I’m between distros and looking for a new daily driver for my laptop. What are people daily driving these days? Are there any new cool things to try?
I have been using linux mint recently. I have used nixos and arch in the past. Personally, linux mint uses flatpacks too much for my liking. Although, I might have a warped perspective after using arch. (the aur is crazy big)
Debian testing. Seriously. That is reasonably easy to install and configure unlike Arch or Gentoo, but doesn’t come with “user friendly” corporate crap like Ubuntu and its derivatives.
I used Debian testing on my production servers for a long time. They say not to use it in production, but even as a “testing” release it’s still more stable than some other distros.
I use Debian stable on all my servers now, though (except for my home server which runs Unraid). I don’t have time to keep a rolling build up-to-date like I used to.
I’ve been running Fedora Silverblue on nearly all of my PCs for about a year now and overall it’s been great.
Automatic and unobtrusive updates for the core OS and user apps (everything happens in the background without interaction; flatpak updates are applied immediately, and OS updates are applied at next boot)
I can choose to apply many core updates immediately, but rarely do
Atomic OS updates means that everything must be installed successfully or none of the OS updates are applied, which prevents a partially updated system
Being an image-based distro, I can and do easily rebase to Fedora’s test/beta/remix releases, and just as easily rollback, or run both stable and beta releases side by side for testing purposes
Being image-based means there’s no chance of orphaned packages or library files being left behind after an update, resulting in a cleaner system over time
In the event that anything does go sideways after a system update (hasn’t happened yet), I can easily rollback to the previous version at boot
Some elements not unique to Silverblue but part of its common workflow:
Distrobox/toolbox allow you to run any other distro as a container, and then use that distro’s apps as if they were native to your host system; this includes systemd services, locally installed RPMs, debs, etc.; I use distrobox to keep most of my dev workflow within my preferred Archlinux environment
Flatpaks are the FOSS community’s answer to Ubuntu’s Snaps, providing universal 1-click installation of sandboxed user apps (mostly GUI based); Firefox, Steam, VLC, and thousands of other apps are available to users, all without the need for root access
My only complaints about Silverblue are more to do with how Flatpaks work right now, such as:
Drag & drop doesn’t work between apps, at least not for the apps I’ve attempted to use; for example, dragging a pic into a chat window for sharing; instead, I have to browse to and select the image from within the chat app
Firefox won’t open a link clicked within Thunderbird unless the browser is already open, otherwise it just opens a blank tab
Many flatpak apps are maintained by unofficial volunteers, and this isn’t always clear on Flathub; I view this as a security risk and would prefer to see a flag or warning of some kind when a flatpak is not maintained by the official upstream developer
That said, I’m confident that these issues will be addressed over time. The platform has already come a long way these past couple of years and now that the KDE and GNOME teams are collaborating for it, things will only get better.
Like I said though, overall Silverblue has been a really great user experience, and as a nearly 20-year Linux veteran it has really changed the way I view computing.
Do you have to watch a loading screen while system updates are applied like on regular Fedora or is it in the background?
Many flatpak apps are maintained by unofficial volunteers, and this isn’t always clear on Flathub; I view this as a security risk and would prefer to see a flag or warning of some kind when a flatpak is not maintained by the official upstream developer
On flathub.org there’s a blue checkmark for apps maintained by the devs
Do you have to watch a loading screen while system updates are applied like on regular Fedora or is it in the background?
The image is downloaded and staged in the background of the active session. Upon reboot, the session seamlessly defaults to the staged image. For flatpaks, the updates happen immediately and without the need for a reboot.
On flathub.org there’s a blue checkmark for apps maintained by the devs
Aha, that must be one of the newer features implemented from the beta portal they’d been working on. I’m glad to hear it, and overall I hope to see more official upstream devs come on board with the platform (Signal, I’m looking at you).
The image is downloaded and staged in the background of the active session. Upon reboot, the session seamlessly defaults to the staged image. For flatpaks, the updates happen immediately and without the need for a reboot.
That’s great to hear. Maybe I’ll give Silverblue a try
The flatpaks will continue to be updated by the backend system, but you’ll no longer have to deal with the sluggish frontend UI to keep things up to date.
For laptops, I’ve been using EndeavourOS lately. All of the Arch goodness, but with an easy installer that handles the DE too. It’s as close to “just works” as you can get while still having pacman + AUR at the end.
I still love raw Arch, but I leave that for server installs.
After having used Ubuntu LTS for 6 years, I find a little more peace with Debian. I do not like systems that break. Debian Stable is IMPOSSIBLY HARD to break, even more than Ubuntu LTS, which only broke once because of my stupidity of installing ProtonVPN client and using VPN killswitch through it. Switched to using OpenVPN/Wireguard config files.
Debian doesn’t break often because they don’t change things just for the sake of changing them. Nice and stable. Even if you do break something, a guide published 5 years ago describing how to solve the problem would probably still mostly work today.
Oh my, yes. The benefit is that one you figure it out it’s super easy to create widgets. I wrote from 0 or adapted my own widgets for apt, Spotify, notes, timer, weather alerts… Basic plugins (like system monitor, battery, volume) you can just find online but when you need something custom is real easy. For example I wanted something to alert me when my pihole is down. 30 minutes of scripting and it’s in my tray.
Give it a try. Lua is easy and the api has good documentation. There’s plenty of good widgets to use as examples. And if you have any questions just ask.
I’ve based my theme on sometimes I found but yes, I heavily adapted it. Theming is simple, awesome is flexible but not very pretty. It’s more about usbility. Easily define rules for specific windows, powerful keybindings and so one. For example my config defects if I’m using external monitor or not and changes the widgets accordingly. It’s just one if in the config. I don’t think it’s possible at all in gnome.
I had it on two systems. Some peripherals stopped working after an update on one system and the attempt to downgrade it to the LTS (Leap?) failed miserably --> Ubuntu. On another one the graphics card stopped working and somehow forced it to the LTS with a custom kernel. That worked until trying to upgrade it by two minor releases (X.2 to X.4? Can’t remember if it was 13.Y 14.Y or 15.Y). There were so many conflicts and messing around with the source lists (or whatever they’re called)…
It was the most difficult system to update that I’ve ever had. YaST is great though. Best GUI for system configuration I’ve had so far.
I would say the benefit of OpenSUSE is that everything is preconfigured to work right out of the box, including btrfs snapshotting with snapper. Once you boot it’s time to download apps, and go. Very windows like for those who just want the system to work. Updates are one click.
In my case not at all. But that is by choice. I always start from a server install. For me i like rolling as i do not get major version updates. And with tumbleweed it is very solid at the same time. Snapper and btrfs are also great aditions.
I meant alternatives to systemd-homed, systemd-machined and the likes. Since I’m on NixOS, I’m restricted to most of the systemd stuff. I’m not even sure if I need all of them.
Now I’m being dragged into the anti-systemd ideology. I have a bunch of CLI utility that I have never ever touched since the three years I’ve been on Linux. I just came across homectl, machinectl and timedatectl, and I’m convinced that the part about “bloat” does make a lot of sense now.
I don’t really care either way. I like things to be more minimal, but I’m not really anti-systemd or anything like that. I’ve just been using openrc for a few years now, and haven’t used systemd enough to learn about the homed stuff I guess
Threads like this are exactly what keeps a good few of us from ever getting started. Lol. Good fun to read through though. One day I’ll pick a distro and give it a whirl. Till then, thanks for the entertainment.
these days it’s pretty easy to just pick one and go, but you can still run into issues, and for people new to linux it can be frustruating for sure. When I started using linux, I didn’t even really know what a terminal was, so a lot of the stuff I would read on forums etc (it was a long time ago) I couldn’t even put into practice. I once got insulted for asking a dumb question with both RTFM and PEBCAC but didn’t even know I had been insulted. Just kept plugging away and eventually got it going. I think PCLinuxOS was the first distro I ran seriously as a “daily driver” and I think that stuck because the community on the forums was the friendliest
You sound like those people who bitch about Microsoft having a monopoly on home computer operating systems while gatekeeping the fuck out of Linux. Get fucked, man.
I would just move on. Some people have a bee in their bonnet and can't look past their own problems and see why other folks might find certain discussions useful.
Personally, when I was first looking at switching to Linux (and then through distro hopping) I found discussion like these great as I could see other people's reasons for choosing the distro they did.
Not sure why people are downvoting this person. They aren’t wrong that Linux enthusiast threads can make it scary for new users to try Linux out. Unfortunately, I did want to see what Linux enthusiasts are running and why they picked it, which is why I made this thread.
If you are a new user trying to get into Linux, I wouldn’t recommend some suggestions in this thread as advice for picking a distro. When I was getting into Linux, I attempted to go straight into DWM/arch because another Linux enthusiast thread said it was great. Needless to say, I had a terrible time.
It doesn’t actually matter distro what you pick, so long as you have fun with it and it is useable! :)
I hurt them in their safe space. I don’t know why. My comment was made lightly. I read all the threads. This one read just like the last “where do I start” thread, and that was all I was saying at the time. It got me in a fight with one guy. Whatever. I’m just trying not to have a rough time when I finally pull the trigger so I read. My mistake was chiming in. Lesson learned. I’ll come back when I blow up my machine i guess and let everyone tell me how stupid I was to try whatever it is I finally try. All I want is something that works and software that does what I want. I’m afraid I may be asking too much.
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