I don't understand people who distrohop when their distro makes a slightly bad decision

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nevyn28@reddit

So they changed distros 3 times in 8 years?

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KyeeLim@reddit

and I have installed 4 different distro for the last 8 month... tho it is because I just got into Linux 8 months ago

Mint -> Bazzite -> Arch + Fedora on an external SSD for having it being portable

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Which one did you like most out of these? I just got into Linux a couple of weeks ago and obviously I started with Mint since it's the easiest. But I want to know other people's thought on other distros and how easy/difficult was it to use them.

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KyeeLim@reddit

I like both Fedora and Arch, Fedora because IMO it is as newbie friendly as Mint, while Arch because I like to challenge myself(and AURs)

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nevyn28@reddit

I have installed roughly 30 in the last 2 months.
According to OP, I am out of control, a danger to society, and I need to take it down a notch.

Good luck to you, it looks like you still have a way to go ;)

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BigHeadTonyT@reddit

Madness, I say, MADNESS! What has the world come to?

They are switching OS as often as I am switching underwear...

Besides, I'll gladly try 50 distros per year, as I have done for over a decade. I like to know my options instead of being ignorant to them.

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nevyn28@reddit

I am surprised their computer didn't explode from the extreme extremeness of the situation.

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D-S-S-R@reddit

Preposterous!

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TheFredCain@reddit

Linux is what YOU make of it. A distro is simply what SOMEONE ELSE makes of it. So the answer is start from scratch and setup your own system or pick a distro someone else made (that is closest to what you want) and take it the rest of the way.

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OkAd5547@reddit

most distro hoppers are likely only using linux as a hobby

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spin81@reddit

I've distro hopped because distro leadership isn't to my liking before. I don't see this mentioned as a reason for hopping very often.

One distro I will not name sacked their finance person and then went around assuring everyone the funds were still safe, which seemed more than a little FUDdy to me because nobody was claiming the contrary. I pointed this out and was promptly silenced.

Even if I were willing to link to the thread, I couldn't, because, and I do mean this literally, they lost their official forum somehow (they explained it but I don't recall the explanation). It's a perfectly decent distro apart from that sort of thing and I will sometimes recommend it to people, leaving out my leadership gripes.

Then I hopped to another distro, based on the earlier one, and found leadership unable to communicate clearly and making decisions I didn't like, out of (what I perceived at the time to be) disdain of a sizeable group of end users.

This is part of what's been driving me towards Ubuntu and Debian. They're not perfect (what OS/community is?) but they have their structure and communication in order as well as can be managed.

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middaymoon@reddit

Your friend is not the norm.

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BigFlemingo@reddit

I don't understand it either tbh; I'm not really a Linux hardliner; What I have to say probably will be seen as heretical here to some but: I always have dual-booted Linux with Windows, using Linux for tasks best suited to Linux(development, server administration[I run a few sites for some small communities], locally hosted LLMs, etc.) and Windows for tasks best suited to Windows(gaming, music, and video production). I have ran many Linux distros as my secondary/primary driver many times for many years now; from Arch Linux to Void Linux to Gentoo to Ubuntu to Debian and now to a LUKS-encrytped Endeavor setup(Endeavor itself being just a Arch Linux with some utility scripts for eg updating the mirror list, updating the system itself, etc - basically just saves time. I couldn't be bothered setting all my scripts up from nothing after my drive died and I lost my last setup). So that being said - I literally do not understand distro hopping in a vein similar to what is described in the OP at all. I have never once been in a position where I have said, "I wish I was on x distro right now..." When doing work on EG Arch vs Ubuntu which will pretty much end up having literally the same workflow on Ubuntu or any other distro[within reason]. I mean I've certainly had instances where I have been like, 'I really don't like how this distro patched it's kernel, and I think that this distro over here that does not patch it in such a way would probably be better off for me,' but I've never been tempted to switch solely off of updates or whatever. I don't understand. Especially since you can, in 99% of the time, specify what is being updated. I don't ever worry about any of this shit anyway because I am too busy doing actual work with my machine to care, which I guess is possibly the origin of the problem - there's people using Linux to do something, and then there's people who use Linux to be something (I am in the Arch Linux power user tribe!!! My entire identity is now my operating system!) - Not trying to shit on your friend this is just really where I think it comes from - 'I want to be identified off my operating system, and I will become contrarian when the operating system in question begins to hit mainstream more and more(Linux is literally being talked about by regular joes more and more, I literally heard someone in fucking Walmart talking about trying it the other day. I live in East Texas.) - so that means I am going to be less unique... I'm going to go try BSD! .

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BigFlemingo@reddit

I do not understand this formatting

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BigFlemingo@reddit

Thank God I fixed it lol. Sorry

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BigFlemingo@reddit

Nvm. I don't use Reddit enough to know how to post lol. Can't make it insert a lime break.

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MetalLinuxlover@reddit

I get where you're coming from-some folks do seem to treat distros like fashion trends, hopping from one to the next whenever Reddit sentiment shifts. But honestly, not all distrohopping is mindless or trend-chasing. Some people are just exploring, trying to find what actually fits their workflow, values, and hardware.

Your friend may seem extreme, but sometimes even “small” decisions from distros (like dropping a DE or changing init systems) feel like dealbreakers depending on how tightly someone’s setup relies on specific choices. And let's be real- Linux is about freedom, including the freedom to switch when something doesn't sit right, whether that's technical or ideological.

That said, yeah, hopping without understanding your needs, or doing it just because "X is bloated" or "Y is outdated" without deeper context, tends to cause more frustration than it's worth. At the end of the day, stability and focus usually trump novelty. But I wouldn’t lump all distrohoppers into the same category-some of us are just trying to learn what works best.

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thomasfr@reddit

I don't belive most people who need a reliable system to do actual work distrohop a lot.

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JohnJamesGutib@reddit

Same. If you actually use your computer to do actual work, if you're making music or software or writing a book or editing videos or whatever, you're not gonna be a serial distro hopper just by virtue of only wanting to do work when you're on your computer. Anything that interrupts that or gets in the way of that will be more of an annoyance.

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DuckDatum@reddit

My plan was to have a spare SSD for district hopping. That spare SSD now hosts Windows, which my wife relies on. I seem unable to justify a third SSD with her.

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WildManner1059@reddit

Use VMs to test distros. Super easy, doesn't interfere with the OS that's there. Every OS provides a Type 2 hypervisor. Or if you want, use Virtual Box since it's available for Linux, Windows, and OS X.

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Narrow_Victory1262@reddit

exactly. or the free vmware workstation. I don't hop. I check/test and build stuff to udate docs at times. and wipe the vm's in a blink.

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DeusScientiae@reddit

You have to justify a ~100 dollar purchase? Lol what.

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dotnetdotcom@reddit

Microcenter has 500GB SSDs for like $25.

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Willocawe@reddit

Yep, the place that's just around the corner wherever you live

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WildManner1059@reddit

If you live around the corner from one. 3-4 hour drive for me. Far more people live > 1 hour from Microcenter than live < 1 hour from Microcenter.

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DeusScientiae@reddit

I just went with the 100 mark because that's around what I spend to make externals

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One-Project7347@reddit

Put her windows on a usb stick so your ssd is free :p idk :p

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DuckDatum@reddit

Money is tight, and she makes sure the bills are paid. That’s a dynamic I’m trying to adjust for a more equal split, but it is taking time.

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DeusScientiae@reddit

Oof. Wish you better fortune man

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TheOneTrueTrench@reddit

ZFS can help with that, actually, each partition can have as many datasets as you want ("filesystem" is the closest analogue to "dataset", ZFS is most like a filesystem of filesystems in that sense), and you can put a ton of distros, each in a different dataset, and use ZFSBootMenu to switch between them at boot.

It's actually really useful.

Only drawback is having to configure your initramfs generator for each distro, and Fedora is a massive pain, because (in my personal opinion) they've FAR over-complicated the boot process, to the point that which bootloaders you have installed changes where the kernel is installed, and that's just... a massive pain for people using non-standard boot processes.

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Even_Range130@reddit

In this case ZFS really doesn't add much that LVM can't give. I won't use even though my distro(NixOS) ships kernel modules and bootloader support for ZFS i don't like to rely on third party code in my kernel.

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Even_Range130@reddit

She doesn't need to know how many SSDs are in your computer! Thry don't show up in Windows either way

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legends2k@reddit

Spare SSD? The problem is more of spare time for most who use their OS to work and get things done.

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DuckDatum@reddit

But you save the primary SSD for work. Only change the OS on your spare. If the spare has issues, it doesn’t affect your work.

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Fresh-Potato945@reddit

I've seen on Newegg 1tb SSD going for like 70 if that's any better. I know when money is tight every dollar saved is worth it. And even if it's not an immediate fix still I buy most of my parts from Newegg or similar sights because they give really good deals. Keep an eye on sites like that sometimes they do giant price drops like sometimes 1tb SSD for like 30. I pray for better fortune and good health 🙏🏻 all the best to you man.

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ragsofx@reddit

I remember being in that position, it's very hard to justify something that's not necessary if you have other higher priorities like feeding your kids and looking after your home.

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nuxi@reddit

^ this. As much as I love messing around with Linux, I have better things to do than reinstall constantly. Getting everything set up again just the way I like it is a PITA.

I have Debian installations that are nearly 20 years old and are living in their third computers. The filesystems are newer than the actual OS installs because they've migrated between drives.

I've gone to pretty extreme lengths to avoid reinstalling Debian before. I have one Debian install that started life as 32-bit x86 and was live upgraded to 64-bit x86. I have another system where I carefully converted the hard drive from MBR to GPT without reformatting or reinstalling, just so that I could switch from BIOS to UEFI booting.

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blackcain@reddit

It's the thrill of setting things up I guess. But there isn't that much here - so dunno. I don't distrohop much, and when I do jump distros it's for years and years. I was on ubunu for a long time and then swit ched to arch linux and then switched to fedora and now silverblue. I'll likely be on fedora for a long while.

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purplemagecat@reddit

Unless your distro is having issues in a way that gets in the way of your being productiveness.

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Shoxx98_alt@reddit

Youre probably staying on a base distro like debian or arch then

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JohnJamesGutib@reddit

Ubuntu LTS 😁

In the olden days, sometimes if I bought super new hardware Ubuntu LTS wouldn't have support yet so I'd switch to Fedora for a bit. But nowadays I notice it's not so much of a problem anymore. Maybe has something to do with Ubuntu's hardware enablement packages?

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Linux-Guru-lagan@reddit

same bro if something works for me and is minimal I just use it. what I needed was very low system disk usage and a stable rolling release distro I went with arch but systemd was deal broker then I went with artix but I didn't had the material to download it becyz at that time my internet was very slow so I tried some distros able to run persistently on a usb drive like antix porteus but sticked with chimera linux(becyz of dinit) and then finally went with Alpine and freebsd and daily drive both. never looked back again.

fun fact every distro I installed(almost 8) were installed on a usb drive 2.0 but still they were blazing fast.

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Royale_AJS@reddit

Yup. I tried everything in my early years. I mean everything. I got 70% of them to a functional state probably. Now I run Ubuntu LTS on all my client machines and either Ubuntu LTS or TrueNAS on servers depending on workload. I need it work and don’t want to think about which launch daemon or window manager might be better when what I have works.

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chozendude@reddit

Perfectly said. I have honestly thought about moving from Manjaro on a few occasions - particularly because of the blow-up around certificates. When I factored fitting the downtime into my schedule, I realized that by the time I would've completed the migration of my workflow to another system, the certificate issue was already resolved. I don't "love" Manjaro, but my laptop is primarily a work tool, and unless something truly game-breaking pops up, I don't see a reason to keep hopping around every time the internet freaks out about something the devs did or said that they don't like.

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Lainposting_@reddit

I mean it does depend but yeah it is a pretty big time commitment to distrohop even if a lot of the skills are pretty discernable. Like I tinker with linux a lot but my main pc has linux mint that I haven't really configured at all on it because I use that for video editing and when I want to tinker around with godot and I haven't really wanted to change it because I want to load it up at any point.

That being said initially I do think people who do actual work at first should distrohop and experiment with stuff like window managers to see which works the best for their needs. Like I'm probably gonna replace mint with arch with hyprland since I've been really vibing with how it all works on the laptop that I got.

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postmortemstardom@reddit

Kinda outdated way of thinking. Many distros now offer solid and fast integrations. Making it even easier to distrohop.

I don't distrohop on my workstation but I try new distros on my other PCs a lot.

My mobile workstation has been through 4 distros last year. None gave me any problem when I was working on it.

Distrohopping is good. Acting like the distro you've hopped from is dog shit and the distro you've hopped to is the shit is not good.

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thomasfr@reddit

If I have to spend more than 10 minutes on anything that isn’t the tasks I want to do on a day I see it as a failure. A complete is reinstallation wastes like at least half a day

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postmortemstardom@reddit

I tinker with tech for fun all the time.

Of course, you do you. I also don't tinker with my workstation at all. I don't even update it on weekdays lol.

Tho probably because I'm used to installing everything every now and then, I usually can start working on a distro 1-2 hours after sticking the USB. I have like 10 mini PCs for tinkering, a home server, 2 workstations and 2 gaming rigs.

I'm in dire need of grass.... I know.

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KnowZeroX@reddit

I use my work system to distro hop, I just distro hop a little different. Effectively I distro hop when I get a new pc.

I try to modernize my workflow as well on a new pc since I have to decide what I plan to carry over.

At first I start using my new pc for hobby projects, then once I like what I have I transition to it as my primary work environment.

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jack123451@reddit

^this. The person in OP is too busy fiddling with their system to use it for any serious work.

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Ariquitaun@reddit

I've used Ubuntu for everything since warty warthog

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Mal_Dun@reddit

Can confirm. I only left Ubuntu because of issues with outdated kernels and too new hardware. I am on Fedora now since 2012 and don't plan to switch soon.

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jr735@reddit

This. I don't even like hopping versions, let alone to a completely different distribution. I left Ubuntu about 11 or 12 years ago and went to Mint, and have been there ever since. I dual boot with Debian testing, since I can contribute by searching for bugs there, without messing up my workflow or learning something different.

I used apt from the start, 21 years ago, so it's easy.

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gljames24@reddit

Did the same thing, but a decade later.

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webfiend@reddit

It's a great way to test the quality of your dotfiles and sync solutions.

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TheOriginalSamBell@reddit

my important computers haven't had an OS change in many years... any random old laptop in my house has seen dozens of OSs tho lol

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Maykey@reddit

I've found that if lots of work related stuff can be placed into VMs, then changing distros is very painless(and allows very easy backups). It also helps to separate work from non-work.

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DisketteKitchen@reddit

Absolutely, I enjoy distrohopping only because I still use macOS on my main computer and have others which can all run different distros. Even then my main gaming and blender pc still just runs Debian stable

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BenGroll@reddit

When I started to get fed up with windows i just tried 4 distros over like two months (fedora, nobara, debian, arch) to find which i resonated most with. I work from home, so I spend \~10-12hours a day on my PC, so I wanted to invest the time to find something I really liked.

I stayed on arch since first trying it and running it 10 hours a day every day without problems.

No reason for me to switch to anything else

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GandhiTheDragon@reddit

I honestly understand the "Ubuntu is outdated" stance, because damn Ubuntu repos are outdated to fuck at all times

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Dont_tase_me_bruh694@reddit

When does this matter for you other than MAYBE gaming? When has it actually impacted you?

I hear people say this all the time. I never look at my packages and compare to the github to see if they're out of date. (I'm not on Ubuntu).

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GandhiTheDragon@reddit

Because on Ubuntu they are often so significantly out of data, that you are missing a lot of features For example, Audacity. Ubunut 24.04 still has audacity Version 3 in it's repos. Meanwhile there is already version 5

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WildManner1059@reddit

I run into this in RHEL frequently. LTS releases aren't meant for desktops. They pin the kernel version and invariably there are packages which become capped on that major OS version. I'm looking at you python. RHEL 7 capped out at python 3.9 or so, even as RHEL 8 allowed newer versions.

So when a package upgrades the minimum kernel requirement, LTS distros will not be able to support that package until they upgrade their kernel. And if that LTS release is in maintenance only phase, they're not getting major kernel updates, they're only getting security patches.

So if you need cutting edge packages, go with a rolling release, or optionally an immutable distro. Use flatpaks, containers, vms.

Don't blame a stable OS for being stable. Not that I'm a fan of Ubuntu, yeck. My issue with ubuntu isn't lack of new features but insistence upon Snap which isn't manageable by sysadmin tools.

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Nervous-Diamond629@reddit (OP)

That is why flatpak is a must on most stable distros.

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GandhiTheDragon@reddit

Indeed. but at that point, why am I using a stable distro, if I have to add everything via flatpaks or appimages. At that point I can just switch to arch or nixos, and not have to deal with flatpak

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MisaVelvet@reddit

Indeed. but at that point, why am I using a stable distro, if I have to add everything via flatpaks or appimages. At that point I can just switch to arch or nixos, and not have to deal with flatpak

well i guess because rolling distros are less stable and people say they break (a bit?) more often because they constantly change something under the hood or something, while with flatpaks on stable distros you can have latest available software if needed while still staying stable. Im on rolling distro btw but i was suggested to use it for gaming. So my only question is what about (modern AAA) gaming on stable distros? Answers in the internet are pretty conflicting

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GandhiTheDragon@reddit

I wouldn't run a stable distro for gaming. Things update, things require dependencies, especially native games. A rolling distro is much better suited there imo Stable distro s can be good, for when you use one version of software, across many of the same PC's You can just create one drive image and slam that onto every PC Company fleets for example are good for this

For private use.. I am not sure if rolling release has enough of an impact to be considered more unstable I personally have been running Arch Linux for 2 years now, and really haven't experienced any issues apart from slight issue with KDE6 when it launched, that got smoothed out over around 2 weeks.

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Dont_tase_me_bruh694@reddit

I understand that. What is it that you're missing from version 5 that is such a deal breaker and upsetting?

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GandhiTheDragon@reddit

Audacity has mostly reworked the app. Added cloud saving, beat detection, pitch shifting, exporting of subtitle formats, master effects, improved compressors and limitless themes, bettered performance, added support for ffmpeg version 7, audio files can now be pasted into audacity via Ctrl+v, raw formats can be imported with larger file sizes, etc etc

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jbicha@reddit

The latest version of audacity is 3.7.4

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GandhiTheDragon@reddit

I did indeed make an oopsie, applogies

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GandhiTheDragon@reddit

Have I been looking at the wrong repos, wait lemme check I might be doing a dum here

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osalbahr@reddit

AstroNvim requires Neovim v0.10+. Ubuntu 24.04 has Neovim 0.9.5.

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Maykey@reddit

When has it actually impacted you?

When I tried to compile programs and ubuntu libraries were so old it was not possible.
When I followed tutorials but menu items didn't exist.
When I encountered bugs, googled them and found that in modern version they didn't exist.

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Nervous-Diamond629@reddit (OP)

Yeah, that is true.

Even on unrelated posts about Ubuntu, he was championing Fedora like crazy. Although all distros are unique in their own way, recommending one over the other even when others are fine with the former is not wise.

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WildManner1059@reddit

Umm, Ubuntu is an LTS distro. Intentionally hold off adding/updating packages until they're tested stable with current/next release. You want bleeding edge, go rolling release.

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mrjohnymay@reddit

Sometimes those things are just excuses to try different distros. But yeah, some people are really picky.

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WildManner1059@reddit

And the great thing about Linux is there's probably a distro out there for anyone, and if not, they're free to make their own.

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WildManner1059@reddit

At work, we have an approved list of OS and Software, so I use what is on that list that meets the need.

Outside work, if I need a VM, I tend to pick something that works, and if it's a temp thing, I'll often try to find something new to try.

As for moving away from Canonical. One word. "Snap".

My go to for systems which are not temporary is going to be RHEL (at work) or Rocky (at home). They're LTS with up to date security patches, without being bleeding edge. I've experienced more downtime from bleeding edge patching than malicious activity.

My dislike of snap was due to a pi cluster (10x RPi 4) that basically bricked itself. I tried for a minimal install and turned off auto-updates. Snaps updated anyway and filled the space. So I had to choose between 4 hours of editing OS configs with multiple reboots and manually moving mmc cards around, or 4-6 hours reimaging with an OS that does what I configure it to do. Rocky for ARM image, Ansible to configure after minimal installation.

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Conscious-Brain-8790@reddit

I've distro hopped a lot but not because of distro decisions more just to see how other distros choose to operate, testing their package managers that sorta thing, always end up coming back to Arch just because it's where I feel at home but I find it fun checking out other distros. Could just load them up on vms which I do also but I just prefer testing directly on hardware vs vms. Granted as linux has evolved over the years differences in distros are shrinking but I still find it fun.

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Xemptuous@reddit

Exploration? Curiosity? Boredom?

There are plenty of reasons people distro hop, usually early on in the journey, but also whenever curiosity takes hold or when a problem is being addressed.

I distro-hopped once Ubuntu and Debian became headaches and problems. After a few distros, I settled with arch. Since then, I have tried a few things for fun, curiosity, and potential of "something better" like LFS, NixOS, Endeavor, and a few more.

It's just like trying anything else new in life. Sure, your go-to option at your favorite restaurant is always familiar and works, but maybe there is something else there that might be the best thing you've ever had.

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Crinkez@reddit

The last time I 'distrohopped' was due to the OS blowing itself up to an unrecoverable state during a routine update.

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r_search12013@reddit

I suspect manjaro.. because that's my story too :D

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nicothekiller@reddit

Yeah.... me too. Many such cases.

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angora_cat44@reddit

Worst distro every tried.

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barfightbob@reddit

I know there will always be a guy going "never happened to me." (Hello it's me) But how does that happen? Manjaro delays packages behind Arch and usually waits for the first bugfix release on top of that. Usually whatever chaos unfolds on Arch first (like many Grub breakages for example).

Legitimate question. First time I ever though to ask.

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nicothekiller@reddit

It's simple. Arch wasn't designed for big updates, and manjaro likes to drop huge updates all at once. Combine that with some unstable packages (in my case, the GUI crashed mid plasma, grub, and kernel update). The gui clearly wasn't designed to handle crashes, so my system died. Badly.

I then went to the forums, and it was apparently my fault for "not upgrading in a tty" or something like that. I managed to fix the kernel somehow (I wasn't that good at linux back then, I'm better now), but fixing plasma sounded annoying, and i figured installing arch was easier at that point. And it was. Now I'm an arch user.

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barfightbob@reddit

Thanks

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jEG550tm@reddit

Me too. I tried mintupdate but it had trouble migrating some packages to the new repo, so I tried to load my timeshift backup but it only ended up obliterating my system which was a blessing in disguise since I was meaning to move from mint to fedora anyway, as I felt I outgrew it and knew what I wanted now: semi-bleeding edge, with wayland, and kde plasma. Fedora fit the bill for that.

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Nervous-Diamond629@reddit (OP)

Yes. That is a reasonable reason to distrohop. Not because of silly trends.

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Dont_tase_me_bruh694@reddit

I'm so relieved your providing blessings to distrohop. Please bless me almighty one who decides when it's valid to change operating systems on a computer.

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wick3dr0se@reddit

Thou art denied. The hour is not yet come. Return whence you came, and reflect

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seventhbrokage@reddit

Entirely unrelated, but I just want to thank you for using proper medieval English here. It seems like everyone gets the grammar wrong when trying to use it online. Not that it's something I'd expect people to know, but it's one of my irrational pet peeves.

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whenidieillgotohell@reddit

Verily, art thou not ashamed for not plegian in like manner?

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seventhbrokage@reddit

Nah bruh that's skibidi (or whatever the kids are saying these days)

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webby-debby-404@reddit

I bless you, oh Relieved One, and I validate every change of operating system on every computer already done, doing now and to do for how long you'll live. Go forth and hop distro relentlessly and diligently

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posting_drunk_naked@reddit

2 month old account being whiney and rude about nothing 🤔

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Analogue_Simulacrum@reddit

Was there a BSD revival that I missed?

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MoistBowel@reddit

Smells like arch lol

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Crinkez@reddit

Slowroll.

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kcirick@reddit

How long ago was this? Slowroll is still a beta and it’s made a big stride in the past few months. I’m a fan of Slowroll, but Gentoo wins it for me over OpenSuse.

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Crinkez@reddit

Few months. I think the issue is while Tumbleweed etc. have a built in rollback function, the OS blew up at a level deeper than the rollback function could support. Possibly master boot record, I can't remember the details.

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bmwiedemann@reddit

It still hurts a bit to hear that my baby is ugly.

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Crinkez@reddit

For a one man army it's an impressive distro. But it's hard to compete with the big guns solo.

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bmwiedemann@reddit

It's based on Tumbleweed, so it can reuse the effort of many more contributors, both corporate and community. Otherwise it could never work.

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Worth_Bluebird_7376@reddit

I distrohopped because debian/ubuntu, fedora are not my thing. i use arch a lot. 4 years of arch user

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Satanz_Barz@reddit

he just just get arch or gentoo if he doesn’t like any bloat at all

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throwaway89124193@reddit

I feel like people that distrohop should just try a DIY distro like arch, void or gentoo to understand that the only thing that basically changes between distros is the package manager and defaults (sometimes init)

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DontLeaveMeAloneHere@reddit

I looked at a few distros before finally deciding that I stay with vanilla arch and cachyOS (2 systems).

Every single time I’m not on arch, I don’t even know how people install stuff without aur and even pacman is more powerful than a lot of other packagemanagers. Using something that isn’t arch feels like a big downgrade.

I have no reason to change my distro since it can literally do literally anything I build into it.

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ye3tr@reddit

VMs, VMs, VMs.

Curious about an OS? Download the ISO and spin up a VM. Any OS too, especially how you can emulate architectures and shit on QEMU. Lame reason to distrohop, I agree. I ran VMs on a dual core 4gb ram crappy laptop with virtualbox and Windows 10 as the hypervisor. No excuse not to spin up a VM.

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Kibertuz@reddit

when you have too many choices this is bound to happen.

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Batata_Sacana@reddit

I did this a lot when I was still learning about Linux. You know, the transition from Windows to Linux when I started was still a bit strange. How can I explain? In Windows I was used to everything always having the same problems in the same way. The reason I switched to Linux was because when we went from W10 to W11, my PC couldn't handle it and as I didn't want to stay on a system that wouldn't have things like security updates anymore, I thought "I'm going to jump to Linux, which is lighter and I don't use my PC to play anyway". I started on Ubuntu, then fedora, manjaro, mint. When you leave a standardized OS and arrive at one with such a wide range of possibilities, you find yourself drooling over so many possibilities within reach of the keyboard. After trying so many things. I changed distros every 2 weeks, if not 3 times in an afternoon, for the simple fact that it was so fucking fun. After a while I started to be more selective in what I want, today I wear a fedora not because I like passion, but because it's kind of my ying yang "It never makes me angry enough to punch my screen" "There's always what I need in.... About 70% of the cases"

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Intrepid_Length_6879@reddit

I suspect what is at play with a lot of distrohoppers is the "grass is greener syndrome" and letting the "perfect be the enemy of the good" cognitive traps.

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Razathorn@reddit

Sounds like an OS enthusiast. I like them. They're not everyone, not should they be.

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GeriatricUserProfile@reddit

I enjoy the canonical bad to fedora user arch, as if Fedora doesn't constantly have to be told not to do something to the distro that noone wants. Example: The 32x bit thing that happened recently, or the opt out telemetry that they ttied forcing on new users amd will probably try forcing onto people again.

Canonical sucks, but redhat wouldn't be any better if they were allowed.

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GeriatricUserProfile@reddit

I enjoy the canonical bad to fedora user arch, as if Fedora doesn't constantly have to be told not to do something to the distro that noone wants. Example: The 32x bit thing that happened recently, or the opt out telemetry that they ttied forcing on new users amd will probably try forcing onto people again.

Canonical sucks, but redhat wouldn't be any better if they were allowed.

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s0f4r@reddit

Observer bias.

You only see the "this thing made me switch" posts on social media. You don't see (e.g.) 30% of the userbase becoming annoyed by a disruptive change, and you don't see media posts of the 99.9% of people who don't have time to post on social media that they are "dismayed, but will continue to use the same distro".

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amidg4x4@reddit

IMO Distrohop is what kills Linux community. I am convinced people who use their computer for anything useful don’t or barely do it because setting system up from scratch is a waste of time.

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Exciting_Turn_9559@reddit

I honestly could not care less what other people choose to do as long as it isn't hurting anybody else.

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tukanoid@reddit

Personally, I used to distrohop cuz could never find "the right one" for me (either too unstable for my tinkering self and requires recovering from breakage a lot, or too stable, not giving me the packages of versions I want/need, or just too "boring"). Been driving NixOS as my main for 2 years now, and I think I found what I was looking for, more or less. It's definitely not easy to get into, but I love the ability to configure my entire system with a functional programming language, where I can do some wild stuff, while being assured I won't break my system completely cuz I can always go back to previous derivation of something is wrong.

But I guess there are people like that dude, ppl like him are everywhere tho, he just happened to be more tech-oriented, if he wasn't, prolly would find other things to brigade and get mad about (plenty of people doing it on twitter)

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MichiganJayToad@reddit

If you like KDE and your distro drops it then that's a great reason to switch to something else that has KDE, duhh.

What you mean is that you don't care about KDE and look down upon your friend for caring about that.

And.. Linux started turning into a Microsoft product as soon as systemd took over.

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Nervous-Diamond629@reddit (OP)

I use KDE as my daily driver lol.

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MichiganJayToad@reddit

Ok so then you're just shitposting? I mean, it's reddit so.. not too unusual I guess.

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Nervous-Diamond629@reddit (OP)

Nope. I'm just pointing out the hypocrisy of this guy.

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postmortemstardom@reddit

It's not distrohopping that's bugging you.

It's “tech honeymoon syndrome with buyer’s remorse lag" that's bugging you.

Every distro they've used is the best (honeymoon) until it gets old and now they are looking at faults so it becomes the worst ( buyer's remorse).

I have a cousin that does the same thing but with phones. Every phone he buys is the best one until he buys another, after that the previous phone becomes the worst thing ever.

If it gets bad, hop the distro. If it's getting harder to do your work, hop again. But hoping for reasons some would call vanity and bashing the distro you've hopped from unless they've really messed up is the real problem.

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Li0nhead@reddit

I think the opposite.

With so many Linux distros put there it is a good thing that you can swap to another that may better suit your needs if your chosen distro makes a change that you are not happy with.

I have been on the same distro for the last few years and am currently happy with my chosen distro.

Every now and again I do test other distros by dual booting. If I find another that better suits my needs then I would switch.

Linux gives you freedom to choose what works for you.

If we simply stayed on the first OS we met then I would still be on the first OS I can remember using which was on my computer as a child which was a Commodore 64 and whatever OS they used. (I'd still prefer that to windows 11).

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killersteak@reddit

He accused Linux of trying to be like Microsoft.

Curse that single most important network infrastructure software be given money to be developed. (shakes fist at linux)

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Heizard@reddit

We have the power of choice - we use it. It's This is the glory of FOSS - let people disrohop to their heart content.

Complacency leads to stagnation, degradation of learning ability and toxic attachments like we see with Windows.

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Remote-Combination28@reddit

Real Linux users don’t.

If you need your pc for anything useful, or want a reliable server, you aren’t distro hopping. In fact, you’re probably choosing a long term support build, and not changing anything for a long time.

Some people enjoy messing with the os, more then they need a reliable computer or server. And I am totally supportive of that. Just not as my main systems

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Guisseppi@reddit

The last lime I distro hopped was when I figured ElementaryOS didn’t had an “apt distro-upgrade” and it required a fresh install

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Nervous-Diamond629@reddit (OP)

Even Zorin OS has this by now.

How can a user friendly distro not have this? Not everyone has the technical expertise to manual partition a home folder.

Even MX Linux. That's the thing that ruined it for me, because imagine having to reinstall every 5 years. That's sad, because otherwise this distro is a walking gold mine for new users.

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silenceimpaired@reddit

That’s all it took for me to not try it. I was so impressed with its shine.

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Affectionate-Sir3949@reddit

for work, never distrohop. otherwise? i hop cuz i can and it's fun, also easy

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Nervous-Diamond629@reddit (OP)

Me too. I do video editing, gaming, schoolwork, and writing office documents on this computer. I would have done distro hopping but my other computer(which I started using Linux on) went kaput and now I'm stuck using this one

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sammy0panda@reddit

if it works for em, it works. If it not for you, then don't do it. Although, i do hope a culture of distrohopping could introduce the idea of easier migrations between distros. That way if it ever comes to be that a distro is abandoned people who don't distrohop could take advantage of the structures laid out by those who do.

But yes for sure, consider sticking with ya distro. Or finding a distro ya have passion for to where you'd wanna stick through thick and thin i think. \\^_\\^ but also, if not, no pressure different folks feel different about computers n that's the beauty of linux.

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rarsamx@reddit

I don't care to understand them. They can do as they please. Why do you think they should follow your desires?

I've had periods of distrohoping. I've had long years of the same distro. I've had my reasons and I would seriously wonder about the mental stability of someone concerned about that.

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CelebrationOwn3414@reddit

I distrohopped couple years because i wanted specific things until i updated my hardware and went back to mint with gnome desktop. I still want plasma 6.2. Don't know how to get it in mint so im happy with riced gnome.

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zerofennec@reddit

I've distro hopped a lot and finally settled on Pop_OS. I stayed there and eagerly awaited Cosmic. Until my games and apps started having major issues. I had been following a lot of work being done with Wayland and wanted to try it. I switched to Bazzite UB and all of the issues I had vanished. Not to mention that I haven't even thought of KDE for a long time. It's come so far since last I used it that I fell in love.

Fedora Kinoite & Bazzite are my current flavors, and unless something major shifts in my needs, here's where I'll stay. (I'm one of those creatives that doesn't like moving a lot)

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Queen_Euphemia@reddit

I think dropping a distro because it doesn't default to a particular desktop environment is pretty reasonable actually, especially if you are frequently reinstalling, or installing on new devices. It also is true that some distros just have better packages for a particular environment.

If I wanted to run Cinnamon I would probably be best off doing it on Mint, as the package maintainers will probably be quick and on top of things for that environment. I could run Cinnamon even on Linux from Scratch but, I would just have a much easier time picking a distro that is built around it.

I have been using Debian for a very long time on my main PC, I doubt I would gain or lose anything meaningful with my simple X-11/Openbox/Tint2 interface if I were to switch to another distro, but If I were really into KDE I think it would be perfectly reasonable to switch to KDE Neon to get much newer versions than what are available in Debian stable.

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prosper_0@reddit

I think its kinda asinine, when 5 minutes of apt-getting will change a DE. Expecting a distro to have everything you want preinstalled is just.... dumb.

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Queen_Euphemia@reddit

You are not going to replicate the versions in KDE Neon, on Debian stable unless you are intent in not following the Debian Way and if you start adding repositories you will quickly break your install. You will literally be years behind what current is for KDE if you just use apt and don't add a bunch of repositories, so I think that is a pretty understandable reason why someone might want to use a different distro.

If you hang out on r/debian for a while you will see many people who have messed up their system with unnecessary backports, forcing PPAs into their sources, or trusting some third party repository. Because, they are trying to get the latest and greatest whatever, and they would have saved themselves lots of trouble by just going with a more appropriate distro for the task, or using something designed to work with user repositories like Arch.

Also, no one at all said everything, why are you shadowboxing against something neither me nor the OP said.

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Nervous-Diamond629@reddit (OP)

Yes.

The thing is that if you're ok with your distro, then there's no point in switching.

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Wooden-Ad6265@reddit

If he got time, health, family and work in place (right priority) and doesn't pathologically distrohop like me, he's good and fine. I skip meals, sleep, college work and friends switching between fedora/arch/gentoo(yea...h), dotfiles manager (stow, chezmoi) themes (rose pine or catppuccin). Yeah, that's exactly what I've been doing for the past 1 year. I don't regret a bit of it except that I had to be hospitalized because of ketone poisoning once coz I wasn't eating or drinking water enough. i learned a lot of things. I have got the distro for me (gentoo) and the initial list of things that I wanna learn.

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MouseJiggler@reddit

The thing is that 5he criteria to decide what makes you ok or not ok with your distro are personal, and that there is no "wrong" opinion here.

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crypticcamelion@reddit

This is a most sensible approach, in the core there is so little difference of various distros that it makes little to no sense to hop to one or the other. what makes sense is you example of choosing the distro that comes closest to you needs/wishes with respect to desktop environment and bundled in software. The closer the less work for you and as you say the bigger the chance that the maintainers will quickly fix issues.

The only other reason to hop I have found is that now and then I run into a laptop that doesn't play well with the distro I was planning to use and then works perfectly with another. Then I of cause use the other! What do I care if its debian or suse or fedora as the under laying distro as long as I easily get the environment and software I want and a stable system for the lifetime of the laptop in question.

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bstamour@reddit

Life gets better when you stop caring so much about what other people do with their personal computers. That being said: if you aren't using Slackware or FreeBSD you're dead to me /s

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Hjort1995@reddit

Hahahaha

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IrrerPolterer@reddit

I don't get those people either. Like, just find a distro whose release cycle speaks to you, and customize for whatever DE and software you like. Your distro doesn't ship KDE by default? Just fucking install it if you want it so much.

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svarta_gallret@reddit

Yeah, hopping is lame just fork the distro bro

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OrganizationShot5860@reddit

I only distrohop if something doesn't work and I have to do a lot of work to get it working out of the box on one distro vs it just working out of the box on the other. For me that was Arch, but for others I am sure it's Debian, Fedora or w/e. Use the thing that gets you to where you want your computing to be the quickest is my mantra.

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Kurse71@reddit

Nobody understands them, it's all a waste of time. Just sit back and silently laugh at them like the rest of us.

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Significant_Bake_286@reddit

I have never needed a reason other than what the hell. It is fun do it because you want to. No need looking for reasons to hate lol

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johncate73@reddit

People do that just because they get bored, and look for an excuse to try something different.

People who rely on Linux for actual work tend not to switch distros unless it's for a good reason.

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climbtigerfrog@reddit

I switch distros because it's fun. That's why you put your home directory on its own partition. So you can try something new! :-)

That's just another awesome thing about Linux.

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Superb_Plane2497@reddit

Wait, people don't have more than one computer?

Distrohopping is fun, particularly when your work machine is on Ubuntu LTS.

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CommanderAbner@reddit

Just install Gentoo and forget about everything else.

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Infinite_Cellist_585@reddit

So, I been using Linux for over several years now.

A distro is just the package manager and if you need up to date tools.

You can essentially backup your home folder and move around as much as you please.

That being said I use Gentoo because it allows me a greater level of control, with a cost.

I usually just tell people use Debian,Fedora as these are ready to go distros.

There is absolutely 0 reason for the most part to distro hop like a maniac, unless you have a great amount of spare time.

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rootifera@reddit

I've been using Debian since 3.1, I tried a few different option because I was curious, but I feel confortable with debian and it always does the job well for my tasks.

But I also like people keep trying different distros, they find what works for them. And if it doesn't do the job, they switch. I think this should be encouraged. Linux, distros or any software we use - they are just tools to help us do something. In my opinion we don't have to be loyal to any.

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Hour-Juggernaut942@reddit

I'm actually ok with a few bugs if I know what they are.

I run mint and there's a audio but that's annoying but never comes up often enough for me to properly fix it.

Id never distro hop because of it

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skidgingpants@reddit

recommend fedora to your friend...

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Nervous-Diamond629@reddit (OP)

He literally has a grudge against Linux now and declares he's switching to BSD, when that is even worse than Linux in terms of everything but the system structure.

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Jolly-Natural-220@reddit

As a Linux user, Linux has some horrible design decisions compared to some BSDs. OpenBSD has a reputation for amazing documentation that even the Arch Wiki pales in comparison to because bad man pages are seen as a showstopping bug in base. It's also just as if not more reliable than a distro like Debian.

Your gatekeeping sounds like you're just annoyed at how he talks about it all the time.

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skidgingpants@reddit

you should stop being friends with him probably

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Mal_Dun@reddit

Would you genuinely break up a long lasting friendship over a disagreement on the choice of your OS?

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skidgingpants@reddit

i personally dont care what os anyone uses to be honest. have you considered also switching to BSD so you can stay friends

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MouseJiggler@reddit

"Worse" is subjective.

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ragnarokxg@reddit

Sometimes distro hopping is the only thing that makes sense. I just moved to Fedora because PopOS 24 made playing games on steam unplayable due to random locks. And a lot of packages were outdated. So I made the decision to move back to Fedora and am really enjoying KDE.

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GreatBigBagOfNope@reddit

Why would he go for something as, let's be honest, not very useful like TempleOS instead of an actual OS (except for either hipsters or greybeards who cut their teeth before the turn of the millennium) like OpenIndiana, Haiku, or Minix?

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HurasmusBDraggin@reddit

Many Linux "hard" users are some of the most fickle folks ever.

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EqualCrew9900@reddit

My attachment to x11-based Compiz is deep and strong as it provides (for me) the most advanced workflow of any desktop. Not sure that I'll continue to use computers when x11 is gone.

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oneiros5321@reddit

I don't feel like most people distrohop a lot.
Maybe at the beginning in order to find the distro that works for them but I'm fairly certain most people just stick to one for a long time.

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calsutmoran@reddit

It’s just linux / gnu / poetterwitz software balled up. The “distro” is secondary.

If you are doing serious work with linux, you probably picked a distro and stick with it. Distro hopping is fine on a few home computers. Try that on a fleet of servers.

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Keely369@reddit

3 distros in 8 years? Those are rookie numbers.

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Kahless_2K@reddit

I just want a system that stays out of my way, lets me do what I want, and has the security tools I require.

I do hop around a bit, but ive also been using Linux for 25+ years.

If I talk crap about a distro, it's well deserved. States at Ubuntu

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zanfar@reddit

I don't understand people who distrohop when their distro makes a slightly bad decision

started annoyingly pedaling it online even when the discussion wasn't about [it]

That is a reasonable reason to distrohop. Not because of silly trends.

Not understanding why someone changes distros is fine.
Complaining that someone won't shut up about the problems they have with their distro is fine.
Gatekeeping a fundamental feature of the ecosystem and considering yourself an authority on which decisions are "reasonable" and which are "silly trends" is not.

I'm allowed to change distros for any reason whatsoever. It doesn't matter whatsoever how valid that reason sounds to you. If I consider the hue of the default desktop background a critical feature, a core tenant of open source is that I'm not only allowed, but encouraged to resolve any changes however I want--including completely rebuilding my system.

who dropped Linux Mint in 2017-2018 for Kubuntu … Then in 2021 … went to Fedora … in 2025 … He will probably hop to BSD

I'm not sure dropping Fedora for BSD is "chasing a trend", nor is three changes in eight years "hopping". Being an intolerable git aside, his story sounds like a triumph of options.

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Verdeckter@reddit

> I'm allowed to change distros for any reason whatsoever.

I'm confused, did you think the person you replied to wanted to legally ban you from distrohopping? Or is trying to cancel you and get you fired? Obviously you're "allowed" to change distros. The person you replied is just saying they think it's dumb, a waste of time, dilettantish or some other thing they don't like.

People opining about things that everyone is "allowed" to do is the basis of basically of all internet subcultures. It's OK to have an opinion on things. Like what do you think people are saying that you need to respond that you're "allowed to change distros?"

Gatekeeping a fundamental feature of the ecosystem and considering yourself an authority on which decisions are "reasonable" and which are "silly trends" is not.

See, now as far as I can tell, you're actually trying to say I'm not "allowed" to do this. You're trying to impose rules on discussions themselves. In fact, I'm allowed to gatekeep and consider myself an authority for any reason whatsoever!

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Existing-Tough-6517@reddit

Looks like he gets a new OS every 2 years and its likely he not you knows better what he needs and he's spent less time in 8 years re-installing OS than many folks spend in a single season binge watching one show.

I don't think changing OS in 2 years is that big a deal.

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isa_nohtrogs@reddit

I don't distro hop i stay with one... debian...

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silenceimpaired@reddit

What’s your DE?

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GitMergeConflict@reddit

Kde 3.5, can't wait for the next stable release.

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Soft-Clue-2747@reddit

I distrohop for fun.

For me messing around with distros is fun.

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runningFromHeavens@reddit

I used to distro hop when I had nothing to do as a kid, then I switched to Ubuntu for 3 to 5 years and parallel to my windows which I mostly used for pirated games and ms office. When Ubuntu forced snap everywhere and my college got over. I switched to Linux mint permanently.

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NecroAssssin@reddit

Changing distro 3 times in 8 years isn't 'distro hopping' - come back when it's 3 times in 8 days.

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webfiend@reddit

Ah but it was a fun week!

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webfiend@reddit

Hell I'll distrohop because Thursday.

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insanemal@reddit

My distro hopping happened like this:

Got Ubuntu 8.04 to work on a laptop. Ran Ubuntu until it was breaking more than it was working because I wanted it to do things and they didn't have those things in the package manager.

Moved to Arch.

Got job at SGI. They run openSuSE or windows. Moved to OpenSUSE.

Left SGI. Went back to Arch.

Still run Arch.

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silenceimpaired@reddit

Does Arch never break during updates? How often do you have to do something specific for an update? How often do you update? How technically minded are you?

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ILikeBumblebees@reddit

Does Arch never break during updates?

That's happened to me exactly once since I switched to Arch in 2013, when the Infinality font packages stopped working. Took about 30 minutes to fix. Apart from that, changes introduced by updates have only required the occasional minor adjustment to a config option or the like.

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insanemal@reddit

Not normally. I think I can count on one hand how many times Arch has broken in the years since I switched to Arch.

Even during my openSuSE days I had Arch machines.

One of my laptops, a Lenovo ThinkPad, is still running Arch that I first installed when I left Ubuntu.

I'm terribly inconsistent with updates sometimes it will be multiple times a week sometimes I go months without updates.

I did have a little bit of fun when they changed package format and one of my machines hadn't been updated in two years. I managed to solve the issue and it's still going strong.

I build supercomputers for a job.

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silenceimpaired@reddit

Mmm. I’m not on your level :) maybe I’ll stick with Debian until it betrays me.

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insanemal@reddit

Arch doesn't need my kind of Unix beard wizardry.

Try EndeavourOS. It's Arch for normal people.

It's going to be more up to date than Debian (remember when Debian say they are stable they aren't talking about not crashing, they are talking about version numbers)

When a distribution says they are stable, they are talking about version stability. Not reliably. That's not to say Debian isn't reliable. It usually is. But so is Arch.

Arch is rolling release. That means when a new version comes out it's available as soon as it is possible to make it available.

The stability Debian and Red Hat have are important for servers and enterprise applications because they expect specific versions of things to be available. A super expensive piece of banking software, for example, might need Red Hat 9. It should work on RH9 from day one to the day they stop patching RH9 because the release is stable. It will always have version 2.8.x of some specific library available even if a newer version is available.

Things like PHP, MySQL, Apache, NGINX and all sorts of other important applications that run websites and other applications will always be the same or a very close but totally compatible version for the whole life of that release.

That's what stable means

Unstable just means that while you might have PHP and MySQL, for example, they will be the latest version. And that might be incompatible with something you buy or build. So you'll have to update that application to use the new versions.

This doesn't affect games at all. In fact thanks to most games running in Proton, it just makes them all work better. It also doesn't affect any applications that are packaged by the distribution as they will all be built against or patched for whatever is available in the distro.

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silenceimpaired@reddit

Maybe so, but so far Debian has gone the longest without a significant issue. I primarily use Debian to live in VMs so I’m okay with stale.

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insanemal@reddit

Hey if it works for your use case, there is no reason to change.

But if it wasn't working, that's when you look at your options. But only then.

The grass isn't greener over the fence, it's a different species. (most of the time, there are exceptions. Manjaro is just a steaming pile of horse shit 24/7)

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Altruistic_Ad3374@reddit

He hopped 3 distros in 8 years, I think he'll be fine

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silenceimpaired@reddit

And here I am trying to find a distro that has LTS for a Decade. Spoiled by Windows 7 and Windows 10.

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daemonpenguin@reddit

AlmaLinux, Ubuntu Pro, and SUSE all offer 10+ years of support.

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imbev@reddit

That's one of the goals for HeliumOS, currently in Beta.

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Nervous-Diamond629@reddit (OP)

You can use Ubuntu with free Ubuntu Pro, which adds another 5 years.

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silenceimpaired@reddit

Oh I settled on Debian. I hate snap packs. My only regret is going with KDE as it isn’t very polished on this version.

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Sigma186@reddit

Debian is great. Settled on it a few years ago. I do agree KDE isn't as polished as in other places, but hey you can always change the graphical environment.

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mrtruthiness@reddit

On my "main desktop" I've used 4 distros in 30 years. I've been on my current distro for 12-13 years with no clean reinstall.

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Altruistic_Ad3374@reddit

You've found what works for you, then if I may what is that distro?

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mrtruthiness@reddit

Ubuntu. The LTS structure was great, no-fuss upgrades of Debian with a no-fuss install and better/nicer fonts. Also, Unity was great. It just works.

History: Slackware 1995-1998. RedHat 5.1 1999 hated it. Debian 2000-2012. Ubuntu 2012-2025.

On my non-main desktop ... I've also tried a few others. e.g. On my non-main desktop, I kept with Debian Wheezy until 2015-ish and switched to FreeBSD for a year or two. The simplicity and documentation of FreeBSD was great and reminded me of Slackware.

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ZunoJ@reddit

Almost feels like the punchline to a joke lol

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BrianaAgain@reddit

Sometimes your little frustrations build-up and it just takes one little thing to make you nuke-and-pave with something new. Lol, it's how I ended-up on Linux in the first place.

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Luigi-is-my-boi@reddit

lol sounds like a typical linux user. I used to do the same until i just admitted to myself that linux actually sucks on the desktop and went back to microsoft and MacOS. Linux, its great for servers, trash for the general desktop.

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PruneJuice2401@reddit

These posts make me glad I'm a Gentoo user.

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silenceimpaired@reddit

Gentoo is in my Linux from scratch and Slackware bucket. I known nothing about any of them and I assume I would cry trying to use them. Care to tell me what you love about it?

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PruneJuice2401@reddit

The stability, the performance & control over my system, the choices you can make or not make, and absolutely portage, but also glsa-check.

I don't have updates that break my system, and it works perfectly with my container focused workflow. It's also a breeze to get virt-manager up and running. I've used it on a laptop, daily driven it for a couple years, and once you get over the minimal investment of time, you can get a system that's brick solid AND performant.

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silenceimpaired@reddit

You both interest me and scare me.

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NecroAssssin@reddit

Portage go 'brrrrrrrrr'

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rhweir@reddit

Dropping Mint because you want to use KDE or Gnome is valid imo.

Dropping Ubuntu because you want more bleeding edge software is also valid.

Crying about bloat is incredibly weird in these days of terabyte drives and cheapish RAM.

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TheHENOOB@reddit

Even if Fedora/KDE is a amazing pair for me, I still love Mint's lightweight and elegant apps, I hope they get that Wayland support for Cinnamon stable soon.

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ZunoJ@reddit

Did they completely remove kde from the mint repos or what is going on there?

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Fluffeu@reddit

Bloat is not only about performance, although it's a big part. For example, I daily drive minimalistic awesomewm rice. I sometimes hop onto my laptop with KDE. When opening some things, or connecting to networks, KDE pops up a dialog window with "KDE password wallet". I don't want that, it's annoying and I'd rather my computer only did what I tell it to. This is what bloat means for many people.

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rhweir@reddit

ah your mistake was using kde

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Fredol@reddit

I almost hopped from Fedora yesterday thinking they fucked up the nvidia drivers after an update but actually secure boot got re-enabled on my bios and that was causing the issue

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Flynn58@reddit

Distrohopping is itself wild to me outside rare situations that create a justification. I've been committed to Fedora for a while. My only real "distrohop" is that for enterprise situations I've started focusing away from RHEL towards AlmaLinux.

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vitimiti@reddit

I dropped Ubuntu for Fedora 2 months before they found the first malware in the snap store. Those small decisions have consequences

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shegonneedatumzzz@reddit

don’t we love linux because it works and allows us to do what we want with our system

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Alarmed-Physics9155@reddit

Who cares either way. It's an OS not a personality.

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Slight_Manufacturer6@reddit

I see nothing wrong with hopping to see if there are better defaults that fit you… but I do t think they are things someone should complain about.

It’s like having one hair style and then later changing and complaining that the old hair style is stupid. If people like it l, they like it and if they don’t then they don’t and it’s all good. Like what you want.

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ridcully077@reddit

the more you tighten your grip, Tarkinbuntu, the more star systems will slip through your fingers

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trueselfdao@reddit

I'd hardly call what that person did distro hopping. I distro hop for trends and it's fun. Take a chill pill.

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RegularCommonSense@reddit

Right now, only my RPi 400 runs Linux on bare metal (64-bit Raspberry Pi OS, for now). I want to run other distros, but I haven’t yet decided which one works best for me. I have decades of experiences with distros so that part is fine. Not afraid to try something new.

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Morningstar-Luc@reddit

He dropped something he didn't like and went to try another thing. I don't see any problem with it. Has he assaulted someone for sticking to a distro he has dropped?

And honestly, I think he might be comfortable using windows or Mac.

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DurandalJoyeuse@reddit

Other people distro hop because they don't like the decisions of the developers.

I distro hop because I'm bored and hate stability.

We are not the same.

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dinosaursdied@reddit

Sounds like your friend is lunduke pilled

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tmofee@reddit

Some people like experimenting. I get it, and it’s fun to learn, but it’s too much for me, haha. I’m stuck on Ubuntu and I don’t think that will change any time soon.

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crackhash@reddit

Because they don't do any actual work on PC to earn a living.

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Mumuskeh@reddit

At his point Arch is the way

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LordAnchemis@reddit

Same reason people get divorced over who's turn it is to do the washing right?

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housepanther2000@reddit

My distro hopping ended 3 years ago with Arch Linux. Arch is the perfect distro for me.

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reddi7er@reddit

Linux mint. offer me $10k and i won't budge. betcha?

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oops77542@reddit

"There is someone else i know who dropped Linux Mint in 2017-2018 for Kubuntu because they dropped KDE(Perfectly fine decision)."

Well I'm glad you approve 'cause I did the same thing.

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gljames24@reddit

Honestly, the "slightly bad decision" is usually tye straw that broke the camel's back type thing or they were otherwise looking for a reason to tty an switch and the decision was more of an excuse.

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ValkeruFox@reddit

If that decision breaks working process - why should people continue to use it?

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El_Guapo00@reddit

People that actually don't use Linux but see it as cool. I don't have the time for such nonsense.

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daemonpenguin@reddit

Lots of people see the world in black and white, good or bad. It is very limiting and likely to cause a lot of extra work for your friend.

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bobj33@reddit

Your friend sounds tedious to deal with. I would just say "do whatever you want, I don't care" which is my general philosophy to life.

The vast majority of people pick a distribution and stay with it. Any package on one can usually be simply installed on another.

I went from Slackware in 1994 to Red Hat in 1998 and then they transitioned to Fedora which I still run.

I've got 15 computers of various ages and of course virtual machines so I've installed Ubuntu, Suse, Arch, Gentoo, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, illumos / OpenIndiana, and more. It's interesting to play around with but I use my machine to do actual work. Fedora does everything I need so I've never seen the point of distrohopping.

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Typeonetwork@reddit

That's why I use Xfce as it works on most distros and lower resource machines. On the same token, If someone wants to use KDE that's fine.

Some users are unsatisfied, so they distro hop. Once you find a purpose it becomes easier to pick.

I've tried Fedora in a VM and it was good. Tried Xubuntu didn't like the way it worked. Found MX Linux and it worked on my potato machine my wife found and dual boot antiX with fluxbox. Both I'll stay with.

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zeanox@reddit

if you're the type of person that doesn't even think of the OS when doing your work, don't distrohop like mad. Don't switch because of trends

That is really for you to decide. I think you're missing a major point here, distro-hopping is fun. It's fun to switch things up, try new things and see what other distros have been working on.

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hadrabap@reddit

Fortunately, I'm too lazy to switch my ecosystem completely. Maybe it's a vendor lock, but it is cheaper for me to change things to my liking.

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ferric021@reddit

I didn't think I needed a reason at all...

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siberiandruglord@reddit

I just dropped Mint because after a regular update my frametimes when gaming became inconsistent for no reason.

Quite annoying and I have no energy left to investigate what is causing that.

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JockstrapCummies@reddit

The fact of the matter is that distros have converged so much these days that the actual difference between them is miniscule compared to, say, the late 2000s.

There's really no reason to distrohop except if you don't put in the effort to do something as trivial as installing another DE or grabbing a more up to date release of a single piece of software, which can be done easily on all distros.

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SynapticStatic@reddit

Maybe it’s because when I first started using *nix there was no default desktop but I also don’t understand why people don’t just learn how to change what desktop/window manager they want to use instead of blowing everything away and reinstalling everything.

What are you really gaining by doing that? It’s not like it runs multiple wms at once, and learning how to change things yourself is a good way to learn how to do things and customize your own environment to better fit your needs.

I feel like a lot of people fall into this trap when figuring out how things work and how to tweak things for themselves would have much better results for them in the long run.

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uziam@reddit

I don’t understand it either, but why are you bothered by it? Some people enjoy trying new things and critiquing stuff. People can distrohop every weekend for all I care.

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Leafs_Will_Win_Again@reddit

Fiddling with distros can be fun. Like many others I have too many computers. So I’m always tinkering and trying stuff out. Arch is fun. Ubuntu annoys me. Pop never fully worked for me. Mint was useful to me for a brief period. Suse never clicked with me. Never used kubuntu. BSD is on a network appliance.

Breaking, complaining and fixing is just part of the cycle. And it keeps computing fresh and interesting to avoid burnout and staleness. So I would argue that the need for distro hopping is more related to personality. I too like to live dangerously (haha).

That said my main computer has been running Fedora since RedHat 6 after I distro hopped from Slackware. Fedora has always just worked for me although I hated the Gnome 3 transition years.

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Nervous-Diamond629@reddit (OP)

Yeah, fiddling with distros is fun.

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SmallRocks@reddit

/r/linuxcirclejerk is leaking

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ZorakOfThatMagnitude@reddit

Any new OS is a learning experience and learning involves varying levels of discomfort.

Some folks accept the comfort and learn, others complain about the discomfort and learn, and then there are those who complain and stop.

All are doing something different when faced with difficulty, the difference is the amount of change.

My guess for those distro hopping like you described is that they're searching for identity in their OS like one shops for clothes. If it takes work to get into it, then it must not be for them and they try something else.

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Simple_Anteater_5825@reddit

Microsoft must breathe a sigh of relief every time they read these distro of the week posts.

And so, Bill's " what me worry?" mindset

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tomscharbach@reddit

Honestly, if you're the type of person that doesn't even think of the OS when doing your work, don't distrohop like mad. Don't switch because of trends. Because you will be setting yourself up for disappointment.

Well, duh. Some people just don't settle down. Not a big deal.

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tanksalotfrank@reddit

That's the fun part about Linux distros: you have a lot of choices and can distrohop if you so please.

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Dont_tase_me_bruh694@reddit

I understand it. There a thousand distros, many very alike. If a distros does something you dislike and another distros doesn't do that thing but has what you want, why NOT distrohop? Seems to me that's when you SHOULD do it. It's once of my favorite things about Linux.

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_Arch_Stanton@reddit

I dropped mint when they stopped KDE, too.

I think the problem is that no one really knows what foibles a distro has until they start to use it in anger and then, because there's a choice, people exercise it.

Nothing wrong with hopping because of it.

I use Kubuntu now. I don't always like it as much as Mint but Mint doesn't have KDE so I tolerate it.

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EmotionalDamague@reddit

Been riding Fedora since Vista.

It’s literally a sneak peak of the rest of the Linux ecosystem, since red hat actually funds stuff. 🫠

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Moarkush@reddit

He's a hipster.

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Red007MasterUnban@reddit

Damn, Imagine complaining about somebody's personal decision to 3rd party.