yes i did a os one but i am wondering what distros do you guys use and why,for me cachyos its fast,flexible,has aur(I loved how easy installing apps was) without tinkering.

  • EndeavorOS. Because I wanted to have a rolling release distribution that is always up to date, and one that is good supported by maintainers and community. Good documentation is very important to me. And I trust the team behind EndeavorOS and Archlinux.

    Also the manual approach of many things and the package manager based on Archlinux is very nice. I also like the building of custom packages that is then installed with the package manager (basically my own AUR package). The focus on terminal stuff without too much bloat by default is also a huge plus.

      • Probably. I’m definitely not a fan of Garuda Linux (never used it to be honest). The styling and the bloat are not my taste. But the most important thing to me is, if I can trust those developers and maintainers? And I don’t trust most non common distros. Looking at their webpage, they also have a KDE lite version with less bloat and bare minimum packages to get started. This is actually awesome!

      • I didn’t say “personal package manager”. Do you refer to the part “basically my own AUR package”? pacman, the package manager of Archlinux that is also used in EndeavourOS, allows for installing custom packages. There is another tool part of Archlinux that let you build custom packages. These custom packages can be installed on your system, which is then seen like a normal package and handled this way with all the defined dependencies and information about the package. You can install the package from a local location, it does not need to be online repository.

        Then you can upload it to the AUR, which is exactly that: Arch User Repository. But you don’t have to upload it. Either way such a custom build package is what I referred to my own AUR package. For more information see: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_User_Repository

  • from the comments, there’s a split between

    • linux as a tool: debian, mint, fedora, opensuse, etc.
    • linux as a toy: arch, gentoo, nixos, etc.

    i wish this split was made more explicit, because more often than not someone comes looking for recommendations for linux as a tool, but someone else responds expecting they want linux as a toy. then the person will try out linux and will leave because it’s not what they want, not knowing that there is a kind of linux that is what they want

    • ‘Toy’ feels strange to me here. It’s more of a just-works vs power-tool distinction. Sometimes people like tools that require you to RTFM because the deeper understanding has concrete benefits; it’s not just fun. User-friendliness is not all upside, it is still a tradeoff.

      You’re absolutely right about hurting new users by not making the destinction, whatever label is used.

    • Yes! Great way of putting it. It’s hard to explain how just using an OS can be a fun hobby in itself.

      OpenSUSE Tumbleweed does it all for me. I work and play games on it and stuff, but my laptop is less mission critical, so I run EndeavourOS on it and experiment with fun layouts and everything is all “frutiger-aero-esque”. It feels like how I nostalgicallyremember those WinXP-7 days!

      Snapper rollbacks with BTRFS are incredible for letting you play around with an OS you actually use, and still giving you a cushion to fall back on. :D

      My little media streamer / guest PC has Mint. Nice, maybe a little boring, predictable, reliable. Ahhh simplicity. :)

  •  Libb   ( @Libb@jlai.lu ) 
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    • Debian + Xfce on the desktop, because it (mostly, see below) just works, it’s snappy, reliable, and I don’t need my apps being constantly updated (I have very simple needs and use cases)
    • Mint + Cinnamon on the laptop, because it’s still debian-based and because unlike Debian, Mint was able to connect my AirPods out of the box and I use them a lot when on the laptop… I also quickly learned to appreciate Cinnamon, I must say.

    edit: typos

  • NixOS because it’s easy to understand—I can pop open any .nix file in my config and see exactly what is being set up, so I don’t have to mentally keep track of innumerable imperative changes I would otherwise make to the system, and thus lose track of the entropy over time.

  •  chrand   ( @chrand@lemmy.ml ) 
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    Fedora with GNOME.

    I’ve been using it for over than 10 years in my main computer.

    It simply works, it’s nice, fresh packages, stable, GNOME is productivity champion (at least I know all the shortcuts, and how to tweak it to my daily use). I also know how to build and manipulate RPM packages, so it’s pretty convenient.

  • Fedora.

    I’ve tried them all but found it’s the most reliable. It’s upgrades are even more reliable than Macos and Windows.

    Packages are very up to date but also well tested. Sometimes even newer than Arch for short periods.

    The community is awesome.

    I love Gnome, I’ve found it’s more consistent than even MacOs in its design. And it has perfect keyboard shortcuts.

  • Ubuntu for my servers, and Linux Mint for my Workstation.

    I grew up using Debian-based distros, so it’s what I’m comfortable with. I like how Mint seems to “just work” most of the time, especially with samba shares and usb peripherals.

    Ubuntu server is primarily because it’s incredibly easy to get support when you need it.

  •  woodgen   ( @woodgen@lemm.ee ) 
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    Arch.

    Because of pacman. Building and writing packages is simple and dependencies are slim. Also packages are recent. And most likely “there is an AUR package for that”. Also stack transitions arrive early, like pipewire.

    Also let’s not forget Arch Wiki, i bet you have read it as a non Arch user.

    I administer Arch on 8 machines including gaming rigs, home server, web server, kids laptop, wifes gaming desktop, audio workstation and machine learning rig and a bunch of dev laptops. I also use ArchARM on RPi for some home automation.

    Never considered switching since I switched from Ubuntu over 15 years ago.

    I do have experience with several other rpm and apt based distros.

  •  banazir   ( @banazir@lemmy.ml ) 
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    After quite a bit of agonizing, I eventually landed on openSUSE Tumbleweed. I chose a rolling release distro because on my desktop I want to be up-to-date. Having used Gentoo a long time ago, I didn’t want a distro that takes effort to install and set up. openSUSE is somewhat popular with an active community and decent documentation in case I run in to issues. I also considered the fact it’s based in Germany, because EU has at least some decent privacy laws. I was put off by the fact its backed by SUSE, but that’s a two-edged sword.

    Right now I’m content with Tumbleweed, but I’m keeping an eye on OpenMandriva Lx if I feel like switching.

  • PopOS. It was the easiest to get my Nvidia GPU set up and plays all the games that I wanna play without too much pain. I’ve been meaning to try something like Arch with KDE, something like what my SteamDeck is using… but I don’t wanna fuck around setting up Arch.

  • For devices I need to be productive on, I have LMDE 6. It is rock solid being based on stable Debian, but with the niceties you expect from Mint.

    For my gaming PC, I’ve got Bazzite on it and so far so good. Just used it for entertainment and gaming but if I were doing coding or app development I’d either have to adjust how I do that to suit an atomic distro, or I’d just use LMDE as I feel I have easier control of what I’m doing on there

    • Technically NixOS is all compiled from source too (if you disable the binary caches). It has since taken away Gentoo’s raison d’être a bit in my head. Debian still holds a special place in my heart too, for its simplicity and stability!

      • It has since taken away Gentoo’s raison d’être a bit in my head.

        I wouldn’t say so. We currently don’t hold a candle to USE-flags. Many packages are already configurable but there’s no standard on anything w.r.t. that.

        There’s no technical reason we couldn’t have such a standard but it hasn’t happened yet.