Which Linux distribution do you prefer?

[RaidenX]

I switched from Windows to Arch Linux a little over a month ago. I've dabbled with Linux in the past (Ubuntu, Elementary OS and others) but always retreated back to Windows fairly quickly. I think what's different now is that I moved to Linux because I'm ready to leave Windows. Things have been going really well. So well that I intend to migrate my network media/file server to Ubuntu server and my living room gaming pc to Bazzite.

[jdeck1492]

I just reviewed 2023-2025 responses to the Linux distro preferences, and I need a serious update! My previous choices from 2023 and 2024 were Mint/LMDE heavy, and I no longer use either. Plus I canned MX, Ubuntu, and Solus distros as well. Bottom line, they were collectively too "old" and limited.    

My 2025 choices are Manjaro, Fedora, and Endeavour for their stability, speed, ease of updating, and plentiful apps. I am also checking out Debian 13, openSUSE Leap 16, and CachyOS. 

ElementaryOS 8 runs my mid-2012 MacBook Pro OS thanks to Apple abandoning its support. Every component functions, it boots and shuts down in a fraction of the time it took Ventura, and is visually appealing. 

[remixedcat]

I use Mint cuz it's stable, smooth nd polished

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

On 27/08/2025 at 21:27, remixedcat said:

I use Mint cuz it's stable, smooth nd polished

That it is, Remixed 😛 

Probably works well with your music gear.  

[gargantua]

On 27/08/2025 at 22:27, remixedcat said:

I use Mint cuz it's stable, smooth nd polished

I think that is the typical arc of a Linux user. You start off with the stable, smooth, and polished because you're a beginner. Then you go all out with your custom Arch or Gentoo configuration that is barely recognizable from the existing Desktop Environment or Window Manager that it spawned from. Then, after years of things breaking from all of that extra control, you grow tired. Back to stable, smooth, polished and, most conveniently, maintained by someone else  I'm a Debian user, myself. I think it's a good middle ground.

 

[Gerowen]

On 04/11/2025 at 23:56, gargantua said:

I think that is the typical arc of a Linux user. You start off with the stable, smooth, and polished because you're a beginner. Then you go all out with your custom Arch or Gentoo configuration that is barely recognizable from the existing Desktop Environment or Window Manager that it spawned from. Then, after years of things breaking from all of that extra control, you grow tired. Back to stable, smooth, polished and, most conveniently, maintained by someone else  I'm a Debian user, myself. I think it's a good middle ground.

 

I've been on Debian for years now because it just works and I got tired of messing with things, but it's still flexible enough to allow tinkering if you want or need to.  Our home server/NAS runs Debian headless with no GUI installed, so does my general purpose laptop and the desktop in the living room, etc.

[gargantua]

On 05/11/2025 at 21:39, Gerowen said:

I've been on Debian for years now because it just works and I got tired of messing with things, but it's still flexible enough to allow tinkering if you want or need to.  Our home server/NAS runs Debian headless with no GUI installed, so does my general purpose laptop and the desktop in the living room, etc.

Exactly. It's not that I think Ubuntu or Mint do anything to prevent tweaking, I dont think any mainstream Linux distro does. But Debian out-of-the-box is the most configuration ready for my needs and sounds like yours too. It really depends on how blank you like your blank slate to be, and I think that moves in a way similar to the meme I shared  

[Case_f]

Maybe those "years of things breaking from all of that extra control" are more related to the "go all out custom Arch or Gentoo configuration that is barely recognizable from the existing Desktop Environment or Window Manager that it spawned from" than anything else, though? I've stayed with my current distro for almost 20 years now and feel no real need of switching, it feels as smooth and polished and maintained as anything else, really. I hardly use anything that could be described as barely recognizable and I barely ever encounter any issues - and if I do, I can usually find solutions to them very quickly also thanks to a fairly large user base, as well as exactly that "extra control" you have if you need it. I don't really use something like Ubuntu outside of some occasional work-related stuff, but to this day, it still feels like once you encounter some issues, solving them requires you to jump through hoops since it still feels like once you go beyond the "smooth and polished" exterior, you're kinda trespassing where you're not really wanted, or expected.

I don't know. Maybe it's just me, of course.

And yes, to satisfy the meme, I use Arch, BTW

[gargantua]

What  I said is purely anecdotal. I know a good number of people who fit the trend I described, but have absolutely no data to back it up, so I'm sure there are plenty of folks who have no issues with using the more bare bones distributions like Arch or others. I think you and I have had similar experiences with vastly different Linux. Well, as different as distros can be to a certain extent, most of the differences are negligible to anyone above a novice level of experience, I think.

[remixedcat]

On 04/11/2025 at 23:56, gargantua said:

I think that is the typical arc of a Linux user. You start off with the stable, smooth, and polished because you're a beginner. Then you go all out with your custom Arch or Gentoo configuration that is barely recognizable from the existing Desktop Environment or Window Manager that it spawned from. Then, after years of things breaking from all of that extra control, you grow tired. Back to stable, smooth, polished and, most conveniently, maintained by someone else  I'm a Debian user, myself. I think it's a good middle ground.

 

yep i done had my lil exploratory phase and now its time to get stuff done on a stable system

[Matthew S.]

I'm typically a Fedora or Ubuntu user however I've been known to dabble in Gentoo, actually liking my current Gentoo VM, plus the last time I full-time used Gentoo stage 1 and stage 2 were a thing.

I've also been known to torture myself and get an LFS system up and running...

[Syanide]

I used ublue's Bluefin (immutable gnome desktop based on Fedora) for a few months. While I do think this is the future for Linux in a lot of ways, I unfortunately hit the wall with some apps I needed, that are simply easier to grab on Ubuntu, and I proved gargantua's post right. It really just works and gets out of the way, despite even my annoyances with gnome. 

I would have argued a few years ago that the low and high IQ move would be to simply go back to Windows or macOS. While it's still true for some use-cases, Linux really has improved so much since the last time I regularly used it (a little bit over a decade ago). 

[gargantua]

Yeah, Linux has gotten a lot better and Windows has gotten a lot worse. I don't hate on macOS, though. That is a quality product deserving its large userbase and ecosystem, though maybe not its price tag

[Arceles]

Lol, since I began to use arch has been nothing but rock solid, using KDE. There is always an exception to the rule, and that is... once the bootloader for whatever reason broke.

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

arch-chroot

pacman -S linux

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

done, never has happened again.

In itself Arch has its quirks, but has never been unstable for me.

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

On 24/11/2025 at 21:11, Arceles said:

Lol, since I began to use arch has been nothing but rock solid, using KDE. There is always an exception to the rule, and that is... once the bootloader for whatever reason broke.

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

arch-chroot

pacman -S linux

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

done, never has happened again.

In itself Arch has its quirks, but has never been unstable for me.

You using vanilla Arch, or one of it's brothers'?

[threesixtyflip]

I traditionally used to use Gnome based distros, which were normally Debian/Ubuntu based.

This time around I went for KDE, and after a bit of customisation I think I have found something I will be sticking with for the forseeable future.

Currently running Kubuntu 24.04, tried 25.10, but core-utils broke the things for me, so had to go back lol.

[Arceles]

On 24/11/2025 at 22:21, Mindovermaster said:

You using vanilla Arch, or one of it's brothers'?

Vanilla Arch, installed using the iso installer, following installation guide. I also created a guide for the guide... but soon enough I just learnt most of the commands used.

[Som]

beem trying a few distros of arch over the weekend and found them to be pretty great. Almost made the switch but for Ubisoft launcher not working well on any of them. Literally the only reason I haven't switched from windows. I needs my anno 😛 . anywho steam games worked great and the general performace was also good.  Guarda was the best one out of the many distros i tried , also very pretty 

[RaidenX]

On 29/11/2025 at 14:38, Som said:

beem trying a few distros of arch over the weekend and found them to be pretty great. Almost made the switch but for Ubisoft launcher not working well on any of them. Literally the only reason I haven't switched from windows. I needs my anno 😛 . anywho steam games worked great and the general performace was also good.  Guarda was the best one out of the many distros i tried , also very pretty 

I'm running vanilla Arch and am playing Anno 1800 nearly every day. I'm using Lutris with GE-Proton as my Wine runner.

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

On 29/11/2025 at 16:38, Som said:

beem trying a few distros of arch over the weekend and found them to be pretty great. Almost made the switch but for Ubisoft launcher not working well on any of them. Literally the only reason I haven't switched from windows. I needs my anno 😛 . anywho steam games worked great and the general performace was also good.  Guarda was the best one out of the many distros i tried , also very pretty 

Garuda is good, but my friend that ran it always ran into trouble with it. I don't remember the specifics, but he had a lot of problems with his GPU.

I'm currently using Endeavour. And it's been smooth sailing for a good year. But starting next year, I might Go back to Debian. I don't need the latest and greatest to be happy.

[Som]

On 29/11/2025 at 23:27, RaidenX said:

I'm running vanilla Arch and am playing Anno 1800 nearly every day. I'm using Lutris with GE-Proton as my Wine runner.

Its the latest anno, but i actually got it running, needed to use an experimental version of proton but works

[Som]

update again. I tried bazzite (thanks to neowin article) . I think i've tried about 10 distros this weekend. anywho it works great. it is now my default OS. Its brought a bit of excitement back into computers for me

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

On 03/12/2025 at 14:10, Som said:

update again. I tried bazzite (thanks to neowin article) . I think i've tried about 10 distros this weekend. anywho it works great. it is now my default OS. Its brought a bit of excitement back into computers for me

I hate Fedora and their RPM's. But, if you like it, all the merry to you!

[+Good Bot, Bad Bot Subscriber¹]

On 03/12/2025 at 17:49, Mindovermaster said:

I hate Fedora and their RPM's. But, if you like it, all the merry to you!

Why? RPMs install and uninstall basally the same way as APTs except the format of the terminal output is 100x more readable and useful.

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

On 03/12/2025 at 22:46, Good Bot, Bad Bot said:

Why? RPMs install and uninstall basally the same way as APTs except the format of the terminal output is 100x more readable and useful.

RPMs are fine, but it's Dependencies when it becomes an issue.