"Must Try" distros and DEs?

Hey folks! I’m getting a fresh laptop for the first time in about a decade (Framework 16) in a couple of months and am looking forward to doing some low-level tinkering both on the OS and hardware. I’m planning to convert into a “cyberdeck” with quick-release hinges for the screen since I usually use an HMD, built-in breadboard, and other hardware hacking fun.

On the OS, I’m planning to try NixOS as a baremetal hypervisor (KVM/QEMU) and run my “primary” OSes in VMs with hardware passthrough. If perf is horrible, I’ll probably switch back to baremetal after a bit. But, I’m not likely going to be gaming on it so, I’m not likely to have much issue.

Once the hypervisor is working in a manner that I like, I should have an easy time backing up, rolling back, swapping out my “desktop” OS. I’ve been using Linux as my pretty much my only OS for over a decade (I use MacOS as a glorified SSH client for work). Most of my time has been on distros in the Debian or RHEL families (*buntu, Linux Mint, Crunchbang, CentOS, etc) and I pretty much live in the terminal these days.

With all of this said, I am coming to you folks for help. I would like you folks to share distros, desktop environments, window managers that you think I should give a try, or would like to inflict on me and what makes them noteworthy.

I can’t guarantee that I’ll get through suggestions, as my ADHD has been playing up lately, but I’ll give it an attempt. Seriously. If you want me to try Hannah Montana Linux, I’ll do it and report back on the experience.

EDIT: Thank you all for your fantastic suggestions. I’m going to start compiling them into a list this weekend.

QaspR,

LeftWM. I’ve been using it for about a year now and I have no complaints vIt doesn’t hold your hand as much as other WMs, but it is extremely powerful if you’re willing to do some manual setup.

Bitflip,

Forget a DE, sounds like you need a WM. Definitely check out some tiling options like i3 or sway, especially since you spend so much time in the terminal.

HumanPerson,

Opensuse tumbleweed, kde

BurntKrispe,

Fedora rawhide’s an interesting bleeding edge experience. I’d recommend installing fedora minimal and setting up your system from there. The rpm system’s rather robust when it comes to installing the correct dependencies when done correctly so I personally haven’t had any issues with version conflicts.

wolfie,

Some great newer tech distros would be Fedora Silverblue, or if you like Debian, there is VanillaOS. They are immutable distros, and they introduce a new way of using Linux. I like to pair it with distrobox, which lets you use regular Linux applications in a container.

maness300,

Manjaro KDE.

dotslashme,

I wouldn’t recommend specific ones, but I would recomnend you try out distros with unique features. Such as an immutable one, one that is built from source, one with packages, one with snap, one with flatpack, etc.

This will help you understand and evaluate what you like.

mlg,
@mlg@lemmy.world avatar

XFCE with Compiz as the compositor

Or just straight Compiz

Make sure you enable all the funny effects like the cube, cube animations, 3D windows, advanced window animations, transparency effects, sky box, etc.

All easy to do with compiz config manager.

nickwitha_k,

That’s a name that I’ve not heard in a long time. Wasn’t aware that Compiz was still active. It was my favorite compositor until the Gnome 3 switch.

mlg,
@mlg@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah I’m surprised it doesn’t show up as much anymore despite being both a performant and highly customizable platform.

Lots of the effects aren’t available on other DEs, and the team behind has so far actually maintained all the plugins.

jackpot,
@jackpot@lemmy.ml avatar

TempleOS

nickwitha_k,

You know what? Yeah. I’ve wanted to try that product of schizophrenic mania for a while.

node815,

For a totally different experience, and if you ever want to spin up a distro in a “container” there’s BlendOS blendos.co

I’m an Arch user so I’m sort of staying where I am but am always open to ideas, so I tried Blend a while back. As said on this page for the distro: itsfoss.com/immutable-linux-distros/

“In other words, you can install any package on the distro (RPM, DEB, etc.) while getting the immutability and update reliability as one would expect.”

That pretty much describes it and I recall, it did well. I also tried this one which is touted to be AI enhanced and feels more like they are making good progress: www.makululinux.comlinuxinsider.com/…/new-makululinux-release-brings…

To get the AI to the max, you need to pay a fee, but It’s all in the name of supporting development.

nickwitha_k,

Intriguing. I do have reservations about “all-the-package-types” but need to give that a try, for novelty, if nothing else.

octopus_ink,

Wow, I don’t pay as much attention to developments in the space as I did a few years ago and I can see I should start to again. These are some pretty interesting distros you’ve linked.

Divine_Confetti,
@Divine_Confetti@sh.itjust.works avatar

One neat little distro is bedrock linux. Its pretty sweet being able to grab packages from the aur on something like Debian.

moreeni,

We just had a post about Distrobox earlier today. It gives you the same funstionality on any distro.

Presi300,
@Presi300@lemmy.world avatar

I’d say try anything (except debian) with hyprland, it’s the dream of anyone who wants to customize their desktop experience.

As for non-standard distros, try Alpine, Void or if you have a lot of time, Gentoo.

As for distros I’d actually recommend, try fedora or any of it’s spins

nickwitha_k,

What’s your favorite distro for running Hyprland?

k4j8,

I run Hyprland on Arch. It seems most of the people who run window managers instead of full fledged desktop environments prefer the minimalism of Arch.

Presi300,
@Presi300@lemmy.world avatar

Probably arch or arco, but I think credits has a hyprland spin now

EponymousBosh,
@EponymousBosh@beehaw.org avatar

Garuda might be worth a try. I used it for a couple months and really enjoyed it, I only stopped because Nvidia drivers kept breaking.

nickwitha_k,

I’m going to be on an AMD CPU and didn’t opt for the discrete GPU at this time, nor will I be purchasing an Nvidia device until they start being consistently FOSS-friendly.

EponymousBosh,
@EponymousBosh@beehaw.org avatar

Yeah, I unfortunately didn’t know about the “Nvidia hates Linux” thing when I bought this laptop. I guess I know better for next time.

nickwitha_k,

Oof. Yeah. Years ago, it was the other way around.

sighofannoyance, (edited )
@sighofannoyance@lemmy.world avatar

|Original | free version to try|

|Debian|PureOS|

|Ubuntu|Trisquel|

| | Guix |

callyral, (edited )
@callyral@pawb.social avatar

i don’t think lemmy markdown supports tables, though it should

edit: lemmy uses commonmark which doesn’t appear to support tables

moreeni,

It doesn’t but it is not the proper syntax in the parent comment.

kwedd,

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