this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2023
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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What Linux distribution or distributions do you personally use?

I myself am a daily Void user. I used to use Devuan, but wanted to try rolling release and ended up loving Void!

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Arch Linux. Always very up-to-date and the AUR is huge. No dealing with PPAs or snaps or flatpaks or appimages. Just paru -S any-software-ever-made. Also very streamlined (systemd for everything lol) and well documented. I tried NixOS for a bit but it was very inconvenient in comparison and I felt like it was impossible to tinker with or understand if you weren't good at Haskell. Terrible documentation.

For servers it's definitely Debian + docker.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Debian. Several reasons:

  • It's trustworthy.
  • It's not going anywhere. Debian existed when I was a kid and it'll probably still exist when I draw my last breath.
  • I know how to use it, since, once again, I've been using it since I was a kid.
  • It has all the desktop environments.
  • It fully supports systemd. I do not miss the unreliability, slowness, and complexity of what came before that. (Normally I wouldn't mention this, but your former distro of choice exists solely for the purpose of not having systemd, so it's relevant this time.)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago

The thought that Debian will continue into the future feels comforting. How cool it would be if in 5000AD kids on Mars or Europa are running Debian 100?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 years ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 years ago
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[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Fedora, because it just works and it ships recent software versions.

I also like Fedora Silverblue, and projects like ublue are very interesting in my opinion.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Could you explain what you find interesting about Silverblue ?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Updates can't really break anything, and if something would go wrong, I can simply boot on the previous image, which will still be there. They can also happen in the background, such that I don't even know it's updating. It just happens and never bothers me.

What's even more interesting is that you can rebase on another base image without having to worry. If I don't like it, I can just go back to the previous image. With ublue, you can even customize your own OS image.

I believe modern Android uses a similar concept. They use two partitions, and install an update to the other image while your phone is running normally. Then all you need to do is reboot, and you'll be on the new boot image.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I was a distro hopper once, then I saw the light of NixOS...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

Tell me about it...

The only reason I might, in the distant future, ever consider changing again is this project, which hopefully would be something between NixOS and Qubes. But that is far in the future and not even that certain.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 years ago (4 children)

NixOS everywhere (except for one server which I have yet to migrate from Rocky to NixOS)

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago

Linux Mint with Mate DE.

[–] Borgzilla 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (8 children)

I use Debian with a patched version of motif window manager. The 90s never ended:

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I use opensuse with kde and I love it. Have been using it for 2 years now.

For server use at home I use Ubuntu Server and Alma Linux (mostly)

At work it is all RedHat.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Using Arch everywhere (home, work, laptop). It's boring, but it just works.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Ubuntu for life. Unpopular opinion i know, please don't stone.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I have a few dozen computers and most run Pop!_OS.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I used to use Void as my main distro, but then the developer drama made me shy away from it (keep in mind, this was like forever ago and I haven’t looked at Void at all since). After that I floated around trying everything, from Gentoo to the BSDs (I know, not Linux). Nowadays I use OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. I got tired of doing everything manually and OpenSUSE just makes everything so much easier to use, IMO.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago

Arch Linux everywhere. I'm curious about NixOS but I don't have the time to tinker anymore.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Linux Mint. Nothing beats your computer just working when you have shit to get done.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Fedora on the desktop. I got my start on Red Hat Linux so I've stuck with it since.

For servers I use Debian. Lightweight, widely used, and gets the job done.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago

OpenSUSE, Tumbleweed on workstations (KDE) and Leap on my server.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I've been a daily fedora user for the half year. Initially I started off with ElementaryOS but it was so filled with bugs, and glitches, so it didnt last for more than a couple of months. While the fedora experience is way more streamlined.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago

I use Arch Linux with KDE Plasma myself

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago (2 children)

NixOS. Declarative config with opt-in state is awesome.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago

Arch on everything, including servers. It's just so easy to install everything via the AUR & configure everything easily. Plus the wiki is amazing. Although it is a pain to setup sometimes

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed on my laptop, Debian on my server and SteamOS on the Steam Deck.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Endeavour OS. Been on it nearly for two years now.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I use NixOS on all of my servers.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Does SteamOS count? My steam deck is my current “Linux” machine.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago

Fedora, I'm not a tech person by Linux user standards and I just need an OS that works

[–] JCSpark 7 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Mint with Cinnamon is my daily driver on my desktop and laptop for almost 3 years now. I ran a company for a while using Linux and managed to find everything I needed for software to run administration. It was great. I still have a windows tablet for troubleshooting and equipment specific requests, but I always feel weird logging into it.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

I use primarily Fedora for desktop/dual boot and minimal Rocky for server. I mess with Arch and Manjaro when I'm feeling adventurous.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Debian.

Just works, things are made targetting it specifically, able to get latest software if I need it by installing flatpaks.

Can't complain really.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Manjaro. I am a guy of habits, so I never really distro-hopped, I once tried to install Arch and failed to configure everything so I tried endeavour and failed too (which would mean I am not a tech guy either ;). Ultimately, I'd say that the distribution does not matters much once you are used to it, you can always get what you want from any of them. The only thing I really like in comparison with others is pacman :)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

Arch baybeeee 💯💯💯

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

Been using NixOS for a couple months. It’s gotten easier to configure and change because of it, and new computers are super easy to setup because I can just change/apply the config and system wide changes will apply with one command!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

NixOS. Declarative reproducible immutable systems are the future.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Currently... Slackware on main laptop. Slint (Slackware-based) on mini-pc. MX Linux (fvwm respin), Void, and OpenBSD on old laptop. NsCDE is desktop on all except MX.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I use NixOS for everything. I have a Nix flake that defines my systems (two VPS, a desktop, a laptop and a little home server) and I can modularize the config snippets that apply to the machines so I can effortlessly reuse them. Add to that the atomic updates and reliable rollback and there you have it.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

A couple of them. At home my main distro for desktop and laptop is openSUSE Tumbleweed. I like it the most since it is a rolling release (with fresh and up-to-date software versions) and they actually have some CI/testing setup so they do some basic tests of packages before releasing them and it is thus one of the most stable rolling release distros. On top of that they also ahve a system setup so that a BTRFS snapshot is done before and after each update automatically and a GRUB boot entry is added. In this case if something would go wrong with the update you can always boot back into old system before the update. Also they have one of the best KDE Plasma integrations.

In addition to this I also use SteamOS (Arch-based) on the Steam Deck, PopOS on my work laptop (would use Kubuntu but that is what they forced us to standardise on), and one machine I have is still running Gentoo. All are runnign with KDE Plasma as a desktop.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

Gentoo Linux. I am too particular about my system to use anything else.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

At work we are mostly Rhel, so then at home I have some Rocky VMs and main system is Fedora. I used to run Arch, but then got lazy…

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (5 children)

Arch.

I've done a reasonable amount of distrohopping, but I always come crawling back because I've never found anything that can compete with the AUR.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

Fedora all the way. I've been using it for 6-7 years now, I simply love how it is pretty stable, while still being able to have mostly up-to-date software. And I never had any issues during versions upgrades. And I guess that I can also count SteamOS as a distribution that I use thanks to my Steam Deck.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

Switch from Windows to Fedora as my daily driver and for some gaming. Works flawlessly and I love every parts of it. Linux has such cool distros and communities

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