Ubuntu, after the third consecutive release that broke previously working hardware. That was a while ago and I haven’t tried it recently, but given snap I’m not really inclined to.
I've been using Debian since 1.3. Haven't really ever needed anything else.
I did "experiment" a bit when the decision to go with systemd was taken, but in the end, most distros went with it and it really isn't that big deal for me.
So it's just Debian. I need a computer that works.
To all gentoo detractors… 20 years ago compiling a browser would take 5 days (as in 24 x 5 hours…) So you are not allowed to complain TODAY about compile times ahahahaahaha ahahaha ahah haha aaaaaaaaah ಠ_ಠ
I remember jumping from Ubuntu (my first distro) to a Gentoo stage 2 install in 2005. I was using it on my desktop so I needed a GUI. I was using either a high end P4 or an X2 Athlon. I attempted to compile KDE and all the deps. It would compile X for about 10-20 hours… and then the compilation would break with a seemingly obscure error message.
I tried a few times and never did get a GUI built.
I’ve considered giving it a go again since I have a 24 core Threadripper which could easily compile everything pretty quickly, I just never got around to it.
Try accidentally emerge world on a full desktop environment with open office and said browser on a Pentium 2 after changing some base level compile flags… Oh, and I was on dial-up. Didn’t do that again.
I got Gentoo on a DVD with instructions in a magazine for a Stage 1 build. No internet connection at that stage so I had to work through problems myself. Took a few goes but I learnt a heck of a lot about how Linux boots.
Been a very long time so apologies if I got some details wrong.
Yeah I remember trying it out on a k6-2 400 MHz (maybe? I don’t remember if that was it’s rated speed of it it was with the bus at 112mhz) and it was days of downloading sources and even more for compiling. I think there was a bootable CD bundled with some zine that allowed you to have something running on your machine
One that might be controversial: OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. I still have a lot of respect for this distro and I really wanted to like it but it’s just not for me. It’s the fact that major updates could occur any day of the week, which could be time-consuming to install or they could change the features of the OS. It always presented a dilemma of whether to hold back updates which might include holding back critical updates.
So rolling distros aren’t for me, everyone expects to run in to some occasional issues with Arch, but TW puts a lot of emphasis on testing and reliability, so I thought it might be for me. But the reality is I much prefer the release cycle and philosophy of Fedora, I think that strikes the best balance.
Ubuntu - Loved it in 2006-2012ish but I jumped ship when Amazon appeared in search. Great place to start my Linux journey at the time.
Manjaro - Only distro to ever break entirely on me. I didn’t care enough to try and figure out why.
Tried endeavor and stock arch but they weren’t my cup of tea. No real issues with them though.
Fedora - I liked for a few years but abandoned after the RHEL drama this summer. Seems to be going the way of Ubuntu. Maybe that’s just my opinion.
I use and like Solus a lot but they didn’t update anything for 2 years until this summer. I use it on my gaming PC and an old laptop for web browsing but nothing important. It’s always been solid for me, I just worry about it going extinct. They do have an updated road map and seem re-energized though. I also think it’s a good beginner distro because you don’t have to dive into terminal much, and a good distro if you are a pro, but kind of bad if you are an intermediate user because there aren’t a ton of resources on it that bigger distros have.
I mostly use Debian these days. Stable on my server. Testing on everything else. I don’t see me abandoning it anytime soon.
Ubuntu, because snaps break shit and don’t work right a lot of the time, also they left people hanging with 32 bit support which isn’t great (for being a Legacy OS for weak computers it’s not a great look for them, or all the Linux distros that followed them).
There were a lot of problems with Fedora and CentOS, none of them as bad as Ubuntu though. Most were either instability or software availability due to lacking RPM versions of the software I needed.
Arch itself hasn’t given me many problems but it is ideologically problematic for a lot of reasons (mainly the elitism) and it is also a rolling release which isn’t great if you don’t like being a guinea pig and getting software before all the bugs have been ironed out.
Marinix. It’s aimed at mariners & sailors. Small and fast but not full featured and it uses a weird kernel implementation. It does however have customized Muplex which I ripped off for the next dristro which I love :
Navigatrix - OpenCPN, zyGrib. SSB / HAM control, tidal info, radar and AIS overlay. RTL-SDR AIS, PACTOR 2 soft modrm, and so much more. It runs my main navigation computer
Arch. Rolling release is too much maintenance and AUR can be a pain. I do like the minimalist approach though.
For those of a similar opinion and aren’t familiar with it, check out Void. Also a minimalist rolling release, but aims for more stable packages so less updating. Decent package selection in their repos as well.
Gnome is amazing, without it I probably wouldn’t bother with Linux. Honestly nothing comes close UX-wise for me. I don’t want yet another Windows clone.
Minimising is a misuse of the gnome workflow, ideally you’d move a window to another desktop. Better than hiding it in some dock IMO.
Maximising I literally never used the button for anyway. I double clicked the title bar, dragged the program to the top, or pressed Super+Up. Aiming for a relatively small button just feels worse than all of those. It’s literally a pointless button and I feel like the only reason anybody has it it just because they’re used to seeing it/having a Windows UX.
It’s fine that you want your UX to work like Microsoft’s, but that doesn’t mean others are bad.
E: people get really upset when you point out that their Windows clones are windows clones lol. It’s not an insult.
They must have swapped roles at some point, Elementary lets you minimize windows the last time I checked (use toolbar or gesture), and GNOME doesn’t 😂
I honestly don’t mind lack of visual customization as long as the design language makes sense, is clear, is consistent, and applies to all the system apps and default utilities. In the case of Elementary and GNOME this is OK IMO because they are ridiculously consistent, and share some similarities
It’s funny, I was really excited for Ubuntu when it first released, and actually quite enjoyed it. On the other hand, RPM distros seemed like an absolute mess, at that time. Now it’s the exact opposite. At least in regards to Fedora, it’s a very well thought out and maintained distro if you want things to just work, and Ubuntu makes me uncomfortable.
KDE. Not a distro, but I can’t get on with it. Too much screen real estate used by flashy things, and everything moves. I want instant transitions not a shwoosh. It’s probably all toggleable, but I don’t want to fiddle with it for every install or release.
“Not exactly Linux”, but FreeBSD. Gave it a couple tries but gave up when I realized its minimalism is a placebo at best and its “super security features” can (also) be achieved on any other standard Linux distribution.
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