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!
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.
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.
You don’t need any haskell knowledge to configure a NixOS system. It’s mostly just researching the right options and setting the desired values. Pretty simple. For more advanced stuff like custom modules, functional programming experience helps a lot but that’s not necessary for installing packages and enabling services.
Documentation isn’t great but what it does have going for it is that it’s right in the place where you configure it: In the NixOS options. Wanna configure systemd-boot? Just search for it: https://search.nixos.org/options?channel=23.05&size=50&sort=relevance&type=packages&query=systemd-boot
It’s self-documenting.
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.)
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?
arch
btw
same, its pretty solid for a meme os. For anything else I usually use Debian.
I use Debian with a patched version of motif window manager. The 90s never ended:
As someone who uses mwm for work, I only have one question for you: Why?
It’s simple, easily customisable, and I like the big chiseled buttons.
“Motif Window Manager”? I’m on mobile and have old eyes, but it looks like WindowMaker. If so, great choice! If not, I’ll have to look closer when I get home.
It really is mwm :) The toolchest-like menu in the upper left corner isn’t part of mwm though.
You can find more info about the mwm fork here: https://fastestcode.org/emwm.html
Linux Mint with Mate DE.
Linux Mint. Nothing beats your computer just working when you have shit to get done.
Same. Mint, because n00b.
Garuuuuuda. Love it. Been running it for the past few years. The devs come off as assholes, but they’re actually just German;)
Ubuntu for life. Unpopular opinion i know, please don’t stone.
umm it’s literally the most popular distro
And yet everyone in r/linux and r/linuxmemes kept shitting on it
No shame in using the distro you like. I use Ubuntu for my Nextcloud server and it’s extremely reliable.
When you take Pop_OS! into account?
Probably not anytime soon haha
I was a distro hopper once, then I saw the light of NixOS…
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.
I have a few dozen computers and most run Pop!_OS.
What’s your second most commonly used distro?
Linux Mint, it just works
NixOS everywhere (except for one server which I have yet to migrate from Rocky to NixOS)
I asked in the nixOS community a few days ago, but since you mentioned you run nixOS on servers too, what’s been your experience of nixOS on a server?
My laptop is on Manjaro and has been running flawlessly for years …such a great experience with gnome 40+
My desktop is also on Manjaro, and things could not be more different. No Wayland, no animations in the gnome desktop, visual glitches since the last update …guess it doesn’t play well with Nvidia drivers. Anyone managing something decent with gnome+Nvidia?
I’ve had success with pop_os with nvidia drivers. The only thing that it has issues with is some hw particularly the camera. I’m running steam without too many hitches after setting it up properly.
Thanks, will try pop_os again – it’s been a while
Ah never had camera problems… Anyways, keeps us busy I guess, haha
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.
