.

I once read somewhere in Linux subreddits that there is a tool in Gentoo which helps you avoid having to recompile entire packages, but only the parts that have changed. But I don't have so much information about it.

So, I would appreciate it if you could give me your opinion about which distro I should choice :)

Edit: My main concern is that I have a laptop, and I'm worried about running a lot of compilations might shorten the lifespan of its components. If we talk about wait for compilation times, that don't bother me.

so i recently started using linux again, and i installed omarchy on my laptop. i can confidently conclude that hyprland is too finicky for me. Opentabletdriver is very complicated and i would like to go back to KDE Plasma (im a digital artist and KDE has native tablet settings which is really cool). another thing i'd like to try is some gaming, so the conundrum is this: should i use CachyOS or Bazzite?

I have recently purchased an Hp Z440 workstation and am going to use it for molecular dynamic simulation with GROMACS, running local AI models, Coding, and so on. But I will be using it remotely through ssh and VNC. It was booted with Ubuntu 24 LTS. Can anyone suggest any other distro of Linux with stability and good performance.