[-]

shadowkoishi93@reddit

My first foray into Linux was back in the late 2000s. Back then, Canonical was still shipping install CDs for the then-latest versions of Ubuntu and then Kubuntu. Tried it on a Dell Optiplex GX150. Think it was 8.04

Then I tried 9.04, and then on a different PC, I tried Fedora. I wouldn’t return to linux until 2019, when my coworker and manager at the time introduced me to other flavors of linux like Point Linux, Peppermint, Zorin, and Linux Mint. I also gave MX Linux a try a few days ago, but ultimately decided to settle with Zorin for newer systems and Peppermint for older systems. I currently have a dedicated Shuttle PC that runs Peppermint with nsCDE.

[-]

-_-_--_-___-@reddit

I ran into this. I gave up on tinkering and ‘perfecting’ this system of mine and embraced a desktop environment and haven’t looked back since.

I got no time to spend on that.

[-]

FairYesterday8490@reddit

Immutable Linux: Why and How to Use It

If you want a stable, easy-to-maintain desktop system, consider using an immutable Linux variant such as Bluefin, Endless OS, or Fedora Silverblue. These systems are designed to be easy to install and very resistant to accidental breakage.

Unlike traditional Linux distributions, an immutable Linux system is a “hard shell” — the core operating system is read-only and cannot be unintentionally modified or corrupted. That means you can’t easily “break” your base OS by installing the wrong package or running a bad command.

So how do you actually use it? The answer is Toolbox.

Toolbox lets you create a mutable Linux container on top of your immutable base.
Inside this container, you can install packages, libraries, GUIs, or terminal tools just like on a normal Linux system.
If the container breaks or becomes unstable, you simply discard it and create a new one — your immutable host remains untouched.
The toolbox container can still access resources from the base system when needed.
Best of all, you can run multiple toolboxes with different distros (e.g., Fedora, Ubuntu, Arch, Debian) side by side, without ever changing or risking your main system.

Practical Example: Installing Krita in a Toolbox

Create a new container (here using Fedora 40): toolbox create --distro fedora --release 40
Enter the container: toolbox enter --container fedora-toolbox-40
Install Krita inside the toolbox: sudo dnf install -y krita
Run Krita (Toolbox integrates with your desktop, so GUI apps just work): krita &
In Bluefin OS your icons just appears on gnome.

If this container ever breaks, you can delete it and recreate a fresh one — your immutable base stays rock-solid.

Real-world stability example:
I’ve been running Endless OS on a Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi devices are generally unstable and prone to crashes. I tried Mint, Debian, and Ubuntu — all crashed within a week. But Endless OS has been running for over four years without a single crash. In my Fedora container, I installed everything I needed, from GUI apps to terminal utilities. As long as you don’t need apps that require deep system-level integration, this setup works flawlessly.

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Infinite_Bathroom784@reddit

So are you going to use Windows? What operating system will you now use?

[-]

Leniwcowaty@reddit (OP)

If you'd read the post, you would know

[-]

NewspaperSoft8317@reddit

Maybe you haven't heard of btrfs and snapper/Timeshift rollbacks?

It'll probably save you a few headaches when tinkering a bunch.

[-]

celt_witch_9925@reddit

I’m starting at 50 with Linux and view it as a hobby. I see this and wonder if I should just do wood carving instead 🤣

[-]

TBTapion@reddit

You can have multiple hobbies

[-]

celt_witch_9925@reddit

I have too many haha. Just like distros I am learning. Too many

[-]

KoviCZ@reddit

I think there's a real condition that could be described as "installation addiction". You are hooked on the dopamines you get from installing something new. I noticed this in myself, installing new distros but also installing various retro games and getting them to work, and then never actually playing them. Ever since I realized what was happening, I've made a conscious effort to cut down on acquiring and installing things just for the sake of installing them. When I occasionally still install a fresh distro or DE, I do it in a VM now and leave the host system, that's stable and works, stable and working.

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Proof-Park-4440@reddit

I recently installed Linux on my gaming rig, alongside Windows in another drive. I’ve been using Windows since the early 2000s, so this is my first time using Linux. However, I’m planning to just set it and forget it. I don’t want to fix anything that’s not broken.

[-]

sam_the_beagle@reddit

Geez. I'm 65 and a Mandrake / Dos 3 / CPM-80 user. Mint does what I want. Period. I switched to Linux to get off the hamster wheel of Windows. I went distro hopping for a few years and the only reason I stayed with Mint is that it talked to my peripherals easier. If I had to go to Debian, Ubuntu, Red Hat, etc tomorrow - no biggie.

[-]

DHPRedditer@reddit

At some point you get tired of all that distro hopping and tweaking and you're ready to just use the PC for fun and communication and browsing around the Reddit forums. 🙂

[-]

Henry_Fleischer@reddit

Ah, looks like it took you a decade to reach where I ended up after a month, although I settled on Debian Stable.

[-]

reditanian@reddit

Why do you need to reinstall every couple of weeks? Seems excessive.

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Diavolo_Rosso_@reddit

For me it’s always been tinkering with things mentally understand to the point of breaking it and not being able to figure out how to fix it. 😬

[-]

thelangosta@reddit

I feel seen

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FrostyDiscipline7558@reddit

Test on a vm. Take snapshots.

[-]

igderkoman@reddit

Is there anything better than VMware workstation on Windows for this?

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IgorFerreiraMoraes@reddit

I don't know if VirtualBox has snapshots support, but I found it to be the best on Windows. On Linux GNOME Boxes has this functionality and it's just perfect!

[-]

Girldad2x@reddit

Better is a subjective word. There are hypervisors for Linux. Which hypervisor one should leverage really depends on their individual needs and use case (like every technology solution should be selected/purchased/deployed). There are hypervisors for every platform available. Pick your poison but please use snapshots so you can avoid some of the pitfalls described by OP.

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igderkoman@reddit

Yes thank you use snapshots with vmware on Windows for a long time. I was wondering if QEMU is better on Windows for Linux VMs or any other

[-]

Girldad2x@reddit

QEMU, VMware workstation, virtualbox, hyper-v, etc for general Linux VM(s) use via Windows should be fine. This is very generalized assuming no special needs but those all should work well.

[-]

FrostyDiscipline7558@reddit

Yes! Use Linux and kvm!

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3XPLpls@reddit

but what’s the fun in that if there is no risk?

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FrostyDiscipline7558@reddit

It’s fun for the rest of us, no one complaining.

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LoweringPass@reddit

My guy have you heard of virtualization?

[-]

Damn-Sky@reddit

at the beginning, it was great using snapshots and virtualisation.

But now I always lack storage for snapshots and virtualisation and simply don't have time micro manage these kind of stuff.

[-]

GammaGargoyle@reddit

I always run on bare metal or as close as possible for maximum performance. Otherwise, what’s the point of all this?

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Diavolo_Rosso_@reddit

When I first picked the hobby up a few months ago that’s almost exclusively what I did since I was familiar with it from 10-15 years ago. Then I got into Docker and I’ve actually learned a ton about diver from screwing things up. I’m nowhere near rolling my own image, blur I have a decent grasp on how things work and how to write a compose file that does what I want it to do

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Chance_Value_Not@reddit

Docker? Now I’m curious- what’s your use case?

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Diavolo_Rosso_@reddit

Always a solution looking for a problem. Something shiny catches my eye and I want to screw with it.

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ZOMGsheikh@reddit

Is it possible to test gaming performance in virtualization?

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fakade2@reddit

Virtualisation of linux does not give you that full utilisation of hardware you have or at least to the extent of what I tried.

It’s the tradeoff tbh on what we I am okay with atm.

[-]

Esophagus4631@reddit

It doesn't feel as good as doing it raw.

[-]

LoweringPass@reddit

I literally just installed Xen and Ubuntu won't boot anymore. I've changed my mind, fuck virtualization.

[-]

OrionsChastityBelt_@reddit

Not to be that guy, but have you considered trying to read the documentation for what you want to tweak before you actually commit to it? Or maybe even backing up your files so you can revert to old versions of configs if something does break?

[-]

flowthruster@reddit

YOU'RE NOT MY SUPERVISOR!

[-]

sebmojo99@reddit

he's saying he doesn't want to do endless unpaid work to make his system go.

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OrionsChastityBelt_@reddit

I really don't get how so many people have gotten this idea that it's faster to wade through dozens of stack overflow posts, forum threads, and youtube videos, copying and pasting commands that look like they might be right into configs they barely understand every time they want to customize something, than it is to just read the relevant section in the manual or official documentation.

It's really not that much work.

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sebmojo99@reddit

my understanding is that he doesn't want to do that work, even if it's 'not that much' work.

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mobotsar@reddit

Have you considered that any comment you feel the need to start with "not to be that guy" should probably go untyped?

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OrionsChastityBelt_@reddit

Was it bad advice or mean-spirited in any way? I was mostly just trying to say something along the lines of "you've probably heard this a bunch before but".

I'm not exactly sure what I did to earn your scorn here.

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mobotsar@reddit

Sorry; looking back at your comment, I'm not sure either. It seems a lot less condescending than I remember. Maybe I was just in an uncharitable mood or misread it or something; my bad.

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OrionsChastityBelt_@reddit

All good, been there before. Thanks for being earnest!

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Diavolo_Rosso_@reddit

Fair points and not lost on me. My ADHD gets the best of me and I get so hyper focused on something I don’t think to backup a config file. On the opposite end, I have a really hard time carefully reading and digesting information so while I do try to read documentation, I tend to bounce all over and zero in on the one specific thing I’m working on. It’s all just a hobby for me, I’m a nurse by trade, so it’s not a big deal if I break things and I do still actually learn from those mistakes.

[-]

Sothis6881@reddit

New and shiny definitely ticks the boxes for me, which is part of why I've stayed within the Arch ecosystem, but I learned to only update when I have time and energy to fix something if it goes wrong, and a backup in place if it still goes wrong. As far as distrohopping goes, virtualization satisfies that itch for the most part.

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Masupell0@reddit

That's not ADHD necessarily though (I have ADHD as well)

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Diavolo_Rosso_@reddit

So since you have ADHD, you know how mine presents? You don’t.

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Masupell0@reddit

Oh, sorry I did not mean it like that Your'e right, I don't know how it is for, everyone has it different I guess I was just annoyed in general of people who say "Oh I do that and therefore I have this", and I guess I replied to you without thinking Sorry :)

[-]

tblancher@reddit

You did this for ten years and never learned your lesson? The trick to good backups is having it automated and tested since you'll never know when you'll need it.

That being said, my automatic backups on my laptop aren't working since I disabled my TPM2 for the time being, so I'm not following my own advice at the moment.

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Diavolo_Rosso_@reddit

No, I did it 10-15 years AGO.

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RandomDamage@reddit

These are lessons you only really learn by breaking things because you didn't read the manual, and don't have a backup handy

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Pguid@reddit

Why don’t people back up their systems daily? Especially before an update or major install? There are so many tools out there on the repo, like; timeshift or snapper.

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DrPiwi@reddit

yes and the main lesson you learn that way is: GO READ THE FUNKING MANUAL.

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kyrsjo@reddit

... And have an up to date and working backup.

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russjr08@reddit

"Working" is a very important and often missed point! If you don't consistently test/verify that your backups work, then you don't have backups.

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Lopsided-Practice-50@reddit

I run my primary system on CachyOS. I don't have backups configured, and this is the second install of CachyOS since I cooked the first one in about a week. Same with fedora. Cooked it twice and then moved to CachyOS and haven't left. I don't store anything on my system that I need so if I kill it, or it dies, oh well. Takes 40 minutes to get it stood up again and move on.

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TylerJWhit@reddit

Sometimes the documentation is completely, sucks, or is outdated. Sometimes the screwup is so bad that it's easier to just reinstall everything.

[-]

Based_Commgnunism@reddit

One time I broke man pages somehow, you could only read the first page.

[-]

Enelson4275@reddit

I hate this take, because underlying the logic of documentation is the idea that the user already has a solid foundational understanding of how everything else running on their system works.

Documentation is always narrowly-tailored to a single product or process. So sure, read the documentation before installing an FTP server through PIP, and also peruse your docker and python3 documentation to make sure PIP doesn't interact with those, and of course be ready with that GNOME/KDE/Dolphin/etc documentation because anything new will break some part of it. A computer is a huge pile of separate tools and products and daemons and the like, and Linux expects you to understand 999 of them before you run to the documentation to install the 1000th one.

People work through a break-wipe-reinstall cycle because that kind of trial and error takes less time to get things working than to assuming you can learn how everything works without experimentation. And all too commonly, the end result for everyone is that they learn to use a combination of dockers or appimages or VMs to sandbox everything away from everything else, because that's the only real way for a loaded Linux system to play nicely with itself.

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OrionsChastityBelt_@reddit

I think this is being just a bit disingenuous. You don't have to know how everything on your system works to read the documentation for a new tool. In my opinion it's genuinely worth spending a couple hours to figure out how your package manager, or pip, or docker work with your system. You don't have to know exactly how they interact with each other if you know where things are being installed and what kinds of files they leave behind. You don't even have to read the whole manual, just the parts you're interested in. Sure it might not make full sense, but at least if you come across something you don't understand, you have an idea of where to look if something does go wrong.

Also, isn't the whole point of a container system like docker that it keeps things isolated from the stuff you have installed? Like if you use virtual environments as suggested by so many different pieces of python documentation, I really can't imagine how you'd end up in a situation where a pip dependency ties itself irrecoverably somehow to something in a docker container. I really don't intend for this to be mean-spirited, but it really does sound like you could have benefited from reading the docs.

I'm not opposed to breaking things to figure them out. It's totally fine to do that (it's your machine), and I've certainly done it myself. I'm also certainly no linux guru who knows the kernel inside and out, but life is TRULY so much easier when you just accept the fact that you're better off occasionally spending an evening reading through some boring manuals. Take notes even.

[-]

Enelson4275@reddit

it's genuinely worth spending a couple hours

This is why I think sysadmins and IT professionals tend to favor Linux more than non-professional users do. A normal user would spend a couple hours learning how the system works, install their application, and then not do anything like it again for weeks/months. By that time, they've forgotten how any of it really works because it wasn't learned through repitition - they only did it once. So they start the process over again.

What user in their right mind wants to do a couple hours of reading everytime they install an application? Linux doesn't respect the user's time, which is why the biggest proponents are the people who's time is being paid for.

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OrionsChastityBelt_@reddit

The nice thing about a manual is that you can always pick it up again if you've forgotten something, it's not going anywhere. I have to re-read a section in my car's manual every time I need to change the oil because I don't commit to memory which filter size it takes, but because I've done it once, it's not that hard to find again.

You keep insisting that you have to do this huge task EVERY time you install something. you don't. Reading manuals gets easier with experience, and chances are you only needed a small section. Just look in the index for the part that your interested in, the install subheading or whatever, and spend like 5 minutes reading about what it takes. The hours long reads are for complex things like docker or whatever where it's important to understand a bunch of details, chances are you're only interested in a clearly labeled sentence or two under a numbered heading that's super easy to find if you just look for it.

[-]

BrianaAgain@reddit

What! Read the documentation before doing something? I just have a second laptop I use for hobby tinkering and when I get something I like it becomes my main and I start tinkering with the other one.

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OrionsChastityBelt_@reddit

Now there's a strategy I hadn't considered!

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shodanime@reddit

Im glad im not the only one the runs into this 😂

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Double_Eggplant6983@reddit

A person after my own heart. I find it fun to learn, even if I completely bork and have to reinstall.

At least it's not being bricked lol. And my dumbass Uninstaller gnome on Fedora bc I thought installing lxqt DE had everything I needed, nope, Fedora just gave me the finger and im like okay...now I have two fedora back ups and my core lubuntu for my art commissions. [Boxy svg is an absolute delight to play with, if youre into art lol]

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MJ12_2802@reddit

My advice would be to use Timeshift to schedule automatic backups. Also, before you start tinkering, get another TS backup... just in case you screw the pooch. Use the Backup tool to get backups of your personal files; Pictures, Videos, Documents, etc. TS has saved my bacon numerous times.

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jakeallstar1@reddit

I've always heard and followed this advice. Never understood though. TimeShift has never once helped me. I went a couple years having to reinstall mint every few weeks because of whatever mystery flavor problem of the month. Never has TS helped it. Probably user error, but I just got comfortable with the idea that using Linux means being willing every so often to spend an afternoon reinstalling everything.

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MJ12_2802@reddit

>got comfortable with the idea that using Linux means being willing every so often to spend an afternoon reinstalling everything.

I could never get comfortable with *any* OS if I had to do that!

[-]

jakeallstar1@reddit

Which is why I switched back to Microsoft for my custom gaming rig running new tech. My experience with Linux has been decent if I'm doing relatively normal things on relatively dated tech. But brand new stuff, or an odd setup using weird programs, Linux throws a fit.

I do like Linux, but I wish people would be more open about some of the negatives. It can feel like you're the only person who can't get it to plug and play if you scroll through reddit.

[-]

davidnotcoulthard@reddit

This is strictly a hobby for me

Not big and professional like gnu

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Content-Tank6027@reddit

>don’t care if I break things and have to reinstall
Your original posts says differently.

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SenorSacalo11pulgas@reddit

So it sounds to me like you are not using dejadupe to backup your user folder and not using timeshift to keep iterative / atomized backups of your system. So I can understand why you regularly break your nix systems. You never learned to use them.

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RandomChance@reddit

VMs are for tinkering with things. Don't mess with the Host OS>

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papajo_r@reddit

Let's not kid ourselves of course there is user error... a lot... but many things in gnu/linux and friends are made in a autistic way or with many oversights that they are just waiting to break almost on their own or by the user doing a super natural human thing , or because a super natural human self-explanatory thing absolute critical for the software to work as intended was not in the place shape or form a normal human needs it to be and hence he was forces to tinker more.

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kubofhromoslav@reddit

Yeah, I have done this intentionally to learn more. I have learn something. And reinstalled something. Worth if staying for long time or want to work deeply.

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AdMission8804@reddit

4 years of Linux and there's still a good chance my pc won't boot after editing fstab.

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non-existing-person@reddit

Learn to boot with some good livecd Linux, and chroot into your real machine fs.

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AdMission8804@reddit

I didn't say I didn't know how to fix it, just that I often need to after editing it.

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non-existing-person@reddit

I suppose you didn't, you're right.

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jar36@reddit

I try to remember to tell new users to keep their live usb for as long as they're still using the OS for this type of reason

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Kidev@reddit

You can boot to init=/bin/bash, mount the drive, fix the fstab, and you are done. Most issues only require another tty to fix (Ctrl+Alt+F.). Use a fixed release, backup before you mess with anything that you don't fully understand and that is core to the system. And with that you are pretty much good for life. Get yourself a cool front-end to apt like nala with an history and rewind capabilities and you'll live a good life

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kakarroto007@reddit

This is the correct answer because the solution is reproducible by anyone. And that matters when you're feeling frantic because the OS won't boot.

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RaXXu5@reddit

But would you know how to chroot into it and fix it? And would you write down your changes before doing anything so that you know what could have gone wrong.

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Esophagus4631@reddit

No one bothers with planning like that. More realistic is you fuck up your EFI setup, go to the public library to write a USB boot drive because you realize your phone can connect the a USB drive technically, except for USB-C vs USB-A, then once you get something on the screen (usually a panic shell), poke at things until you get a user-mode shell. The lesson to take away is to have a handy USB stick.

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victoryismind@reddit

to the point of breaking

You may have the wrong distro. Some distros are more sturdy than others. Some desktop environments as well. I've had such problems with Arch, Gnome or XFCE4... On my Linux box I have Void linux and Niri display manager. Not saying it's a walk in the park however these two components are pretty solid, no amount of tweaking managed to break them yet.

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flaughed@reddit

Ah, testing in prod.

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cluberti@reddit

Everyone has at least one test environment. Some people even have actual test environments on top of prod for doing their testing!

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jking615@reddit

Yolo

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Simple_Anteater_5825@reddit

Maybe if I......

The philosopher's stone of tinkering, also known as "Fix it till it's broke"

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Terreboo@reddit

Make a DD copy of the drive before playing? At least you don’t have to start from scratch.

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Guinness@reddit

Just learn how to take a snapshot first?

I don’t understand why anyone would have to reinstall. Snapshots r ez.

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fetching_agreeable@reddit

Then learn how to fix it

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Psionikus@reddit

I want to say NixOS and I just don't want to get stoned to death by the number of people who have likely tried it and hated how different it is.

[-]

person1873@reddit

I love the concept of NixOS, I really do. But to be productive on my machine I had to maintain an Ubuntu Distrobox instance to install flatpacks/appimages or software which was otherwise not packaged for NixOS and wasn't necessarily source available.

I had to do the same in Gentoo, simply because I couldn't always afford the time for packages to compile, I needed them yesterday, but now will do.

Philosophy is great, and the fact that these projects exist is wonderful. But when the rubber meets the road and you just have to get shit done, they are not the way (yet)

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Psionikus@reddit

I haven't tried the flatpak daemon (developer, so 99% of my tools are native), but I know it's something like flatpak.enable

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person1873@reddit

Hadn't tried that either, nor found it in my copious googling at the time.

But I also needed appimages which just wouldn't work with the non standard filesystem hierarchy which was ultimately the killer for me.

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iliyahoo@reddit

Definitely NixOS, but my goodness sometimes I do just want to run apt install of something and move on. Docker helps in those cases

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Psionikus@reddit

nix shell nixpkgs#alacritty

A recent thread on r/nixos introduced me to how people on other distros have come to rely on btrfs snapshots to clean up messes. Nix never leaves a mess. Even just for provisioning dev tools in direnv. There's no upgrade dust laying around clogging up the gears.

Only thing I still use podman for is Postgres since it's stateful and will causes its pollution after being installed.

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Esophagus4631@reddit

I mean, NixOS docs say over and over not use it for desktops. Not that I listened when I went through that phase of my life.

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Psionikus@reddit

I never saw that. Was it pre-2019?

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timrosu@reddit

That's how you learn stuff😅. I have plenty of time, so that has not bothered me (yet).

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orbvsterrvs@reddit

I try to break only VMs or the testbox...it's too much work reinstalling my actual desktop/server, even with the pkg script and dotfile backups I just don't want to do it

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RealUlli@reddit

How about setting up a machine once, setting up and learning how to use virtualization, then do the experimentation in a snapshotted VM? Saves you a lot of headaches... ;-)

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Rocktopod@reddit

Maybe set up Timeshift backups?

The best way to learn is to actually fix stuff when it breaks though instead of using backups or reinstalling.

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Rodyadostoevsky@reddit

I mean, you can just use a VM, maybe snapshot the initial installation and then just restore it every time you break the VM or automate the installation process.

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JustThall@reddit

One word - “containers”

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Fair-Working4401@reddit

You heard about VMs?

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ant2ne@reddit

ever think of setting up a VM for your tinkering?

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YTriom1@reddit

Kid called btrfs snapshots

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ediw8311xht@reddit

I would create backups of your root partition, and try restoring from that before reinstalling. You can always chroot from a live usb and see what files have been changed as well, then try changing them back or reinstalling packages.

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1369ic@reddit

I tended to install lots of programs that looked cool until I had so much stuff the system felt cluttered. I knew I could just uninstall things, but there always seemed to be some config file, log, or cache hiding out somewhere. That would build up until something new showed up on Distrowatch, and I'd be installing again.

I got out of that habit when I went down to just one computer. But I recently inherited the wife's old Intel MBP, and it's starting up again. At least I'm retired now and have time to waste.

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humptydumpty12729@reddit

How do they even have the time to do that?

Literally just get Debian and stop complaining and wasting time ha (unless you enjoy the tinkering).

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InevitableFew6452@reddit

yeah and if that get ancy they can just update to testing....i just switched to arch because i wanted a newer kernel and a better wayland. but when i was younger and figuring things out i love debian because it didn't die on me unlike fedora or slackware.

[-]

Byson94_dev@reddit

Debian is too bloated..... All the "Linux users" must use Arch/CRUX.

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humptydumpty12729@reddit

No thanks, I value my free time and something that more or less works out the box

[-]

JJ3qnkpK@reddit

Either they're breaking it (lack of skill in not breaking + recovery) or they're bored and hoping another distro will provide them something new to rehash.

There's an excitement to trying something new and technical, especially when you succeed. A lot of people will seek that thrill again, but rather than advancing (i.e. learning containers, hosting, network services, software dev, bash scripting), they'll continue reinstalling and following the wikis/guides to do so.

You see it with PC building, too, where people will build a PC and immediately start trying to find ways to keep experiencing PC building, as opposed to finishing it and doing other things.

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reduces@reddit

I break it and then learn how to fix it on my own without help, this is essentially how I have learned all of my computer skills lmao.

[-]

Spiritual-Lunch5589@reddit

FR - I have only reinstalled when I switched distros... 3 times in ten years.

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MrExCEO@reddit

Is the distro called Winux?

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dgm9704@reddit

Windows mindset?

[-]

ThatOldCow@reddit

Who reinstalls Windows every couple of weeks ?

Most Windows users don't even reinstall once

[-]

ZeeroMX@reddit

I did it, when windows 11 was new I installed it and after the install it worked for some days then installed updates, windows couldn't boot.

Reinstalled it, worked for a few days, updates, couldn't boot again.

Reinstalled it, worked for a few days, did proper restore point prior to updates, couldn't boot again, not even the restore point would help.

Next reinstall I just paused updates for like 6 months, then prayed, updated and it worked right, never isolated what was the update responsible for this behaviour, but I was prepared to reinstall windows 10 and forget about Win 11 at that point.

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ThatOldCow@reddit

Strange. Either something with your disk or you got some whacky Windows. As Windows 11 is quite stable, yeah it's bloated asf and the typical "simplification" Microsoft implements that just makes things hard to find, but is fairly stable (ofc not as good as Windows 10 but not as bad as people claim to be)

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ZeeroMX@reddit

It was a new laptop not something I put together, the windows install was pre-installed from the factory.

After that iss has been mostly stable but for my desktop I put together this time I just installed windows 10 and pretend to use it until LTSC cease to exist.

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ThatOldCow@reddit

Maybe the Windows that came pre installed was buggy, or the licence wasn't valid.

[-]

non-existing-person@reddit

I have annual event where I must reinstall my gaming windows xd I dunno, it just breaks every so slightly now and then, and it adds up.

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BallingAndDrinking@reddit

it's the ham fisted approach a lot of users use when they use the system often enough but don't get into the weed of figuring how it works.

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ThatOldCow@reddit

But Windows is very easy to use, so not sure why someone would reinstall it several times.

Unless they have to format the disk or upgrade to a new disk. On older versions of Windows yeah a reinstall was sometimes needed, but I don't think we need to do that anymore

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ToroidalCore@reddit

When I was in high school and then college a couple decades ago, I talked to at least a couple people who would reinstall Windows every few months claiming it would bog down. I haven't talked to anyone recently who does that.

[-]

Spirited_Coconut7390@reddit

Maybe they should've been more careful with what they downloaded

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ToroidalCore@reddit

Both the people who came to mind for me actually did pirate quite a bit of software back in the day, which probably contributed to it. That said, it came up in conversation about maintaining other people's desktops, presumably devoid of pirated software as well.

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SuperSathanas@reddit

While I was living at home and using the family computer, we went from Windows 3.1, to 95, 98, and then XP on a few different machines. Vista had released a couple years before I moved out, but we didn't use it.

I started screwing around with the computer when I was in 5th or 6th grade, when we had Windows 98. I remember my older brother and sister reinstalling Windows every so often because things would break, and I guess either they didn't know how to fix it, or it was just quicker and easier to backup what needed to be backed up, wipe and reinstall. Then I remember XP breaking all the time in the early and mid 2000s (also all the cool viruses that we managed to get). I was wiping and reinstalling XP probably every few months until I left home.

On my own machines, I've used Vista, 7 and 10. I don't remember every really having to fight with Vista or 7. Windows 10 was pretty well good to go up until around 2019 or 2020. Then I started having things break way too often, either from updates or seemingly out of the blue. Most of the time, I can fix whatever has gone wrong. Sometimes I can't, and sometimes it's just more worth my time to wipe and reinstall. I've reinstalled Windows 10 3 or 4 times over the last few years.

I've also had to fix issues with BCD stores at least several times over the last couple of years, on a Windows install that's for all and intents and purposes pretty "fresh". I wiped and reinstalled after seemingly every round of updates would break something, thinking that a fresh start with the latest ISO from Microsoft would help mitigate breakages. I've literally only installed Firefox and Minecraft (for crossplaying with the kids when they're on PS4), and I'm still afraid to apply updates whenever I do boot into it. Almost every time updates are applied, Windows becomes unbootable and I have to fix BCD issues or something else. I wanted to stop allowing updates, but Minecraft likes to not launch if you don't have the latest security updates.

Meanwhile, the only times I've ever had an issue with my Arch install over the last couple years have been when Windows decides to screw around with things that don't belong to it on my EFI partitions.

I don't know what Windows problem is. It seems to me like most people don't have problems with it, but even when I more or less leave it alone, it still manages to act badly.

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ToroidalCore@reddit

I can remember reinstalling XP a few times, and it was noticeably zippier on a new install. After that was kind of when I stopped using Windows completely on my own machines.

I didn't really use 7 too much myself, but the times I did interact with it it felt like an improvement. But I can't speak for needing to reinstall it or not.

On the Linux front, I did the normal distro hopping early on, as well as screwing around with things and breaking them. And I did run Gentoo for a time...

[-]

nevyn28@reddit

Why did they get so many upvotes? Seems excessive, much like their story.

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THICC_DICC_PRICC@reddit

Even pre SP3 window XP wasn’t this bad lmao

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Enelson4275@reddit

As someone who daily drives Linux and tinkers with vintage machines, I'd argue that Linux for newbies trying to experiment their way to being power users is as unstable as Windows and MacOS were back in the days of shared memory.

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getapuss@reddit

This was me when I was younger. Some people just learn from experience.

"Don't delete that."

"Why?"

"Oh."

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highdimensionaldata@reddit

This is the middle of the bell curve meme. Either side is “Just install Ubuntu and forget about it.”

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SilentDis@reddit

Agreed. That's what virtualization is for. Spin a box up, install, play "nah, not quite" and hang out in your stable environment. Find one you like? Sure, reinstall.

Or... I intend to install Proxmox bare-metal, then do VirtIO pass thru to multiple different OSes one at a time. Hackintosh, Kubuntu, Arch (which I've honestly never played with), etc.

Should allow me to keep 'files' separate and safe thanks to virtio passthru, or even just run a tiny container handing out network storage for home.

GPU passthru, USB passthru, sound passthru. Sounds like a fun project to me.

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Isacx123@reddit

Yeah like what is OP doing, my CachyOS install has been running since November 2024.

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frankster@reddit

Chatgpt maybe exaggerating for effect

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guymadison42@reddit

Buy a Mac... Linux is free if your time is worthless.

But seriously I installed Ubuntu and occasionally see updates but not like you see. Most of my use is for code development and most of that is remote from my Mac, not a general user. But it seems a lot more stable than you describe.

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Impossible_Guitar_44@reddit

10 years on fedora with dist upgrades. Never reinstalled my OS. I’m not done at all.

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Fun_Swan_5363@reddit

My PC I use to record OTA TV shows (it is unconnected to www) has Debian 8. And has had it possibly for over ten years now.

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Goodborni@reddit

The denial of some people in the comments is scary... it's like there is no way any Distro has an issue so we go straight to " his fault " troubleshooting tips... fml

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RandomPlayerCSGO@reddit

I managed to get a good cachyos install with lts kernel on my gaming PC and plan to keep it for as many years as possible, I don't want to do anything on console other than pacman -Syu

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ccsp_eng@reddit

I was done 20 years ago the moment I had to find a workaround to getting sound to work

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Evilbob93@reddit

I have a main driver tower that I use for my day to day that runs Ubuntu. I also have a couple of laptops that I carry around. The desktop and one of those is running Ubuntu, the other laptop is running Omarchy. Considering setting up one of my other towers in the house with Omarchy because I'm digging it.

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aHunterGathererToo@reddit

Try MacOS. The ARM hardware is powerful, most system-level updates and administration is batched and supervised by Apple. Yet, I can install almost anything I want: TeX, opam, rustup, go-lang, Postgres, etc using brew. With XQuartz, I can X-windows into back-end machines as needed.

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Leniwcowaty@reddit (OP)

Naaah, had to endure M3 Pro MacBook at work for some time. MacOS isn't for me

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Natjoe64@reddit

Maybe try fedora with kde. Stable as all hell without the glacial pace of Debian/ubuntu/mint

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mark619SD@reddit

I get OP to a certain extent. I did the same for the first 6 months, but then I just stuck with catchyOS and been rocking with it for 2-3 years now, but also I knew about vm’s so I went that route.

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XoXoGameWolfReal@reddit

I don’t reinstall every few weeks, only 2 times every year if I remember. I’ve only distro hopped a few times, but I’m happy on Arch Linux now. You use Linux however you want.

[-]

skesisfunk@reddit

What the fuck is this thread:

Done reinstalling the system every couple of weeks.

And then in the edit:

I know how to use Linux :P I didn't HAVE TO or NEED to reinstall my system. I just WANTED TO.

So this thread is basically just trash tier rage bait. Cool.

[-]

skesisfunk@reddit

Done reinstalling the system every couple of weeks.

You can just say "I don't know what the fuck I am doing", it's ok we won't make fun of you ^(too much).

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Leniwcowaty@reddit (OP)

Well, I did so because I knew exactly what I was doing ;)

Some people do this just for fun. I was one of them

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skesisfunk@reddit

...

So you are literally the bike guy from the meme that puts a stick in his own front spokes?

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Inevitable_Ad3495@reddit

I was a software engineer and sysadmin working with unix/linux my entire working life (silicon valley startups, ya' know). Now I just run mint because it takes almost zero work to maintain...

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rafaover@reddit

This is the way. From Slackware in 1996, to mint. Clean life.

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mda63@reddit

So you're upset because you couldn't resist tinkering?

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Leniwcowaty@reddit (OP)

You could say that. More like - I liked tinkering, but it always led to wasting hours fixing what I tinkered. And now I'm perfectly happy not tinkering at all.

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melanantic@reddit

You ever tinker with backup solutions? Even if you manage to convince yourself that windows is more stable, you should be taking backups before… you know… making a system level modification.

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External-Yak7294@reddit

You say that but if you really were reinstalling an OS every couple weeks for 10 years this is clearly a behavioural problem I doubt any OS change is gonna solve. Might be worth stepping back and looking at your habits in general.

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quicksand8917@reddit

For me Arch is a good middle ground, I get to try new stuff but it is fairly stable once you learned from mistakes. My laptop install is 16 years old and it has been over 10 years since it last broke when I accedently removed the /lib folder. Whenever I get a new device, I just rsync it over and reinstall the bootloader. Linux Mint is what I usually recommend to others however, it is probably the lowest maintainance distro there is.

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tiny_blair420@reddit

That was always allowed.

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Scandiberian@reddit

Stop oppressing me with a good experience!

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stianhoiland@reddit

Loved this, thanks.

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RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS@reddit

Yeah but he’s not saying it wasn’t. He’s just saying he’s no longer a hobbyist and curious if other people have gone through that same transition.

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rocket_dragon@reddit

Perchance. Have you heard of Bazzite?

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Leniwcowaty@reddit (OP)

Yup. I've tried it on my SteamDeck

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AlbexTwin@reddit

Yeah... If only Mint had the latest Plasma version instead of that 486ish cinnamon desktop or that tabletish gnome

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GlassDeviant@reddit

Seems like you are done playing and want to grow up. That doesn't mean you have to stop using Linux.

This is from a 58 year old Linux and Windows sysadmin and tech support person, who retired several years ago due to disability and fell into Windows just because I was tired and it was easy. Trust me, you don't want to go there. I am so fed up with Windows now I am ready to tackle Linux again, but not on the terms of "playing with all the latest toys all the time", simply as a foundation for doing what I want to do with my computer without having to jump through M$ hoops and BS.

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Professional-Math518@reddit

After starting with Slackware I moved to RedHat, with which I was happy. Switched to Mandrake, tried different Fedora and Suse releases, tinkered with FreeBSD and landed on Debian in the early 2000s and sort of stayed there, together with Ubuntu. Although I also ran CentOS and Scientific OS for quite some time on a server and one of my laptops. The last 15years or so I just install Debian or Ubuntu.

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Fartz-McGee@reddit

Get a Mac and be happy with life.

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Longjumping_Ear6405@reddit

Wow, such a non-issue. All of that to end in in Mint, crazy stuff. Glad you finally settled in.

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fixermark@reddit

Oh yeah, I feel this.

There comes a time in a person's life when they tire of being enamored with the tools themselves and get their attention pulled by something else (often, what you can build the tools with).

You can spend your whole life puttering around putting the hooks in the right places on the pegboard of your workshop... or you can fire up the table saw and start building that house.

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Phoenix-190@reddit

They call it bleeding edge for a reason

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_Green_Redbull_@reddit

Re installing the system every couple of weeks? Um, I've used the same Ubuntu, Fedora, red hat, etc for years without having to reinstall the entire system....

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Dissectionalone@reddit

Fedora 42 has been hanging by an ever increasingly thinner thread for me.

I'm seriously entertaining the thought of giving it the proverbial kick in the rear and install a Debian based distro instead.

The latest Updates have brought some issues I haven't been able to solve yet.

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R2-Scotia@reddit

I run Ubuntu, upgrade every few years, no customisation. I just use it.

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mechanicalAI@reddit

Daily user since 2013, never reinstalled never have had any problem that I can’t solve with a simple clonezilla rollback which was my last resort. I am in Debian ship and don’t believe in distro hopping.

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d3adc3II@reddit

I didn't HAVE TO or NEED to reinstall my system. I just WANTED TO

I agree lolz, even with Windows, I like to reset every 2-3 months so that it works like a dream. Its faster than troubleshooting , 30 mins to 1 hour and everythiing come back like brandnew.

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Leniwcowaty@reddit (OP)

Especially if you make yourself a setup script and host your data on a homelab server. At this point, reinstalling Linux and getting it back up and running like nothing ever happened takes me like 6-7 minutes, plus the time of actual installation

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d3adc3II@reddit

true, if i need to troubleshoot a computer for longer than 30 mins , i rather reset it.

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SmartCustard9944@reddit

I stopped distrohopping in high school, now I just install the latest Ubuntu (it just works) and enjoy life.

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trashlogin48@reddit

Same. I can do all the weird fun linux stuff if I want. I can also just use it. It is wonderful.

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TotalBrainFreeze@reddit

Ubuntu have been my daily driver for years, but they are going in a strange direction. So not sure if I would recommend it right now.

It used to be the obvious selection for someone that just needed things to work.

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BlakeMW@reddit

Until a few months ago I'd been a loyal Ubuntuist for around 14 years. I remember, fondly the Unity DE, it was very good back then relative to Gnome, one thing it could do was scale each monitor separately.

Anyway, recently jumped ship to CachyOS, after a small initial learning curve I'm very happy, as basically everything is faster and more responsive than Ubuntu and it got rid of some Nvidia related bugs/issues in Ubuntu latest.

I'd probably still recommend an Ubuntu-o-sphere OS for many users though because the online documentation, I'm referring more to informal than formal, is top notch. If you have an issue chances are someone has posted about it and it's way more likely you'll get instructions for apt. It's not a big deal in the Arch-o-sphere because chances are someone's already adapted what you need to the AUR but if you just want to copy paste some lines into the terminal and fix the issue then Ubuntu makes it easy.

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DownvoteEvangelist@reddit

I'm still using the Gentoo installation I installed in 2006..

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gardotd426@reddit

Motherfucker using waterfox and distrohopping and "extreme" customizing nonstop? And then chasing the newest "trends?" What does that even fucking MEAN?! The only real trends are occasional new flavor of the week distros (elementary, manjaro, Endeavour, Garda, cachy, Solus, now NixOS users are DYING to force it on us but itll never catch). There was a brief "let's unnecessarily reinvent lutris" war, but thats over, and Lutris is still the main non steam launcher but the Heroic and a couple others have captured their little share and now its more of a preference thing.

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gardotd426@reddit

My current arch install is 5 years old. And listen to just the OS-affecting HW changes ive made since then:

2600X>3600X>3800X>5800X>5900X>7950X

B450M/ac>X570 Taichi>Asus X670-P Prime Wifi

256GB Crucial Sata SSD> Teamgroup MP34 1TB NVme > 2 more 3x total MP34s plus 1tb 870QVO and 1TB 860QVO > 1x 2TB WD Black SN850X + 2x of the MP34s + 1TB 870 QVO + 1TB Teamgroup SATA SSD

RX 580 > 5600XT (bought 7 am launch day) > 5700 XT > RTX 3090 (bought at micro center on launch day, Im the first person we've found to run a 3090 on Linux as a consumer it was 30 minutes after global launch).

Ive not even had to use a timeshift snapshot in a couple years.

Literally the only thing anyone needs if they want pure peace of mind is to keep /home on its own partition (anyone who doesn't do this is a complete idiot unless they clone their entire PCs storage every single week to something external in which case they're only half an idiot), keep your establishment, environment variables and packages installed saved in a file, and add another user to your main OS and then make a 40GB partition to install something like endeavour or Ubuntu to with the same fstab so if you ever have an issue, you can log in to user 2, eliminate possibility of a /home/user1 issue, reboot into second OS to confirm its not outside of /root (preferably keep /var and /opt separate too), and if all that doesn't show you the issue, roll back 7 days using timeshift or btrfs, place your environment and fstab files, and install your packages.

That makes pretty much ANY calamatous OS breakage impossible to fix in under an hour.

Or just separate /home and if you ever have an issue, just roll back immediately (though youd still need a second user).

This guy listed a million problems he forces on himself for no reason and the only reason to do any of what he does is if youre a hobbyist who LIKES it.

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felipemarinho@reddit

Same, I use the same Arch linux install from 2013.. it was ported from old HDD, to SSD, to NVMe... still alive and functional!

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VolggaWax@reddit

Are you saying that you have updated gentoo regularly for the past 19 years?? Wow. I installed gentoo on my mother's laptop in January and she forgot to update it for 6 months and now it wouldn't upgrade. So I installed arch for her. I salute you man

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sgunb@reddit

Same. The fact that gentoo is not version based but rolling release is just awesome. I think I installed it 2008 or 2009 and I'm still running the same installation on the same machine. Plus portage is such an awesome package managing system. You might think that you break your OS beyond repair by breaking glibc or by accidentally deleting /usr/lib. Nope. You can still chroot and fix it.

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DownvoteEvangelist@reddit

I think there was at least one 12 months long period where I didn't update it..

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worked-on-my-machine@reddit

I always wonder about the specifics in how that worked for old installs like that. Have you done a lift and shift of init systems for it? I had to look it up and openrc seems to have had its first release the year after. If you did, what was all of that like?

I have an install that's only a few years old on a distribution that uses systemd by default and i shudder to think how dramatic it would be to swap if i ever have to

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DownvoteEvangelist@reddit

I don't really remember, so it wasn't dramatic certainly, Gentoo always releases upgrade guide when they are changing things like that... I remember maybe switching to udev.. But it's usually pretty painless, and everything is fixable with enough effort, because there isn't much "magic" in gentoo, just automation...

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oxez@reddit

there isn't much magic even if you're doing LFS

I'm currently on the final phases of developing my own LFS-based distro, once you know all the pieces and what does what, it just makes sense. Being able to debug anything is pretty cool.

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DownvoteEvangelist@reddit

There's 0 magic with LFS, but maintaining LFS on your own is quite a job. That's basically where gentoo helps you, it's a tool to automate heavy lifting stuff of LFS

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non-existing-person@reddit

Wow, respect. I am nearly at my 10th year anniversary with my installation. Must say I was tempted few times to just kill it and reinstall where I messed gcc so bad it couldn't compile simple program xD I fixed it somehow tho.

One of such machine was 3 years without an update. Yes, THREE years. That was an interesting challenge to update it.

I am glad I did not break and pulled thru. :D

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DownvoteEvangelist@reddit

That's something I really appreciate about Gentoo. I have confidence that I'll always be able to fix my system, no matter how screwed up it gets.

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xslr@reddit

Yea. That comes from the fact that the install process also teaches you how the system is put together. Very little in the system happens behind the scenes, hidden from user.

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NikPlayAnon@reddit

Some are weak and some are crazy, you mate are insane

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BurrowShaker@reddit

I am like this to a fault

My current install in a dump and really needs redone. But then it is probably around 10 years old.

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MorpH2k@reddit

Well that's different though. It's YOUR dump and you're allowed to live in the filth and squalor of it as long as it works for you and the issues it has takes less time to fix than the time it would take to start over.

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HoustonBOFH@reddit

I never got the whole distro hopping thing to begin with. Found one that worked, and got on with working.

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Verdeckter@reddit

It's very strange indeed. It's like... what is interesting about a distro except its particular package manager, a package repo and a default set of packages?
I think I settled on Arch in like 2007 and I haven't really thought about changing distros since then. Even Arch isn't particularly interesting per se, it's just the most popular? rolling release package repo along with the easy to use AUR + PKGBUILD.

I really dislike that using Linux is so associated with "distrohopping".

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Enelson4275@reddit

It's all about how trivially one can install user applications or procure functionalities. Some of it has to do with hardware performance as well. So some people really do land on a bad distro(s) to start out - bad in the sense that they will not ever be workable solutions.

At the same time, much of learning Linux comes down to learning by doing, and if people only install once every couple years then they will never remember anything about it and be severely hamstrung when the knowledge is needed.

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Verdeckter@reddit

install user applications

Right that's why I mentioned rolling release repos. But that's like.. a choice you can make once. You don't need to "hop" distros. I don't know what you mean by procuring functionalities. What hardware performance is distro specific? Also not sure what you mean by workable solutions. Reinstalling your OS doesn't mean you need to switch distros necessarily.

Maybe it's just that I landed on Arch very young for some reason. At some point I realized the distro isn't the WM or the DE or the init system and that some distros make it painful to use the package manager to install arbitrary software. Since then if I have the urge to try out different software I just.. install it. Why would I switch distros?? It's like a non sequitur to me.

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SquaredMelons@reddit

Pretty sure most people distrohop with the end goal of finding the lerfect distro for them. Of course, that probably doesn't exist, so they end up hopping forever.

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nukrag@reddit

Depends on when you started out. In 1999, you were looking for the best/easiest to install that supports all of your shit.

I remember days of troubleshooting a modem. I nearly got it to work, but had to give up because it quickly went over my skilll-cap. Turns out winmodems just weren't supported, easy as that.

Had to buy an external.

Man, I remember guys just having to ctcp me a certain command, and my line would drop until I learned not to use the same TTY to log in and BitchX from. :D

Fun times. I am stuck on arch now. I just have a cozy little setup, and it works for me. I am sure sometime something cooler will come out, and I might give it the old butcher's. But I am quite happy in the beanbag that is Arch for me.

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HoustonBOFH@reddit

I remember that. I also wrote a lot of documentation for Independence Linux. Wonderful idea but not enough support for it.

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barley_wine@reddit

I distro hopped for a few years in the early 2000s but then I had to admit to myself they're all more similar than different.

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m70v@reddit

Same, just installed arch btw and still running it.

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GrimpenMar@reddit

Yeah, this is what happened to me. I spent a while distro-hopping, then just settled into Ubuntu LTS. It's boring. It works.

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Soft_Cable3378@reddit

Yup. And it’s by far the best-supported distro there is. I find it amusing people who keep hopping and are never satisfied. They never get to build out their environment and make it truly theirs. A shame, really.

I needed ZFS as a first-class citizen. Not many options. I’d do FreeBSD, but again, you run into software support issues with that, so Ubuntu it is. Been running Root on ZFS for years, running a backup script that sends snapshots to a NAS, and also cleans up after itself and expires and deletes backups after a certain date. Pretty seamless, really.

I just don’t want to do this on a distro where ZFS working is no guarantee. Canonical makes sure ZFS is working since it’s in their apt repo. It gets tested with every release.

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WitesOfOdd@reddit

I want to learn to incorporate ZFS… I was just introduced to it a few months ago

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Soft_Cable3378@reddit

Almost everything you’d want to do can be done from the ‘zfs’ and ‘zpool’ commands. I’d recommend reading and trying to understand what each sub command does, then throw it on some kind of storage. Just don’t enable deduplication because it requires a lot of RAM.

[-]

jetandgold@reddit

Same but with Mint, I enjoyed MATE since Windows XP support on my Netbook expired and switched to Cinnamon this year. No problems at all.

[-]

z7r1k3@reddit

Ubuntu lost my trust when I took over management of a server and found out there was absolutely zero upgrade path to the latest Ubuntu, despite only going untouched for a year or two.

You could upgrade when it was only one version behind, but once it was multiple you were SOL.

Not saying that's still the case, but it left a sour taste in my mouth. Not I either go rolling release or Debian/Mint.

I can't trust a distro that'll make me reinstall it if I forget about it for slightly too long.

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Sh_Pe@reddit

I stopped distrohopping at the end of middle school. I’ve been on arch since then.

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TheGreatKonaKing@reddit

Ubuntu lts and your favorite desktop. If you get bored… change desktop.

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drivingagermanwhip@reddit

Back when I was in high school in the early 2000s I had one of my dad's old pcs as a sandbox and tried things out. Settled on ubuntu for a while but have since moved to debian because ubuntu feels far too commercial these days. As an experienced user the ubuntu specific stuff doesn't give much benefit and mainly feels like clutter.

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SmartCustard9944@reddit

I’m so used to Ubuntu on servers that it just makes sense to me.

Plus I love the orange/purple color accent.

[-]

fussomoro@reddit

Same, but I'm on Pop

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house_monkey@reddit

Wish I could enjoy life

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karthiq@reddit

Same here

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PanaBreton@reddit

over 15 years of Linux here. Mostly used Arch, not Arch based distro like you have done which is a very bad decision. Only one big issues with Grub in 15 years. It has been an amazing and problem free run for me.

You have no reason to do distro hopping if you are not getting into weird obscure distros and again you took bad decisions in the past decade. I'm not a fan of mint, it's not the worst distro either. Check how to get latest graphic driver, there's like a source to add, that's very important if you want good performance for your GPU

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LuiGuitton@reddit

mans never heard of VM

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debacle_enjoyer@reddit

I’m in my 30’s with a kid and have faced similar feelings. That’s when I moved to Debian.

[-]

popcapdogeater@reddit

Bro what are you doing? I use Debian for some home projects, arch linux for my daily driver, and I've managed a few other linux boxes and in 9 years i don't think I've ever needed to re-install anything.

[-]

LunaticDancer@reddit

I'm starting to feel like picking a distro and sticking to it from the very start is not a majority thing at this point. I've started with arch and didn't feel any need to switch, everything is already right or within reach to change for the better.

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Peter_van_vliet@reddit

I don't recognize this. I use Void btw.

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seluard@reddit

Buy a macbook, use your pc as a linux server.

You can play breaking things to do ACTUAL stuff, not changing themes...

If you are a distro contributor or kernel contributor that another story...

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Marcheziora@reddit

Funny how I started with Ubuntu 10 and Distro-hopped to hundreds of Arch/Debian/Fedora/whatever based distros just to try the latest & differences about them to eventually stop caring about those details and settled back to where I started with Ubuntu 24 as my mainstay. I couldn't be happier.

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SilentLennie@reddit

Even your edit doesn't clear it up for me. You used to enjoy this process of making it work just like you wanted, but not anymore. Totally fine. But there is definitely an in between, I suggest to choose the distro for which the defaults best fit your needs and use that, make some limited changed and only upgrade when new versions come out. But hey you were an Arch user and I'm a Debian user, so pick something in between maybe ?

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No_Restaurant917@reddit

It seems understandable. I’m actually the opposite right now. I haven’t played around with Linux in such a long time, I miss it. I might make a new bootable usb to play with it. Haha

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Massless@reddit

I love Linux but sometimes feel like the least Linux-ey person ever. After years of messing with things, my favorite way to run is default Ubuntu with as little customization as possible. I just want a computer that works and doesn’t get in the way. The more I customize the more I have to maintain

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Unsuccessful-Permit5@reddit

I buy refurb Dell or HP every few years and throw Ubuntu on them for Internet surfing and have for almost 20 years. It has definitely improved over the years to the point that I have lost most of my previous skills moving around the OS at the terminal level. On the flop side, an older Dell can get on the Internet in 30 minutes to an hour and done.

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rahmu@reddit

It's hard to believe if you read Reddit and other forums, but the vast majority of Linux desktop users are like you

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krelian@reddit

That's how most people run it but there isn't much to post about when you're just using your computer as the tool it is supposed to be. The result are that the subs are filled with posts from what are usually young and anxious people with a lot of free time on their hands. Some of them grow out of it, some will go back to Windows, but New users see those posts and think that Linux is about installing a distro and posting a neofetch screenshot with a dramatic title. And the cycle repeats....

It's entertaining to watch for a while but like all subs dedicated to something that doesn't change that often it becomes repetitive and boring at some point.

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neverDiedInOverwatch@reddit

neofetch? in 2025? gotta use fastfetch now if you wanna be in with the cool kids (it's genuinely much faster)

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Massless@reddit

You’re right, there’s probably a ton of bias in what I end up seeing.

I work as a Software Engineer and basically all of my colleagues and I’m definitely the odd one out with a vanilla setup. They all have these ultra specialized setups. It makes me so tired just to think about it

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MyLedgeEnds@reddit

Personally I just think minimalism complements SWE very nicely as a philosophy --the more you have, the more you have to maintain. Extending that approach to daily matters has helped me bake in the outlook for when it's problem solving time.

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Jff_f@reddit

Here! Just made one.

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/s/4hIdoV07dT

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wq1119@reddit

Exact same thing for me, Windows refugee on Linux Mint speaking here, I was using Windows since 2001 until I switched to Mint back in April.

I originally tried to get into Linux by choosing CachyOS as my first distro, in order to learn Arch very early on so that I could one day, soon, eventually (realistically never or only within a decade from now) be the ultimate Linux PC h4xx0r and whatnot.

But by now, months later?, I do not care about customization or whatever fancy Linux gadget anymore, just changing the wallpaper is enough customization to me, I am much more busy using my Linux MInt to studying, write, draw, and work, and do not have enough spare time (or money) to get into the Linux/computer geek culture, I wish that I could, but for the moment being I cannot, I just need a PC that works to do what I want, and Mint is decent enough for that.

I even forgot that you can change the colors of the icons and taskbar, the last time I did was when I installed the distro and put it to the darkest setting, have not messed with it again since when I installed it in April.

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agent-squirrel@reddit

You could just install KDE on Mint. No need to change distro.

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wq1119@reddit

I know but I will only do so when I get a new PC (I currently do not have enough money to buy drives to backup my files on), and I have been very curious to test out Fedora anyways, so next year (or hell, the way how prices are here in Brazil, likely 2027 or 2028) I will simply install Fedora on a new drive just to test out how things work.

If I do not like it or things overall do not work for me, then I will just go back to Mint with this time with KDE on it, the only reason why I chose Mint over CachyOS was because I play very old Source Engine games that are bugged on newer Arch-based systems because of some glibc problem, do not remember exactly the issue, but they work fine on Mint.

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agent-squirrel@reddit

When you reinstall, consider putting /home on its own partition/volume so that if you decide to distro hop again you can keep your files.

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wq1119@reddit

My files (which also includes extremely important stuff such as my family's documents, etc.) are the things that I most cherish and am paranoid about losing, but unfortunately, they are also the things that I know the least of how to handle, and how to properly preserve them.

I have never backed up my files/hard drives myself, I have always sent them to repair shops to people who know how to do the job better, when I change distros I shall be doing a separate post about this topic, it will still take a while to do this though.

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agent-squirrel@reddit

No worries. Sing out if you need a hand.

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wq1119@reddit

Cheers!, will be surely asking you for Linux assistance because you definitely know about this topic!

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Dankbeast-Paarl@reddit

Same here. I have been running LTS Ubuntu for years. I need a solid work horse OS. I spend most of my time programming. I program Rust BTW!

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FattyDrake@reddit

Same. There's been a few times I just wonder, "What the hell are these people doing with their computers?!" when they run into the wackiest problems. I guess constant fiddling and customization is the answer. Probably a little bit of spicy inexperience too.

My approach was desktop environment first, then choose a distro which seems to run it the best, and then stop messing with things.

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non-existing-person@reddit

Yeah but... once you properly customize tools like shell, tmux and (n)vim, you just can't go back to vanilla anymore.

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scorpion-and-frog@reddit

This is basically how I feel, other than the distro of choice. I want the computer to work for me, not the other way around.

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ThePi7on@reddit

I installed arch as my first distro and never moved, nor I intend to. Never hand any issue I couldn't fix (for now 🤞🏻)

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nicxw@reddit

Funny, I was like this with Android and iOS. I gave my all into iOS for 3 years and got burned out and came back to Android.

Anywho, I've been distro hopping for a while and now I'm parking the car on Fedora with KDE. It's pretty.

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Witty-Development851@reddit

Absolutely!!! I am with you man!!! Fuck all this DE environment. Linux only for headless servers, dockers, services. No more! Don't try to do candy from shit.

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SamuReinikainen@reddit

Hi, I'm anon and I used to use Gentoo years back. Oh, the good old optimization flags and the thrill of compiling kernel just the way you like it – every other week...

Nevermore.

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No-Fix-444@reddit

Bro sounds like you got an addiction lol.

LTS kernel alongside rolling release. Get into photography or something

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Puzzled-Name-2719@reddit

I installed Linux for the first time and have been done ever since 😔

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TotalBrainFreeze@reddit

Stop abusing your installed os, use virtual installs to play around on.

VirtualBox
DistroBox

Just install one of the big ones, and stick with it.

When you are curious about a new software or new OS, test it first inside a virtual environment and evaluate it before you do anything with your installed os.

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Significant-Road3459@reddit

running popos for 2 years, never reinstalled it.

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Octoberfex@reddit

Yeah, it's just part of life and getting older. I used to do all that too- and now my two linux home systems just run Ubuntu LTS.

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beheadedstraw@reddit

"Done reinstalling the system every couple of weeks."

Uh... i haven't reinstalled mine in like.... 5 years man.

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EveningGreat7381@reddit

I start with Ubuntu because it was popular back then, then tried Arch because I want to tinker with the system, finally moved to Fedora because I want something more stable, but also contains cutting edges features.

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whattoputhere1337@reddit

For me this happened after the first 2 years and I landed on Arch

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Jrez7469@reddit

As someone who just started as of yesterday. I’m running Mint Linux, so reading this doesn’t discourage me but actually I would love to pick up your torch. As I thought I wanted a gaming Pc, I found a pc laying around. Picked it up and this is what it had.

Motherboard - ASUS P8Z68-V Pro CPU - Intel i5-2500K RAM - 16GiB (Corsair Vengeance) GPU - Radeon RX 570 PSU - 650W (Antec) (if I remember...) Hard Drive - 250 GB Running Mint Linux

So if you think I need to upgrade anything I would like to know what you recommend. I’m just a baby on it and due to me using a steam deck that runs on linux. I want to push it to its limit, and the pc too.

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Public_Weird_9262@reddit

I've been using Linux for about 10 years. Your problem isn't Linux; it's your perpetual quest for tinkering and changing things

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inbetween-genders@reddit

Done reinstalling the system every couple of weeks.

Put it down bro. It’s just an operating system.

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eateryfinds@reddit

Exactly. Choose an established distro and just use it. For me it's Lubuntu since I like to reuse computers. But nothing wrong with just using Ubuntu and not experimenting all the time.

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Toasteee_@reddit

Seems very much self inflicted if you ask me.

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thisisabore@reddit

Yeah, I read "I had a brief year of using Arch (but not really, I was hopping between all Arch-based distros)" and think why on earth would you do that? Do you enjoy spending time in all the various installers in your free time?

(Nix folks will tell you that that time is meant to be spent building your one true config and endlessly debugging that)

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Scandiberian@reddit

(Nix folks will tell you that that time is meant to be spent building your one true config and endlessly debugging that)

Gigachad: "Yes."

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thisisabore@reddit

I've just accepted that I'm saving zero time with Nix at this point and that my pure return on time investment is likely negative. But that it does not matter at all because I am having 🫶f✨u✨n🫶.

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OnkelMickwald@reddit

Some people seem to think Linux is an extreme sport lifestyle

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inbetween-genders@reddit

Yeah that’s their hobby. Totally fine hobby as long as that’s what they want to do and not wah wah I have to reinstall again.

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Nexus19x@reddit

If you keep your home partition separate it really helps ease the pain if you do end up needing to rebuild.

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Consistent-Okra7897@reddit

In a same boat. Started with FreeBSD and Linux in 1994. Worked as a professional unix/linux engineer for 20+ years. Went through everything on a home computer - LFS, Arch, Gentoo, Debian. Last decade or so was mainly running Fedora… until switched to Mac few years ago and never touched linux box since then.

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gardotd426@reddit

This used to be universally known. Its honestly VERY stupid not to have it. But after the Steam Deck wave it seems that the former common knowledge of that is gone.

PUT HOME ON ITS OWN PARTITION AND PREFERABLY ITS OWN DRIVE YOU FUCKING HEATHENS. TIMESHIFT SNAPSHOT YOUR ROOT ONCE EVERY WEEK. DONE.

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Stoned_And_High@reddit

hmm you mean like on a separate disk? interesting…

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Nexus19x@reddit

No it can be on the same disk just need to be a separated partition

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savorymilkman@reddit

Not a hobby Linux rocks just fix gaming

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Soft_Cable3378@reddit

Haven’t heard of proton yet, huh?

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goishen@reddit

This is the true damage that Windows does to computer users. Thinking of computing as an extreme sport, not a "set it, and forget it" type thing.

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Esophagus4631@reddit

Yeah... I run Arch (insert jokes here), which is the opposite is a stable distro, but I'm two years into this installation (I think I swapped my root drive at the time to a new nvme). Every couple weeks is a hobby, not a requirement.

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stormdelta@reddit

Part of the issue is that many Arch users keep trying to gaslight everyone into thinking it's a stable distro. It's not, and was never intended to be.

But for some reason these guys stake their ego to their choice of Linux distro and I don't understand it.

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atgaskins@reddit

I don’t consider it the opposite of stable at app. It is the epitome of stable imo. I havent had a problem in many years. Whereas “easier” distros you end up having to do some intervention because something you need newer isn’t available it whatever, then you break dependencies or whatnot. I’m convinced if Arch wasn’t such a meme people would acknowledge that it is just hands down the most reliable desktop distro. It is to the desktop what Debian is to a server.

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Brillegeit@reddit

I don’t consider it the opposite of stable at all. It is the definition of stable imo.

Stable in Linux context doesn't mean "crashes", it means "doesn't change". Ubuntu LTS is stable as it doesn't change package versions in 12 years. Arch is unsable as it changes package version every couple of minutes. Stable distros have hundreds and thousands of known bugs, but they're known and unchanging so you can plan around them as they're stable and doesn't change on you.

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atgaskins@reddit

That is not what anyone means in the context of this particular post. calling ubuntu stable in the way you describe is fine, but it is not an universal linux definition of the word, and the average desktop user of Ubuntu LTS will eventually find issue with some out dated package, intervene and install things outside of their pkg manager, and inevitably break something or other. This is precisely why I would not tell anyone who still installs Linux weekly that it is “stable”. Also, almost zero people who shit talk Arch as “unstable” are using your definition. They don’t use it and they are so sure it breaks all the time.

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Brillegeit@reddit

I don't know what to say other than that these people assume what stable means, but that they're mistaken, which is perfectly fine, but they're still mistaken.

As you say, many also make Frankendebian out of their stable release, but that's doesn't change the property of the release, just their install.

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atgaskins@reddit

context exists.

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Brillegeit@reddit

Good we agree.

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atgaskins@reddit

No. We don’t.

You just proclaimed that everyone not using ‘stable’ in the strict software dev context of the word is wrong. You even doubled down and said it twice.

I’m not sure how you construed “context matters” as being “in agreement” after that, but that’s okay... Just continue to enjoy the warm sea of absolutism you are swimming in.

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Razidargh@reddit

Well, I installed Windows 10 in April 2019 when I completely replaced my PC. There was a RAM upgrade, AMD and Nvidia GPUs, but Windows is still the same installation. I even dual-booted Nobara from a separate SSD. I use my PC for design work, video editing, streaming, gaming, and music production with a DAW, as well as local AI computing. This Windows can take the beating.

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I_AM_GODDAMN_BATMAN@reddit

That's a puny number. I think my Arch installation survives 17+ years and 3 different laptops with a couple of disk, wireless cards and ram changes in between.

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kyrsjo@reddit

My desktop was probably first installed ca 2016... Upgraded through many versions of Fedora since then.

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Razidargh@reddit

Can we agree that OS stability doesn't depend on the type of OS?

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Comprehensive-Pea812@reddit

yeah windows is really stable. and in recent years viruses are less common so no need to reinstall windows all the time like back then.

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nevyn28@reddit

dafuq

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balancedchaos@reddit

Ya know, I tinkered a lot early on, I found things I liked, I calmed down. That's the sweet spot for me. Lol

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agent-squirrel@reddit

They shape their entire personality around an OS.

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OkSeaworthiness2727@reddit

My son wanted win 11 so I dual booted. The first time Windows updated, it fucked my bootloader. No worries, I picked up the spanners and fixed it. Blow me down, it happened again. Fuck it, I thought. I'll delete Linux (well played, Microsoft) and thought I'd reclaim the space to make it a completely win 11 laptop. Of course, the Linux partition was on the left of the MS partition and Windows can't reclaim the position on the left of it. Only on the right of it because, fuck you user. I downloaded some free partitioning tools that did fuck all except try and sell me subscriptions (a horrifying experience, I thought my PC was being captured). So I went the ol' foss route and used gparted. I managed to move to partition but now Windows is fucked. End of the story is to reinstall Windows too. I'll get another laptop for myself. 20 years after using Windows and it was like being in a prison cell full of criminals, 2 out of 10 don't recommend. (Extra point for win 11 UI finally catching up).

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ReditorasAS@reddit

That cracked me up bec that's how i thought about it for a while before i got it installed and until i eventually got back to windows XD

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about30ninjas1@reddit

Fedora has been good to me but everyone's mileage may vary.

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xfvh@reddit

I do that, but only because I switch everything from window managers to boot loaders practically weekly. I'm an inverterate tinkerer who thinks that if something not broken, you haven't tried hard enough yet.

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alwayzz0ff@reddit

I switched straight up at least a year or so ago. Been running the same xubuntu image since then. Gonna wipe it soon bc it just needs it but after this it’ll be even smoother.

Once every couple of weeks would burn anyone out.

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inbetween-genders@reddit

I think I’m on my second year of this install. The one prior to that was another two or so years. I’m thinking about upgrading to the new version of my distro but meh I’d rather watch tv or play video games than reinstall.

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Suterusu_San@reddit

I upgraded my debian install from buster to bullseye yesterday, was as simple as updating the repo file, and then doing apt update and reboot.

Only did it to update gclib.

Otherwise I'd have run that debian image for another few years easily.

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inbetween-genders@reddit

That makes me feel better dragging my feet then. More video games for me then for now lol.

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alwayzz0ff@reddit

I hear you, and got nothing against people people being excited about trying new things (a little envious actually). Just not for me :-)

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GeronimoHero@reddit

Yeah that’s crazy. I’ve been running the same fedora image for like two years on my thinkpad and when I got a new thinkpad I just moved it over. My desktop has been running the same arch install for like 5 years. Idk what people are doing with this constant reinstalling bullshit

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Evantaur@reddit

It's like switching a car to a different car that has the same engine but different paintjob and default radio station. (Unless it's alpine)

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GeronimoHero@reddit

I mean I’ve been using Linux for a little over twenty years. I’ve used a bunch of distros over that time. I get trying different stuff. But, use a VM, or whatever. Why reinstall your laptop over and over and over again. That makes zero sense. I use Hyprland now but I’ve used i3, gnome, sway, XFCE, etc. I’ve customized them all. I don’t reinstall to do all of that. It just seems like this dude was messing with a bunch of stuff they didn’t understand, didn’t read any documentation or anything, and just constantly broke stuff. That seems insane to me.

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Nexus19x@reddit

Yeah VMs are really the way to go for this. Have used Linux for close to 20 years and have never hopped around on my main machine.

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skoink@reddit

It just seems like this dude was messing with a bunch of stuff they didn’t understand, didn’t read any documentation or anything, and just constantly broke stuff

tbf that's pretty much how we all learned Linux

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kyrsjo@reddit

Yeah, that was a thing for win 9x...

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Brillegeit@reddit

I was also common for XP.

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Dr_Passmore@reddit

Got an old laptop that I switched to Ubuntu around 6 or 7 years back. Still works like a charm considering the laptop is old.

I mainly use it for VScode these days and 8gbs of ram is enough

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JtheDirty@reddit

It's probably partly because you tend to f something up while you're still inexperienced and it seems easier to do a reinstall than try fixing it even tho going that way you don't learn as much.

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Nexus19x@reddit

If you don’t already separate your home partition I would recommend doing that. It makes rebuilding so much easier, just don’t format the home partition during the install. All you usually have to do is select the mount point to use.

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atgaskins@reddit

Yeah, and after ten years you should know the basics enough to keep a distro clean and maintained. That is insane for a decade long user!

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CyberGoatPsyOps@reddit

Isn’t that the point of the post, that he did put it down?

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inbetween-genders@reddit

10 years later yes.

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CyberGoatPsyOps@reddit

He’s been on the same distro for a year, bro. What we talking about? lol

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dkarlovi@reddit

Yeah, I saw the same and was like "What?" I have several Fedora installs which I've done probably with Fedora 2x-ish and since updated, I don't know how this guy is using Linux.

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inbetween-genders@reddit

That’s a very miserable 10 years if that’s his daily driver oof.

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_PacificRimjob_@reddit

I mean,

headspace to wonder if my system will boot today

is a wild sentence to read about any computer situation. It hits XKCD levels of "please re-enable spacebar heating" concern

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person1873@reddit

I have an emacs macro for that, C-x, M-x Butterfly

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Acanthocephala_South@reddit

I swear this is an ADHD thing. I had to force myself to stop because it's just a neverending dopamine fuelled rabbit hole to try new things. Must be nice to have the right amount of brain chemicals haha.

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inbetween-genders@reddit

And it's a totally legit and fine of a hobby but the issue is homie came to whambulance about having to reinstall so many times in a span of 10 years and everyone's like.....bruv.

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Acanthocephala_South@reddit

Hey I think everyone is right, it's weird as shit, just saying I do it too haha

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inbetween-genders@reddit

Yes, we've all been there. I definitely have...with Gentoo decades ago lol.

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z3r0n3gr0@reddit

Exactly...TF'sWrong with this guy....

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Hellament@reddit

Eh, I get it. I wouldn’t say “weeks” but when I started using Linux regularly in the late 90s/early00s, I’d try something new every few months. Tons of distrust had reputations as being better for certain use cases, and they all had decent followings.

If you’re a young kid and don’t have a job/family monopolizing your time, it’s fun.

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_PacificRimjob_@reddit

Seriously, that line was the "oh, this is a you problem.." indicator to me. I've been on Arch since 2016 and thing I've done a full reinstall 3 times (once cause I fucked up, then when I switched from an Intel to AMD board, then another when I switched from a nvidia GPU to AMD).

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FunManufacturer723@reddit

TY for writing this. It needs to to be told more often.

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inbetween-genders@reddit

I really didn’t think it was gonna get that kind of response. I’m just 🤦‍♀️ 🤷‍♀️ with the finger pointing.

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JackDostoevsky@reddit

lol this post is like "I'M DONE WITH LINUX CUZ I WAS DOING THE THING NOBODY FORCED ME TO DO AND MOST PEOPLE DON'T DO" and it's just like john-travolta-lost.gif

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atgaskins@reddit

Yeah, something is wrong if you are ten years in and still doing this. This is first 6mo behavior.

I reinstall windows systems way more often than any of my Linux systems, because windows just gets sluggish and full of bs you can’t easily remove, or it decides to bluescreen endlessly after some driver update.

My daily driver Linux is several years old and I only reinstalled that to move away from manjaro when they became a bit questionable.

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inbetween-genders@reddit

I mean if hes distro hopping sure but he’s here whambulancing supposed years or reinstallations 😂. Exactly why I use Macs and Linux. Cause I got tired of the reinstall.

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atgaskins@reddit

I can’t imagine what he’s been doing the last ten years to have not learned the basics enough to maintain a distro. Unless he just always backs experimental underdog distros lol

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ScTiger1311@reddit

Do people really do this? I started with Kubuntu, has some minor issues with it, switched to Nobara, that's been it. This is the best distro for me. I've been using it ever since.

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YourWorstFear53@reddit

For real. Maybe just use stable releases and kernels.

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sleuthfoot@reddit

No kidding. Operating system is an odd hobby

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Jff_f@reddit

Right. Just pick something that works and is stable (usually a mainstream distro) and just use it and forget about it.

[-]

Old_Philosopher_1404@reddit

I have read on Reddit, don't even remember in what sub, a user saying "I don't like this distro, it's boring", meaning that it simply working. I thought it was a joke but... It was something I have heard many times in the last decade or even more.

My opinion is that "real" people, those who need the computer as an instrument, and not being an instrument for their computer, have simply too much to do in their real life to waste time that way. And that they're a silent majority: when someone says that constantly having something to check is a quality, that someone lives in a bubble. A bubble similar to the one inhabited by the kids who can spend entire afternoons playing with their playstation. The game is different but it's just a game. Fresh air, a good movie, a good book, a good meal, having friends if you have the social ability to do so, or working on yourself to get there, for many people these are privileges paid with hours of hard work. Those people don't have time to look for what has been broken by the latest update. And even if they have that time, it's better spent elsewhere.

I think exactly your same way, and I do so since the first I installed Ubuntu Hardy Heron, quite some time ago, when I manage to screw everything to follow the advice of a Linux enthusiast who then said that it was 'fun'.

[-]

golfing-coder@reddit

Linux distros are like neovim. Finally you just get tired and roll with what works

[-]

Key-League4228@reddit

I've been using the same installation of limus mint for years. I've upgraded it to the latest twice. I've never had a single problem. I've had far more problems with windows, honestly. After about a week of waiting 40 seconds every time you want to browse the filesystem, you will be back on Linux.

If you're sure about this, then it probably means you need a mac.

[-]

Advanced_Slice_4135@reddit

Mac’s have Unix underneath 😬

[-]

DaveTV-71@reddit

This was me in my first decade or so of using Linux. I started in 1997 and loved compiling new software, optimizing my kernel, etc. I didn't distrohop too much, as I loved also having those amazing uptime numbers! But I did try Slackware, RedHat, Mandrake, Fedora, etc. I did change window managers from time to time. AfterStep, Enlightenment (way back in the 0.9 days too!) and other weird stuff.

Then I had a family and I did the same thing. Linux Mint and be done. If something isn't in the repository is it really worth it? I'm not really into chasing dependencies to build from source anymore.

But I do fondly remember the old days and sometimes find myself doing something like that. You know, just for fun of course!

[-]

RabbitJetlag@reddit

You should write a book on your success and failures, with technical details. You have essentially become the “go to guy”.

[-]

lardgsus@reddit

I will always feel that linux was only ever supposed to be a CLI and that every advancement past that has brought it closer to sin.

[-]

AwfulUnicorn@reddit

Been on Linux for 10 years and I think my number of reinstalls apart from when i got a new laptop is probably less than 3

[-]

buddyrandom@reddit

claude code + nix

[-]

did_i_or_didnt_i@reddit

you’ve switched from tinkering Linux to using Linux.

[-]

ntcue@reddit

I am using Linux since 2008 for everything. Never came back to Windows. I started with Ubuntu, made at one point the change to Linux Mint, but then went straight back to Ubuntu. It was rather rare that I missed something only the latest shiny distribution or kernel could give me.

So I guess I am just doing the whole time what you do now. :-D

[-]

zekedou@reddit

Bro, before you're done, give NixOS a try.

[-]

NomadicCharlie@reddit

I’m right there with you, LTS distros have been my friends for some years now. I love Linux, and looked to every new and shiny but there comes that time when you just let it do what it’s best at. BEING the most stable OS there is.

[-]

ao_makse@reddit

I'm using Linux because it makes my life simpler :-/ No idea what you're doing :-/

[-]

ninjafig5676@reddit

Sounds to me is that with age, your tastes change. I've used Ubuntu, pop_os and mint in the past, came back to mint last year when all the talk of windows 10 discontinuing came up again (wanted to get used to mint again as a daily driver in advance). I value that since day one it worked well out of the box and i can play most games in my steam library no issues. I use lutris for all my other gaming needs (gog mainly).

Shiny things don't interest me anymore. That was me and smartphones back in the day, I would spend hours with a new phone testing it out and checking the new features bit now i just change the font, ringtone and after about 30 mins im good.

[-]

ygames1914A@reddit

It's totally normal if you want stable distro that just works and never borks especially you re in your 30 of course you don't have the time you just want to click the power button and it boots

[-]

Comfortable_Gate_878@reddit

I installed linux Mint over 2 years ago, seems to be running just fine, my server works, my nas works, my printer works, everything works. Seems strange that you install every two weeks. My other machine is debian and works fine. I did have a problem getting my printers scanner working but a 5 minute search resolved that.

I play games not often but they seem to work ok on modest hardware.

The issue with linux is there are lots of tinkering people out there who cannot bear that there is a new distro which might be better that someone they hardly know is using. My brother had tried just about every distro going and still cant settle on something

[-]

brecrest@reddit

There is no way this isn't a troll post.

[-]

parasit@reddit

It's absolutely normal. When I was a teenager or early college student, and I had more time than money, I spent my days tinkering with code and configurations and my nights compiling kernels.

Then came work, a wife, kids, and... I don't feel like it anymore. I have (almost) vanilla Ubuntu for work, where I run security updates. I have the Neovim/Tmux configuration, etc., on GitHub and change it maybe twice a year.

There's been enormous progress since I started (early 2000s), and almost everything works out of the box. But I'm increasingly drawn to MacOS, which is BSD with fancy Windows, but everything works out of the box and the battery lasts 15 hours. And I'm old now and I don't want to have to deal with the drivers again because the Nvidia are crashing my entire system.

[-]

EvolvingRedditor@reddit

Linux Mint the goat

[-]

cbartos1021@reddit

I've been using Ubuntu for years without any issues and I'm not even running LTS. I used to distro hop too but even Mint gave me problems that Ubuntu never has. 🤷🏻

[-]

OtaK_@reddit

Maybe learn what you’re doing? Anytime I had to reinstall a distro it was fully my fault. Hasn’t happened in years though, because I learned

[-]

Leniwcowaty@reddit (OP)

I know what I'm doing. I just WANTED to reinstall it, just to try new distro, new DE, new function, etc. etc.

[-]

badprogrammer1990@reddit

I think you are doing something wrong

`ooo/ OS: Arch Linux x86_64

`+oooo: Host: G7 7790

`+oooooo: Kernel: 6.15.2-arch1-1

-+oooooo+: Uptime: 7 mins

`/:-:++oooo+: Packages: 2739 (pacman)

`/++++/+++++++: Shell: zsh 5.9

`/++++++++++++++: Resolution: 1920x1080

`/+++ooooooooooooo/` Terminal: /dev/pts/0

./ooosssso++osssssso+` CPU: Intel i7-9750H (12) @ 4.500GHz

.oossssso-````/ossssss+` GPU: Intel CoffeeLake-H GT2 [UHD Graphics 630]

-osssssso. :ssssssso. GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile

:osssssss/ osssso+++. Memory: 595MiB / 31902MiB

➜ \~ stat / | grep Birth

Birth: 2019-11-16 18:43:14.000000000 +0100

➜ \~

[-]

phillyfyre@reddit

I use it exclusively on server side , desktop is windows , too much work to do work using Linux

[-]

Motor-Crow5091@reddit

Thanks to IBM, (and RedHat starting to suck) we don’t have CentOS anymore, so the only choice is AlmaLinux. I tried Rocky Linux, but found a much larger audience who went with AlmaLinux 9.5. Runs like butter.

[-]

Ok_Second2334@reddit

Who says we don't have CentOS anymore? CentOS is now a truly community project and it's better than before. And IBM had nothing to do with the changes.

[-]

Consistent-Okra7897@reddit

There is always Oracle Linux which is way way better than CentOS ever was and i could go as far as to say that it is better version of RedHat itself. Talking from the perspective of managing thousands of OracleLinux boxes in corporate environments over more than 10 years.

[-]

candraa6@reddit

never touched arch, and not interested either.

ubuntu + stock i3wm is enough for me

[-]

juanluisback@reddit

I also landed on Mint as my "I'm done" moment came and I don't regret it. It's rock solid.

These days I'm using Ubuntu instead for work reasons, and honestly I miss some bits from Mint!

[-]

Professional-Bee1107@reddit

I distro hopped for some time as well, now just sticking with mother distro - Debian. Life gets soo busy in your 30s you just need stuff that works and does the job reliably every time. I'm not even upgrading to their latest stable for some time on my main laptop. I do have a few small servers I still tinker with though, I just don't care if those live or die they are like 10-15 year old obsolete hardware 😂

[-]

undefined_name@reddit

Bro, do you even vm?

[-]

Hagendazzz@reddit

I recently had some issues with the latest fedora update - while my PCs with Zorin OS on it have had no issues at all and run smoothly

[-]

Polyxeno@reddit

Holy what? How long were you reinstalling the system every couple of weeks?

I'm the opposite. I have several Linux systems that have only ever had one type of Linux on them, and which I rarely update or change much on, unless I need to, or it's a new version of my own software.

That's one of the main reasons I enjoy Linux - the lack of feeling any particular reason to update anything once it works.

[-]

Lengthiness-Fuzzy@reddit

I gave up usually sooner and used windows as desktop. Every second version of it was perfect for me.

[-]

Wild_Chef6597@reddit

I've been running Linux for years and I rarely reinstall, or compile the kernel. Things just work. I do have the benefit of being a more recent Linux user, I can't program so I could never have run Linux in the 90s.

[-]

Accurate_Debate_7222@reddit

Totally get it, I bounced around distros, setup arch to say I did. It’s fun, i know what I like and what I don’t. Landed on gnome Fedora and I only make small tweaks.

Now that I no longer have a backup windows machine I must have a stable computer that my wife can use on occasion.

[-]

klathium@reddit

I’m the same way but with Windows. It just works.

[-]

KinTharEl@reddit

I think it's akin to a hobby. When you're entering the linux space as a hobby, you're eager to figure out what's out there, what you like, what you don't like, and that's distrohopping in a nutshell. You're eager to discover everything, learn from other people's experiences, and break stuff in the process of this discovery.

But when you really get comfortable, you don't want to discover new things, you want a workflow that works, not an experiment that may yield you a 5% better result.

I noticed this when I got into woodworking. I used to envy Youtubers who had table saws, mitre stations, 20 types of hand planes and 600 different chisels. But I couldn't get any of that since it was so expensive. But I got 5-6 chisels, 2 hand planes, one hand saw, and a combination square, and for the most part, I'm happy. Sure, there are other things that can technically improve my woodworking, and maybe someday, I will. But later purchases are going to be thoughtful, as in whether I need them and I actually have a project I can use them with, or it's not getting bought.

My installation works. I don't throw random applications onto it, I don't update kernels for the sake of it, and I enjoy having my main laptop as stable as can be. I need a reliable machine for dev work, and this suffices.

[-]

Capital-Customer6498@reddit

Same. I don't have 5 routers so I guess I have to take my router out of the table to do certain things. Older I get the more I accept I just have limits on what I can have and I can get 95%+ there without having everything ever.

[-]

Regeneric@reddit

I installed Arch with Plasma some 5 years ago and that's it.
I update it from time to time and it just works.

[-]

ravigehlot@reddit

Arch is awesome. It boots faster than any other distro. It also works great with Wayland + Hyprland. It has the latest but it also makes LTS packages available. I find pacman easy to use, and consistent. The same with yay.

[-]

Capital-Customer6498@reddit

And AUR basically means you always have any software you need. Just be wise and check the build package which at least paru always presents you the option to see and you are in good shape.

[-]

Capital-Customer6498@reddit

I update mine every day and it just works. The one weird thing in recent history was tun seemed to drop out after a kernel update but just rebooting fixed it. Some reason nothing I did in the active session worked. And nothing would let me load it.

[-]

TimeTick-TicksAway@reddit

Same

[-]

quicksand8917@reddit

I use the same Arch for 16 years BTW :D

Instead of distro hopping I do DE hopping. Currently with Plasma on my gaming PC (with HDR, adaptive sync) and Gnome on my laptop. Hyperland looked pretty cool, but I couldn't get steam/gamescope to work seemlessly there.

[-]

ZeroXeroZyro@reddit

I installed Arch 4 years ago on my desktop and have been on the same install since. Have 2 servers and 2 laptops running Arch as well. I tinker with all of them. Definitely made mistakes before but all still original installs. I don't understand reinstalling like OP. Like why not try it in a VM first before breaking your system repeatedly and frustrating yourself?

[-]

plasticbomb1986@reddit

Arch with GNOME, 6 years. It was supposed to be the system i mess up. Its a long running task for me to do a clean reinstall now that i know what i do use, but... its working, running 24/7/365, no energy/mood/money to do a reinstall the way i want (wanna upgrade the drives from sata ssd to nvme, and ditch some drives to get bigger ones and do zfs raidz setup of the hdds). Its working, why bother?😂

[-]

ravigehlot@reddit

Yep. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.

[-]

_harveyghost@reddit

Same lol. I tried Mint and Nobara extremely briefly before swapping to Arch and as soon as I did I called it a day. Does everything I need it to with 0 fuss.

[-]

Khaare@reddit

Same, been on the same install since 2019. Update every couple days to weeks and that's it. Somehow I've had to reinstall windows multiple times even though I only use it like once a year.

[-]

BinkReddit@reddit

Done reinstalling the system every couple of weeks.

What? You did this for 10 years? Who does this?

[-]

ComprehensiveYak4399@reddit

like half the linux population actually

[-]

Tipcat@reddit

I was on pop_os! for like 3 years, no issue really occurred that gave me the new to re-install
Then I swapped to CachyOS (rolling edge) like a year ago because I wanted to and same deal there.
No issues that big that I had to reinstall.

I sincerely doubt half the linux population distrohops or fucks up their system so bad, every other week.

[-]

Capital-Customer6498@reddit

Literally my exact path though I dabbled with a couple other options in the middle before cachy just feeling out options. Tried OpenMandriva, Fedora Silver Blue, and a bunch of others over a month and just decided Arch always has the latest stuff and the widest array of possible software so just looking around CachyOS was the most correctly preconfigured Arch for my desires and went with it. Been the most stable distro I have had to date and the easiest to unfuck when something gets slightly sideways.

[-]

malloc_some_bitches@reddit

But why though, I have an arch server running for 1.5 years of uptime and have dual boot mint without needing to do any of that. I swear people on this sub are masochistic

[-]

Capital-Customer6498@reddit

Usually what happens for me is the distro I am on does something stupid and then I have the choice of either tweaking it with unsupported repos and end up with a lot of maintenance every update. The alternative, that ended up the best option for me, which was just picking something arch based and rolling with the punches and always having tons of options as my mind can handle that arch wiki. Which is probably the most comprehensive linux documentation in the world.

[-]

chocopudding17@reddit

Like hell they do. This is definitely a tiny, vocal minority.

For the sake of argument (this is totally contrived, but should illustrate the point), let's say that every Linux user posts once to /r/unixporn upon installing and configuring their OS. You will have more posts from repeat installers simply because they have installed more often.

Then, consider further that not everyone posts to /r/unixporn. In fact, it's the repeat installers, the fiddlers, the ricers who are most likely to do so.

Meanwhile, the person who runs stock Ubuntu has, with near certainty, never even posted once to /r/unixporn or any other Linux message board.

Quiet people working quietly are so often undercounted.

[-]

Saragon4005@reddit

I bitch and whine when Debian goes out of LTS. So yeah no idea what these people are on.

[-]

mbarland@reddit

Gah! It's been five years already? Such bullshit.

Debian turns my computers into appliances I set and forget.

[-]

txdv@reddit

Used to so that too. now its mint

[-]

IntelligentPiece5813@reddit

I have been using Ubuntu for about 15 years, no problems.

[-]

Capital-Customer6498@reddit

I hopped virtually ever distro including Gentoo...my distro hopping for my main machine basically stopped after moving to an arch distro. My first run around with arch was pre Endeavour/manjaro/cachy/whatever. It was really a gamble back then but now it's all pretty stable and never have any problems. If I do it's usually solved by rebooting.

Honestly I would have run PopOS forever but they kind of hampered their support at one point when they decided they weren't going to move their target ubuntu base until they finished Cosmic. Left me slightly screwed unless I wanted to run unsupported configuration of their OS. So I bounced a few times until I found one that supported all of my hardware and that was easy to maintain. Which ended up being Arch then eventually CachyOS just because a lot of their default choices were what I was trying to configure Arch to be anyway.

Building a home lab...not sure what I will do until I try some options but Nix looks good because it seems to have an inherent determinant repeatability which will work for building multiple servers out.

These days with things like btrfs and good snapshots I hardly ever have to scrap even a VM. It's just a minor rewind and everything works again. Like, I have a few DEs installed I tinker with but as long as you mind your home directory it rarely breaks anything.

[-]

Impressive_Laugh6810@reddit

I've been using Ubuntu for over a decade and decided new installs will be Debian due to snap.. But I definitely don't feel like you have w swapping etc.. maybe if your just using as a hobby and swapping like a game repeatedly?

[-]

DoNotFeedTheSnakes@reddit

I'm on Ubuntu still, I just purge snap from my installs.

[-]

fnkytwn01@reddit

Lubuntu.

Light weight and gets the job done. Do a look it of Windows vms and Oracle Linux for work.

Never got into distro hopping

[-]

kmlynarski@reddit

I’ve been using Linux since 1992 (kernel 0.95).

A few years ago, I switched from Ubuntu LTS to Arch Linux on my laptops and workstations, but… this year the AUR pushed me to the brink a few times (package update issues caused by file conflicts between different packages, and the fact that many packages are only available in source form-while I don’t exactly have half a day to spare compiling C++ code ;-)). That’s why this year I moved over to the most standard Fedora Workstation, and it’s been working just fine.

On servers, it’s still Debian stable - there’s no other choice! ;-)

[-]

rucadi_@reddit

Nixos was what made me stop distrohopping

[-]

Positive-Answer-99@reddit

You literally describe why you’re having problems with Linux lmao. Stop touching your computer’s software and just use it

[-]

Lordgandalf@reddit

Reinstall every so often seems a bit too much. But at this moment I have a os I like and use the most for me it's Debian. I like it because it seems to work fine for me.

[-]

0B08JVE@reddit

This. From Solaris and FreeBSD in the early to mid-90s to pretty much every major *nix distro/flavour (and not only… heck, I’ve daily-driven Corel Linux, Xandros and a gazillion others as on main machine) as well as Windows (3.1 to Insider builds of 11) over the past 30+ years, I’ve finally been at peace with macOS since 2021 (MBP M1 14” purchase). I’m totally fine with all my servers running Ubuntu, but for personal use? Fuck it - I’ve lost the desire to tinker and recompile things.

[-]

themarcelus@reddit

Did you check the new Cachy OS?

[-]

btssam@reddit

I think that's one of the major appeals of open source software. If I want to freeze my system at a certain point, I can do that and it'll just work, whereas other software will force you to upgrade or force changes on you. I haven't fiddled with my linux system in a long time.

[-]

ivobrick@reddit

Wtf? I have mint nearly 2 yrs. I was not able to nuke it even with every single dm you can possiby think of.

Im 99% sure any other big/gaming distro is similar, just dont force newest and greatest kernels where the distro cant handle it or whatever problems these causes - im not a pro..

[-]

Left-Will5944@reddit

I have no idea why ppl say arch is unstable? I've been on arch for 3 years now, it never caused me any headache I use a highly customized simple setup. it never breaks, and when it breaks it can be easily fixed cause it's simple.
I use DWM, slstatus, xinit to start X ( i know wayland,... but it works for me, at least for now. ) alacritty thorium, it's been very stable.

I test new stuff in docker, or vms ( as many ppl pointed out they are a good way to test new stuff. )

I never had to reinstall it. when a problem occurs, don't reinstall without diagnosing it, 1st it will teach you, 2nd it will never happen again if you know what was the cause.

so I guess arch is stable, but you ( and yeah I'm talking to you steve ) are unstable.

on offense ;-)

[-]

RustyPd@reddit

I felt that, too! Dropping out of university with the first kid born and a serious job in your neck you no longer have the time and passion to tinker with new distros or tech trends being hyped on Reddit!

Now, that I’m closer to 50 than to 40, with the youngest kid being close to finish his school era; my interest for tinkering and trying new tech came back. But I noticed that I developed the strength to let things go if I feel the time is not worth the value.

Let‘s see how you feel another 20 years from now .. 😉

[-]

SubstantialCoach8387@reddit

Funny how Linux Mint is the means to an end for a lot of us, after getting the experience. I'm on the same boat, except much younger than you

[-]

drunken-acolyte@reddit

This is exactly why I stopped changing distro annually 2 years ago and made the decision to just stick with Debian.

[-]

Reader-87@reddit

Your time has come for Debian stable!

[-]

sob727@reddit

Exactly this. I distro-hopped for a couple years. Then I settled on Debian. That was 25 years ago. Now I waste no time, I just use my system.

[-]

BinkReddit@reddit

I tried to do this with Debian, but just couldn't. I wasted so much time troubleshooting bugs that were already fixed up stream and the system was rather unusable as a result. Combine this with important functionality missing in legacy packages and you're left with a system that doesn't work very well as a modern desktop.

[-]

sob727@reddit

25 years and I havent experienced any of this.

What missing functionality have you experienced?

[-]

hpxvzhjfgb@reddit

I use mint and it's the only distro I've used since I installed it in 2018. I've had issues where I wanted to try the latest version of some program because it recently added a new feature that I needed, but the package manager only had ancient versions available, so I either have to compile from source or search for somewhere that publishes nightly builds and hope they were compiled with an old enough libc so it will run on my machine (I'm still on mint 20).

programs that I've had this issue with include gcc, llvm/clang, python, git, gimp, inkscape, ffmpeg, postgres, and probably several more that I can't think of immediately. recently I have been thinking about installing arch so that I can get around this issue, and also to have a more minimal system.

[-]

berntout@reddit

Debian is great for stability but not for bleeding edge so that makes sense for your use case.

[-]

walks-beneath-treees@reddit

I guess it's the same for Ubuntu Lts then. You'll be stuck with the same versions of software unless you tweak the system. But with flatpaks that's not really a problem for a lot of software now.

I don't really see a reason to always track the latest software unless you really need to.

[-]

requion@reddit

I absolutely adore Debian for its stability in server use cases.

And i know how this sounds but i don't remember what specific software i used at that time but i very quickly ditched Debian stable as a Desktop OS.

Now i also don't like the tendency to break with updates that Arch inherits.

When i left windows for good, i started with Void Linux. Looked promising, very slim and rolling release but more stable than Arch. But there was too much "DIY" (more so than with Arch) IMO (used it for about 1 year).

After Void, i switched to NixOS and never looked back. Reasonably up to date packages, solid installer and out-of-the-box experience, re-install (if required) takes as long as the initial packages need to download and if an update breaks something, just boot the previous generation.

Its not perfect, its not the end all be all. But i found home.

PS: honorable mention, i use one package (plus dependencies) via Flatpak. That is OBS studio because the version from Nixpkgs doesn't have the Twitch plugin and i was too lazy to look into that.

[-]

BinkReddit@reddit

But there was too much "DIY"

Void had too much DIY, so you went with NixOS instead?

[-]

Enelson4275@reddit

The truth about Linux is that:

All distros have a lot of DIY; and
The real determining factor for most people is if they can be walked through that DIY by the first tutorial Google hands them.

Arch on paper has some of the worst DIY, but a certain kind of user worships how intuitively easy it is to use - because the Wiki is comprehensive. Meanwhile, I've personally had really rough experiences with extremely popular distros, largely because I've got a sneaking suspicion I should be finding/seeking help on Discord instead of Google.

[-]

redrider65@reddit

Arch on paper has some of the worst DIY, but a certain kind of user worships how intuitively easy it is to use - because the Wiki is comprehensive.

Part of the illusory user worship. "Intuitive" precludes the need to resort to a wiki.

The OP's point is that he doesn't need to be seeking help on Discord of Google. He's DONE with "rough experiences." 👉Mint.

[-]

Scandiberian@reddit

People misunderstand what NixOS asks of them. You start with a lean system and you have to add the stuff to the config file. But it's not like you're given a puzzle to solve, the "shell" you're given to fill is quite sane.

I find Void much harder to work with due to the lack of systemd, for example.

[-]

BinkReddit@reddit

I find Void much harder to work with due to the lack of systemd, for example.

I find Void much easier to work with due to the lack of systemd.

[-]

requion@reddit

May have to do with the fact that i was using Void exclusively with a tiling window manager. But also everything that is related to services is easier with NixOS due to systemd.

And don't get me wrong. I still like Void and it will always have a place in my heart. After all it was the Distro that cured me of Windows. But i noticed that it doesn't work for me as a daily driver.

[-]

Albos_Mum@reddit

Now i also don't like the tendency to break with updates that Arch inherits.

As a decade+ Arch user: What tendency? I can count the amount of times I've had to do extra work after an update on one hand across my home server, my desktop and my HTPC, which is fairly similar to how often I had to fix things after a new point release on the likes of SuSE, Fedora, Ubuntu or Mint. (And it's usually the exact same kinda things breaking too)

[-]

como13@reddit

Debian ftw for server!

[-]

SweetBabyAlaska@reddit

idk it doesn't really seem more stable in any regard. I think it is a misconception that because packages are new, they are stable.

NixOS felt the most stable, but is still an extremely high barrier to entry, and doing some little things is super annoying.

But even Fedora or Arch feel perfectly stable.

[-]

MttGhn@reddit

Question: if you use flatpacks you don't have this problem, right?

[-]

Enelson4275@reddit

Debian user here: it really depends on use-case.

For me, I use my Debian as a server that mostly handles three things: docker images, flatpacks, and VMs. I try to prioritize the VMs first, since they are trivially easy to manage, backup, keep stable, and nuke as needed. Docker images are next, because I find them trickier to manage but still necessary. Flatpaks can help me run cutting-edge stuff, but the docker tends to be more reliable and VMs certainly offer me the most control over my priorities.

If someone came into Debian and said, 'I'm going to daily drive this and just use flatpaks for everything to keep it modern' I think they'd have a bad time. But maybe that's just me trying to do dozens of different things on a single-user PC.

[-]

BinkReddit@reddit

If someone came into Debian and said, 'I'm going to daily drive this and just use flatpaks for everything to keep it modern' I think they'd have a bad time.

I concur. Besides, you're not getting your DE from a flat pack.

[-]

BinkReddit@reddit

Not everything is a Flatpak.

[-]

hpxvzhjfgb@reddit

2 years is way too long for what I need, though.

[-]

berntout@reddit

Yea this sounds more like a Tumbleweed use case to me

[-]

Shiny-Squirtle@reddit

Arch really shines here. I've been using it for almost 6 years both for work and personal. Although nvidia drivers broke it here and there in the early days, the system is solid as a rock. For me, security is more of a concern than stability on any rolling-release distro.

[-]

Gugalcrom123@reddit

Try Debian Testing. Packages in it are first tested a little and the usual delay is just 1-2 weeks

[-]

p-x-i@reddit

python <- pyenv
gimp <- flatpak

[-]

sob727@reddit

For anything that's dev related I tend to install in my home if I need the latest (yes, even a Postgres from source). The stability of the main system being paramount.

[-]

BatemansChainsaw@reddit

I've used debian stable as a base, and looked for packages in backports or when they weren't found there installed from unstable while not pulling unnecessary dependencies. This solved almost all of my needs for a newer package release, and those were generally rare as is.

[-]

BinkReddit@reddit

The problem with this method is here now running FrankenDebian and broke your stability and, at this point, you're probably better off running something else: https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian

[-]

TCh0sen0ne@reddit

A tip: try using Docker or Flatpak (or even Snap) for those apps where you need newer versions of. While it does require some extra effort (primarily figuring out file and network access), it will not mess up your system with conflicting dependencies or hacks to get things working.

People are often dissing on Flatpak and Snap, but it really helps to keep your system "clean" when try

[-]

Aretebeliever@reddit

I think this is a situation where distrobox really shines. Have your core system on a rock solid base, and then install bleeding edge stuff on a contained environment.

[-]

AdMission8804@reddit

The answer is fedora.

[-]

bovikSE@reddit

I second this. I really really thought I wanted debian stable but for my laptop it was just pain with missing drivers (which I believe they've now backtracked on) and unstable (like kde crashing randomly). Fedora on the other hand has just worked, for years. I run Debian for server VMs though.

[-]

Albos_Mum@reddit

Funnily enough I found Debians package management situation is easily the worst in the OSS sector, which makes for a tonne of extra work and/or waiting for the computer to do its thing that I simply don't have to do on Arch, Fedora or the like.

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doxx-o-matic@reddit

I tried to distro hop for a while, too ... Ubuntu was my go-to for a very long time ... I always felt that it was bloated but it worked ... now, Debian has become my new favorite ... especially for RPi's. It just runs and works.

[-]

Brillegeit@reddit

NB about bloated Ubuntu, both desktop and server now offer the option of minimal packages in the installer.

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sylario@reddit

My only experience with Debian (server? It was a version cli only) was installing it on an old Intel NUC. It did not recognize the wifi chipset. It gave me the impression Debian will only works on ancient hardware . Instead I installed Ubuntu server.

[-]

Leniwcowaty@reddit (OP)

I like Cinnamon too much to go back to Gnome or KDE :P

[-]

natheo972@reddit

Have you ever tried Mate ?

[-]

Sataniel98@reddit

Debian lets you choose your DE in the installer and Cinnamon is among the defaults.

[-]

Leniwcowaty@reddit (OP)

Yeah, but since Cinnamon is developed by Mint team, it's waaaay more integrated with Mint, than with Debian. Update manager and software center are just two of the examples.

[-]

TenacBelter@reddit

You could always use LMDE... :)

[-]

HarpooonGun@reddit

Just wait till they update it for Debian 13 though if you wanna

[-]

Aretebeliever@reddit

This is what I am going to do as well. I have a feeling Mint is going to end up going with Debian. The two seemed to be very aligned in their goals.

[-]

HoustonBOFH@reddit

Have you tired Gnome Flashback?

[-]

reditanian@reddit

$ apt-cache search cinnamon-desktop-env
cinnamon-desktop-environment - Cinnamon desktop environment - full desktop with extra components
$ cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)"

🤷‍♂️

[-]

RandomChance@reddit

IKR? I came to say the exact thing. Your OS doesn't have to be a hobby anymore.

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fabolous_gen2@reddit

Yeah Debian will always be my backup distro, but for now I’m daily driving gentoo…

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stormdelta@reddit

To be fair, Gentoo's basically the only rolling release that has stable and unstable package sets that I know of, and they're way more careful about big changes.

It's part of the reason I use it for my main PC. I don't need the flexibility on other devices, but I play games and do other things that need newer packages on my PC + my PC is the most annoying one to rebuild.

[-]

tblancher@reddit

If I have a choice, it's Debian on mission critical hosts (basically, anything that someone else relies on besides just me), and Arch on my daily driver laptop and various homelab devices (including my playground VPS); basically everything else runs Arch.

[-]

fabolous_gen2@reddit

Seems sensible, but I would always choose gentoo over arch

[-]

tblancher@reddit

Gentoo is what taught me the value of a package manager. Before that I was using Slackware.

I tired of compiling everything under the sun. X11, Open/LibreOffice, and similar programs took a week to compile. I had a dual AMD Opteron setup; this was circa 2001-2005, so SMP was fairly new on consumer equipment.

[-]

fabolous_gen2@reddit

I can only imagine… 🤣

[-]

BulkySquirrel1492@reddit

I tried to give Debian a chance a few times but found it quite resource intensive and annoyingly slow compared to other distros.

[-]

MissionGround1193@reddit

I have prod servers which were dist-upgraded from woody. Granted you don't thinker with servers. You add stability by NOT tinkering. But still, dist-upgrade is impressive.

[-]

derangedtranssexual@reddit

His issue is that he’s a dumbass that keeps doing unnecessary things to his computer not that fedora or arch is too unstable

[-]

szayl@reddit

Exactly

[-]

shaving_minion@reddit

haha yes! Been few years now, added some custom repos for Firefox and a few other software and that's about it

[-]

pangapingus@reddit

Happy member of the club here, never understood the glamour of Debian-based distros, or other non-apex level distros. I don't like the RHL/Fedora way of doing things and Debian's been comfy for me for a while now

[-]

ediw8311xht@reddit

I have used many different distributions, but I just use Manjaro now. Yes, there are a bunch of weird things such as the repos being very similar to Arch but being slightly different and being held back, pamac, etc.

However, unlike Arch, Manjaro great support for having multiple kernels installed. Just mhwd-kernel -i linuxX.XX to install a specific kernel version and it will automatically install the correct headers (if you have the package installed) and everything else and update bootloader. This means if something breaks with the newest kernel, you can go back to a previous one. Also, this was a while back, but when I was running I think Debian on a Virtualbox it was having problem with the kernel I was running for some reason. Switched kernels and got it running, something I couldn't have done with Arch.

[-]

mardiros@reddit

until your dist upgrade. I am not a Debian user on my laptop anymore, but it was a mess with wifi and video card while using it. I am almost sure it is fine now.

[-]

mglyptostroboides@reddit

Came here to say this. Debian stable is the most common endpoint for former distro-hoppers who just want their computer to work.

[-]

Dead_Calendar@reddit

For real! I have the chronic distro hopping bug, and Debian is the only one I could use several years straight. I used to simulate distro hopping by having as much desktop environments, window managers and login managers as possible and install tons of themes for those desktop environments. I thought for a long time what's the point of distrohopping when almost everything is debian based?? I have been using arch and gentoo dual boot for a few weeks now but, if I get sick of it I'm reinstalling debian. Just wanted to know what the deal was about non debian based distros and not sure yet.

[-]

walks-beneath-treees@reddit

This is basically why I am stuck with Debian now. It works, it's compatible with my hardware and it gets out of my way. And I know it's going to keep working until at least the next version.

I was also surprised with how easy it was to change from one version to the other. I visited my mother, ran an apt update, and it told me the stable version was tracking Trixie. Then I issued apt full upgrade and it was done. I didn't even have to edit the apt sources anymore.

KDE 6 also solved the nuisances I had with the desktop. I couldn't recommend it enough.

[-]

MegamanEXE2013@reddit

Reinstalling every few weeks? Man. Last I reinstalled was on January with Mint 22.1 and probably won't do it until Mint 23 if the GNU Rust stuff doesn't break stuff

[-]

TypeScrupterB@reddit

Just install debian

[-]

These_Muscle_8988@reddit

Arch with KDE did the trick for me, no more distrohopping

[-]

offlinehq@reddit

People with arch or nixos getting triggered by this

[-]

dwaynemartins@reddit

Im with the top poster.

I finally made the switch to linux as my daily/gaming rig... specifically Pop!_os back in December. I love it... its mostly stable and play most games... it updates easily... I have no complaints and no reason to hop...

I guess it all depends on what you are looking for in your distro... I was mostly tired of windows... and Pop has filled on nicely and then some.

[-]

Verhulstak69@reddit

Kinda did the same and took a break, I didn't last a week on windows and came running back

[-]

apple_bl4ck@reddit

But why don't you stick with an LTS version, if your workstation already works, what is the need to keep updating the kernel, for example, I get the impression that you started using it for fashion but the excitement wore off.

[-]

Inside-Metal-1517@reddit

I use Ubuntu and didn't face with such problems as you had with Arch. There are a lot of memes about Arch like "I use Arch btw"😄 So, Ubuntu is power! I like it! 🐧

[-]

Answer_Present@reddit

Linux can be a hobby, or a tool, sounds like you went from one to the other

[-]

sniekje@reddit

Whaha,... Ok. Well I install a new distro every 2 years or so. Pretty much always run out of the box experiences. Never tinker to much except for my .ssh/config settings keys and tweaks. Otherwise... not much else :)

[-]

Dinux-g-59@reddit

Well, I'm 66 and I am using mint 22 too. I just use it because it works, after several years of experiments and distro hopping. I still have a spare notebook on which sometimes I try a new distro just for fun 😊

[-]

StickyTwinkie@reddit

I ran Debian on my desktop for a long time before buying a Mac. Love Debian. Still use it as a headless server on two of my home machines.

When I ran it as a desktop, Firefox was the only thing I wanted to stay current. So, I downloaded it from Mozilla’s website, installed it to /opt/firefox, and gave myself permissions to that folder so I could update it whenever there was a new release.

[-]

Siebter@reddit

Yeah, I don't know. My brother gave me a machine with SuSE 10.0 in 2005, a few months later he gave me the root pw and that was pretty much it. I think he had to hold my hands a bit when I was upgrading to 10.1 and 10.2., but I'm rocking openSUSE ever since. :-)

Never switched distros, only had a few years where I tested various VMs out of curiosity.

Never used Windows too (except for work, grm).

[-]

jonRock1992@reddit

It only took me a few weeks to get to your headspace lol. I went back to a windows-only desktop recently because I had enough. Nearly every single thing I did in Linux involved some sort of troubleshooting to get it working as expected. Literally NOTHING just worked, and I don't have the time to fix things. I was spending more time troubleshooting than just using the OS.

[-]

Davi_323@reddit

I am a newish Linux user (just a couple of months) and I distro hopped for a bit too. Albeit for a much shorter period of time...I settled on Mint, and have no desire to try everything under the sun just to try it. Mint works, and that is really all that matters to me. Bells and whistles are fine, but I don't really need them.

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Available-Hat476@reddit

I was like you before too for a long time. Since a couple of years now I've just settled with Fedora workstation. It just works like a charm, trouble free, very up to date but also stable. I don't even customize it anymore, just plain vanilla Gnome, no extensions or anything. I couldn't be happier. I'm just using my computer now instead of fiddling with it. I guess it comes with the age, yes. I'm over 50 now.

[-]

iampsygy@reddit

You wear a black round hat by any chance?

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githman@reddit

Basically, you learned to recognize the benefits of LTS. I did too, after running a certain bleeding edge distro for almost a year now. It works as advertised and I have no specific complaints about it bar one: too much maintenance. Not enough to nuke it immediately and install Mint again, but the next time I have to reinstall it will be something LTS.

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RahimahTanParwani@reddit

Is this written by a Microsoft employee?

[-]

nldls@reddit

I installed Fedora a couple months ago and probably run it from now on. No need to look further. Its not windows and it works.

[-]

sethasaurus666@reddit

I jumped around a bit in the early days but now I've got Linux Lite on my laptop and Linux Mint on my TV box. I used to yearn for the day I had hardware that could run enlightenment but now I'm more about the slimmed down OS. Having started with slackware in 1998, it's a major relief to get to the point where I can just dd my system to be hardware and carry on. It's also great that mostly you can just install a package with apt and the old days of dependency hell are pretty much over.

[-]

RevolutionaryRope172@reddit

no one is forcing you to use bleeding edge, arch + kde is all you need but on you go tinkering like an umeployed manchildren. why dont you give noobuntu a try?

[-]

3na5n1@reddit

Yeah. That's how I ended up on Arch, doing updates when needed (read: never)

[-]

attila-orosz@reddit

You will eventually discover Debian stable. Pure, unmoving bliss. 🙂

[-]

zquzra@reddit

The older I get, the more I just want free time to mess around with Linux and other alternative systems—kind of like back in the old “hacker culture” days. My other hobbies are cooking and gardening, and honestly, that’s enough for me. Every time there’s a discussion about tinkering with computers, there’s always someone who shows up with the same tired line about “being productive” and how they don’t want their system to “get in the way.” Honestly? That whole productivity cult is boring as hell. I’m already productive enough: I live comfortably, I provide for my family. Why on earth would I waste my free time chasing some arbitrary metric of efficiency instead of just enjoying the things I actually like?

[-]

legitematehorse@reddit

You! I like you!

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Suitable-Name@reddit

I'm just talking for myself, but I like to tinker with other IT related stuff, and I love my stable gentoo. Didn't have problems with the OS itself in a long time, and at the moment, they would just keep me off stuff I'd actually like to do with my hardware.

[-]

Significant-Tap-3793@reddit

Can you turn off the internet when you are done too please.

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mcassil@reddit

I got tired and spent a long time using Ubuntu as the only system, I started using only the LTS version and only changed when it lost support. I switched to Linux Mint because Ubuntu was too heavy for my machine, I've been on it for ~3 years now.

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Content-Tank6027@reddit

>Done reinstalling the system every couple of weeks.
Sorry, there is something wrong there. I started mine from Ubuntu 12, and I am at Ubuntu 25.04 no need for reinstall.

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Dormiens@reddit

I was on Mint for 4 years and now I'm on CachyOS, but i just wanted new aesthetic. Either way i had 0 problems on CachyOS, I'm really impressed

[-]

OneHumanBill@reddit

I had the same experience. I've been on Mint now for maybe three years or so? I only had to reinstall when my old PC died and I needed a new one.

Mint is home now.

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hhannis@reddit

just use mac

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CarefulEar966@reddit

I am 27 years old and have been using Linux since then. I've always done distro-hopping but on virtual machines. My physical machines have seen Red Hat, Mandrake, Ubuntu, and now Mint. I've changed computers more often than the installations, which I update regularly. Linux suits me this way.

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TheZeth80@reddit

Siempre hay algo por lo que tener una pelea eterna en linux, sea hardware. software o alguna nueva incompatibilidad.

Hace años lo deje (lo use en toda la universidad y el trabajo), pero en casa siempre windows. Hace poco fastidiado de windows (y el soporte de video juegos en linux) intente nuevamente. Dure una 15 días y lo deje (probe varias: fedora, Nobara, OpenSuse, Bazzite, Linux Mint, Ubuntu). Prácticamente el problema de siempre hardware, 2 avermedia que es un dolor hacer que funcione (no streaming, trabajo), varias veces me dejaron varado y batallando de 10 a 20min para que me den imagen (una de ellas se supone que funciona al 100 en linux, pero no hay forma).

En software siempre hay detalles también, que a día de hoy me resultan ridículo que no existan nativamente (te estoy hablando a ti Google Drive, keepass MusicBee, etc).

Podrías decir: bueno Zeth hay alternativas o usar Wine, pero siempre han detallitos como escalado, comportamiento extraño, lentitud o no es lo que esperas.

[-]

6969_42@reddit

Man, this hits close to home. I've also tried all the distros, and frustration after frustration has just caused me to go back to Mint as well. It just works.

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Azreona@reddit

Preach

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CoolCat_RS@reddit

Dude I stopped distrohopping after a year. And when I say distrohopping I mean switching my desktop from Arch to Fedora for the stability of the latter. 10 years is a long time but at least you found what’s best for you

[-]

thunderborg@reddit

I’ve only been running Linux daily for ~18Months and have been experimenting for years but never on my main computer.

I feel like I skipped your distro hopping and went straight to Fedora.

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Global-Eye-7326@reddit

Only Femboys reinstall Arch with Hyprland every two weeks lol

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danderzei@reddit

You need t ospend more time working with Linux rather than working on your distro.

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gardotd426@reddit

Done reinstalling the system every couple of weeks. Done finding the best, newest trend there is. Done spending hours and hours troubleshooting and fixing issues with your extremely customized setup. Done scouring the forums and Reddit looking for answers on why this absolute newest, bleeding edge RC kernel is causing you problems. Just DONE.

Dude seriously this is 100% a you problem. These are all self inflicted, I switched to Linux 7 years ago and ive been on Arch for 6, and this current installation has been going for 5 years. During which I've changed enough hardware to build like 5 PCs. 2600X to 3600X to 3800X to 5800X to 5900X to 7950X, B450m/AC to X570 Taichi to ASUS X670-P Prime WiFi. RX 580 to RX 5600 XT (on launch day) to 5700XT to RTX 3090 (on launch day in person and I am actually currently the first known consumer to use a 3090 on Linux (as in anyone not an engineer, reviewer, or NV employee. The first to buy one myself and use it in Linux). The 3090, 30 minutes after launch (930 AM Eastern US time on Sept 30 2020) worked flawlessly from first boot with it, better than the RX 5000 GPUs even a year after their launch.

I have moved from i3 to Budgie to GNOME to Plasma. I recently moved to Wayland full time.

After my first couple months on Linux, I've had to reinstall due to some problem ONE time, and after the reinstall I discovered that it was my fault and I could have fixed it without a reinstall (it was a problem in my user .config folder and so the reinstall didn't fix it because I am not an idiot so I keep /home on its own partition). I never have to reinstall now because I have Timeshift because again, im not a total idiot, and worst case scenario, I have to go back to a snapshot 7 days old, and lose nothing except for whats in /usr, /bin, and /etc (because /var and /opt are also on their own partitions because recently I looked into the benefits of it I recalled hearing about way back when I moved /home to its own partition).

I update repo pkgs every two weeks, and AUR stuff when I feel like it or when I need to after a system update. Never have an issue.

I dont know what the fuck youre constantly messing with to cause all these problems but I just cut out like 2000 words of how deeply customized my own system is and I still have no issues.

This is VERY much you. You mentioning the newest trends is the dead giveaway. You CANT chase the newest trends on Windows so I mean if you move back youre losing that anyway, maybe stop running the newest trends. And stop depending on LTS kernels because they are NOT intended for you, it is VERY obvious from everything you said that you need the stable point release kernel (as in just linux).

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SpookyDragonJB@reddit

Yeah, I started out with Red Hat on the first computer I owned in '99, in '04 or '05 I switched to Arch, but always had to have a Windows machine for certain things that required Windows compatibility. My Windows machine, and all of its backups got corrupted somewhere around '18-'19, and so chose to replace it with Zorin OS 15. Loved it so much it became the only Distro I used until about a year ago. I loaded Zorin OS 17 onto my "new" Laptop, and then loaded the same OS onto my "new" Primary Desktop, and I have Linux Mint on my old Secondary Desktop. My Laptop has gone through quite a few Distros while I was wanting to see if there was something else I liked, but recently reloaded Zorin OS 17 onto it again, and have decided that Zorin OS is going to remain my main OS for the foreseeable future. For my hardware, and use case, I don't need the latest greatest OS, but I do need it to "just work", and it does.

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FarhanYusufzai@reddit

What is happening that you are re-installing every couple of weeks or struggling with kernel versions, especially if you're running Mint? Mint and friends eliminate all of that headache for you. Unless you're doing something bleeding edge or highly specific, I bet a kernel from 3 years ago would work just fine, so let Mint abstract all that away.

I've run PopOS for years without a reinstall and never have problems. The last time I did, it was because I was very conciously mucking around.

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ImposterTurk@reddit

It kind of does get to a point where it becomes more of a hobby/distraction. I still use it when it's practical, but I opt for ways that aren't a huge time sink anymore.

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DreamingElectrons@reddit

I think my last reinstall is almost a decade ago...

Last time I got a new hard drive, I just Rsync'd my existing system over to it and adjusted the fstab. Arch keeps just soldiering on, last crash also ages ago.

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Peach_Muffin@reddit

I developed RSI which made me dependent on voice control software. I had to leave Linux desktops because (from what I understand) Wayland lacks an accessibility API that developers can use to "hook into" system events for a voice controlled experience.

If/when this is fixed (or I get better) I'll be back though. I love the idea of the design philosophy of NixOS and config files being fully managed in a single git repo.

[-]

LogicTrolley@reddit

If you're reinstalling every few weeks, it's not the problem of Linux...it's a problem with you.

I'm not trying to be an a-hole here...but I haven't reinstalled in over a year. Perhaps you can ask about problems you have that require you to reinstall rather than post about how you're done. We're here to help but we can't help you after you've left.

[-]

skspoppa733@reddit

Operating systems aren’t special anymore. Useful computing is most often agnostic these days and whatever minuscule advantages one OS may have over the other nets no discernible advantage in the real world.

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InspectorRound8920@reddit

Why not just go with a vanilla version of Ubuntu for example?

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ThenExtension9196@reddit

Skill issue.

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JewelerAgile6348@reddit

I don’t focus on OS’s anymore since I can use all of them. They are just a means for me to do what I need to do. Whether writing scripts, configure network nodes, manage/deploy cloud services etc. growing up is learning that these are just things you need to do other things.

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toxic-agent-47@reddit

Tries nobara for couple weeks every update breaks my gpu didnt have infinite time to figure out why evey time, gone back to windows sadly ,said to my self you bought the pc to play not to spend 5h after work troubleshooting someting stupid tho was fun the first 5 times but gaming with friends came first, idk i will give it another try but im done with that for now

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AutomaticBearBait@reddit

I am moving all my machines to Linux as Windows support goes adrift. I love mint, I have been using it for years, but my main computers still have windows.

I don't care about RCs, only LT is useful to me. I can write a little Python, but I don't have the capacity to audit or edit an operating system.

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Time-Transition-7332@reddit

Used stable Debian for decades, now stable Devuan on a not too new (fully supported) laptop, Up to date Firefox deb package from mozilla.org, so much gets done in my boxen it would be a disaster to reinstall often. Luckily Debian|Devuan upgrades effortlessly. Numerous tools are installed by hand in my home folder separate from the main system, some requiring old libraries, etc, and it all cooperates with each other.

I have a separate /home partition and spare 50G partition for distro tryouts, currently Xlibre on Debian.

So wot, would you go back to Windoze ?

[-]

ForeverREBL@reddit

Still "Done"? LOL

[-]

SenorSacalo11pulgas@reddit

See ... I felt that same way about windows using Wib 95 to Vista. 7 won me back and nic has been my primary driver since.

But it definitely is not for everyone.

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Twisted60@reddit

I tried Mint and Fedora and had issues with them. I'm on Bazzite now and happy because it just works like Windows.

[-]

No-Blueberry-1823@reddit

Why are you distro hopping and constantly experimenting and then getting frustrated. I've used Linux meant for 2 years. I just install updates and it works. I don't switch distros I just do what I need to do and don't worry about the OS

I think that's what sidetracks a lot of you is that you want to get into playing around and pushing the envelope and then get away from what an operating system is which is just to enable you to use a computer for tasks

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ContentPlatypus4528@reddit

I've had a similar journey but comoressed into maybe half a year, but it was enough for me to figure out what I actually want and need. I will slowly be moving my machines to ubuntu, wanted a .deb-friendly distro as many devs often make .deb only if anything for linux, i'm tired of constant updating on arch, i just don't want to keep track of it. So I was thinking - debian, hmm then I thought maybe ubuntu as it is a bit more recent yet stable and some processes are either simpler or quicker to do and forget while being safe about it. Mint is a meh for me as I dislike cinnamon and they package super old versions of other DEs. I always thought to myself that I would never use ubuntu because it's the evil corporate hated thing but to be fair those claims are a bit dumb sometimes. Being cared for by wage workers is a decent upside and ubuntu being for businesses too there is a smaller chance of F-ups. What actually made me think about changing my mind about ubuntu is when me and my dad talked about linux in general and he apparently uses ubuntu as an IT professional and likes it for the snaps. In the end after some thinking and research - linux people make everything sound like it's the worst thing in the world. Same with arch, people say it's insanely hard but it's not at all.

[-]

Large-Let-1752@reddit

Same history, just more years and instead of Mint openSUSE Tumbleweed, rolling but stable + snapshots, 2 years installed and fully working.

[-]

Gabe_Isko@reddit

Why people distro hop other than for fun is beyond me.

Linus talks about how he basically just uses fedora and doesn't care about it.

[-]

chic_luke@reddit

I get it. I came from a distro hopping past, them one single Fedora install brutally outlasted my relationship, and the streak was only broken because I got a new computer and I decided to start fresh since I wanted LUKS encryption that time. Still, same exact distro and all.

The hat works. It's so polished it makes you forget about wanting anything else.

My only wish is that I would appreciate the possibility to switch between the default kernel update channel and a "LTS" one. There are times when kernel upgrades are a bit of a bloodbath for my AMD GPU drivers… yawn. I deserve to retire at this point (I'm in my late 20's) and, whenever I get some time off from working and studying at the same time, and I happen to be alone during that time off, I really don't want to deal with the latest kernel regression.

Still, having the three most recent versions automatically kept bootable helps a lot. When I land on a kernel version that regresses, I just pin the older one for a while and avoid updating my core system for a while. Most of my stuff lives in Flatpak or development containers anyway.

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Gabe_Isko@reddit

Yeah, I'm a Debian guy for these reasons - my is maintenance is extremely boring and drama free.

[-]

fetching_agreeable@reddit

As do the other 99% of Linux users. Not much to discuss staying stable

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RandomChance@reddit

Just run run Debian stable with a nightly cronjob to do updates... Linux doesn't have to be a hobby. It can just be an OS that lets you get your work done.

The platform/OS world is basically "done." Any distro/OS does 99.99% of what you need "well enough." The innovation isn't in making your laptop or desktop cooler, it's in clusters and automation and resilience, and deployment etc.

[-]

liesdestroyer@reddit

I just use debian is very stable

[-]

MrGoose48@reddit

I switched to dual booting Linux and windows because I got tired of dealing with windows garbage, namely just random bugs or useless error codes that would either suggest reinstalling or “download this driver to fix this issue!”. The issue is my hardware is extremely bleeding edge and isn’t supported by more LTS release like distros like Debian so I won’t find the rock stable stability that I desire, so I hop between windows and arch because there is merit to be had (personally) with a FOSS working operating system (that can and sometimes will do exactly what I want) and a lazy plug and chug option that has served me for a long time (that won’t be plagued by app support, or general annoyances that come from switching over). All of this could be solved with alternatives, but I’m sure there are others out there that saw the pain it was to port their work over or the bandaid VM solution and decided it wasn’t worth it.

As for issues, it really seems to depend on the user. I find that people with more legacy systems seem to have less persisting issues than newer hardware. For me, I whined about my nic not working (R8125 driver needed) and despite loading it and trying to get it to play nice with some distros, it refuses.

I use both and try to keep at least one viable way to get work done no matter what (live boot, backups, etc) because end of the day, I will eventually have to sit down and do real work but I can understand your pain. Ever since I setup images of previous updates it’s mostly gone away? But I still can’t see where the reinstalling weekly fits in.

[-]

crankykernel@reddit

Reinstalling every couple weeks? I typically install Fedora and upgrade with every release for the 4-8 years I keep that PC.

[-]

work4bandwidth@reddit

I distro hopped for a several years but for some time I have been on Mint, and now on LMDE6 and waiting for 7. I will install a desklet now and then, try different browsers, etc., and run updates, but it just works and gets out of my way. I have a second machine I can always try out a distro on, but I haven't felt the urge in at least 2 years now. So it too has Mint - 21.3 Virginia (it's been a while since I upgraded it).

[-]

gceaves@reddit

PopOS.

Buy it once. A minidesktop placed on the back of a big screen, run through an audio-video receiver, is the main media center in our livingroom. That's all the kids' video games, music, TV, etc.

No problems. No sickening ads. Just works. Day in and day out.

I'd get a System76 laptop for work, too, except that the office requires a Windows rig.

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move_machine@reddit

Same mindset, somewhat different conclusion.

I'm too old to wait 6 months to year(s) for a simple bug fix to be packaged and included by maintainers for distributions like Mint. I've wasted too much damn time putting up with bugs I could have been rid of if I had the latest versions of everything I used.

I just use an Arch derivative and I don't hate my computer or give a shit about releases or release dates if I'm facing a bug and waiting for a fix to land.

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harun_gul@reddit

I dont have so much time too. I have been using arch for daily driving,not gaming. It didnt break. I dont have to maintenance everything. I dont rice. I am upgrading the system one/two times per week, depend on the upgrading package. Maybe i was just lucky

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sail4sea@reddit

I knew better than to adopt that lifestyle when i went full-time to Linux. I had a stable thing going with Xubuntu, but I switched to Debian stable because Ubuntu insisted on using Thunderbird snaps. and didn't look back. I run XFCE. I don't mess with stuff or wine stops working.

Linux has to work better than Windows or im switching back to Windows. (No danger of that.).

All I insist on an operating system is that it works and i can save stuff locally in a reproducible format.

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kubofhromoslav@reddit

I get it, that for many Linux folks, Linux is like a religion. Tinkering with custom kernel and compiling every simple software. Reasonable for them.

I am thankful that I have learn using Linux bit deeper than usual user. And I am happy to just use it for my work and fun, not to do Linux.

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CinSugarBearShakers@reddit

Actually that is why I am here today, I am sick of the kernal updates with manjaro. I don't want to update. I want a distro that just works so I can use my computer. My second question is how do I backup everything so I can just copy everything to my home folder, without a lot of the preinstalled manjaro folders.

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SamiSapphic@reddit

I've only just started my Linux journey, and I'm in my 30s. Had way too many issues with Linux Mint, as much as I enjoyed it. For some reason my setup didn't play too nice with it.

On Ubuntu for now, and it seems to be working well. Had issues with Kubuntu and Debian with KDE, so I might end up sticking with gnome DEs until I can get a setup that plays nicer with Linux in general.

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Kekpoflon@reddit

Tried a bunch of Distros just breaking things for fun. Settled on Pop, been there 4 years. Not Done, but a long pause. ;)

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alfredocg85@reddit

Happened the same to me at 30's now I'm almost 40, there's a point when you gotta say 'enough'. I've sticked with Zorin and had to do some reinstalling a couple times over the years but I love the stability. Like you say the OS should work for me not the way around.

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canezila@reddit

I am looking for a rolling release for the reason you mentioned.

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MorpH2k@reddit

Um, yeah. Unless your whole goal is to distrohop and try everything, you're doing it wrong.

Find a good distro that you like. Since you seem to have tried just about all of them already, you probably know which one you like. Sounds like Mint is your pick and that's probably fine. You're the only one who knows what you want to use your system for so make a pick that suits your needs.

Set it up as you like it, not based on trying to test new stuff, but however you're the most comfortable working with it. Bring in all the tools that you NEED, nothing experimental unless it's crucial and worth some hassle to have working properly.

Then you install a hypervisor of your choice, and in there you can make a million VMs where you can still keep distrohopping and testing whatever new shiny stuff just crawled out of the basements of the Linux world.

Basically, keep your main system clean and functional. You want that to always work, so don't mess it up. Configure it in a way that works for you, comfortable and efficient, but don't risk breaking it.

If you feel a need to try something. Set up an identical system in a VM and test it there. Once you have got it working properly, if you still want it, then you install it on the main system.

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EverOrny@reddit

I am older and using Linux longer, Gentoo alone perhaps 20 years. I do tinker with the system but I keep it for the moments when I either must or have extra time for that. Breaking changes in packages are rare and mostly easy to fix.

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Potw0rek@reddit

I will reinstall my server Ubuntu once it’s out of support but probably by that time I will get a new server.

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spm2099@reddit

the first time I installed Linux in 2009 and at the moment there are still problems with drivers with video cards and there is not much professional software. and still because of updates you can get just a black screen, and hundreds of problems for daily stable use. but in a server where you need to interact with the operating system at a minimum (install, configure and do not touch) Linux is ideal

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Ok_Appointment9429@reddit

Never had that passion. But during my student years I was in this mindset of doing things the hard way. I don't give a crap anymore.

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Lemonzest2012@reddit

Stop using arch lol

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JarrekValDuke@reddit

This is not an arch problem, this is a user problem

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ExcellentJicama9774@reddit

Manjaro.

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abel_maireg@reddit

Manjaro

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Spiritual-Lunch5589@reddit

Bro discovering years later that most Linux users never reinstall their OS.

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Klapperatismus@reddit

Done reinstalling the system every couple of weeks.

What the heck do you do to your computer. I use SuSE since 1997 and the only times I had to reinstall was when the hard disk died.

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Bokva@reddit

So, basically, you want to say that you had such a great time over the years.

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victoryismind@reddit

My relation with Linux is different. Every once in a while something triggers me to try to switch to Linux. It can be, a 10GB update, my OS dropping support for the hardware, or some abysmally disappointing failure...

Then I find myself spending hours trying to build and fiddle with a Linux system. Here it would either break, I would hit a deal-breaker, an unsurmountable limitation or just get tired of everything constantly needing tweaking and would drift back to commercial options. Right now I'm somewhere in between on one of these episodes.

On the server however (I maintain a server as well), after a stint with Windows Server, I think I'm solidly in the Linux camp. But the server just needs updating every once in a while, it's OK.

Sometimes I wish that Linux desktop could be fixed once and for all. Quite a few fundamental work is needed, but then I think that the open source model makes such work challenging and maybe that's for the best, because the unbridled forking of alternatives and experiments is also what makes Linux interesting.

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Psychological_Tax869@reddit

Chill out bro is just an operating system, since i changed to Linux i needed to do only a clean snapshot restoration using clonezilla and cuz i touched shit, maybe dunno, not making pacman -syu without making a backup with clonezilla ? Or timeshift ?

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anhedoni69@reddit

Not my experience in any way using an AMD graphics card, Fedora is rock solid for me.

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coolasbreese@reddit

Debian stable for me. I feel exactly like this. For anything else there are VMs and LXC

Not had issues with my PCs in like 3 years staying on stable. Flatpak for my latest and greatest if needed

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Exciting_Turn_9559@reddit

Linux doesn't have to be a hobby.
I installed Ubuntu 10 years ago and haven't even tried anything else.
Maybe there's a better option, but this works fine for me.

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TadeoTrek@reddit

That's pretty much me after the first few months lol, I just install the latest Ubuntu and enjoy using my PC, been about 12 years.

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GBT55@reddit

Just use macos, stability of windows and usability of linux. Comes at a price for sure

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snakkerdk@reddit

I like to tinker sometimes when in the mood, so I got quite a library of stuff that I can (i)PXE boot on all my other computers, but those are just for temp use to try some bleeding edge stuff, not anything I want to actually work on daily.

My main work (workstation) is running "stable" Win11 24H2 (used to test insiders builds in win10, just can't be bothered these days, it always got in the way of whatever i was doing, way too often, anyway it's running on it's last legs, so would much prefer a stable Linux Desktop, but work policies doesnt allow it (yet).., so it might be replaced by MacOS tbh, since that is allowed at work), my main Laptop is running MacOS (whatever the latest version is, out of all them, this has been the most trouble-free to have running a current version without stuff breaking), and my main personal workstation for dev stuff is running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

Pretty much all my servers are running Ubuntu latest LTS, except my firewall (OPNSense, though have been considering creating my own FW distro based Linux, similar to OPNsense for a while now, and no ddwrt/vyos isn't it).

Why Ubuntu?, because it just works fine, I don't want to deal with other distros (I have tried most of them), hate rpm-based distros with a passion (though it probably has become better over the last 10 years), arch is fine, but I don't want bleeding-edge buggy software on my main desktop.

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TechnologyNerd617@reddit

You brought this on yourself, honestly. Who's forcing you to have the latest and greatest? Who's forcing you to go through a thousand docs and wikis and forums to install Window Manager N°54 that is slightly better that Window Manager N°53? Who's forcing you to make your own customized ultra personal setup? Absolutely no one but you.

Don't make it seem like it's 100% Linux's fault. Yes, there are things that tend to fail, but it's up to you whether you want to use them or not. Seriously, stop your FOMO, install Mint, and go out and enjoy life, instead of obsessing over a computer operating system.

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hectorlf@reddit

I'm too old to spend the weekend tinkering, I just want a simple life. You're not alone, and there's no shame in it.

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snakkerdk@reddit

I like to tinker sometimes when in the mood, so got quite a library of stuff I can (i)PXE boot on all my other computers, but those are just for temp use to try some bleeding edge stuff, not anything I want to actually work on daily.

My main work (workstation) is running stable Win11 24H2 (used to test insiders builds in win10, just can't be bothered these days, it got in the way, way too often), my main Laptop is running MacOS (whatever the latest version is, out of all them, this has been the most trouble-free to have running a current version), and my main personal workstation for dev running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

Pretty much all my servers are running Ubuntu latest LTS, except my firewall (OPNSense, though have been considering creating my own FW distro based Linux, similar to OPNsense for a while now, and no ddwrt/vyos isn't it).

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Desmo46@reddit

Omarchy and be done with it.

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Allighier@reddit

New windows update destroyed the data on my drive. Have fun man, quality software is on the decline.

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richardrietdijk@reddit

I run linux so i DON’T need to reinstall my system as often…

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Accomplished-Lack721@reddit

So what you're saying is you're not done using Linux, just done playing Linux.

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IndyLinuxDude@reddit

On my msin desktop PC at home, I've been on Manjaro for about ten years, kept the same install of it when I built a new pc even..

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henrythedog64@reddit

I do tonnes of linux things with development and other servers and weird setups, and I rarely reinstall unless absolute necessary. This is a you problem ngl

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titojff@reddit

I distro Hopped quite a bit. I've been on Mint for almost 10 years.It just works, and no ubuntu comercial bullshit as a bonus. :)

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AmrodAncalime@reddit

Ive been distro hopping for months. Ive narrowed it down to CachyOS and Linux Mint. I found performance to be better on Ubuntu than Mint in some games

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Medium-Dragonfly4845@reddit

After 10 years and you end up with these problems? What the h*ll are you doing? After being a Linux user since 2000, I am using Linux Mint on all my machines and NO FUSS. Just upgrading, working, getting on with it. You describe a stressful life I experienced 10 years ago. Now? By now you should know which distros allow you to just be productive.

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Anthony-Meadow@reddit

My “get shit done” machines I only upgrade LTS with no playing around or testing, & they run perfect. Then I kinda collect “experiment” machines for basically free because people throw away their old pc’s all the time. I play or test on those, & if it goes awry, it doesn’t matter. I never reinstall on a designated stable machine.

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franoetico@reddit

dude just install ubuntu.

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RedEyed__@reddit

Hello! I understand you, so much. I used linux exclusively from 2013. Now I use it in my servers (headless ubuntu) and in development environment.
My laptops and PC have windows, if I need to develop - I open vscode and connect to WSL or linux servers.

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MrScotchyScotch@reddit

I used to use Slack forever because it never got any updates. It was just stable and just worked. Heaven.

Eventually it just got so old it wouldn't run new stuff and it seemed like they'd never make a new release again, so I moved to Alpine. Which was... Interesting... But it broke way too easily, whenever you'd install a package.

Finally I got a new laptop (which I shopped for for months). Just got a Lenovo with Ubuntu shipped on it. And of course it was an old version nothing new ran on, so I had to upgrade a couple times, and it mostly works. But I hate all the constant updates (I'm on LTS and I still have 7 new packages to update every day, WTF?)

Fucking Linux man. The hipsters with their constant updates took over the asylum.

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somePaulo@reddit

Just stop customizing and go vanilla Fedora/Ubuntu/YourDistroOfChoice

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kishonii@reddit

Totally agree. I’ve only been on Linux for about half a year, and Fedora’s been rock solid. Just installed it and used it, no issues, no bugs. Never had to reinstall, just tweaked the look a bit and set it up how I like. I don’t even update that often, mostly because I forget, lol. Before that I tried Mint and it kept breaking from the simplest stuff, couldn’t really use it at all.

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Hokusaj@reddit

The real business with Linux is when you stop reinstalling and playing like that and try to solve a real life problem with the tooling that Linux brings. At your 30ties you still have much more time to dive in the Linux world. I have seen people in their fifties still enjoying doing that.

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Toto_nemisis@reddit

I joined the homelab community. Been running stable woth truenas bare metal and a proxmox cluster. Keep it simple, runs great! Big support group. Otherwise I dont really care about new features. Just want my shit to work.

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Xhi_Chucks@reddit

The story of a person who spends time installing and customising, but does not really work with Linux! The story of a person who wanted to use tools without understanding why he was going to use them. It's like just buying tools and visiting the shop every day to change them for any reason, such as colour or aesthetic look, without actually using the tools.
This is not the right way, to be honest.

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Jemie_Bridges@reddit

LoLz this issue was solved long ago, you've just been running in the wrong direction. Away from immutable distros and Long Term Support.

Congratulations, your OLD now. Join us with one foot in the grave! Ha ha ha ha

If you don't get this joke, watch Grim Jack's Abridged versions of Frieren, past the Father Dad joke, up til the old woman talks to young Fern, and Fern suddenly learns she can not let Freiren move at elf speed.

Anyways welcome to STABLE Linux that just works!!

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Old_Software8546@reddit

Sounds like a skill issue? I'm on bleeding edge and have set up automated, bootable snapshots in case anything goes wrong

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Practical_Split_8339@reddit

Same here, I installed ubuntu and forgot everything....

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Far_Bookkeeper_3529@reddit

Just install Fedora and get things done…

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Razee4@reddit

My man, openSUSE slow roll is coming soon and that might be perfect for you. Big library of software, recent-ish (update once a month), and tumbleweed has been rock solid for me for a whole year.

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anotherspaceguy100@reddit

As someone who's been using Linux for 30 years and as my primary home machine and much of my professional work, there's something amiss here. Yes, I've had ample glitches, had to use rescue key a few times due to bad kernels, but the reality is that all of my Linux installs in recent history have been new setups - my system76 was already well used when I got and the generic and cheap replacement works fantastically well.

I get that the desktop setups can be kind of sucky, and people play around.

Still, this feels like a hammer situation. Lots of details not being shared here. This is extremely abnormal.

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Fugu69@reddit

I'd say it about life. Done with the noise and hype. Don't chase anything anymore. Just trying to make things work

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ia42@reddit

Dear OP, what you are describing is not normal behaviour or "using" anything. I've been using gnu/Linux as a desktop exclusively for 3 decades, and I never did any distrohopping or any of that shit. Sure, in the early days of distributions only starting I had to compile kernels, Apache and other bits from source, but I never shot my own foot off monthly for fun. I started with slackware, jumped on redhat because RPMs were more solid, not less. I passed by Gentoo, arch and ant such self compiling time-wasting hobby distros. Once rh went commercial I went Debian (still my preferred server platform) and I settled with an Ubuntu variant at home because I wanted stability. A kernel that will support my hardware and Nvidia drivers, especially now that CUDA is the base of all ML which I use and develop. No insane glitzy backgrounds and UIs, just a sensible gnome3 desktop in dark mode. The rest is a waste of your neurons' time.

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Big_Wave9732@reddit

And when you reach that level of "done" you switch to Macos.

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6HCK0@reddit

I know your feeling. I have been using pure Debian based with only Window Managers and latest kernel compiling from Sid repos. When it came to real life just switchted do Ubuntu LTS, everything out of box and no headache but when some problem appear, yes, I know how to solve.

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GreenSouth3@reddit

came to Linux/Xubuntu 18.04 and have upgraded since customized now running 25.04 and all is smooth - never reinstalled since beginning - I couldn't be happier

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OceanSaltman@reddit

This is why "it just werks" is so important. All the stress and lost time is not worth it

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OhMyTechticlesHurts@reddit

Yeah that's not Linux as much as your version of chasing the new shiny thing. A lot of people do it just not with Linux. You should always be going for the stable reliable version and doing that edge chasing as a hobby if that. Usually just leads to issues bc it's the edge. What would you expect. Most real Linux users don't change kernels often outside of expected updates, don't install random packages outside of tested solutions in trusted repos. You're basically asking for a headache. If you work somewhere Linux is in use you definitely should have a prod and test environment, some have 3 prod,test,dev of every server they build.

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BawsDeep87@reddit

I usually have my main system setup pretty boring but working sway / waybar setup and just try new shit in vms but never actually switch

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hifi-nerd@reddit

If you have to reinstall every couple of weeks, you are doing something very wrong.

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grodius@reddit

besides when I was 20 years old just being wild I don't constantly reinstall linux... I need to work on it and I need to game on it, I need to use it as my acutal computer... so I use fedora with hyprland and gnome utilities and call it a day

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Cultural-Bake872@reddit

WSL2 🦎

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Jack_Lantern2000@reddit

You have chosen VERY well, young Jedi knight.

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Cracknel@reddit

I've been using the same Ubuntu install for the past 9 years, upgrading from one LTS to another and sometimes jumping to an intermediate version just because I want a newer feature in Gnome or something. Tons of installed packages and experiments. Crashed it a couple of times and fixed it. No need to reinstall.

If you have to reinstall every couple of weeks you are doing something wrong 😅 If you like distro hopping and experimenting and don't want to brick your main installation just use dual-boot, a VM or that old laptop collecting dust on the shelf.

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CrashGibson@reddit

I live in reality, where most end-user mainstream software is built for Windows. So I have Windows 11 for day-to-day with a hypervisor running whatever distro I want on it. Starting over every day is very excessive and time consuming, especially once you get to the core of things, most of it is the same damn OS with small changes (Debian vs. Fedora for example).

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03263@reddit

I've been maintaining the same Xubuntu install for like 8 years... I've carried it across a couple different drives, and one complete new build.

I have customized way too much stuff to do a fresh install or distrohop.

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Swagigi@reddit

and then it's like your computer just gets better and better when they do add those in like 2 years 😁

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Mrpash-89@reddit

I’m with ZorinOS for the last 4 years. Done with hopping and searching as well

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benevanstech@reddit

Some of us reached that point 20 years ago.

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Ok-Extent-7515@reddit

I thought that everything described above is just the usual entertainment of a Linux user and part of their life. Well, if you get tired of it and need to work, you can switch to MacOS.

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axtran@reddit

I just use Fedora. No spins, then use the computer. lol

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socksonachicken@reddit

I distro hopped for the better part of 20 years. Finally landed on Debian stable with KDE and haven't looked back in years.

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_Sgt-Pepper_@reddit

I needy my machines to work, consistently and reliably.

So I run Debian stable. It's zero maintenance.

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Few-Coconut6699@reddit

I am too old for this sh/t.
Slapping Kubuntu LTS on all my machines.

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xblade724@reddit

Yep I hear ya. "Fedora is the most friendly place to start as a Linux newb!" they said. What the holy f-- no apt, everything I Google is Debian based, almost no official support for anything mainstream. Twas a nightmare.

Finally, I ended up at boring ol Ubuntu. I don't have to do anything special to do anything. Even if I do, I get Claude Code CLI to take care of it for me.

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fourtwentyonepm@reddit

I keep nightly backups of my home directory and a shell/vim configuration in git.

Two weeks ago I fat-fingered a rm -rf and hosed my system. I was restored and fully functional within an hour, like I never did anything, from a complete reinstall+wipe.

If you'd like to do this yourself, feel free to modify it to taste: the archives are bzipped and encrypted with age. Backups are stored in a directory that is a ZFS dataset on a JBOD array on my system, but it doesn't have to be that way on yours.

It's a pretty simple script and works for me. Shouldn't take much to get it to do what you want. If you create a file in a directory named `.backupignore`, it works just like a `.gitignore` for ignoring stuff you don't want to backup, like steam games you can re-download etc.

https://gist.github.com/erikh/e28f39b6a7b4c0428b1bf122d25c4988

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Yodakane@reddit

Remember to set-up Timeshift to do frequent backups, to save you from most bad choices. And if you need the latest drivers for your hardware, just add the Mesa ppa and install the latest kernel through Mainline

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Chris_Entropy@reddit

I grew up with Windows. Switched to Linux (Ubuntu) a few years back. Then after a few years (in which it worked great), I had to switch back to Windows due to some graphics driver issues. And now I am back on Linux. I just use Mint, standard installation. As long as my stuff works, I prefer it to Windows, because of Microsoft's policies regarding data mining and consumer rights. I just use what works, I don't want to tinker with the system. Just doing my work and playing some games.

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gr3uc3anu@reddit

Have you tried nixos?

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commodoor@reddit

I feel exactly the same, using linux since 2000. Now i need everything to just work no experiments etc

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bigbutso@reddit

Sure you are

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loserguy-88@reddit

Yup. Updating rolling release feels like you're on a bomb squad trying to defuse a ticking package. EVERY FRICKING WEEKEND

Big part of the reason I am on LTS releases. Kinda gets old after a while. Rather do a big reinstall when I change my computer after 5-6 years.

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MongoWithBongoss@reddit

Mutahar ist it you...?

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zifilis@reddit

So basically i have a mac for work, a windows PC for gaming and a linux laptop for distro hopping and tinkering. At some points of my life I had 2-3 notebooks for tinkering. Never break your working/gaming machine)

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OnePunchMan1979@reddit

The same but I don't leave Linux. I am more convinced than ever. If you have already found the long-awaited stability with Mint, why leave now. It is a contradiction in itself. I have been on stable Debian for years and have never needed to reinstall. Nor have I dealt with problems, much less have I had the uncertainty of whether my system would start one day or another. That happened to me in Windows where an update could ruin everything or the release of a new version would make my system obsolete. I have found that peace of mind that you say precisely in Linux (in Debian of course). There are many distributions that give you that degree of stability that you describe in Mint: Ubuntu, Debian, OpenSuse LEAP, even Arch if you choose the LTS kernel and replace the AUR with flatpaks.

PS: I'm 46, I've spent 20 years between Windows and Linux. My decision is clear in favor of Linux

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WarmRestart157@reddit

My installation of Tumbleweed is 1.5 years old, and doesn't really bother me a lot.

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moopet@reddit

I've been running Endeavour for 18 months or so and not had to reinstall once. A few years ago I ran Arch for a couple of years and I think had to reinstall one time. I've run debian, ubuntu, redhat and slackware in the past. The last time I had something break so I couldn't get to the desktop (excluding, e.g. dual-booting windows breaking the boot loader) was probably a decade ago.

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TrainingDefinition82@reddit

Ok who kept the fact the VMs or owning multiple computers exist from you?

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antil0l@reddit

if you are reinstalling ur systems every other week you are the problem

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Wiwwil@reddit

You burned out yourself. I've been using Arch for a few years and it's been fine

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Beelentina@reddit

Ye constantly re-install and distro hop?

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reversehead@reddit

Similar journey. Have installed hundreds of times from before Mandrake was the hot thing, compiled Gentoo across half a dozen build slaves, and now I just ... install the latest Mint LTS and run it until the LTS runs out. Then make a fresh install with the then latest LTS.

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MathResponsibly@reddit

If you're re-installing every couple of weeks, you're not using linux, you're just playing with it

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ResilientSpider@reddit

Same here this is why I moved to debian. Sadly the last update took me one whole day of work, but it's much more mental healthy than the other distris

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Alpha-Craft@reddit

I have started off with Zorin OS. Broke it pretty quickly. And I did hop a bunch of distros and it was always tedious. When I switched from my crappy old laptop to a proper desktop computer, I decided to try out Fedora which I later converted to Fedora KDE and I've been using the same install for 3-4 years without a reinstall. I did have some misconfigurations in GRUB that were causing problems that I have fixed now and I did screw up my install by accidentally interrupting an update, but was able to fix it with some help without reinstalling. And now it's been running for a good amount of time without ANY issues. Even the NVIDIA drivers not properly being built after updating them seems to be fixed. It just works and I have stopped tinkering a lot with my computer. Only the occasional wallpaper change or trying a slightly different theme, but as everything basically just works and it does that well, I haven't felt the urge to ditch it or fuck around my system risking breaking it. It has happened to me earlier than you, but at some point one tends to get used to a system. If it works, don't fix it.

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ChernobogDan@reddit

welcome to macos

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chic_luke@reddit

Fedora did this to me.

I have distro hopped for my first year of Linux, in 2018. Installed Arch in 2019, stayed there for quite a while, I think until late 2022 - early 2023. Then I was done with a lot of the maintenance that comes with an Arch installation and I just went to Fedora Workstation + GNOME.

It works very, very well. I am not looking back and I don't think I will switch away soon. I do the updates when the Software app automatically downloads them, and I apply the major upgrades on day 1 only when the new major version of Fedora contains a critical fix for something that is really annoying or blocking me - I did it for whatever release fixed fractional scaling - or I just wait a few weeks and then apply them when they're stable.

Life is good.

[-]

paulstelian97@reddit

Distrohopping isn’t the best way to enjoy Linux. Instead, pick one distro you liked best and was easiest to manage (it can be Ubuntu or some derivative, it can be Arch or some derivative) and stick with it. You keep changing system configuration, and keep complaining about… having to change system configuration?

[-]

blndxp@reddit

Actually, that is because of Arch. I am a 20+ years Linux user and I have never picked up Arch for my desktop or any of my servers. Except testing out CachyOS for a week and it was cute. Debian and Ubuntu LTS are pretty solid. Altough Ubuntu has always some annoying buggy issues specially lately (and snap). Fedora is my favorite, it has everything you need. I used CentOS for such too many years for servers, now: AlamaLinux. Although I love Arch but I don't trust it.

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Careless-Childhood66@reddit

I settled for vanilla ubuntu years ago. Fits all my needs. Every now and then, the packet manager wont have the most recent version of some package but then I simply download it myself

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sylmobile@reddit

I use linux at home for my personal laptop. I don’t do anything fancy these days, not that I was ever a power user. I have only reinstalled over the years to migrate distro. I went From Slackware to Suse to Ubuntu, with some side journeys with tiny footprint distros for old Acer atom microbooks.

For work, I have a Windows laptop and I have a iMac 27” in the garage that’s been functionally unusable for some time, due to end of life OS update capability. I really should finally send it to someone who likes to get linux running on all platforms.. :-)

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WoodenPresence1917@reddit

By this rubric I was done when I started in my early 20s when I got started with Ubuntu. I moved to popos at some point a couple years ago but otherwise I just like having a nice stable machine that works how I like it

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zgee64@reddit

Iam like the Windows user when it comes to linux. I dont tinker at all i just take the newest long time realease Form ubuntu and thats it

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leaflock7@reddit

my gripe is not linux per se, but the DEs/UI aspect.
I just can't stand that a gtk3 , gtk4 , qt app cannot just have the same window decoration/border. It is fine if they don't have the same app UI, I don't like that they are different but ok, but not being able to have the same window borders is just insane. Even in Gnome not all apps can do light/dark mode and even then they don't have the same color .
This is making it very tiresome to work

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2QNTLN@reddit

i am a distrohopper, i install a new distro every week or 2 weeks.

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Brief-Stranger-3947@reddit

You did not need to start whatever you are DONE with first of all. There are install-and-enjoy-forever linux distros since long time ago.

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Wild_Penguin82@reddit

You must be doing some quite crazy shit if you need to install every few weeks.

Only once have I needed to reinstall because of an issue stemming from the OS - and that was a weird testing-branch Linux kernel block layer bug, which was triggered only in weird situations like if using bcache (which I was at the time). The root filesystem was corrupted beyond recovery.

Other times I've forced to do a reinstall have been caused by HW failures (well, hard disk failures).

Stop doing unnecessary tinkering. And, if you really need to get (office, coding) work done, an LTS is definitely the way to go (even for gaming, as things have become more mature, there is less and less reasons to be on the newest and shiniest - and buggiest - versions of everything).

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APB3@reddit

Yeah, I fiddle and tweak once in a while and yet still spend multiple years between fresh installs. Not sure what sort of shenanigans the OP is up to. Also, I have to say that ChatGPT has been instrumental in helping me make LM do what I want and pretty damn handy in whipping me up some Python.

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BinaryBantha@reddit

Been having almost (generally need to fix something 1 or 2 times a year) the same experience but on Arch with LTS kernel for years now.

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analogpenguinonfire@reddit

Same, although I use my laptop to experiment, and sometimes my gaming machine, depends on what I want to have stable. But yeah, last time I had MXLinux for about 2 years, maybe more. No changes, just a few updates, bug fixes and a sufficiently recent kernel. Now I'm gonna install Debian 13 I would use Mint, but I just love KDE and I can't use other one, maybe xfce with Mint, but I do prefer Debian.

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Enough_Tangerine6760@reddit

Ngl for me mint has caused me and all my friends much more hassle than arch ever has

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Tom3r_yaa@reddit

I've been using Linux for about 2 years and I love it despite the fact I had to reinstall it once, because of trying to install a proprietary Nvidia driver to replace the Nouveau one, and breaking my system comepletely, only to find out Linux Kernel 6+ versions don't support that driver, so I had to downgrade. But I love that. I love tinkering with stuff. That's why I also break them. I have the time and energy to tinker and fix things. I love it. Windows doesn't allow that.

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Bonssons@reddit

I felt similar to you a few years back. I just choose one of the more stable distros and stuck with it without any major issues in the last ~5 years or so (I went with Fedora). Now, for completion, no >major< issues. Nothing that made me reinstall the OS. But minor issues still happens (mostly due to Wayland, but now I realize I haven’t got any minor issue in a while. Things are just working)

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Whole-Low-2995@reddit

Using debian 13 on my tablet, ubuntu 24.04 for my desktop. Fedora 42 on my laptop. No bleeding edge packages, I just use them without professional management. IMO it is just a choice, like Windows or macOS. Installing linux does not mean that you are a skilled hacker.

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vollbiodosenfleisch@reddit

That's why I use NixOS. I can run unstable, and for some time a generation might not get build or work properly, and I might have to wait a bit, or migrate a flake file, but I still have a useable system in an older generation (as long as I do not garbage collect it). I still run my first installation of it from 2.5 years ago.

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nadeem014@reddit

I used to do the same thing.

I settled on Manjaro KDE. Fixed some issues with reddit's help and haven't reinstalled in more than 2 years

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rarsamx@reddit

I've been using Linux since 2004

I have two stable installations on my desktop (Arch with Xmonad primary and mint, fail back) and two stable installations on my laptop (Fedora primary and Arch with Xmonad, fail back).

I used Mint exclusively for more than 10 years and never had an issue and I rarely changed my configuration.

However, after a while I felt that the UI workflow is dated. Very dated. And cumbersome.

At that time I had a very old laptop so I wanted something super light. I tried Debian with Lxqt and other things until I came up to arch and xmonad. Once I used a tiling WM I was a believer.

After I finished my "perfect" Arch/Xmonad configuration, I have rarely changed anything.

That was 2019.

In 2023 I got a new laptop with Fedora preinstalled. I gave it a shot after swearing off gnome for more than 15 years. The workflow was natural. Invaded a tiling extension and voila! The best of both worlds. Coming preinstalled meant that everything on that laptop just works.

While I still find my arch configuration more efficient and sometimes I boot into it, specially if I need the battery to last long, I've gotten used to Fedora/gnome.

I still have a special place in my heart for Mint and I keep it for when someone needs to use my computer (my xmonad is highly configured to be used by keyboard with my choosen key bindings)

So in a way, yes. I've been "Done" a couple of times. But I know things continue evolving and, who knows. When X11 is phased out, I may need to switch from xmonad to sway and configure similar key bindings. But for now, my OS is out of the way.

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EffectiveRelief9904@reddit

Well, get off the bandwagon and stop chasing the trend. It’s about open source software and not being under the thumb of proprietary licensing, so be happy with what you got

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kaptnblackbeard@reddit

It sounds like for some time you received a dopamine boost for running the latest and often unstable or minimally trialed versions of software available for linux rather than not brand new but better tested versions. There is an often neglected phenomena of always wanting the newest confusing this with the best of something. Probably the best modern example is people upgrading their smart phones as soon as a new version drops. This inevitably leads to having more problems as smaller user bases lead to problems being overlooked and eventually being fixed in later software and hardware upgrades. This is why LTS versions of linux and other software exist, which you don't get on other platforms (at least not as widely known outside corporate environments).

You've now realized the value in stability and not wasting time tinkering and tryin to get less tested tech to work for you.

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gutertoast@reddit

That's why I settled on Kubuntu. No time for all that tinkering with kids and it's rockstable.

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7heblackwolf@reddit

Clickbait

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duplissi@reddit

I've been pretty happy with bazzite for the past year.

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Nerdent1ty@reddit

It's not distro problem. It's hopping.

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EverlastingPeacefull@reddit

I am almost 9 months on OpenSuse Tumbleweed now. Doing everything I want and if an update goes wrong, I roll back, and new things I try out on my laptop, which is my secondary computer, so if something I try goes wrong (has not happened yet), it is not my main system that has the problem. Maybe because I dive into what I want first, before trying it.

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quiteconfused1@reddit

As I get older and older I find myself facing the need for Linux increasing.

But I also see the problem of just needing something that works to be true as well ..

I find these things to not be so competitive with one another. I find the onus to find a happy medium to be on me. And then when I realize the alternative out there is windows -- I realize again fuck that.

So I'm left with get better or go back to the kiddie pool

Ymmv. I hope it gets better for you.

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Coammanderdata@reddit

Yes, I am also at that point. I just want my system to work. It felt kind of wrong to give up on fixing my extremely personalised Neovim config, and start writing my code in VSCode. For me it has only been seven years though

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MicHaeL_MonStaR@reddit

You ended up on MINT??… 💀 Might as well not bother.

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texxelate@reddit

Maybe don’t reinstall every couple of weeks or use bleeding edge anything?

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SapphireSire@reddit

Nothing wrong with knowing what makes you happy.

It's odd that everything you described is how I view winX on Tuesdays mandatory update day and I find comfort in knowing I can resolve my own issues and create my own (decades reliable) systems.

In my experience, I've saved myself tens of thousands of hours from waiting for MS update, rebooting, advertising, and subscriptions....but someone has to watch and pay for that I suppose.

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Objective-Cry-6700@reddit

I've been running EndeavourOS for 18 months without reinstalling. I've been using Linux for over 25 years, but only switched to it as my main system 2 years ago. 6 months of distro hopping until I found what I was happy with. Yeah, I still play with other distros, but I do that on an external drive or a spare machine. Find what works for you, and settle down :)

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nbbm@reddit

The (my) answer, I have found, is in nixos. Your entire system config can basically be a repo. But you need to take the time to either learn it or have AI heavily assist you. Once you have your working config though, being able to simply rebuild your system as it previously was with one command is awesome. And you can simply roll back to previous builds if something breaks.

My daily driver machine config does not change often so I rarely need to make changes on the fly - although this is still possible on nix. It's just handled differently.

I do have a ton of free time though so it was worth it for me. I would stick to kubuntu or debian if I didn't want to switch to nixos. Still use debian for my servers although that might change too.

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zeek979@reddit

Welcome to mac. It just works

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Second_Hand_Fax@reddit

Yeah but who cares?

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cathexis08@reddit

Hell yeah, migrating to a stable distro that Just Works is peak tech adulting. I have one system on Debian Unstable and everything else is one stable os or another.

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Embarrassed_Pain_240@reddit

"I even use the default theming."

I don't know why that gave me a gag reflex.

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audihertz@reddit

Distro hopping is akin to an addiction for some, especially new users who suddenly discover there are more flavors than just Apple and Microsoft.

I got into Linux while being a Sys Admin during the the Windows 2000/XP era and quickly realized that distro hopping was what led me to Linux in the first place because OS reinstalls were the number one solution to a lot of problems back then. Settling in on Ubuntu and ultimately just straight Debian, I can now troubleshoot and correct problems without having to deal with a reinstall and keep doing more cool things like playing with Docker containers and making life generally better for me, my coworkers, and even my wife because I have homelabbed the shit out of our home. That’s where the fun is.

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redcalcium@reddit

I'm in a similar boat. I stopped messing around with new distros anymore. Settled with EndeavourOS + gnome on my desktop, typing yay every couple weeks or so :) basically doing the least amount of effort while still enjoying some of the benefits of a rolling distro.

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malachireformed@reddit

I got that way a couple years after I started working full time. Distrohopped in my college days, then just stuck with Debian/Ubuntu after 2014.

At the end of the day, it just worked. Were there some small Ubuntu specific annoyances? Sure, but my previous desktop updated, in place, from 14.04 to 22.04 without a from scratch reinstall during that time.

Do I miss it? Sometimes. Would i go back to it? Only when I have a need to.

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itsSatyam_kr@reddit

I get this sentiment. I too am at a point where i dont have enough time to tweak things and it is hard to avoid that inner voice that is always clawing in the back of your mind to just fix that one little workflow that you have developed. I recently thought of trying qtile but then I no longer am motivated to explore this. There isnt just enough time. Maybe when i am in 40s i will again pick this hobby up but right now all i need is a linux system with terminal to get my work done.

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AleksHop@reddit

pff use mac for life , windows for games and linux for servers, no issues :) in last 34 years

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Outrageous_Suit_135@reddit

Mint didn’t work for me due to a Nvidia GPU driver issue. The system hung mid-work many times and no matter what drivers I tried, it was always unreliable.

But Ubuntu, which I didn’t like that much, was more stable and mature. Its GUI and desktop has lower bugs.

Again, I think Linux is still years behind MacOS and Windows in desktop. Linux is the best choice for Servers with CLI and remote ssh access, but Desktop linux all fall behind the competition.

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Kaiki_devil@reddit

Nope, I think Linus used out of box mint for a while.

I’ve been using Linux for like 8 years, and while I might change distros at some point, and did recently change to arch, I don’t plan to distro hop.

I tried arch three years ago, and it was not in a state I was really to daily. So I ran Ubuntu lts for three years. Same install and all. If something broke I fixed it and continued.

I’m now running arch again, it’s far more ready in my opinion, and I’ve learned over the three years enough that even if it wasn’t I’d be fine.

I’ve set it up so if I break something in an upgrade I can still boot, and use the site to find out what intervention is needed.

I’m not seeking new stuff. I set up a hyprland WM to fit my workflow, installed the apps I use, and made it so if something broke it wouldn’t push me to a reinstall, just switch to backup in grub, and move on.

So far it’s working. I’ve spent basically zero time fixing stuff, and my biggest issue has been fighting off my own procrastination habits… something my rice actually helps with by design.

I made an install that fit my needs, built to be as reliable as possible given my choice in package manager, and desire for up to date apps.

If your not interested in going that far Ubuntu, fedora workstation, or mint are all good picks for stability… double so if you go lts.

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ALubana@reddit

I switched to linux in 2020. At first, i switched between distros as everyone does when they first make the switch. Then, I landed on arch. Took me a while to find my way around it. But now, I know exactly the packages I need to get my desktop up an running anywhere on any machine. I don't play around with the looks as much. I just install KDE Plasma and forget. It's highly customizable when I need. I only installed relevant package and clean any unused ones. I don't have to do it but I love it cause I'm in control of what software runs on my hardware. Not Microsoft, Apple or a distro maintainer.

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rotteegher39@reddit

Since the dawn of time I settled with NixOS I haven't touched my config in weeks. (Apart from slight tweaks due to updates)

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roboabomb@reddit

Brother, brother - just get yourself a cheap-o, preferably secondhand, laptop and use that as your fuck-around machine to play with new kernels, custom builds, eye-catching distros, etc etc.

Doesn't have to be a laptop, but as long as it is a machine you can turn off and walk away from at any time while having your stable workstation unmarred by the torturous fuckery we all inflict on ourselves from time to time.

TLDR; How to start a graveyard of old computers.

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x880609@reddit

Ubuntu on my powerful machine, just because it takes care of the graphics for me.

Debian on my portable computer which I carry with me everywhere.

Customizations are the same as when I used Windows: a tweak here, another one there. Nothing special. I see these computeres as tools, nothing more.

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Art461@reddit

Good for you. You don't have to distro hop or tinker to work with Linux and like it.

You now also have an awesome wealth of experience, which may be useful for career moves, helping friends and family or people here, or perhaps at a local Repair Cafe (many are currently helping people who feel stuck because they have an older laptop which they can't upgrade to Windows 11, and Windows 10 is going EOL mid October).

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lekkerste_wiener@reddit

Yup I'm at the same stage.

I also had my time of distro hopping. Found myself with Arch because I like that it's rolling release - a simple pacman command to update the system. Settled with Manjaro for the ease of installation.

Now I install updates on weekends so I actually have time to troubleshoot if something goes south. During the week my system is frozen lmao.

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LoudBoulder@reddit

I think i was done with distro hopping and ricing before i turned 30. I'm in my 40s now and I totally get the desire to just have a system that works. Fedora has been that for me for years now.

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ravigehlot@reddit

Here’s a more casual version:

I’m 44 and I’ve been bouncing around different Linux distros since the mid 90s. Debian and Arch have always been my main gotos because they just work. But lately I’ve been really digging Arch more and more. It just boots faster than anything I have used to date. Arch feels more polished too.

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Lime-Cilantr0@reddit

Man I feel old now, haven't heard "ricing" since the early 2000 Gentoo days.

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c0rrupt10n@reddit

NixOS all the way. Declare your system once, use it forever. Best decision ever to switch from Arch to NixOS!

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4lbertGG@reddit

NixOS plus distrobox

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rain_boh@reddit

I feel OP and recently the only distro that attracts me is NixOS. I really want to give it a try but I'm too lazy to switch from my Mint installation

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mustbench3plates@reddit

Fair, but if you take the leap when given a long weekend, you hopefully won't regret it. I went from EndeavorOS to NixOS and I'm happy that any tinkering I want to do is stress free.

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Babbalas@reddit

Hey found my niche. Not regretting the switch at all. Plenty of times when I've had to wait for a fix to come through but they rarely take more than a few days. Otherwise my machines have been rock solid for a few years now on NixOS.

Do you run impermanence?

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rustvscpp@reddit

I love NixOS on my servers. I find it far less appealing on my desktop or laptop.

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x0xxin@reddit

I've been happily and uneventfully running Ubuntu desktop and Ubuntu server across my home for a decade. My wife and kids use it. I play AAA games on my Ubuntu desktop with an Nvdia card. I installed drivers via the official Ubuntu procedures and it worked and continues to work as I update. Steam just worked out of the box. IMO do 10 minutes of research before you buy a computer to see how well supported it is for your use case.

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x_lincoln_x@reddit

I installed mint on most of my systems and have been having a great time with it. No need to get the latest anything.

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ljsv8@reddit

Yeah, done using it as a desktop about 10 years ago. Switched to Mac to remote connect to Linux server via ssh at home and at work. Tools should be used properly.

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RelativeNo1172@reddit

Time shift was never an option apparently

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sswam@reddit

This seems like some sort of ADHD symptom or something at a larger scale. I started with slackware, used Debian at work like 25 years ago, thought: oh, this is good, it's community based, great. Everything works, it's stable. Haven't switched since, well not much.

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star-trek-wars00d2@reddit

been a happy Fedora workstation user for 7 years. apart from the initial setup and config. Nothing to do, software updates and OS updates happen when needed. most stable system i have used in 32 years if using computers.

I bootip the PC and work, fedora is transparent in workflow, no need to think about the OS or tweaks, just get on with the work / task. no complaints.

Daily driver laptop is macos, linux for desktop pc.

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Snoo-85489@reddit

this dude got attachment issues with an operating system

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Alarmed_Zone_8877@reddit

Just use the damn thing for what it is, like a normal person. Linux is nothing but a tool you don't have to be obsessed. You could've worded this post something along these lines: "I have an obsessive compulsive disorder that keeps me switching between alternatives because they exist and prevents me from focusing on the end goal. For that reason I can no longer keep using Linux". Maybe you want a static os that imposes it's philosophy and that's fine but you shouldn't generalize.

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DanKonly@reddit

I run arch and vanilla gnome and I never have any problems.

I don't do a lot of gaming, just office work and coding.

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dgvigil@reddit

Look, I’m in my late 40s and still love Linux. My first install was Slackware from 15 floppies. I used to be the guy who’d say “Ubuntu is South African for can’t configure Debian,” always chasing the latest release and tweaking every option. I’ll admit now, I was that guy—and I apologize to the people I criticized back then. These days, I’m on Ubuntu 24 LTS, and I only upgrade when the next LTS drops. I’m not a gamer; I’m a dev. Linux, for me, is about making my life easier. That’s what it’s supposed to do. The Arch zealots can enjoy their bleeding-edge setups if that’s their thing, but I’ve got a family, a few cats, and a cheap 3D printer. I don’t need to spend hours compiling the latest kernel commit to feel like a star. You just reached this mindset a little earlier than I did. If you like Mint, stick with it. Don’t worry about the haters—just do you.

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theriddick2015@reddit

I spent a fair bit of time Distro hopping as well trying to find the BEST fit for my hardware and tastes.

Ultimately in the end I just settled on CachyOS. Don't really install new distro's on my main machine anymore, I don't have a need to move to another distro.

There was once a time when installing ANY Linux distro meant apply literally 1000 tweaks for gaming/app optimisation, it was insane. Not so much of a issue anymore.

Sounds like your biggest issue is you don't know what you want. If Linux overall isn't doing what you want then perhaps going back to Windows is the only option for you.

I've kept a windows dual-boot on a different drive, so I really never need to worry about switching back to apply some mod or hw firmware update etc..

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AppropriateSpell5405@reddit

I went through this when I was like 20. Then I was like "Yeah, Windows works for me just fine, I'll SSH into a VM for real work."

Now I'm "Yeah, macOS works for me just fine, I'll SSH into a VM for real work."

It's still the same trusty VM (well, 3rd reincarnation over 10 years) following me along. Actually, it may have been Trusty at one point.

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goonwild18@reddit

It's about time. Honestly.

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mockedarche@reddit

People take Linux distro hopping too far. When you first switch it can be nice for the first week but after that you aren’t missing out. There isn’t anything in any new kernel worth the effort. It’s an OS it’s not ment to take time out of your day it’s ment to be in the background. It’s a big reason why I like running Linux because the damn thing gets out of the way unlike windows.

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stianhoiland@reddit

Although lots of users enjoy distro hopping and endlessly configuring their system and chasing shiny new things... the majority of users just like a stable operating system that allows them to do actual work on their computer.

A lot of this sentiment ITT, but this sort of perplexes me.

What’s this pre-defined, stable, immutable "work"? Isn’t all the stuff you do per definition a workflow? Are you sure you don’t need to customize your computer with tools to create workflows that lets you do this "work"?

Let’s go basic here and say you need to respond to e-mail as "work". You need to be able to start your computer into an environment where you are given a choice to among other things further focus on e-mail. Then, in that environment, you need to be presented with available e-mails, be able to choose among them, and compose and send replies.

Oh sure, workflows (aka. apps) for this has already been invented, innovated, and damn near standardized. But none of that is "just getting work done"; all of that is utilizing a workflow to do "work".

The point is, all work require workflows, and the computer doesn’t just "allow you to create workflows" but which are just optional and not needed for, you know, FiNaLlY gEtTiNg SoMe wOrK DoNe. No, you COULDN’T do work without these workflows that have customized the incredibly malleable computer to empower you to do that work.

Yes, it’s possible to tinker uselessly, but that isn’t identical with customizing a computer, as if customizing a computer is antithetical to "work". No. Any work you do with a computer is an outcome of customizing the computer.

I harp on this because your problem isn’t tinkering, it’s tinkering uselessly. If you stopped tinkering, you would also stop doing productive work, because a computer must be customized to provide a workflow and enables you to use the computer to do the work.

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Leop0Id@reddit

It's not a Linux or a specific distro problem... It's a matter of habit.

I've been using Arch for years, and I don't do anything special besides updating my system a little more often than users of other distros. That's because I want the latest features in the latest software, not because I'm a "Linux person".

The features I need are already set, and once they're met there's no need for me to constantly overhaul things. Files I created 10 years ago in my /etc are still there and working just fine.

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betelgeux@reddit

I started with slackware in '98. Put some effort into Redhat. Moved to Mandrake until they folded. Used SUSE until they took the M$ poison pill. Then Ubuntu was awesome until Shuttleworth decided the community wasn't to be included in decisions. Moved to Mint and pretty much stayed there. I use Debian on my servers, I almost fired up a CENTOS server just as Redhat decided to be assholes.

Mint and Debian are pretty much my ecosystem now.

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I_like_stories58@reddit

I haven't had a whole lot of issues with my system, and i've loved arch since the first time I installed it without switching. Of course I've only been using linux for about 4 years and arch for a little less than 2. I feel like the progression of linux is: I'm new to linux so I'll use a beginner friendly distro, I'm a power user so I'll use a more advanced distro, then finally, I don't have the time for this just let me use mint. I think I saw a meme about this once.

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Analyst111@reddit

Recently changed to Debian. Three years from now I'll spend an hour upgrading - if I feel like it.

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LiGHT1NF0RMAT10N@reddit

if you ever find yourself saying these words then its undeniable you need a intervention:

“So here I am. Writing this on Waterfox (basically Firefox ESR) from Linux Mint 22.1 with LTS kernel”

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jacmartins@reddit

My story is different... I started using Linux in the 90s. At the time Slackware... until today. I have secondary machines, one with Debian and another with Arch. I've never had a reason to change.

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person1873@reddit

Yeah, I'm 33 and hit that mindset this year. It's been a long time since I went to school and I'm back there studying my trade, I just need my computer to get out of my way and help me, not give me additional headaches.

I've gone to Linux mint for this reason, it's still Linux (because fuck microsoft) but it just works. I can search for calc and there's a calculator preinstalled, I don't have to go install bc and remember it's archaic syntax.

LibreOffice is there and just works.

All of these things at one stage or another I've had to deal with at a completely inopportune moment on arch/gentoo/nixos, it's just nice to be able to use your computer without thinking too hard about package managers.

I've even been using the graphical app store, because it combines flatpak and apt packages without having to concern myself with which one I'm installing.

[-]

caymanbum@reddit

I would suggest looking in VMs, zfs, and Debian.

Build a rock solid VM server (XCP-ng, Proxmox... Pick your poison).

Store VM disk images somewhere that offers snapshots (e.g., ZFS). Make sure they're automatic (graduations of freq/hourly/daily/monthly).

Snapshots are NOT backups but they're handy as h#ll when you're experimenting and something goes south that is more than you want to repair... Just shutdown the VM, rollback the filesystem, restart, and you're good to go.

Have separate VMs for "production" and experimenting.

Production stuff goes on a stable os (e.g., Debian stable).

I spent years managing and supporting a Debian Xen server with ZFS.

I kinda reached a similar point as you and have now moved everything over to a XCP-ng server. Still on ZFS.

More capability, less headache, greater stability (key point for minimizing firewall disruptions).

Ymmv

Good luck!

[-]

dm_construct@reddit

idk if you reinstall every few weeks seems like a you problem

i use a semi-rolling release distro (solus) i installed 7 or 8 years ago and have never broken anything or seen a reason to distro hop. i got shit to do.

[-]

anthony_doan@reddit

This is me with Debian awhile back.

I'm good with Debian.

[-]

Tommy_Guerrero@reddit

Damn I got Ubuntu and it screws up only once in a while. But I’m an amateur; I just hate windows

[-]

CyberGoatPsyOps@reddit

Point are quick to say “why install a new distro every couple of weeks, wahhhhh”, but isn’t that the point of OP, saying he’s done and hasn’t distro hop in a year.

Some of us just take longer to get there. Bunch of judgements going on in this thread. lol

[-]

Extreme-Ad-9290@reddit

I personally settled on Arch after a while of distrobopping.

[-]

finutasamis@reddit

CachyOS with limine or Garuda Linux. Both come with btrfs snapshots by default, if anything breaks, boot a snapshot and try again in a few days. Literally zero headaches.

Especially big upgrades are a thing which has caused more issues with *bian distributions than arch has ever for me.

[-]

lingueenee@reddit

Done being a slave to your tech? Yup, gets old when actually having a life is the goal.

[-]

Sufficient-Meet6127@reddit

The same thing happened to me when I was planning my wedding. Between work, home buying, and marriage, Linux didn't seem important anymore. There are bigger fish to fry. Figuring things out at work was more interesting and it pays the bills.

[-]

Holograph_Pussy@reddit

I have arch on my laptop that's been working for 2 years and fedora on my server that has been running trouble free for even longer

[-]

Dapper_Royal9615@reddit

For professional work you need something stable. If you want to tinker, that's another machine.
That's just a normal computing situation.

[-]

look@reddit

It was 2004 for me, but for the last year or so before that, I was really just running Gentoo in lieu of a space heater.

[-]

catdoy@reddit

Distro hopping? Why would anyone find fun in "Distro hopping" I'd probably go insane reinstalling new distro, set it up, and then reinstall another distro a day or week later

[-]

iiiz_bru@reddit

Sometimes it all in how you approach maintenance and upgrade decisions. In the end, what works best for you is worth sticking to.

Been on arch (Xmonad / x11) for 10+ years running LTS or stable kernel at times. Gone through a few hardware changes but kept the same install re-imaging new drives. Sure stuff breaks every now and then but I just roll back to the previous cached package version and I'm good to go.

[-]

Skull0Inc@reddit

It’s really simple - use Linux if you love command line bash/zsh shell stuff, configuring stuff and general tinkering with the internals of your system at times, keeping a revert backup at hand. If you’re into boot loaders and all of that stuff.

If you want gaming get a Windows computer if you love Bing search and don’t want to tinker with your system, and trust that the next Windows update won’t crash your graphics drivers with the daily updates.

And I guess get a Mac if you like a mix of both more on the video editing / music studio side of things with less gaming available (dunno if that’s still the case, but prob. Is)

But why limit yourself to just ONE operating system? Why not just use each for their best use case?

[-]

SaintEyegor@reddit

I’ve been a *nix admin for about 36 years. I used to have a home lab and all that, especially when I was coming up to speed on Linux and HPC. After beating computers into submission ALL FREAKING DAY, the very last thing I want to do when I get home is to play with computers.

It used to be my hobby, now it’s my job.

I still have a Linux system at home that runs a few VMs but most of my home computing is either on a Mac or an iPad.

[-]

Traditional_Ride_733@reddit

I have been using Linux as a secondary system for so many years that I only recently decided to make it the main one, now I only run Windows in KVM for very necessary things, but otherwise, I am very happy to use Linux Mint as a host, it just works, I can work and entertain myself without problems. For games I have my PS5, I don't need anything else.

[-]

XerTheSquirrel@reddit

No, I have been using Debian since 2005 due to its stability and functionality. The few things that do not work, I resolve them over weeks/months and just leave them in place to never deal with it again. As long as you keep your current system and keep backups, you do nkt need to set things up again.

[-]

NASAfan89@reddit

I've been using Ubuntu for like the last year for gaming on Steam. Generally, haven't had any issues. Maybe just choose a distro emphasizes stability instead of having cutting edge support for stuff?

[-]

outside_of_a_dog@reddit

Stop trying to find the best linux distro. Use this forum to ask what others use in similar cases as yours. I've been earning a living on UNIX/Linux systems for many years. I needed a home Linux system to teach myself about various tools and apps. I rarely change distros or releases. The tools seem to just work.

[-]

Raging_Cascadoo@reddit

I guess people would be in that phase when now switching to linux and I was but it didn't last long for me. I have been on Ubuntu for 8 or more years now and could care less about who runs what. Not everything has been perfect along the way but once it works it works!

[-]

handlebartender@reddit

I've largely been on the page of not wanting to distro-hop at all. But I also wanted to have something that would meet my needs. I should add, this is in the context of a desktop distro; I have my preferences for server distros for other reasons.

Sometime around 2005-2007 a coworker urged me to try Suse. I went for it. And it started out fine. But it wasn't long before I wanted to add things that weren't part of the default package repo. So, I added other repos, added packages, and over time things started getting a bit shaky. I think I switched to Ubuntu after that. Around the same time, me and my wife got a Mac desktop. Given that my PC rig was a bit noisy with cooling fans, the Mac was unnervingly quiet.

I dabbled with other distros over the years, overwhelmingly on crappy old laptops, just to scratch the itch of trying out this or that highly recommended distro. At some point, I stuck with Mint on my old craptop, and will still pull it out on occasion.

Around 3-4 years ago I bought a beefy laptop with 64 GB RAM, two 1 TB SSDs and one 2 TB HDD. Tinkered with both PopOS and Manjaro, before settling on the latter. Ran that happily for years, until one update/reboot left me without a desktop. I'd been wanting to try NixOS for a while at this point. I spent some time trying to resurrect my desktop, but no joy. Made sure my backups were current, then made the switch. It's been largely decent, although I do have a quibble that most here probably won't run into. Happy to share what the quibble is, if anyone is curious.

But yeah, I just want something that does what I need, as my daily driver.

[-]

slash_networkboy@reddit

I did that back in my Slackware days (the 90's) but honestly since about 2016 or so I've just run Debian Stable or Ubuntu Server LTS for my servers and Ubuntu LTS or Debian on my machines (depending on what I'm doing). It "just works" and Debian Stable is built entirely around the mentality of: /Slaps box "That ain't going anywhere."

Seriously, I learned I had to actually document stuff because I legit forgot the creds to a machine that was just sitting there doing its job perfectly for so long I never had to touch it.

[-]

Mysterious_Onion3162@reddit

You’re not alone… Linux user from 2016 to 2025. Got tired of stuff breaking and never having time to fix it. And I wasn’t one who tinkered with settings.

Went back to Windows 10, and I have been in a way better head space, than I was only using Linux.

[-]

Old-Research-7638@reddit

>So, what's your story?

I've been using Debian since high school, man. Glad you've finally settled down lol. Anyone would get burnt out by reinstalling every 2 weeks.

I can't really relate to your story because I didn't go through any distro hopping era. I occasionally used Mint or Ubuntu for a laptop or something, but I've always been using Debian primarily and I've never had any regrets

[-]

Equivalent_Bird@reddit

No, you will repeat. I thought I was done reinstalling OSes too. My gaming PC on EndeavourOS has been solid for years without a reinstall. But then came the Raspberry Pi, OpenWRT router, NAS, Linux handhelds, AWS… and I realized, it never ends.

Sometimes it feels like I’m trying to patch up my own wounded life by setting up devices and OSes — like if I make them rock solid, I’ll stay happy forever. But that’s the illusion: updates never end, while we do. We all have an EOL, and maybe we’re just confusing ourselves with the OSes we keep patching.

[-]

BTC-brother2018@reddit

IV had pop-os for years. Very minimal problems. I love it.

[-]

Dont_tase_me_bruh694@reddit

I distrohopped from 2012-2020. I moved someplace with more stuff to do outside and then we had kids in 2021. I'm in my mid 30s now and ever since we moved and had kids, I feel the same way. I don't have the free time to dick with different distros. I don't need bleeding edge. I just need it to work and to allow me to play games with a decent framerate, doesn't have to be the max possible.

So I switched to pop_os in 2020 and I've been on it ever since. However, they're taking there sweet time with cosmic and decided to release 24.04 with cosmic in alpha state. So I can't in good faith recommend it until they have it all buttoned up.

As you get older your life gets busier, and time is more scarce and passes much more quickly. It forces you to prioritize time and for me, I realized trying to gain marginal performance increases on my desktop was not worth it during my short time on this earth.

[-]

dragontracks@reddit

I played with Linux in the 90's, I was fascinated by the open source technology that created this amazing system. I really loved the Unix machines I used in college. But life got too busy and it's been Windows for the last 25 years.

Now, I retired a few months ago, and trying various distros on a Beelink mini PC I inherited. Once I wrap my head around the technology again, I'll use it to build a Plex server.

It's funny to see Fedora still hanging in there. I think my first install was ReadHat from a CD included with a book I got at Borders.

[-]

yulbrynnersmokes@reddit

Some people use Linux on the job and have red hat (usually) which is a professional OS maintained by a serious company.

Linux doesn’t need to be your hobby. Sounds like you have a self inflicted injury.

[-]

jerrydberry@reddit

It took me only 1 year to stop the distro jerk. Have been using arch for 12-13 years already. From time to time I get the ricing itch and start messing with tiling wm, but it is infrequent and does not last long.

[-]

Skin_Ankle684@reddit

I've been using ubuntu, sometimes the new kernel release doesn't get some drivers working, so i load a previous kernel and keep using it untill the problem gets fixed.

I once had to reinstall, but i kept most of my things by just copying home.

Even then, much better than when i used windows and my PC slowed to a crawl every 6 months.

[-]

Jaded_Law_4083@reddit

If you reinstalled every few weeks, I dont think "linux" is the problem.

[-]

Pink_Slyvie@reddit

I've had the same arch install for the better part of a decade. The only issue I have occasionally is Bluetooth.

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No_Importance_1190@reddit

I just want to use my laptop past its software obsolescence, I don’t care for all the deeper tinkering and hacking. Been super happy with Linux Mint.

[-]

epee4fun40291@reddit

I started with Ubuntu like a lot of people. I went through many distros including those you mentioned. I settled on Kubuntu recently because it just works and I like the Plasma desktop. Boring I know, and maybe breaks the 100% open source ideal, but at this point I don’t care.

[-]

Brillegeit@reddit

So, what's your story?

Started working with Windows XP on my workstation in 2007, installed Ubuntu 7.04 in a virtual machine with Virtualbox in Seamless mode (applications from the virtual machine appear like native applications on the host machine).

Updated virtual machine to 8.04 a year later and found myself using the Linux applications 95% of the time. Tested Kubuntu 8.04 in a virtual machine and decided to switch host OS to Kubuntu and run Windows XP in Seamless mode instead.

Now it's 2025, still using Kubuntu LTS, usually use a release 1-2 years after the new is available, so I'm currently using 20.04 which I updated to in 2022, and I'm in the process of updating to 24.04. Paying Ubuntu Pro subscriber.

[-]

imtryingmybes@reddit

Wtf are you talking about? I use arch and rarely do anything at all between updates. It too 'just works'.

[-]

ArgetDota@reddit

Sounds like you need NixOS: any problem is only fixed once, no need to remember anything, it’s impossible to break the system.

[-]

Siegfried_Kitzeln@reddit

reinstall every couple of weeks????? dude, I have not reinstalled my system in 12 years. chilllll!

[-]

NerdPenguin91@reddit

I started using Linux in 2008 with Ubuntu 8.04. In 2014 I tried Linux Mint on my laptop and then Arch Linux. I was 16 at that time, and I loved customizing that system as much as I wanted. After 10 years of Arch, I switched to Debian, because I’m no longer interested to rolling updates that can also potentially break the system or take care of customization (that you can do with all distros btw). I prefer stability over the latest software and find that Debian 13 is very nice, it supports all of the stuff I need (HiDPI, mature kernel drivers, etc). With Flatpak I can get the latest updates of productivity software and at the same time keep the same base system. However, Arch made me learn a lot of stuff about Linux and the Unix ecosystem, and this is the most important thing, if something breaks on Debian or I need to do advanced stuff, I can still use my knowledge built on Arch. I also use macOS with Homebrew and updated Unix base system tools (Apple still keeps old versions of things like rsync on Sequoia).

[-]

jaaberg1981@reddit

I manage about 100ish Linux servers where I work and I’ve never have these problems. Two of my servers run postfix for the sole purpose of sending out reports and they are 11 years old. Your problem seems to be self inflicted and trying to get the OS to do stuff it wasn’t designed or intended to do.

[-]

Weak-Commercial3620@reddit

no time to mess arround with the system
there is too much work, account, photography, video, programming and website, learning , browsing, shopping,

i have always been an IT-guy, but never have liked to tweak the system or reinstal the system
I just need a system to do work

[-]

imbev@reddit

That is the appeal of LTS point-release distributions, your system should work the same as long as you need it.

You own your system, your system should not own you.

[-]

Leniwcowaty@reddit (OP)

Your system should be your tool for work, and not your work

[-]

fartquietly@reddit

ive been on Ubuntu 20 LTS since it was released. Using the stock gnome GUI. Never felt the need to tweak stuff. Just because you can do something doesnt mean you should…

[-]

Brillegeit@reddit

It's not super important, but just FYI:

The Ubuntu release versions are dates, not numbers. So it's not "Ubuntu 20", it's "Ubuntu, April 2020" (20.04).

Ubuntu 20.10 isn't an update of 20.04, 20.10 is the non-LTS release from October 2020 and 20.04 is the LTS relese from April. Since there's two releases every year you need to include the month (04/10) to specify which release you're talking about.

[-]

VosKing@reddit

And this is why windows exists

[-]

Special-Lime882@reddit

Well for any newbies user it is normal to be a distro hopper user but in this moment you are thinking is different "model or distro" but it's the SAME.

So install a distro that you will be comfortable. It's not important if bleeding edge or not. Not normal to change every time or month to distro for new features. For me best feature it is not necessary features!. It's like windows users that not change of version of W because it's enough.

Other way if you changes for learning like First Ubuntu, after Debian at the end Gentoo or even more difficult like LFS.

All option are not represent for everyone. Only have possibly to changes when you want it.

The question is ¿ Why you want/ need to change to another Distro?

This is my point.

[-]

ohlaph@reddit

I initially did that and finally landed on Fedora and have been using that since 2016!

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overdox@reddit

I’ve been using Fedora continuously for around 5 years now, and it’s easily been the most stable and hassle-free Linux experience I’ve had, especially compared to my time on Arch. At the same time, you still get access to very up-to-date packages.

[-]

ohlaph@reddit

It sort of just works. I do have issues with the occasional game not working 100%, but that's minimal these days.

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THElaytox@reddit

Reinstalling every couple of weeks? Why? I haven't installed an OS from scratch in years.

[-]

oradba@reddit

Similar story. Life happened. Went with Debian testing as a compromise with snapper for rollback, and no longer get the itch to distrohop, though I am determined to get FreeBSD working on an old Mac Mini - but that’s not intended to be a daily driver - maybe next year on the main machine.

[-]

Nexus19x@reddit

Eventually got to the same point too. I still run VMs of new stuff every once in a while but overall I just need my system to work. I’ve been running Mint for multiple years now. Started out on Ubuntu years ago, like 6.04 or somewhere around there and went to using Linux as a main OS a few years after that. Mostly stuck with Debian based and never really used anything else on my main system. My main system is a laptop and I only reboot for kernel updates or when I have issues, mostly never, all the rest of the time is sleep. Being able to easily restart the UI (I use Cinnamon) I think really helps with this a lot. Have tried other DEs but Cinnamon is pretty rock solid on Mint at this point. XFCE is a good option performance wise just never really liked it for day to day.

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StreetOwl@reddit

Arch rage quit? Just switch to a debian flavor bro the waters fine

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AlexZhyk@reddit

I am happy on Debian unstable with just sway with swaybar, dmenu and firefox. The rest is just cli and text mode editor. Oh, but I have iPad and I don't play games.

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Available_Yellow_862@reddit

I don’t get it. I used a few distro’s myself. I even used Gentoo for 2 years straight. I never had any problems with something not working. Unless I purposely was messing with things I am not familiar with.

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RHOPKINS13@reddit

I stopped "distro-hopping" a long time ago. On most PCs I would just stick with Debian. Many other distros are based on it, I like how many things are left "stock" on it and I'm free to customize anything on my own. It's just enough "DIY" for me, without going overboard like distros like Arch or Gentoo. Just in my opinion.

I use a Steam Deck as a workstation, and I've been using Bazzite on it for around a year. I'm really happy with it, I enjoy it a lot better than Steam OS, but I don't really care for the "immutable" base system.

One of my favorite things about modern Linux distros, however, is how easy distro-hopping is in general. If you just save everything in your home directory, you can change distros and in most cases many of your settings and preferences will transition to the new distro.

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french_violist@reddit

I was done the day I installed Debian. LFS was fun though. Debian still going strong 20y later. ❤️

[-]

megaruhe@reddit

Feeling like you. Used nearly every Distro I got in my hands but I always came back to my Good ol‘ Mint. It just works.

[-]

Feeling_Beyond_2110@reddit

Yes, there comes a time when you just want your OS to work, so you can focus on more important stuff. I've settled for Debian the past few years, and made a post-install script that configures everything for me for the rare occasions when decide to re install.

[-]

pomubien@reddit

I understand you as I was also there. Somehow I have the hability to break my OS several times a year. Currently I use Linux inside a Virtual Machine. Every week I make a copy, if anything crashes I revert to the previous VM. Life is easier. I don't get the same performance, but also I don't need it for what I do.

[-]

RoyBellingan@reddit

Never heard of VM ?

You know have something stable as the main and experiment on the VM ...

[-]

ZeSprawl@reddit

Distro hopping is not the Linux experience

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UffTaTa123@reddit

I haven't read your post longer then the first three sentence, then i recognized. "Ah, someone who made his life purposely complicated think his life is to complicated and find something to blame for.

Well, some people like it like this. I for myself am using happingly Linux since 15 years to NOT have all those trouble.

[-]

Stardread1997@reddit

OP is making no sense. Linux is so much more stable than Windows. Maybe even Mac (YMMV)! You are complaining about something you will see literally anywhere you turn. Sounds to me you want to go back to a crappy OS/company. Like an abused person goes back to the abuser.

[-]

myfriendjohn1@reddit

Yeah distro hopping is a bit annoying after a while. I have scripts that install most of the stuff I need, but I just can't be arsed now and I like gaming so reinstalling terrabytes of data takes ages.

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shirotokov@reddit

I found linux on RH2.0, them stayed some years on slackware (7.1 to 14.1), after that macos /windows, and now I'm almost 3 years with gentoo

just find something and chill

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Old-Seaworthiness18@reddit

"Done reinstalling every couple of weeks..." What ever you do it must be wrong. I install Linux whenever I switch to a new distro,so about once in 5 to 10 years 🤷

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rational_actor_nm@reddit

Linux since the days of XP. I use Ubuntu minimal with openbox. Sure I could go with a more advanced OS, but I'm just tired of chasing the razor. I an older hard drive that will boot Ubuntu 12.

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nooby_linuxoid@reddit

absolutely based

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dudinax@reddit

Embrace the Debian stable lifestyle

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-EDX-@reddit

good, you managed to beat the arch updaaater mindbug

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Jazzlike_770@reddit

I have been running my OpenSuse install for 8 years. Had to rollback my mess a couple of times using Btrfs. Why do you have to reinstall every two weeks?

[-]

WildManner1059@reddit

I played with linux for fun back in the 2012 time frame. Fedora and Suse and some others I don't remember.

In 2014 I got a job as a windows/linux system administrator. My colleague was very Windows-centric, and had a handful of commands on a cheatsheet to do the daily stuff. Once I arrived the Linux stuff was left to me. I got the job because, "I'm not afraid of the command line", and because I had a bit of experience with Solaris. True, that's not Linux but whatever.

Since then I have used RHEL, OEL, CentOS, and Rocky almost exclusively. With the exception being Ubuntu occasionally. The organizations I work for typically have strict cybersecurity and compliance requirements, and they almost exclusively use Windows for the desktop.

When I can, I try to have a separate computer running linux for the purpose of being able to get right in there and sit in the environment with no layers between. But usually, I'm connecting to an instance, a vm, or an isolated system through some sort of bastion.

All this is to say that Windows, with the release of the new Windows Terminal, and the inclusion (or easy addition) of OpenSSH, has made it where I'm actually using SSH without windows based ssh software, or connecting to a Rocky VM or logging into some cloud instance through a VDI setup.

As for what I use in my lab, it was Ubuntu, but snap broke one of my projects and I've put them in timeout until I'm over my mad. The replacement for Ubuntu in that project was Rocky. And for my 'admin' workstation VM, I decided to try Fedora again.

So far, Fedora is everything I need.

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AUTeach@reddit

I run Fedora (and Alpine). I have no idea what you are talking about.

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WonderfulAd1395@reddit

Bro it's just an OS, install Ubuntu and use your computer

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zerosignal9@reddit

I was never one to really distro hop. When I discovered Debian, it just worked for me. I've been using Debian for about 20 years as my main OS. All but less than maybe two years, I've been using Debian SID. One of my installs is going on 15 years now. I wouldn't even call myself an expert at Linux, just take a bit of time to research something when it breaks, which isn't that often.

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Steingrimr@reddit

I mean I changed distros a lot at first, now just using manjaro. More stable than arch, and have had no problems gaming or anything else.

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Objective-Lion-5673@reddit

Debian all the way! I've been coding complex projects with an old Lenovo 4 gb Ram y working like sharp knife. Got installed php, python, compilers, apache, lamp, etc etc packages, and Debian running fully stable...

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_harveyghost@reddit

I installed Arch a year ago and called it a day lol.

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musiquededemain@reddit

Holy shit, dude. It's just an operating system.

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stigmanmagros@reddit

yeah, there is not a good solution.. fight between 2 years of debian updates which can make some issues, use arch rolling but not the most stable and attacked by ddosers or fedora which is rolling and must be upgraded every six month and supported is also limited because its supported for max 3 upgrades so you have to do reinstalling system anyway every atleast one and half year. the best solution which is helps me alot was dualboot. One disk was for main arch linux system and second one was for distrohopping. I did alot of reinstalling of the systems on second drive but for work i back to arch linux on main drive and after idk 2 months i stayed forever and stopped distrohopping, i can't break arch anymore because i did all testings on second drive arch linux too or others sometimes fedora sometimes debian to learn and then i stopped to see differences or in arch linux everything was even easier to fix with arch wiki so that was cure me from distrohopping. Give yourself a question for what you need your os

[-]

INITMalcanis@reddit

The true end of the Linux main sequence is Debian Stable, for people like you who want to do as little Linuxing as possible.

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zp2835@reddit

Quite true. It's where my journey took me too. The most frequent update nowadays is vscode

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MaybeTheDoctor@reddit

Having been a long term Linux user since 1997 I eventually just contended with a Mac book for the same reason. It’s good English for most things is need it for, and I never have to worry about it booting.

Sure, for any actual development tasks I will pull out an old Linux mint machine.

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Chr0ll0_@reddit

Bro, it’s just an operating system.

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ActualAdeptability@reddit

Yeah, I feel what you are saying. I did that for about 8 years, and this was back circa 2007 and went Mac for an easy life. Back then I tended to have issues with Linux on a daily or weekly basis. Audio broken, video playing up, no sleep, dead laptop, external screen refusing to turn on.

Now I'm back.

I want freedom from corporate tyranny. I'm more worried now about being dependent on Google or apple for a working os, so 20 years later I want to re-learn Linux.

It's been a joy, born again. Even with fairly exotic lunar lake hardware if I try a few kernels I get everything working. Audio, webcams, sleep (s2idle seems to be working), power configurations, and peripherals generally work. What a wonderful experience. And once it works, I just don't update for months. I don't want new, I want working. But I want working with transparency and knowledge of how it works. That's something I can't get with windows or mac. Perhaps because I know Linux reasonably well, but it seems simpler, most of the time.

And bloody hell, LLMs are AMAZING for learning new things in Linux. What a time to be alive.

[-]

berryer@reddit

pretty much. Debian Stable with the Firefox tarball for roughly 10 years here. I moved away from Firefox ESR because it was too slow to get WebRTC

[-]

AeddGynvael@reddit

Started with Kubuntu LTS a couple years ago on the desktop. (techhically, started with Arch because of the Steam deck). Used Debian, Mint, Fedora, Fedora Silverblue, and EndeavourOS. My personal laptop is still on Fedora, my work laptop is still on Debian. Love me my reliable Kubuntu LTS, everything I need runs without any issues, I run daily snapshots with Timeshift and I've reached a point where I don't really need to tinker with any of my installs further.

[-]

Krentenkakker@reddit

'But now i'm in my 30s' 😂

Oh wow, you're old.

Fuck me, really...

[-]

SmoollBrain@reddit

?

[-]

McGuirk808@reddit

When you're quite a bit older than 30, someone calling 30 old hits a lot different.

[-]

zp2835@reddit

Indeed, and it's saying something when that person is much closer to my eldest child's age than they are to me!

[-]

SmoollBrain@reddit

I was mainly focused on the "Fuck me, really..." part, but I understand what you mean.

It's just weirdly worded and English is not my native language, sooooo...

[-]

McGuirk808@reddit

Oh, I understand now. That statement is used to express exasperation. In this context I'd take it to be them both considering the person who called 30 old to be lacking in perspective as well as reflecting on their own age.

[-]

SmoollBrain@reddit

Yeah. At first I thought the person commenting this wanted OP to fuck them. I just misunderstood the sentence.

[-]

UbieOne@reddit

person commenting this wanted OP to fuck them.

😂 Yeah, who knows? He could've meant it literally.

[-]

SmoollBrain@reddit

That is possible 😂

[-]

Dugen@reddit

We're 10 years closer to the next "Summer of 69" than we are to the last one.

[-]

maxgrody@reddit

I like it, don't have too many problems, been using it off and on for 20 years. Long Windows updates were driving me crazy. I like the simplify, or complexity deep what you are doing, and just being able to pirate books, games and movies from file sharing programs without bugging up my computer. No problem with normal browsing, email, banking etc.

[-]

maxgrody@reddit

Auto correct drives me crazy

[-]

Ratspeed@reddit

I just want my two rear channels to work with Pipewire. 😭

[-]

kingo409@reddit

That's valid. At this point of your life, you care to use a computer, & (after searching for years!) you found a set-up that does what you need it to do.
Others have the drive to distro hop, & that's valid too.
Everyone has to find their own path.

[-]

mrbill1234@reddit

It happens as you get older. Have been using Linux since pre-1.0 kernel (on a pc I built myself). No longer interested. I pay money for something that works out of the box. My time is just too valuable compared to my youth.

I'm using a Mac - still has Unix inside.

[-]

cathedral_@reddit

I too was DONE when I finally installed Fedora Kinoite and never looked back. Atomic desktops are the future.

[-]

jjmcwill2003@reddit

My work machine is Ubuntu 22.04. I LITERALLY have work to do. Is it perfect? No. But what is. Tinkering is for hobbyists.

[-]

aurisor@reddit

I used linux on my desktop my first 10y in tech. Was fun to screw around with my dev box. Still use linux all the time on the server. But hoo boy do I love never ever having to mess with my mac.

Great OS! And no hate to the tinkerers. But not how I want to spend my time.

[-]

insom7@reddit

Been using nix/bsd since ‘93, the BitchX days. Probably been through 25 or more distros. Eventually, like most serious Linux user you will probably settle for Debian Stable. That is, if you are wanting something that just works and don’t need bleeding edge software/drivers. Keep a Gentoo or Lfs install if you are the type that likes to experiment.

[-]

58696384896898676493@reddit

This reads like someone who is done using hardcore drugs. Sure, I'm rooting for you, but we all know sooner than later, you'll be right back to shooting up the latest new Linux distro that piques your interest just to chase that high you've been missing out on.

[-]

BppnfvbanyOnxre@reddit

I reinstalled a few years back when being a dick I screwed something up and again when I bought a new machine and...that;'s it.

[-]

supradave@reddit

I did just reinstall from Linux Mint to Debian stable because I'm done supporting the Ubuntu compu-sphere. Not that I don't appreciate all the knowledge I gained from the forums over the last 15 or so years. I vacillated with regards to Debian testing, but I decided on stability. I can play in a VM if I want to play.

[-]

Moscaman2023@reddit

I have locked into Linux Mint after about > 30 years of hopping. Going to stay here. But I will probably, one day, install something else on a non essential machine. I just like to take a look. But work and home primary machines will not change and will remain Mint. I just like how the customization has become perfect now that I stopped hopping.

[-]

0riginal-Syn@reddit

You could insert several distro names where you put Mint and achieve the same thing. It is all about finding what fits you best.

[-]

geolaw@reddit

LoL I had stopped distro hopping several years ago for the same reason.

Linux user since 1997 here. Full time Linux for the past 9 years with very limited need for windows (e.g. my wife's laptop admin)

Everything was stable on fedora with i3wm and my workflow was so automatic that I just didn't need to improve anything except a few minor annoyances that came up here or there.

I work 40 hours a week on this setup (work for Red Hat) ... They do not force me into any one distro or operating system but fedora has met the requirements and it's "red hat like" that it's just a bonus.

This has somewhat recently changed a little as a local slack has been talking about omarchy enough to get me interested. I'm currently using desktopflow for a software kvm to share mouse and keyboard which works fine with x11 but not as stable with Wayland quite yet. I'm feeling the old itch to tinker 😂😂😂

[-]

JEREDEK@reddit

I might not be hardcore enough but i've been pretty happy on my stock garuda mokka install (and garuda dragonized before mokka came out) lol

[-]

SpacetimeConservator@reddit

Ha I'm also in my thirties with a family and full-time job and for being done is just using Debian Stable instead of Debian testing :D But yeah... in my twenties I used to experiment a lot and didn't really seem to run out of time. Now when I try something off the beaten path - I'm wondering where the time went.

[-]

cgoldberg@reddit

Although lots of users enjoy distro hopping and endlessly configuring their system and chasing shiny new things... the majority of users just like a stable operating system that allows them to do actual work on their computer.

[-]

Suitable-Name@reddit

I think that is an age thing. I loved hopping, but now I have my gentoo, even across multiple systems, and didn't have problems for ... a long, long time.

[-]

Salamok@reddit

Basically I just want an OS that doesn't piss me of with stupid design decisions. I think I have been using mint since mint 14, I upgrade to a newer version every 3 or 4 years, it has a few minor quirks but for the most part it just stays the fuck out of my way and let's me work which is exactly what I want.

[-]

tailslol@reddit

same, i have 3 machines

2 on bazzite and 1 on mint, it has been probably 1 year without any reinstallations.

so yea ill just stick to that.

[-]

jjdelc@reddit

"done" is not the right word. This is normal progression using Linux. You'll find every Linux users goes through that phase.

This title is click bait

[-]

THETJ-0@reddit

You’ll be back.

[-]

DadLoCo@reddit

Yep I am the same, district hopped for years after first being introduced to Linux in 2003.

Earlier this year I settled on Linux Mint Debian edition (LMDE). Same experience as you, everything just works. Got my mother on it too.

[-]

Gizmotrog@reddit

I had a similar burnout a few years ago. Now I just Mint and forget.

[-]

mensink@reddit

I'm currently on Ubuntu 24.04 and running some updates. Then I thought "hey, 25.04 has been out for a while, I could update, but it's a few hours of work and some stuff could break, so nevermind for now."

[-]

ivano_GiovSiciliano@reddit

i used to have slackware mainly, and I reinstall once every few years. the system was messy but much better than windows.
Today as you I do not have time, so my strategy is to use a macos, use with brew all the command line i want, and while i see a movie not interesting or a television program I allocate 16 gb to a virtual machine and have all the fun i want, installing arch, playing with ubuntu gnome, installing again slackware and so on. The virtual machine runs really good, and can do everything

Still I would love to have a desktop with manjaro only but do not have the time atm

[-]

nevyn28@reddit

I have nobara installed on my mini pc/htpc
I have manjaro installed on my main/gaming pc

I don't do any maintenance, they are operating systems, they work.

[-]

JackDostoevsky@reddit

Done reinstalling the system every couple of weeks.

uhhh sir this is a wendys??? lmao

meanwhile i haven't reinstalled my system in 10 years 😂

[-]

_Robert_D_@reddit

F... then why are you messing around, why are you installing RC kernels? In your case, it's stupid. Sorry, that's just my opinion. Dude, think first whether you want to experiment or just install and forget?

From what you're writing, you should choose a very stable distribution, like openSUSE Leap, or better yet, Slowroll (or other similar). There's nothing new there, they release everything with a very, I repeat, very long delay. Tested on many devices, refined, fixed,...

Sorry, think a little, dude.

[-]

frisk213769@reddit

'Reinstalling ths system svery couple weeks' Thats a skill issue tbh I use debian since 2008 Never broke it in my life Never customized it Bacause why would I? Debian is stable does what i want it to do

[-]

Odd-Respond-4267@reddit

Like the "parable"

Doctor, it hurts when I do this! Ans: don't do that.

I've had linux since Yggdrasil.

After many decades, I reached a point, when I just switched to Ubuntu lts versions, as it was stable, good enough, and I had other things to play with.

[-]

IWasSayingBoourner@reddit

My last experience with Linux:

Install RHEL 8

Download and install Rider

Restart

OS no longer boots

Realize I don't have time in my life for an OS where userland software can brick the OS

Uninstall RHEL 8

[-]

huge51@reddit

Hear me out. Using Claude Code to fix my Linux issues is my game changer. I no longer have to spend too much time to get the setup i want.

[-]

twotenth@reddit

Share us your /CLAUDE.md :D

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New_Concern_2801@reddit

I do the same and its great i agree

[-]

Anonymo@reddit

What do you do with Claude code?

[-]

nixenlightened@reddit

Deep into my forties here with hundreds of OS evals under my belt to include every Linux distribution you can likely name (many long dead), the BSDs (even Dragonfly), and I’m also right there with you. I basically Ubuntu all the things (same but different…Mint is no doubt lovely) and get shit done.

[-]

Neumienu@reddit

I think I only really distro hopped a bit way back when I started using Linux. I'd get a new DVD in Linux Format way back when and try out some new distros on my old laptop.

But, for ages now, I've taken more of a "New PC, New distro" mentality. My current PC runs Nobara and has done since 2022 mostly just fine. Whenever I do overhaul my current system, I'll switch Distro again. But that's not for a couple of years yet. Thinking of switching to openSuse Tumbleweed. May switch from KDE to Gnome too....I'll decide at the time.

But yeah: I am a bit of a filthy Casual. I don't really tinker with the OS much. I just use it to do what I want to do.

[-]

RudeSpecific6352@reddit

For me, distrohopping is simply unemployed person behaviour. I'm using Mint and Elementary since 2014 only. Tried Debian 12 for Gnome on a new PC but hopped to Mint back. If it's working for you, you should simply stop digging. Otherwise it means you have time to waste.

[-]

Steamdecker@reddit

I don't see why you need to reinstall the system every couple of weeks these days.
I did it back in early 90s because it was too new and I needed to frequently upgrade/update to get new hardware support for my machine. But by early 00s, it became mostly unnecessary (except for gamers).

[-]

szayl@reddit

Welcome to Debian.

[-]

Ordinary-Cod-721@reddit

So you’re finally starting to use it the way it is intended to be used.

[-]

WrongdoerInfamous616@reddit

You enjoyed it while it lasted & you learned a lot
Perhaps you didn't focus on the final outcome, the "deliverable", the payoff. So what?
I've used open source since 1993, hopping, mostly to more stable, the old German distro with KDE (was it KDE?) then Mint, and finally Ubuntu for 20 years.

Thanks for the post.

It's exciting to try these bleeding edge things, the tiny distros absorb my interest these days (in a world where more people abandon & repurpose old hardware to just live & get things done with continual surveillance or rent-seeking subscription).

But your effort has contributed to the greater good.

I thank you for your effort.

I hope you made numerous bug reports! And posted even a few "solutions". My god, that really helps!

Kudos to you.

[-]

curtmcd@reddit

I've used RedHat and Ubuntu for ages. I find that major maintenance is needed maybe every 3 years or so to upgrade the hardware and/or O/S. There's little downtime overall.

Last time I horked my system by stupidly running do-release-upgrade in an X window instead of remotely.. I struggled trying to recover it, and eventually had to reinstall.

The biggest downer is dealing with the change over time. Networking, mailer, printing, graphics, desktop, systemd stuff, filesystem layout, snaps, etc. There's often a re-learning curve.

[-]

GiantHermit@reddit

sounds like you have an nvidia card.

[-]

idebugthusiexist@reddit

This is why I became a Mac user for over a decade or so. My heart is still with Linux, but I just wanted something that just worked and was reliable. I only returned to Linux recently because I wanted to extend the life of an old iMac that was struggling to cope with the latest versions of MacOS (that it was not meant to run, to be fair, using OpenCore Legacy Patcher) and I settled with KDE Neon, which seems to be fairly stable and things are better now with Flatpaks and Snaps etc, but, even so, Linux still has it's quirks. For example, occasionally the graphics card driver goes bonkers when waking up the iMac and, on the flip side, sometimes the iMac refuses to sleep for whatever reason. Overall, it works well enough and the performance is great for such an old computer, but it lacks the polish that you get from MacOS. And, like you said, I am absolutely steering away from customization, as it is a trap and a waste of my time. I prefer the tyranny of the default at this point.

That being said, my heart will always be with Linux.

[-]

Dismal_Bad7801@reddit

This is me with bazzite, not 10 years but rather like a month or 2 or 3.

Cachyos was the 2nd best experience, bazzite w/kde just worked out the box for me as a Nvidia laptop user suffering.

It feels like bazzite cachyos and Linux mint are the best for the everyday user based on their branch of Linux (fedora, arch, Debian).

[-]

msoulforged@reddit

That's where you end up in Debian stable, and put your adventuring days behind.

[-]

TornBlueGuy@reddit

i’ve been daily driving linux for at least 4 years now and i had to reinstall once at the beginning when i accidentally powered off during an apt update, switched to arch and haven’t needed to reinstall since. what are you guys doing to your systems to constantly break them???

[-]

konqueror321@reddit

I've been running debian testing for over 13 years. I do have to reinstall when I get a new computer, but otherwise a no-drama experience. It's not flashy or bleeding edge, sometimes bugs take longer to fix than desired, but the work-arounds are easy (install a flatpak or whatever while waiting for the debian repository to update to a corrected version).

[-]

Mammoth-Ear-8993@reddit

Get an atomic distro and watch as it runs perfectly and keeps you from tinkering with it lol

[-]

OliM9696@reddit

Thei is one of the reasons I continue to use Linux. Sure I can use arch with gnome, fedora, Ubuntu or mint but currently they all come with drawbacks that I feel, I don't get this on windows.

I still have Linux installed on a SSD, ready to boot up and check every so often seeing how HDR support is going. Last checked a few months ago but basically it comes down to proton still using x11. Yes they are other proton version I can use and such bit it's all a hassle. HDR just works on chrome in windows.

I will try Linux again soon I suspect, the benefits of Linux do appeal to me greatly. But as a person who just loves HDR, and is s content first tinker later kinda person. Windows still has its claws in me.

[-]

mrarjonny@reddit

I bought a System76 two years ago and that has put a complete end to my distro hopping.

I have tried Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, Fedora, Arch, Puppy Linux, MX Linux, Tiny Core, Damn Small Linux, TailsOS, OpenBSD (not technically Linux, I know), EndeavourOS, Manjaro, openSUSE, Void, Kali, NixOS, and KDE Neon.

My experience lead me to learn that they are all basically the same freaking thing most of them are just built on top of each other anyway.
Debian>Ubuntu>Mint for example or Arch>Manjaro>EndeavourOS as another. Its all the same just a bit different.

So I bought a computer designed for Pop!_OS and just called it a day. It just works.

It is low maintenance and doesn't get in my way at all. I use Debian for my severs though.

[-]

toogreen@reddit

Same here but with Debian.

[-]

savorymilkman@reddit

I got a 3080ti and bit the bullet I love Linux windows is just better for gaming

[-]

HalfBurntToast@reddit

I daily drove Linux for 15 years. Mostly LTS versions of Xubuntu and Mint MATE. I switched to a mac this year for my main machine. Still have Linux on my servers and gaming computer. Pretty much for the same reason. It just works. But, Mac is more compatible/friendly with bigger software. I never got Davinci Resolve working on Linux. And GIMP is pitiful compared to even Lightroom or Pixelmator Pro. And all the programming/engineering tools merged over with no problem.

I have plenty to tinker with. My operating system isn’t one of those things anymore.

[-]

universaltool@reddit

I was a FreeBSD diehard for decades. Would compile my own kernel so that it didn't have to scan for new equipment or reboot and tried to make everything stable. The problem was always trying to be more stable. Sure it booted in less than 10 seconds but I had to rebuild the system every time I changed a piece of hardware. None of that discouraged me at first.

In the end it was software needs that drove me away. I needed the same software others were using rather tan approximations that just caused issues on both ends. My time to work on it was no longer there and I could afford to throw more money at a bloated product that ensured by customers saw the same thing on their screen that I did when working. I still miss it sometimes but not really when I think about it. Windows is terrible but it's consistently terrible and I can live with that now.

[-]

atgaskins@reddit

I have desktop linux systems that have been running years. I literally had an Arch install for over 8 years that only failed because a drive died and I only had my data backed up, not a system image.

If you are reinstalling every week, month or year I don’t know what you’ve been doing with your ten years.

Sorry to see ya go. Best of luck!

[-]

Deradon@reddit

I am just running with any Ubuntu LTS since 08. Upgrading to the most recent LTS every 2-4 years. Pretty happy ever since.

[-]

sacules@reddit

I used to be an avid ricer back in college, but for a few years now I've come to a pretty stable setup. I got a Thinkpad T14 Gen almost 4 years ago, and have been using the same Void Linux install ever since. Just update it weekly, it rarely breaks, has most stuff I need, it's lightweight and simple. I love it. The only big change I made recently was moving to Hyprland like a year ago, before that I was a big dwm user.

[-]

According_Ant6095@reddit

So basically, you are just done distro hopping? I mean I don't blame you I only did that for a couple weeks, I can't imagine doing it for an entire decade.

[-]

PicardovaKosa@reddit

i would say 90% of linux users use default version of stuff. I use vanilla Fedora KDE.

Nothing breaks, i dont have to worry about anything. Its a nice peace of mind.

I reinstalled it exactly ones, and thats when Plasma 6 came out.

[-]

Saragon4005@reddit

What's the point of a default if it's sucks ass? Like people put a lot of effort into building sane defaults of course they are going to be fine for most people.

[-]

Leniwcowaty@reddit (OP)

Was like that too with my last months of Fedora. But I still found Fedora KDE too... unstable? For my hardware. For example in 6.13 I had an issue with network, 6.14 worked perfectly fine, 6.15 has issue with display. Meanwhile 6.12 LTS just works for months.

[-]

ebits21@reddit

I’ve settled in using Bluefin. Just works and auto updates everything very nicely.

I don’t really tinker much anymore.

[-]

OverOnTheRock@reddit

or, create a machine rebuild/automation/image process, such that if something is broken, simply poke a button and have it recreated while you walk away and do something else. or use kvm or lxc or something to build stuff you can break and delete when done. keep primary workstation as sacrosanct, and work with disposable copies to 'learn on'.

[-]

Mr_Lumbergh@reddit

*yawn*

That's too much internet for today, I'm going to back to composing music on my Debian box now that I've been using for most of a decade.

[-]

New_Concern_2801@reddit

What do you use for music composition

[-]

Mr_Lumbergh@reddit

Reaper

[-]

volkoff1989@reddit

Take a page from my book.

I got 3 desktop pc’s nowadays and some mini-pc studf. I run everything with as minimal time spent configuring as possible.

My regular pc that i game on, this one has a gpu.

My homeserver (14400)

My homelab, mini-itx 14600k, odroid, n150 mini pc, pi.

My homelab is mostly for tinkering and compute tasks. I test configs, software and hardware on my homelab before i add it to my homeserver. Config not working out? Reinstall snapshot.

[-]

Puzzleheaded_Bid1530@reddit

I don't understand what are you talking about. I am done with tinkering, so I don't tinker anymore. I just use my Arch Linux system without making any significant changes. I don't even install new programs, because I don't need anything other than what I already have. This has been working for me this way for several years already.

When I switch to new pc I just do fresh Arch instal using manual I written for myself when I did tinker much. It is easy to follow, and I install everything I need from a pc in a half an hour or so.

To be honest, using the same set of packages and settings on Arch for several years feels much easier for me than using Windows, which always change or doesn't behave right out of the box.

[-]

SnowyOwl72@reddit

u had to reinstall every month? wtf
i have two or three instances of Arch running for almost 5 years, rarely breaks by stupid nvidia packages or what not.

[-]

ackleyimprovised@reddit

Installing every few weeks? Not understanding why. 1. No one has that time. 2. Sounds like OP is not doing actual work

[-]

fsckit@reddit

He's a distro hopper. His hobby was installing and trying new versions.

[-]

RealUlli@reddit

I've stopped chasing the latest and greatest kernel features some time in the early 2000s. I've never distro-hopped extensively, I'd guess averaging every 5 years, flipping between Debian and Ubuntu. Reason for the reinstall is usually getting a new PC. ;-)

However, I've been using various distros in parallel, since I work professionally with it. I don't care if that machine is Suse, Debian, CentOS, RHEL, Alma or Ubuntu (or any of the derivatives). I can work with any of them, they can be classified in two classes: Debian-based and Redhat-based. (Suse is slightly further away, since they started roughly the same time as Redhat and only adopted the RPM format for their packages.

I tried Gentoo for a while and didn't like it.

I'm just using the system for whatever I need to do.

[-]

OrixAY@reddit

Go find a rock stable distro as host
Install all the crazy stuffs in VM
Delete VM
Rinse and repeat

Problem solved

[-]

rockymega@reddit

Dude, I still have no idea what I'm doing. Others rice out and break their systems, and fix them after, I reinstall debian. That tinkering stuff just wasn't ever my jam. I went with something simple and lightweight, SliTaz is pretty awesome, but somewhat in need of an update, which seems to be happening, so I use debian for quite a while.

[-]

OldGuard369@reddit

Just get Debian and relax

[-]

atiqsb@reddit

lol it's liberating to have options at least. On Linux, you can go long term, short term. You can go with fancy UI and animations. Also you can go all in on command line.

[-]

myownfriend@reddit

I've been using Linux for 5 years and only changed distros once (Ubuntu to Fedora) and that was like 4 years ago. I can't imagine distro hopping every few months for 10 years .

I've spent the majority of my time with Linux just doing my editing work and following FOSS projects and learning how things work to the point that now I'm trying to make some FOSS software.

[-]

ImTheShadowMan2@reddit

I settled down on Fedora with Gnome a long time ago. There is no need to hop around. My new devices are supported, and I've not had an update break my system in many moons.

[-]

TeaMysterious6858@reddit

See you next week

[-]

ElQuique@reddit

It seems like you still like tinkering. I would recommend NixOS, is a steep learning curve, but is extremely reproducible, which means if you make a mistake you can always roll back. The config is a big file, which means you can track it with git, which makes it quite easy to find what broke your system.

[-]

bobj33@reddit

Why do you keep distrohoppung and changing your config? Just stop and your problems go away

I’ve been running Linux almost exclusively since 1994. I switched from Slackware to Red Hat in 1997 which turned into Fedora which I still run today. Everything just works and I have no need nor time to mess with it.

[-]

HeavyMetalMachine@reddit

I've tried Mint so many times, only reason I don't use it is I have a 4K monitor and with fractional scaling at 150% the font rendering is very poor and blurry. That's why I'm sticking with Gnome, especially now that fractional scaling works so great. Nice sharp fonts at 150%. Pity, because I like Mint.

[-]

Stooovie@reddit

Ironically Mint with Cinnamon is the least stable distro for me. I'm having frequent freezes that no other OS on the same system has at all.

[-]

PuffPuff74@reddit

After 30 years of using Linux (I started on Slackware 1.0), I got tired of hardware compatibility issues and crappy apps, I moved to MacOS and haven’t looked back.

[-]

Devil_devil_003@reddit

I keep both windows 11 pro and ubuntu. Windows is primarily for some native applications. Everything else from machine learning to re-muxing, I use ubuntu. Had a period when I distro hopped too but had to return to ubuntu for the most stable experience in ML tasks. I installed Ubuntu on an external drive (including the grub) so it's also very easy to boot on another pc taking all my files (just have to make sure to clean proprietary Nvidia drivers before booting in another system (I have Rtx 3080 on my home desktop). I think it's all about balance, reliability and what works best for you at the end of the day. It's just an OS not a way of life/status symbol according to my opinion.

[-]

FrostyDiscipline7558@reddit

Welcome to being an adult.

[-]

myc_litterus@reddit

yeah distro hopping is not it. tedious with no real reward. choose a distro n stick with it basically. was on linux mint for like a year n now I switched to fedora but I'm sticking around here for the forseable future

[-]

kayque_oliveira@reddit

The default theme is too hardcore for me

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0x72101108108111@reddit

I’ve been fine with Ubuntu because I just wanted more control over my machine, less bloatware, and no spyware compared to my windows OS in the past. I only boot up my dual boot windows partition if I need to do something like Solidworks.

[-]

yayster@reddit

Now focus on your emacs config.

[-]

Life_Interest_9967@reddit

Just install arch bro

[-]

cobaltwarrior@reddit

I treat Linux like I treat Windows. If there's a new update.. I'll install it when I get around to it, if I feel like it.

[-]

JtheDirty@reddit

Similar story with similar ending. Tried quite a few Linux distros over the years, about a year ago settled for Mint on my desktop which is also ridiculously powerful (gaming) machine - and I rarely play games nowadays. The difference I guess is that I dual boot, running Windows as a secondary OS on a different SSD for specific games or when facing complex compatibility issues. I also use Kali on my laptop.

[-]

boccaff@reddit

Only reinstall when I switch machines, and just because I like the opportunity "clean up", and not because I need. And I use arch btw.

[-]

Ok_Classic5578@reddit

I did that when Solaris fell to the wayside. I shuddered at the thought of being forced to use a splintered OS with as many differences of the same kernel. And here we are, I only use a few depending on the need and only check out a new one if a colleague has a good reason to recommend one.

[-]

Ok-Escape3669@reddit

I remember when trolling used to be believable

[-]

thank_burdell@reddit

Mint is also my “can’t be arsed” distribution of choice.

[-]

johncate73@reddit

It took you a decade to reach that point?

If I want to kick the tires on something new and experimental, that's what VirtualBox is for. For everyday use, I like my distros like Franco—the more conservative, the better. My wife runs Mint and I run PCLOS. I depend on my computer for real work, I can't afford to be reinstalling every week. I don't even want to reinstall every year.

[-]

hauntlunar@reddit

I think that a lot of Linux users just live the "done" lifestyle from the start. Live in a basic DE in a basic distro, never change it. But you don't see them posting about it on reddit or making videos about it on youtube or whatever.

[-]

TheZupZup@reddit

yeah i feel you i decide my main distro is now the LMDE version of Linux mint. it's perfect for me

[-]

edwardblilley@reddit

Same

[-]

JohnyJohny92@reddit

Sadly i agree with you, im 33 and have 0 time for technical bollocks on linux or windows, if it doesnt just work out of the box i dont use it.

Sadly i went back to windows, im an tech/upgrade freak, ill break everything chasing more performance efficiency and newer features/kernels, i just cant im obssessed, mint with 6.6 LTS also works well for me, but i cant have it, if it dont have the latest xanmod kernel or the latest cachyOS arch version im not happy, the fact that there is something better out there kills me, i will install it try to make it work, and then everything breaks and have to quit go back to windows where i dont have to do nothing.

Im also tired of flatpaks and snaps abomination, the whole concept of linux being light , fast and customizable is skewed by these massive app distributions that include too many stupid dependencies , linux is broken by design.

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chud_meister@reddit

I settled on Debian stable as my daily driver.

Setup for my special needs (development and audio) takes a few hours max configuration/setting up applications how I like. I keep bash scripts and dot files maintained so it's easy.

If I want to check out a distro, I do it qemu.

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shuckster@reddit

Are you a programmer?

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kor34l@reddit

I'm nearly 50. Been using Linux since Slackware and Mandrake in the 90s. About 20 years ago I found Gentoo and my distro hopping was over. Instead of trying out other people's idea of a good OS, Gentoo let me basically make my own. It's the Build-A-Bear of Linux. My own OS.

I can't go back. Every time I try out the new hotness or whatever, it feels like I'm using someone else's computer.

Gentoo ftw.

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Alien911_8@reddit

Same here distro hopping to try the newest or just new or exiting to me every few weeks or months, now in my 30s with 3 kids i dont have time, been on cachyos for a year now but have an old laptop i have lying around to thinker with now and then while my main machin is there as a stable work horse.

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mdemarchi@reddit

That's how I became a Debian user. Just install and not worry about it for a long time

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MutualRaid@reddit

"That was always allowed!" :)

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Beautiful_Crab6670@reddit

As someone who (also) had his "reinstalling nonstop to get the hang of it" phase...? It took me around 2 years(ish) to reach a "...okay, this is good enough." state with Linux -- I know how to fiddle with dotfiles. To setup a minimal/barebones installlation. To setup a orange pi zero 3 and use it as a middleman/dns sinkhole. To tweak the system via kernel parameters or /etc/sysctl.conf. To set up zram properly and to have a bleeping good and stable working distro. Sure, there is always something new that I could learn (like using firewalld instead of "raw" iptables) but eh... I just don't care anymore.

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worlok@reddit

I was into Linux in the nineties. Used it for years into the early 2000s. I even used it in my work laptop and ran Windows in a VM so I could use the company stuff like Outlook since they were a Windows shop on the IT side. Always battled those windows guys. I was the weirdo Linux evangelist. It was a small enterprise software company so I got away with it. Most of the machines I worked on were Unix since their product had Unix client and server versions. I admined those test environments so having Linux on my machine was logical to them.

Anyway I also got sick of the constant struggle. I still love Linux and freebsd but due to necessary software restrictions I use Windows and MacOS now. At least MacOS has Unix underneath.

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Fantastic_Tell_1509@reddit

I jumped in ZorinOS as my daily driver years ago, I get it. And stability is important in my server setup as well. I appreciate other distros and the effort people put into them, but I'm fine on ZorinOS and fine with SuSe on my server.

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sudojonz@reddit

Why does this read like so many other posts on tech subreddits lately?

The style of prose with the same style of questions at the end. Reads like human adjusted LLM slop.

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xcenter@reddit

I'm not sure what you're doing, I've been gaming and working on the same Manjaro install for the past 6 years, and have swapped hardware underneath it twice now.

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CatVideoBoye@reddit

Get new work laptop.

Install Kubuntu LTS.

Use for years.

Get new work laptop.

Install Kubuntu LTS.

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Elbinooo@reddit

Completely understandable and I salute you from Fedora, which has been running on my machine since 2019 or so.

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sjprice@reddit

I feel you bro. That was me 5 years ago. Got frustrated when mint started throwing errors after 4 years of quiet.

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Prof_Linux@reddit

Something seems off if your reinstalling every couple of weeks?

I mean your going to have problems with the "new stuff" where the newest kernel will cause problems, Debian for instance uses older kernels and packages for the exact reason of stability.

But every couple of weeks?

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Mithrannussen@reddit

I have the best of both words, sort of.
Using NixOS I no longer worry about unbootable states and upgrades gone wrong, even without reading prior to updating I am confident about the system reliability due to the aspect of Nix,

However, this isn't something exclusive to NixOS/Nix, there are a lot of users who are capable of customizing and dealing with any issues that may arise because of their tinkering, specially in regard to low-level settings such as systemd.

Now, if you are dealing very far from the default config: not knowing how to recover your system from an unbootable situation, specially when the bootloader is gone; not backing up your main settings and data or adopting any other sensible precautions, the fault is all yours.

Granted there are still several aspects that the vast majority of distros should improve, specially in regard to recovery tools (Windows, out of the box, seems much easier to recover than most distros), your post seems to suggest that instability is inherently part of certain distros, however, at least judging by the writing, it is mostly about your experience derived by your abilities to recover.

Would've been nicer if you had provided better description about certain issues you encountered without keeping all too generic.

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Alarming_Rate_3808@reddit

I use Debian testing on everything. I don’t reinstall. It just works. Welcome to the club.

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Real_Kick_2834@reddit

Going to be a bit brutal here. But I’m confused.

Why reinstall every couple of weeks ?

Why start the day wondering if your system is going to boot.

There is plenty long term supported distributions out there, depending on the use case, install, configure and let it be. Get on with your day, do some work, watch videos and do what you need to do, if in IT, write some code, update the jetbrains ide of choice, update vscode or whatever you use when the update arrives and get your day done.

If you choose a rolling release, yes there will be a some more headache, some more maintenance and admin every day or so, and yes, with rolling releases the risk of a new kernel breaking something you use is real, so that takes a rolling release out of your use case.

A more personal view, and this is my own, if you want to use the latest and shiny, virtual machines are your friend.

Harsh as it sounds, if MS windows or MacOS had the option of latest and shiny the headaches of rolling releases with windows would be a complete fucking headache, Mac OS probably too, but probably a lot less than windows.

Unfortunately, if you want latest and shiny, that comes with a bit of extra work and sometimes some headache. If you want something that starts and just works and keeps on working, you are in the LTS space wether it be an LTS distro, macOS or windows, and these two are pretty much mutually exclusive

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Snezzy_9245@reddit

Git a hoss! Horses are so different from OSs you'll never be "done".

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jasonvincent@reddit

This post is so funny to me! I was distro hopping in 1996 but since then I’ve learned to use the right tools for the job and I now understand a lot about Linux in general. No need to move to a new one or keep changing things for no reason

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birdbrainedphoenix@reddit

After 10 years of claiming to use Linux you're finally ready to actually use it.

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ryanstephendavis@reddit

Hmmm... Yeah, just install Linux on a new computer and then use it to get stuff done

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DomDomPop@reddit

I mean, run multiple partitions/VMs? Do people not do that? I always have a stable Windows, a stable Ubuntu, a Parrot Security that’s usually kept stable (though I keep good backups!), and one or more unstable systems to splash around in. If I need to do particular tasks, I have those specific partitions or drives to boot from and do it. If I don’t have time, then I’m not playing with the unstable ones. There’s no good reason to play games with your singular production system in this day and age when you can just multiboot.

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RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS@reddit

I switched to using Mac and Windows at home for basically the same reason. I get it

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Regular_Promise426@reddit

So, what's your story?

I use macOS, Windows, and Fedora. They're tools for a job, and so, why break what works? Though, Microsoft doesn't seem to have gotten that memo.

I get the idea of distro hopping, it's just, who has time for that? I can't be fighting with my tools.

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ansibleloop@reddit

I picked Mint because it's boring stable and has the best intro experience

It immediately found my GPU drivers and got me setup with Timeshift in case something breaks my system

Better yet, I formatted my system as BTRFS first so I could have instant snapshots

It's been fine for months - all my games work aside from kernel anti cheat slop

All of my tooling works or I've found a replacement that does the same thing

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guchdog@reddit

I've already been searching for this state of existing. No matter what I seem to make my distro drift enough to cause issues during upgrades . I'm tired of worrying about my OS and want to concentrated more what I do with it. I' m currently like the idea of immutable distros for stability. Grass seems a little greener on the other side I have to admit. The OS seems pretty stable but my containers that I use like toolbox (podman) seem to a bit fragile. But overall for me using Bazzite seems to be working out for me.

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changework@reddit

Three years and running the original install…

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AxelHickam@reddit

It's just an OS. Open up your browser, have a good edge session and close it.

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no_brains101@reddit

Wow you had a lot of problems with it.

Maybe consider not using the development builds of everything.

I use nixos so I'm looking for any opportunity I get to reinstall the whole thing because its cool. I uhhh... I haven't had to do that in a long while outside of VMs

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spekxo@reddit

tl;dr It took him 10 years to find Mint.

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PacketAuditor@reddit

I haven't been doing any of that lol. CachyOS rules.

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non-existing-person@reddit

Done reinstalling the system every couple of weeks. Done finding the best, newest trend there is. Done spending hours and hours troubleshooting and fixing issues with your extremely customized setup.

This. In few months it will be 10 years since I last formatted my machine. Yes. It's been going on for almost a decade without reinstallation. I sit on a stable branch of my distro, and I don't care I have packages that are 3-6 months outdated. I pick one LTS kernel that works for me, and just compile new version every few months until they just stop supporting it - so I have 0 worry it will not but because of something.

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gljames24@reddit

Dude. I'll hop or reinstall maybe once a year, but now I have all my devices pretty much on the distros I need them to be on. Fedora, Bazzite, OpenWRT, and Ubuntu Servers.

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Amazing-Exit-1473@reddit

i done distrohopping 14 years ago, the btw distro i dont do ricing, or troubleshooting long time ago, i use the computer, for mi work sometimes i play, watch movies, and is just fine, if linux is not for you luckily you have options.

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Yesujira@reddit

I used Arch for about a year as well before coming to almost the exact same conclusion as you did: constantly trying to run bleeding edge tech will more often than not piss you the hell off. That's why I went with Debian and never looked back—it just works. I don't care if my packages are years out of date, at least they WORK ON MY SYSTEM

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CenturionSymphGames@reddit

To be fair, when productivity for my projects means basically VM'ing windows, I'd rather just stick to windows. I had a perfectly working setup on windows to make music, video games, and graphic design, switching to linux, none of my shaders work as intended, exporting to other platforms that aren't linux would crash, and of course, no access to any of my music VSTs, just being told to get other plugins because "people won't notice" (I'm all fine for looking for alternatives, but being told to "settle for less" is an insult).

I don't blame linux in the same way I don't blame windows phone, since the biggest issue is compatibility with third-party apps, but when it comes to productivity, I'd rather not have to spend ages looking for documentation that might be outdated, no longer works, setting up virtual machines, or being told to settle for less.

I mean, the most basic thing, watching Hulu on my ROG Ally with Bazzite, I don't even get an error, just a blank screen so there's no way for me to look up the error code, and my only lead is the url itself, it's something about DRM, I follow the manual on how to enable it, still nothing, instead, I realized downloading Edge would work. But I still look up other manuals, they all say the same thing, so now I use firefox for browsing normally, and Edge if I want to watch hulu shows, because the "should work" instructions I've been following don't really work, and now I'm wondering, am I a retard? Did something go wrong during my installation, why can't I get something so basic to work, and why can't I find any help at all, is it the distro's fault?

So when it comes to venting out these tiny frustrations over meaningless shit that piles up, not just impeding productivity, but making even most basic shit a struggle, there won't be anyone who listens, instead, I'll be told it's my fault, which, to be fair, is true, and being told so 100% fixes all the issues I had, like, it never occurred to me to specifically know about some obscure program already. Like, how dare I get Unity from the bazar in Bazzite? It's so obvious that I had to install Distroshelf (which everyone absolutely knows exists), configure it as if I was running Ubuntu, allocate the specific resources, and use the terminal to emulate ubuntu and download unity from there.... I had fun trying to export a test project to another platform only to see obscure crashes with a log that wasn't really helpful at all.

On the other hand, I returned to windows on my main computer, and I'm back to making video games where I can easily export to linux and mac, also making music, illustrations and simply using one single browser for everything.

I still have bazzite on my ROG ally, simply because I genuinely believe linux is awesome, but honestly, I figured if I have an issue, I'd rather just completely reinstall or go back to windows, than having to deal with the community.

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NationalGate8066@reddit

I decided I'm more than ok with just using Linux on servers. My desktop OSs are Macos and Windows. They both have Unix built into the (in Windows it's through WSL). Not to mention that you can just develop over SSH on a local Linux VM with VSCode.

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Hartvigson@reddit

I have used four operating systems over the years (AmigaOS, OS/2, Windows, Linux) and I have lost interest. I just want a stable platform to run my applications from. I hate all the forced crap in Windows so I use Tumbleweed and am happy with it.

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leifnoto@reddit

I started using linux about 20 years ago with a laptop I had, windows was terrible back then so I dual booted ubuntu and only used windows for playing video games. Windows gradually improved and once windows 10 was released I stopped using lonux altogether because I've never had issues with windows 10.

I still like linux, it's nice for old computers to make them useful again.

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Disastrous_Wave_6128@reddit

A few months back, I decided to install Slackware again for the first time in 10+ years. I know that I could just download Flatpaks, but I wanted to do things with Slackbuilds, etc., and do things the "right way." I realized I was at a point in my life where I didn't have time for it any longer and installed Linux Mint. Nothing against Slackware, of course -- I still have mad respect for Pat and AlienBOB and everybody who contributes to it.

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CyberJunkieBrain@reddit

So good by and good luck…

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Witty-Order8334@reddit

I'm convinced the distrohopping community is just a bunch of people with severe ADHD who haven't bothered getting medicated.

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Biking_dude@reddit

I can't understand distrohopping unless people run no applications aside from a browser...and if that's the case then why bother hopping in the first place? Who wants to play with settings over and over again? Get outside, learn to basket weave, go bowling...something. I run over 100 applications to do what I need to do, I'm more scared of losing those settings then my data.

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teorm@reddit

Been there done that.

Then I decided to stick to a stable and reliable distro, which for me it's Fedora.

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cl326@reddit

Omarchy.org

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ZmeulZmeilor@reddit

After being an arch evangelist for so many years, here I am rocking Fedora for the last year. I found peace in stability, in sane defaults and in scheduled (major) updates.

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UbieOne@reddit

Distro hopping was also a phase, at least for me. I also just stopped and settled on one. At one point, I didn't even upgrade it to a newer version for years. Lol.

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bunnywinkles@reddit

I'm odd then, I tried like 3 or 4 distros, liked fedora, and have been using it now for a few months. Was annoyed by the "your CPU doesn't support windows 11" popups on a perfectly fine laptop.

Don't get me wrong, I tinkered with Linux back in my teens, but my laptops fedora, and my home server has been on a Ubuntu lts version that I hate, but has been installed for... 4 years now?

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GR8AM@reddit

I'm definitely a Linux novice. But I had a five year old nice dell laptop that was acting like a lazy dog on Windows 10. I was about to recycle it, but decided to try the latest Linux Mint distro. I even went through the trouble of learning how to verify the image download with the sha256.txt hash, which I believe is a good idea. Going on a year now with no re-install needed. I just let it do the security patches every couple of weeks. Love it, like a new computer and boots soooo fast! Linux mint is definitely great those used to windows due to its familiar interface. Don't miss windows at all, since everything is done through a browser or google drive for me. I love the quote from some wag: 'in a world without walls or fences, who needs windows or gates?'

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wakowarner@reddit

I started using Linux 16 years ago. At first I was trying different distros (mostly Ubuntu based), moved to Arch for a few years. Now I just install Debian and called it a day. I just need the os to work, a terminal with tmux, docker, neovim and Firefox.

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Sagrada_Familia-free@reddit

OK, take a break and wait until you turn 50. Then the game starts again.

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ai-christianson@reddit

Then you come full circle and realize computers actually *are* fun...

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JoseP2004@reddit

I'm on mint with a gaming PC too, i havent distro hopped at all, things usually just work or if they don't then i can usually fix it, i'm quite happy with that

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Lasivian@reddit

Linux is not my main system. Because I don't like dealing with trying to get older Windows games running on it. But I do keep a separate small system for those things that Windows just can't do. I don't worry about staying on top of releases. Because the release from 4 years ago will still do what I need Linux to do.

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CrackCrackPop@reddit

I just use a company managed windows 11, install git-scm for a terminal and go at it.

is it a powerful and expensive business laptop with 32 gigs of ram just for Firefox? yes. yes it is.

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RR321@reddit

Grew up with Debian in the mid 90s, been using all kinds of Deb based distros, but mostly stick to Ubuntu LTS cause it just works for me.

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bounceswoosh@reddit

I think what you're saying is that you're actually using your computer as a tool. It's the difference between the classic car you've been rebuilding in your garage for years vs your daily computer.

And similarly, you can probably have both if you really want to.

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SMakked@reddit

I installed arch Linux about 20 years ago after years of distro hopping and haven't looked back. Never had a major issue that couldn't be fixed within 5 minutes and even then it was my fault for not reading the news letter. I actually have the same install for the last 10 years but have upgraded my PC 3 times in that time.

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severoon@reddit

Ha, I came to this same realization about 12 or so years ago. I'd heard a lot of good things about Mint and I was a little tired of messing around with Ubuntu trying to get it to work. I installed Mint and everything Just Worked.

Did major version upgrades several times, and it always Just Worked. For the first time, I realized that Linux had finally matured to the point that it was a viable alternative to Windows for the average home user.

These days, I think it's outrun Windows. Everyone I know that stuck with Windows 7 and on seems to spend a lot more time messing with the OS than they would if they just installed Mint.

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getapuss@reddit

You're not the only one.

I've used one version of Linux or another on my daily driver for about 20 years. I've used Linux on spare or backup machines even longer. The last 6 or 7 years now I have installed Linux Mint and just forgotten about it. I still torq around with different distros once in awhile as a function of my job. But when it comes down to it, I don't really need or care about all the latest and greatest anymore.

I'll always be an open source evangelist, someone willing to spread the good word. But I'm not going to tell a curious new user to install Arch. Fuck that. They're going to get an Ubuntu, Debian, or Mint recommendation from me depending on what I know of the person and what they say their goal is.

There is nothing wrong with your line of thinking. I think it's a perspective that comes with experience.

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siodhe@reddit

I been using Unix for nearly everything since 1985. I'm not done. You're just doing it wrong - by which I mean stop distrohopping and camp somewhere already. Stop rebooting all the time. Stop chasing the shiny constantly.

I've been using the same distro for about a decade now, usually a year behind LTS releases. My workstation is constantly on (rebooted a month ago for a huge update). My main server's runtime was over 400 days before rebooted for an update. Otherwise they're just on, and not causing issues. I play games on Steam (on my Threadripper workstation, GTX 3080 Ti, 65" 4k monitor and two smaller ones on the sides, etc), fight to keep Firefox from fully expressing its innate bloated resource hog nature (ulimit helps), I spend shockingly little time doing sysadmin across my multiple computers, gateway host, the other gateway host at the colo facility through which my personal class C network is tunnelled (half of it), three layers of firewalls, NFS, automount, LDAP, NTP, WWW, email, etc. This is a corporate-style network, but there's almost nothing to do except update all the internal certificates occasionally (scripted), or check the LetsEncrypt certs. Even new hosts get an OS install and then a brainwashing with a long script (not the best method, but I don't need to scale).

Point is, I'm not burned out, because I'm just not fiddling with it. I take off the sysadmin hat and focus on being my own user. And it's great.

All I'm going to do today is sit down here on my couch writing this, while my VNC is showing the upstairs workstation watching a video for Twitch drops (game items), waiting for the No Man's Sky Expedition 19 to start so I can go play it in the VR room. No sysadmin planned for today. :-)

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archontwo@reddit

Done reinstalling the system every couple of weeks. Done finding the best, newest trend there is

That is distro hopping and most people once the start doing serious work with Linux don't do that. You just optimise your workflow and leave it at that.

If you intentionally want to dally around that is your choice and nothing to do with the os.

Switch to a proprietary one and see how long it takes you to be irritated at not being able to do what you want.

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polar_in_brazil@reddit

Using same Gentoo installation for 5 years. Just moving the files into new machines.

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rewindyourmind321@reddit

I’ve been on arch for 3 or 4 years now but could definitely see myself moving to gentoo or debian down the road for some more stability.

I was curious, is the increased stability of gentoo… tangible? Sometimes I worry if I go months without updating arch, to what level is this resolved on gentoo?

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polar_in_brazil@reddit

Gentoo is like Arch. If you wait months for upgrading, you should read news before pacman -Syu.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/General_recommendations#Package_management

It is imperative to keep up to date with changes in Arch Linux that require manual intervention before upgrading your system. Subscribe to the arch-announce mailing list or the recent news RSS feed. Alternatively, check the front page Arch news every time before you update.

The main difference between Arch and Gentoo, the news is integrated with eselect news list.

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rewindyourmind321@reddit

Yep! I know to read the latest news updates before upgrading. What I’m saying is that I would like an experience where manual intervention is less often necessary. Sometimes life gets busy and those situations are frankly just inconvenient.

Do you find that gentoo is more stable generally? (after initial setup ofc)

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polar_in_brazil@reddit

Gentoo is not about stability. Gentoo is about flexibility.

Gentoo has 2 channels stable and unstable and can be adjust per-package. So, I have like 10 packages in unstable branch and the whole system in stable. For this reason, I only upgrade my system and when I sync the branch, the system notifies me about incoming news.

There is special moments that you need manual procedures:

python upgrades
profiles upgrades
splited-usr to merged-usr

Like Arch.

For me, Gentoo is more like NixOS, because NixOS is also source based distro.

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rewindyourmind321@reddit

That makes sense! Again, the reason I ask is that gentoo is often touted as more stable when compared to arch.

Now, maybe that’s not true on its face, but it sounds like you’re able to utilize that ‘control’ to effectively achieve a more stable environment.

Either way, it’s hard for me not to get a little jealous when I start comparing pacman to portage lol

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polar_in_brazil@reddit

Portage is the best package manager. Some features:

support for users patches
support for custom compilation flags
support for binaries and source packages
support for overlays
support saved configs for packages like kernel
support distributed compilations jobs over network
support form cross compilation

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DeKwaak@reddit

I have no idea why you are distro hopping. I started with minix. Then snow on intel. Then redhat. And then I unpacked base.tar.gz over my redhat install. I installed ubuntu for a gaming machine. Then I bought a steam machine. And now I use a steam deck for my work. So I can concentrate on work instead of trying out the latest pipewire. There is no real distro hopping going on. That was the history of my last 30 years. I like that valve keeps my desktop working, which is actually a terminal for all the debian systems I really maintain.

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critical-th1nk@reddit

I've been slowly switching to Linux over the last year. I installed mint on one of my spare laptops and XFCE on one of my old laptops and messed around with them for a while.
I recently installed PopOs on my main machine and no longer own any windows machines at all.
Other than things like not having drivers for my fingerprint scanner and the Bang&Olefsen sound system, I have yet to run into a situation that Linux doesn't handle as good or better than windows.
The difference in performance is night and day. My machines run so much faster/smoother with linux.

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Vetula_Mortem@reddit

I use arch but i dont fix it every update. Maybe like once every 4 months if at all. My setup is not really distro dependant and probably would work fine in fedora or even mint. But i like getting the new shiny stuff.

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dst1980@reddit

I hit your stage several years ago. I have realized that there is surprisingly little difference between distros intended for desktop use. The main differences are the package manager and some file system layout changes. Default packages can be changed, settings can be tweaked, and icons/images can be acquired. There are ways to change the versions of software installed so it no longer matches default versions.

Now, I do still spin up a VM to test a new distro every so often so if I decide it's time to hop again, I have a few starting options. That also lets me suggest distros for others. Now, switching is a matter of ideology or necessity - no good staying on a distro that has died.

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markus_b@reddit

I installed Ubuntu 15 years ago and tried out Gentoo on a spare PC. I use the LTS releases because I want to use my PC for non-OS stuff. Professionally I use SuSE and RedHat.

Distro-hopping makes no sense for me, except if it is your hobby.

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crustang@reddit

Soon you will become a BSD user

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Fresco2022@reddit

Apart from you frequent installing distros (again and again), I totally agree with you about the troubleshooting and trying to find solutions on how to address issues. But also annoyances like having to fill your Linux user password for the smallest things, even if you need to go to the bathroom. Or trying to get a Yubikey working which is a piece of cake in Windows and Macos, but for which you have to be a graduated professor to get this done within a Linux distro. Or while trying to find solutions on the net and then find out that there are several websites with so called tutorials to get the job done, but then it turns out none of them work because they are incomplete or have missing commands.

No, I really am getting too old for this. Before you know it you are in the process of dying, meanwhile trying to give your last command in the Terminal. Lol

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PradheBand@reddit

I never got distrohopping as a thing so call me stable-man. I started with slackware somewhere in 2004/2005 and used it for 3 years or more until my laptop died. I bought and usb enclosure and started using ubuntu live every morning on a lab computer while waiting forna new laptop. Was 8.04 lts maybe... Liked it stayed with it because hey dependency resolution. But... Nvidia card started crashing with an update... Moved to debian stable with a more recent kernel. All fine. I learned and never bought any other nvidia card in my life. Liked debian more but got fatass and annoyed of having to seek and install even a simple volume control nob. Moved back to ubuntu. This fundamentally across a decade?! Even more was 2020. Then I had to use windows due to my job for 2 years 💀💀💀 Recently tried opensuse just because: really like it. But at work is either mac or ubuntu.

[-]

emmfranklin@reddit

I have never distro hopped . I used ubuntu from 2007 to 2014. Then Linux mint since then.. I'm happy. Distro hopping Doesn't excite me. I want working os and that's it. I prefer focussing in peripheral working and installing the correct drivers.. now since last 7 years even that is not much of a bother. Everything works.

[-]

tabrizzi@reddit

Done reinstalling the system every couple of weeks.

I've been using Linux exclusively for more than 25 years. The times when I had to change the system on a fairly regular basis was when I used to recompile the system (remember Gentoo) just for fun or to build a custom system.

But that was on me, not on Linux.

[-]

Rogermcfarley@reddit

I love Linux, but I'm doing gardening when I retire screw computers, by then I will truly have had enough of it.

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juaaanwjwn344@reddit

I've been using Linux for a while now. I'm really happy. Why? Because I don't customize anything. I just install Arch and GNOME, and I don't give a damn about customization. I program and study, and everything's fine. I've been using it for a year.

[-]

Scandiberian@reddit

Done reinstalling the system every couple of weeks.

My man you know you can just not do that, right? I spent around 25 days to set up NixOS to my liking, but now I just use it, it's stable.

But if you can't stop yourself from tinkering then well... Get a Mac, I guess.

[-]

papanastty@reddit

i think most linux users will agree. there comes a time you just stop distrohoping and install ubuntu or mint and then sleep soundly at night.

[-]

Zay-924Life@reddit

This was me for the past 7 months. Then I did pros and cons of literally every distro to exist, and landed on three that I like and are literally perfect together that none other are as good as for me:

SparkyLinux Stable Mageia Xubuntu non-lts

[-]

DecimePapucho@reddit

Damn.

My first distro was Debian. About 10 years later I switched to Arch and still going.

I don't get what you where after.

[-]

AF_Fresh@reddit

Yep. Used to spend a lot of time trying out new distros, and doing a lot of setup and such. Now I just stick with Ubuntu, because it just works. I also used to always install the latest version of each distro, and now I just install the LTS. The older I get, the less time I have to troubleshoot and play with things. I just want everything to work.

[-]

Adn38974@reddit

I should be upset with such a ridiculous story, but i find f*cking hilarious instead.

You're like a new dad fed up with his unreliable sport car, and which finally appreciates the comfort of a "simple" bmw touring car. Rich people problems.

[-]

KeepItGood2017@reddit

You would have loved the era of HP-UX, Solaris, and AIX. I was an engineer in the nineties, installing software and databases at investment banks. Each bank ran on its preferred hardware, operating system and quirky setup. I had to install, learn, and support all of them. Not even ksh behaved the same across systems. Some customers refused to allow the installation of man pages (this was before the internet) because they wanted to save disk space. So you learned to give support with a phone wedged under your neck, asking colleagues to check the documents for you.

[-]

bigntallmike@reddit

I've been telling people not to do this for decades now. Just pick a stable distribution and enjoy your computer. Play around with whatever you want on a spare PC or laptop but keep your primary box working full time with known stable distros.

[-]

no-dupe@reddit

Go the Nixos route. You will never reinstall again. You will sweat blood in the beginning and have happiness tears when all you need is configured. And you will never reinstall again.

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Silly_Ad6115@reddit

the only way for me to do a reinstall, is if i break it doing something else.

[-]

bruschghorn@reddit

Mmm. Dunno. I just install the system and do my stuff with it. I'm not too much into customization for the sake of customization.

I confess, when Debian 13 was published a few weeks ago I did install several desktops to see what's best, but that's because the Gnome team works very hard to make its desktop worse, and it never fails to surprise me how much they are good at this. Kudos to the Nautilus maintainers. But after a few weeks of testing, I'm back to Gnome as usual. Just works, really. Gnome is somewhat the MS Windows of Linux: worse every time, but you get shit done with it. I have enough to deal with to avoid messing with customization.

[-]

mok000@reddit

Disto-hopping is a phase you go through, like puberty.

[-]

jruz@reddit

Absolutely man.

I would suggest tho that you give NixOS a chance it really removes that unstable shit show that rolling releases are.

I am convinced also that after a certain time dealing with this shit comes a time when using Windows for GUI and WSL for the terminal is absolutely enough to live a happy life

[-]

BlueHash4@reddit

Nope!
Almost exactly the same story. Started out compiling kernels from scratch to get the fastest/leanest possible, tweaking inits to get the quickest boot time etc etc.

Now - have Debian on a machine I assembled a while back + Firefox ESR :D. Only security updates. The only break I had in the last \~3 years was from an Nvidia update (have some ML stuff, so need CUDA :().

Also went a step further and removed all . files I could - I used to have ridiculous customization which would take a good day to 'reconfigure' on each distro upgrade/change, now I just 'learn' the defaults. Still have one with alias'es for my csh shell (I just could not cut over to bash :(, the emacs style alt+/ completion was too hard to unlearn).

[-]

pimbiomas@reddit

After more than 15 years of rigorously using and exploring the Linux ecosystem, I recently switched to a Mac. Since my workflow is heavily based in the terminal with tools like Vim and Zsh, the transition was seamless. The most significant improvement for me has been the OS stability, as I've reached a point where I no longer want to spend time tinkering with my system. I would recommend giving macOS a try, as you might like it. For my professional work, however, I still prefer Linux.

[-]

bootlegSkynet@reddit

Mint is the way

[-]

Ok_Doughnut_2901@reddit

I think he will become that Mac user. ;)

[-]

joshguy1425@reddit

As a Linux nerd who got my start download Redhat ISOs over dialup over 20 years ago, this post definitely resonates.

I’m a tinkerer by nature and want to try stuff. This often meant screwing things up and starting over.

I wanted stability, but I also wanted to still have the flexibility to tinker, and for that, NixOS has been perfect.

I can still tinker til my heart’s content while having the confidence that I can roll things back to a known working state with minimal effort. Having the ability to run nix-shell -p <packages> and having ephemeral access to those packages until I exit the terminal instead of having to officially install them is also a godsend.

There’s a learning curve, but if people are looking for the middle ground between “rock solid” and “I can tinker as much as I want”, it’s been a really solid choice.

[-]

WhippedHoney@reddit

I rub it till it bleeds, so I stopped rubbing it.

[-]

orangeowlelf@reddit

Oh man, I was done back in 2008. I’ve used centos/redhat at work and Ubuntu at home. Basically just not Windows.

[-]

carleeto@reddit

Glad you found what works for you. I was in a similar position and now am happy on NixOS.

[-]

fud0chi@reddit

Yea I mean I just run Ubuntu, download what I need for SWE and call it a day.

[-]

nethril@reddit

I just installed arch 2.5 years so to see if my GPU causing 3-4 BSOD a day on windows 11 was really the problem.

I my just this week had that install break for the first time.

Why don't you just install one and stop there? How is that fundamentally different than your use case in windows?

[-]

emersonjr@reddit

I was actually about to say the same for Win11 LOL. Every month an update that breaks either my laptop audio or gives BSOD... Win10 used to be way more stable, I don't fullt get it. Anyways, every now and then we'll feel that way about our OSs

[-]

simon132@reddit

If you game try bazzite, or if regular use try a fedora atomic distro like fedora silverblue. If one update breaks something "rpm-ostree rollback" boots up the old version without having to troubleshooting anything. 0 config snapshots is an amazing proposition

[-]

Kooky-Highway2340@reddit

Why I switched to macOS 20 years ago. No custom setup, no dependencies hell, no new theme to install. Only apps to focus on what is important, aka everything but the OS.

I never bother about update for years. It simply work. And it’s Unix

[-]

MiddleManagement185@reddit

I did the tweaking that needed done to get the most out of my system's limited resources, then installed the latest versions of what I use, including some bleeding edge stuff, and since then I just use it to get stuff done and install updates regularly. Occasionally I have to roll something back a version or change something I did. That's okay with me. There's not really a hard divide between running a tweaked system and getting work done.

[-]

JumpSneak@reddit

It seems you are done with the hobby called linux/distrohopping. I just use linux to do stuff I am interested in,on small tweaks here and there. I'm not really interested in finding the most super optimal solution for some small task.i dont care, as long as I can boot my system and do whatever I wanted to do, study, programming, making music, writing documents, whatever.

[-]

roustabout88@reddit

What a clickbiaty/ disingenuous title.

If someone just glanced at this and didn't read it properly, they would walk away with the impression Linux was a big problem for you and all you had was problems with it. Is that the impression you want to give?? What an a-hole.

Done reinstalling the system every couple of weeks.

Because you were distro hopping. Not because because of Linux. That's 100% your choice to do that.

How 350 people liked this article I find mind-boggling. I found the title really slimy.

[-]

Splask@reddit

My Linux esperience outside of work is just setting up a tiny server and never touching it while it hums along nicely.

[-]

toTheNewLife@reddit

If you wanted to throw a little money at the problem, install a removable drive cage. Get an offline drive replicator. Get a second hard drive.

Back up your known good install using the drive replicator.

Tinker with the primary. If you screw up, refresh from the backed up drive.

This is how I test upgrades on my daily driver.

[-]

Amazing_Actuary_5241@reddit

I'm in my 27th year of using Linux, though I've had some hiccups in the past but it just works for me. I had to reinstall recently cause I got a new (to me) machine but after the initial app reinstall and configuration it's been going just fine.

I no longer can afford the time I spent in years past recompiling kernels and building from source to squeeze every bit of performance out of my hardware. Or days spent configuring my UI to get every little item perfectly on screen.

However my personal computing space revolves around Linux and moving away from it at this point is impractical (unnecessary) for me. It works/integrates well with my hobbies and my current personal usage so why change what's working.

[-]

DrPiwi@reddit

congrats for growing up and seeing it al for what it is; a tool to do things not something to bragg about.

[-]

akira_x48@reddit

Similar with me, I am trying different distris almost more than 20years, sometime I forgot and keep myself away, but after I bought a raspberry pi4, it is more easy to to install different distris, I was trying to learn coding but not achieved yet, I was planning to train on arduinos, also did not start yet.i need to start asap

[-]

ManonMacru@reddit

You forgot Linux was a means to an end, not an end itself.

[-]

middaymoon@reddit

Yeah at this point I'm happy just doing a full reinstall every other LTS or so. Helps me get rid of unused cruft.

[-]

masterlafontaine@reddit

I have Ubuntu machines with Ubuntu 18 working flawlessly since day 1. Getting things done everyday

[-]

Iwillpick1later@reddit

This is how I landed on Debian with XFCE.

[-]

juguete_rabioso@reddit

Sooner or later, we all end on Debian.

[-]

Sea-Hour-6063@reddit

Yeah it’s not super important, you get to a point when you don’t give too much of a shit about what you are running so long as it isn’t windows.

[-]

oColored_13@reddit

Done babysitting ur computer, And you just want to use your computer to do actual work? that's the majority of Linux users if you think about it. Linux mint and ubuntu have around 60% of the entire Linux desktop market share. Don't ever think distro hoppers and computer babysitters are the majority...

[-]

Taykeshi@reddit

Just install Debian and forget it

[-]

indvs3@reddit

Welcome to debian-derived stability! We've been expecting you...

[-]

ignorantpisswalker@reddit

Use older systems. Debian testing is boringly working and updated. Use Ubuntu LTS.

Don't follow the new trends. Follow your needs not the shiny things.

[-]

avetenebrae@reddit

I decided to switch to Linux maybe 3 or 4 years ago. I wanted a default vanilla Gnome experience. I was recommended Fedora Silverblue because it's basically indestructible (at least by me), and I just started using it. It's great, I never looked for another distro.

[-]

toddlyons@reddit

Once I was married with children I had to stick with something stable. To Debian, then Mint on the desktops (more preinstalled goodness). Solus on my laptops and the HTPCs (last 5 years). Debian on the servers (always/forever).

[-]

wowbagger_42@reddit

Working in ICT since ‘92, I had the exact same fatigue around 2010, switched to mac… best move ever…

[-]

RootHouston@reddit

You've reached the other end of the bell curve.

[-]

zambizzi@reddit

Quit hopping around if you're not having fun with it, install Debian, and start learning deeper things about your system.

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ItyBityGreenieWeenie@reddit

Done reinstalling the system every couple of weeks.

Er, um that sounds wrong to me. You can install Linux Mint once and run it for many years without doing more than normal updates, which run with one button click and rarely cause problems. If you insist on upgrading to the newest, that means one major update or upgrade a year, wich often works with just a five minute update and reboot. Occasionally it is better to reinstall when there is a major upgrade, but those usually go through without a full reinstall. Also with Linux, you can keep your /home dir and just reinstall the system and keep going.

I'm not doubting your story, thanks for sharing your perspective. I just have the opposite experience.

[-]

silentjet@reddit

26 years with debian. Debian said "I'm done" when i had like 5-6 years with it...

I can easily find files with atime around the year 2003-2004 in my src directory

[-]

vladimirpoopen@reddit

Easy sudo dnf update --exclude=kernel*

[-]

sniffstink1@reddit

Sounds like you like to mess with your OS constantly and then get upset when it becomes a headache. I suggest you migrate over to Microsoft - you'll be much happier there.

I've been using Linux for the past 20 years and hope to keep on using it another 20 years.

[-]

Trick-Weight-5547@reddit

Then stop thinking, keep calm keep using Linux

[-]

Goobi_dog@reddit

I was here at this point over ten years ago. Using 'n since 2007. On Ubuntu after a few years of distro hopping, realized, I just want to get work done. I realized that one of the main reasons I switched was to stop wasting time on windows updates, antivirus updates and scans, defragging (yes! I am that old), running ccleaner (darnit! Now I'm really showing my age), running various optimization scripts, constantly updating drivers. Until I realized I became the thing I ran away from. Yes, I also have a ridiculously over power machine now. Ubuntu probably doesn't give me everything I need from it. But I think the latest uptime before my last boot was 100+ days, and running a business like that.

[-]

niltooth@reddit

I set a goal for myself. Probably pointless but a fun challenge for me. Install arch on my desktop. And never reinstall it again. So far it’s been about 4 years and 2 machines. Just moved the hard drive over and on my media server I have done the same but there I had a failing drive so I cloned to a new drive

[-]

Beautiful_Ad_4813@reddit

Install Fedora and forget it

You’ll be good for a loooooong time

None of this bullshit reinstall every two weeks

[-]

ediw8311xht@reddit

I enjoy configuring my Linux environment. But I don't change distros much and I have never had to reinstall except once when I had encrypted hard drive and forgot password.

I don't understand why you have to reinstall every couple of weeks. In situations that my system breaks, I just chroot into my hard drive and usually am able to fix issue. If not, then I have backups just in case.

[-]

Fabulous_Silver_855@reddit

Just find a distro and stick with it. Stop reinstalling and stop hopping. I've been on Arch now for 3.5 years. I use Arch on my desktop. On my laptop I use Fedora Cinnamon.

[-]

alpharaptor1@reddit

Functionality, stability, and support are paramount. New Linux flavors are nice and good job everyone for developing their user base to make it mainstream. But at the end of the day you need a rock steady primary system. I also chose Mint.

[-]

Existing-Lynx-1595@reddit

I use Debian from 10 years ago, no problems…

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_aap301@reddit

I don't really see the fun of reinstalling every few weeks.

[-]

mardiros@reddit

I use Archlinux for 15 years and I installed it only when I changed my laptop. So I installed it mit that often.

[-]

DjebiliAyoub@reddit

I think we just need a "Linux windows". Windows is easy to learn, Stable, you can just click some buttons, going through the installer exe. And install any app you want. But it is owned by Microsoft. It has annoying updates and is a bit insecure with ads and bloat ware everywhere. I have not tried mint but I think what a regular user really needs is just a Linux open source version of windows that just works without any terminal commands. Like just install it and start doing your work.

[-]

KingAroan@reddit

Wow I just update once a week. I've been running endeavoros for two years

[-]

Puzzleheaded_Sun_900@reddit

I’m waiting for the new version of Gnome in LMDE to switch from my current OS Fedora. New Gnome version brings me scalable screen resolution. Bare Debian annoying me with its fonts.

[-]

LeeHide@reddit

I hate to say "you're holding it wrong", but you are. It's a tool you use to solve problems, to let you get things done, play games, watch things, and so on.

It's okay to tinker with your machine, too, for fun, but if you regularly mess up so bad you have to reinstall, you're mostly definitely not just tinkering either, you have to be making horrible decisions over and over to get to that point, and not have backups or anything to be unable to recover, too.

I don't understand why you would do this, and why you treat Linux as a punching bag (or whatever it is you're doing to it to wreck it so frequently), and why you then treat other OSs as tools... It seems backwards.

[-]

replicant0wnz@reddit

48, started out with Slackware when I was 17. I've been using Ubuntu and now Pop_OS LTS versions only for almost 10 years now.

[-]

FryBoyter@reddit

So, what's your story? Am I the only one, who came up to this mindset? Or maybe there are more of us?

I've never understood this distro hopping. Because basically, all distributions work very similarly. That's why I've basically used two distributions productively for over 20 years.

Mandrake / Mandriva. And since 2013, Arch Linux. If the company responsible for Mandrake / Mandriva hadn't messed it up, I'd probably still be using that distribution.

[-]

Lundominium@reddit

I can fully understand, but it seems like your issue is easy solvable. I've been running stable setups in the last 7 years. Sure, I've had my battles with Arch, but after some time you learn to fix stuff and then breakage just stops.

I only do installs on new hardware. I literally can't remember reinstalling linux ontop of linux unless there was a very specific reason - like failed hardware.

Imho, Arch is pretty great, but it does require the user to learn some stuff. Fedora was rough because of limited packages, but I guess some are fine with that. I have only used a very few distros and mostly for learning like Alpine, Debian, Ubuntu.. but 90% of the time it has been vanilla Arch.

I think there is great strength in staying with a distro and learning how they do things. The more you distrohop, the less you really know your OS. It might be subtle changes, but they can really mess with your head :)

Again, I know the feeling you have, but my best suggestion would be to stick to one distro the next time and fix the problems instead of distrohopping or reinstalling.

Best of luck, buddy :)

[-]

jr735@reddit

I've been running LTS and/or stable type distributions for over 21 years. I never saw the appeal of anything else.

[-]

RyzenRaj@reddit

I have recently started this linux things from a month or two for simple thing to go away from windows and try something unique and works with new UI but challenges here and there, What do you advice me to choose a distro for 30 year old who wants a new UI and fluid experience other thank KDE please type

[-]

HeroinBob831@reddit

This vote to comment ratio is wild.

[-]

Squeebly-Joe@reddit

Sounds like it's time to dive into/r/NixOS and learn a new way to tinker with your system

[-]

DiScOrDaNtChAoS@reddit

Ive had the same Arch install for 4 years and never had to reinstall

[-]

aurei94@reddit

When I was I was a teenager I spent a lot tinkering and reinstalling over dumb things, I spent a long time without using Linux then and now I've returned to it. I agree that I don't have as much time in 30's as well, but the experience it's way smoother now, so much that I've returned to use it

[-]

psychelic_patch@reddit

i'm 30+ ; been using linux since i'm 15 ; the "chasing the hype" is a 18-20 phase. If you are still reinstalling OS in a loop something is wrong.

[-]

AdIllustrious436@reddit

What do you all do that makes you reinstall your systems every two weeks? I’ve been on the same Arch install since I started with Linux two years ago. I had to reinstall a few times early on because of rookie mistakes, but now it just works 99% of the time. When something unexpected pops up, a well-worded AI prompt and some terminal commands usually fix it in minutes. I always keep a live USB in my wallet for chroot emergencies, but I’ve only needed it once so far when my computer shutted down during an update.

[-]

RobertDeveloper@reddit

Why not just use your operating system to run the applications you want to use?

[-]

SnillyWead@reddit

Settled on Debian 13 Xfce with Thunderbird ESR and Firefox 142.0.1 tarball. Runs smooth and no issues so far.

[-]

lankybiker@reddit

I run fedora. My software breaks all the time, but the OS doesn't

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rwb124@reddit

Why? After spending a year on Arch( but not really) lol

Just use Arch, debian or Fedora and customize it to your needs. Have one DE or WM, or have 5. Or have none.

[-]

LepusReclus@reddit

A bit off topic but your experience and mention of gaming might help, how is gaming now? Has Steam helped a lot? Is the switch viable? I remember a few years ago, when I tried the switch on a laptop, the situation wasn't optimal.

[-]

berferd2@reddit

32 years and counting..

[-]

ineedhelpasap9@reddit

I have been using it for 5 years, and have been done for the last year after finding nixos, even in my dev environment I stopped tinkering neovim that much, haven't touch tmux config for so long that when I want to change something I don't know what I'm doing, something for the wm after settling in hyprland, I have only done minor tweaks last year

[-]

AH_M_SA12@reddit

i only use linux bc my pc is shit that's the only reason

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nietzscheentchen_@reddit

Using Linux is a process of maturing.

Sure, in the beginning it's all fun and games and you gotta make your own experience, find out who you really are, fuck around a lot.

But at some point you just gotta settle down. And if you decided to settle down in a suburb, with a brown Sedan, one-and-a-half kids and a dog, well, you do you. Not gonna judge, although it's disgusting. JK :D

[-]

R_Dazzle@reddit

Same after, fuck 20 years now, from Ubuntu to Arch via Fedora and Mint ! As I’m not dev per say anymore I don’t have the thing that push me to spend my weekend around that. Last year I discovered Zorin and I think I’m done for a while, it’s not the best overall but I like the design. And I’ve got a Mac from work and it’s hard to not see the upside of it, will still be on Linux for the sake of it but you know.

[-]

mrcanaydin@reddit

I used Fedora with Nvidia gpu and never needed to do anything. It just ran perfectly. Some people have “I gotta mess things up just because it’s Linux” mentality.

[-]

No_Cookie3005@reddit

I started with MX Linux, now i'm 34, a couple of years ago in addition to stability I wanted a Linux os which I can update without the need to reinstall every 3 years too. Luckily looks like I found it in PCLinuxOS, but I used artix too for 2 - 3 months before and looked stable enough.

[-]

TKVdev@reddit

Why would anybody do all of that on their main machine? Your main machine needs stability, not crazy customizations. If you want to try things, do it on some old laptop that you don't care about.

Anyway, I use Kubuntu and I only change the theme to dark and a couple of settings here and there. Everything else is default.

[-]

Many_Nectarine_6122@reddit

I think at some point you have to separate all the tinkering, tweaking, ricing stuff etc that you do has a hobby, from how you use your computer when you really need it.

And it is not obvious I mean a lot of people came to Linux because they like doing it, but unfortunately your computer cannot be a playground forever

The funny thing is, i was done with macOS for the EXACT OPPOSITE reasons : I can’t stand using computer only for work or just listen to music, I want to mess with it some time, just for fun. Just to understand how it works (and mostly why it doesn’t work…) as I don’t have any formation in programming or computer science

I thought about this for too long, and asked myself relatively deep question about this.

[-]

TheCrustyCurmudgeon@reddit

Two decades of Linux and I ain't near done.

I've been running Fedora KDE on my desktop now for about two years with only the occasional tweak to improve it; I've had no need to spend "hours and hours troubleshooting and fixing issues with [my] extremely customized setup". In fact, I haven't done that in a very long time.

I chose KDE as my forever DE many years ago. Over the past decade, I've "distro-hopped" four times. The first one I was with for about 4 years, the second for 3 years, the third for about 6 months and Fedora since then.

I don't understand your mentality; it sounds like you just play with your computer. I use a computer. I want it to be stable, reliable, functional. I do customize a lot, starting from the initial install, but always with an eye toward stability and function. I "play" with other distros and apps by installing and testing them in VM's.

I used Mint years ago (when they supported KDE) and loved it. I have a VM install of the latest release and it still does what Mint has always done. It's very stable and reliable. When they stopped supporting KDE, I left.

[-]

Financial-Camel9987@reddit

I was like you and then I discovered nixos. I went from re-installing, drivers breaking to just... a rock solid experience. It's simply incomparable.

[-]

ceantuco@reddit

Install Debian.

[-]

serchq@reddit

I have an old laptop, currently with mint, and have had a linux distro for like 9 years or so. but at a certain point not even a light distro would be worth it to keep up with some online pages, so I got an upgrade.

I've been thinking about ditching the out-of-the-box windows and installing linux too, but... I don't know. kind of like having my Bluetooth headphones working just fine without driver issues every now and then, so I'm now basically using the new computer as a client for my old one, and connect through ssh. it has worked for me so far

[-]

Compux72@reddit

I value the fact, that in about a year of having this Mint installation, I have NEVER had to reinstall it or fix anything.

Yea… about that… who is gonna tell him boys?

[-]

Yesterday-Previous@reddit

Is it really so bad? I'm in my late 30's, with twp little ones, planning to use Linux (maybe Mint, perhaps Arch for "fun").

[-]

Epsioln_Rho_Rho@reddit

Every couple of weeks?

[-]

kryptonik@reddit

If you want to scratch your tinkering, customizing itch, allow me to introduce you to Emacs...

[-]

theramblingfool@reddit

This is why I always try to sell people on OpenSUSE Tumbleweed.

It's a rolling release for people who have s###t to do.

[-]

Kwantem@reddit

Over 25 years of using Linux. I will be done in a year or two, when I retire as a linux sysadmin

[-]

doomygloomytunes@reddit

Heh, who on earth would reinstall their system every couple of weeks? I've been on the same distro for over 20 years and last had to reinstall when my main deaktop went from sata ssd & bios to nvme & UEFI, that was about 2020.

It sounds like you've never really used Linux but fucked about with different themes on desktops.

[-]

lKrauzer@reddit

All of my frustrations with Linux were solved once I started using Fedora, it is the best balance between having new features added in and not breaking the system, though since Ubuntu was my first distro, and I have nostalgia for it, I still have it in dual-boot.

[-]

Aggressive_Job_1031@reddit

This is why GNOME is the superior Desktop Emvironment

[-]

donnaber06@reddit

I did that about 2 years ago. I went with ubuntu lts and it just worked and still does on most of my gear. My daily driver has been Arch since I bought my most recent laptop and I love it. I don't hop anymore either but it's either Ubuntu or Arch depending on the use case.

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sleepyooh90@reddit

Your problem is not Linux, your problem is something else.

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Isengard-Uruk-Hai@reddit

The RC kernel is a Release Candidate (development realease)! Not even a stable kernel!

Of course it has bugs!

Use STABLE kernels!
https://www.kernel.org/

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davidauz@reddit

I have been using linux since kernel 1.2, and exclusively linux in the last 10 years or so. Slackware in the first years, then always debian. I install from scratch when I have a new computer.

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FilesFromTheVoid@reddit

fedora GNOME user here, sys is running for 2 years without any hickup. You just need to know what you can customize and what you should leave untouched.

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AdMission8804@reddit

If you're reinstalling every few weeks you're doing something wrong.

I'm on fedora, it never seems to break. Well Hyprland sometimes does after an update but it's always an easy fix. I went back to Fedora because popos, Manjaro, Nobara and arch weren't as stable and I got tired of wondering if an update would leave my system failing to boot. I have Cachyos on a gaming handheld, that also seems quite stable despite being arch.

Don't over rice, and if you do, save your config files so it's easy to do again if anything happens. I just use JaKoolits Hyprland script and then I make a few changes and call it riced. It's easy, looks good, and works well for my needs.

Linux doesn't have to be bleeding edge and riced, it can be what you need it to be. Pick a stable distro and a DE that is acceptable out of the box and just use it to do the things that you want to do, productivity, gaming, whatever it is.

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Classic_Result@reddit

I use Linux because it gets stuff to work for me. I'd like to explore some of the deeper things you can do with it (command line, etc.) but it's something that works. I like things that work.

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suhas4773@reddit

Debian stable running for years on my old PC. Love it .

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ZorakOfThatMagnitude@reddit

I think it's like many people with passions/hobbies/etc. There's stages to it and people progress at their own pace. The best analog I found were the stages of a sports hunter(which I based this on), and it could likely need some tweaking, but I think the general idea applies.

1) The neophyte stage - They've taken the plunge and are getting it installed, and reinstalled. Learning how to do things in Linux, running into issues and finding workarounds. Distro hopping can begin at this stage or the next. Asking questions and getting more experience will get them out of this stage.

2) The sophmoric stage - They've learned enough to get the basics done and are eager to try more challenging things, often creating more problems for themselves. This is also the stage where distro hopping is more likely to happen. Seeing what works better(or not). Maybe setting out to try as many different distros as possible or ones with more elaborate installation methods. Distro tribalism can crop up during this stage. Broader experience and community participation can help get out of this stage.

3) The trophy stage - The quality of the end result is all that matters at this stage. Getting that installation looking and running exactly how they want is the name of the game. Distro hopping still occurs, but there's more configuration/customization going on then before. Screenshots of desktops, hardware, final projects will show up around here.

4) The method stage - The process of getting to that desired configuration becomes more interesting(doing things more explicitly like LFS, gentoo, or relying more on premade like Ubuntu or Fedora). Distro hopping may still happen if the user finds a distro that better suits a particular role.

5) The enthusiast stage - The total administrator/user experience is what's most important. What's the use case or the need that this particular Linux deployment is going to address? A more neutral attitude around what are the better distros for that particular need that positively contributes to the end user experience. What's the best/most sustainable process for configuring/deploying to achieve those goals?

6) The Contributor stage - the user wants to contribute back to the community in some way. Organizing meetups, contributing time to documentation, bug testing/reporting, code commits, etc. Things that the user sees that will benefit the Linux user community as a whole.

I've been using Linux for almost 30 years now in some way shape or fashion. I'd say the first 2 stages people don't generally revisit unless they don't use it for a very long time. Most users will bounce between 3 and 5 as they take on a new challenge that they're using Linux for. Maybe moving from using it as a desktop to using it as a headless server, or a laptop, Raspberry Pi project, etc. It can also be more software-driven, say the desire to learn a new programming language, piece of software, etc.

I did a lot distro hopping in the early-to-mid 00's. It was a ton of fun and I learned a lot. After I was able to upgrade Fedora to the next several releases without having to reconfigure or do a lot of post-install work, I left it as my deskop distro(later my daily driver) and went to work on other projects. So I primarily use Fedora for my laptop, but it's an open question when it comes to anything else.

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lihispyk@reddit

I was finally happy with opensuse tw when it was the first district that worked for longer than 6 months without any issues. Also been using Linux since I was a kid, and I have had similar experiences, it’s never just worked. There’s always something that’s a pain in the ass.

Well, one day I wanted to boot my pc and lo and behold, my TW install was totally unrecoverable. I spent 2 days trying to fix it with the help of others, but to no avail.

Haven’t had Linux installed on bare metal since, though windows kinda makes me want to try it again.

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blablablerg@reddit

I have been using NixOS for five years now, same install, and it has been a breeze. If you don't fiddle to much, it is basically the same as editing config files and it just works. You can mix stable an bleeding edge packages no issue.

Only nvidia has been a bother from time to time if you use the latest kernel, because nvidia stable quickly gets incompatible with newer linux kernels, but.. I could also update every six months which is realistically quick enough already.

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Michaeli_Starky@reddit

This is exactly why I laugh when people are recommending Arch or any other rolling or semi-rolling distro for anything outside of a tinkering hobby. For the work machine I wouldn't even consider using anything, but LTS, let alone how some people are updating the system a few times a day every day.

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NikPlayAnon@reddit

Im not used to distrohopping. I update my fedora ones in a while, like ones every to major versions... On my main machine. But every other machine I get gets a unique distro I chose in a moment. Some are gentu some are arch, some are debian, Ubuntu, arch again. Basically I'm just hopping

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DFS_0019287@reddit

I've been using boring reliable old Debian Stable for a couple of decades now. I don't understand some people's need to constantly tinker with their systems.

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arthursucks@reddit

I don't get it.

Why would anyone want to constantly upgrade their software to bleeding edge? How did you get into that mindset?

How did you get any work done?!

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Careless-Rule-6052@reddit

Most people don’t take ten years to come to this mindset

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FreakyFranklinBill@reddit

congratulations, you have reached enlightenment.

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degoba@reddit

I turned it into a career, work from home and make pretty good money. I got a steamdeck for home and a small debian server that i rarely touch.

These days i do all my tinkering on the clock.

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sofloLinuxuser@reddit

Welcome to the deep end, there is plenty of space here now. I stopped distro hopping on 2012 and just left Ubuntu after 10 years to just using Debian. No bells or whistles, just terminals and Firefox, and sometimes vs code, but never dual booting, distro hopping, posting on Reddit of new gnome features, just peace. It's a bit quiet over here but you'll love it in time 😊

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turtleandpleco@reddit

once i got a good paying job i bought win7 since i was tried of troubleshooting cups every single time my wife wanted to print something. it was a good choice at the time. i could still play with linux on other hardware or in a virtual machine. wine was also a much bigger pain back then. praise be to Gabe...

the end of life of windows 10 has me back on linux. also i haven't been working due to illness. we'll see if i regret that when i go back to work :D

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tomsnrg@reddit

Am old. I install Debian, bring all I need up to scratch and enjoy for the laptops lifetime hassle free updates. Best system ever.

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mikeymop@reddit

After a few system upgrades in Fedora going flawlessly, I just never reinstalled again.

15 flawless system upgrades later and I think I'll be staying on Fedora for many more years to come.

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y_reddit_huh@reddit

Get a life brother. A tool is a tool. Get your job done and forget.

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linuxhiker@reddit

I've been running Linux longer than most.

It just works for me. I only upgrade when a new LTS comes out. Distrohopping is a waste of time. I mean I less you are a driver/kernel developer you wouldn't recompile the kernel... Or if you do, you have far too much time on your hands.

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Ferensen@reddit

I had this moment 14 years ago. It took me 11 years to return to Fedora from RedHat, after trying all possible distributions. :-)

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gui_cardoso@reddit

Those are the reasons why I use Debian. I admit that once in a while, I end up using the kernel and drivers from backports, but for my daily use as a programmer, Debian has been my number one choice for a long time.

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Due-Author631@reddit

I used Arch in my early 30s (before archinatall btw) when I came back to Linux in 2016 until my the grub update in like 2019 that broke most machines. Then I moved into Fedora until I found the Universal Blue images a couple years ago. My desktop is boring and I love it.

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Lord_Pinhead@reddit

Sounds like you finally reached IT-Adulthood, welcome, it's nice here. Take some cookies and Mate, just run what you need and enjoy life 😉

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ycarel@reddit

I was there like you. At some point I got tired too and wanted a computer to just get out of the way. I did choose another route. I switched to a Mac. Still somewhat similar but very easy on me. Still use Linux on servers.

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pantokratorthegreat@reddit

I just dual boot two linuxes and windows 11. Void for everyday tasks and Debian for gaming only. For me this is perfect combos, I also don't need newest greatest from arch or fedora to be able play my games. And for everyday tasks void is absolutely best distro which I came not so long time ago ( I am using Linux more than 10 years).

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ParadoxicalFrog@reddit

That side of Linux has never appealed to me anyway. I don't really care to impress anyone with a perfectly optimized system and a shiny UI. I tinkered until I found a setup that works well on "the Brave Little Toaster" (a cheap netbook that is currently my only computer), and that was all I needed.

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bionich@reddit

I don't disto hop. I use Linux for work so I want the most stable system and applications possible, even if they're slightly out of date. I find Debian fits this bill nicely for me.

However, occasionally I do like to checkout other distros, I just don't hop to them. For checking out other distros. I run VMs using Proxmox. That way I get to fool around with the latest greatest stuff, without blowing up my primary computer.

I've been on Debian for many years and it's been rock solid.

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SmilingFunambulist@reddit

Done? For me I never think that I am done, and I have been using Linux for almost 20 years now from the early days of dual booting for gaming, to ditching windows completely and gaming with GPU passthrough, and finally witnessed the raise of Proton and Linux gaming.

I am never done, I always learn something new -- I watch Linux matured, the raise of systemd (no matter how controversial that thing is), KDE and Gnome stood out the test of time from a somewhat "janky" (in my opinon) desktop to one that is polished an compete with commercial solution from Windows and macOS.

And so on... For me it's a constant journey, I am never done and I will call my Linux journey done and complete on my deathbed. When that day come hopefully I'll leave something useful for future Linux users, be it a script, a simple GitHub repo, etc.

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thesumofmyexpierence@reddit

I've tried to quit many many times, and at 54 I lost count of how many times I've distro hopped. I can quit anytime..... But what if the next one is THE one?

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OrdoRidiculous@reddit

To be honest, I reached this point when I found CachyOS. Set it up how I like it and haven't had anything other than using my computer ever since.

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Guisseppi@reddit

You don’t have to pickup the latest everything, you imposed that burden on yourself

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lbaile200@reddit

I had a similar revelation about 10 years ago. I was using an nvidia optimus laptop and configuring bumblebee on Arch at that time was an incredible pain. One day I'm trying to get things working again and my son, 3 at the time, asks me if we can go play.

I told him I'd be free in a few minutes and went back to tinkering and something just snapped. I put the laptop down, I went and played with my son, and I installed windows on the laptop the next day. I work with RedHat systems at work, so if I want to play with Linux that would have to be enough.

This year I finally built a new PC and decided to go with Fedora. I did a basic KDE spin install and it's been great. I'm no longer interested in the new hotness and endlessly tweaking my system. All my stuff works, bluetooth, wifi, GPU, I can play my games, I'm happy. In a month or so I'll move from F41 -> F42, I've been giving it time to iron out any bugs before I upgrade. Like you, my time is worth more now, so I'm not interested in 'new' I'm interested in 'stable'.

My homelab is mostly the same. I have a NAS that I haven't really touched (aside from, you know, using it) in 4 years, A webServer that doubles as my PLEX/Audiobookshelf server running RHEL 9 on an old laptop, a few Raspberry Pi devices serving PiHole and HomeAssistant.

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Vulturo@reddit

Sounds like the “Now You Can Finally Play The Game” meme.

You don’t HAVE to do those things. It’s an operating system. You are the one who’s turned it into a hobby.

The thing with computers is to use them to do productive stuff and not get obsessed with them.

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ephemeral_resource@reddit

I never really had a distrohopping phase as most people would think of it. If I had something that worked well on a machine, and it was usually ubuntu, I stuck with it. Finally I tried arch (technically manjaro first) for I don't even remember why and haven't used anything else since. linux-lts on arch feels great. I think ubuntu gave my desktop a graphics glitch that was fixed but VERY slow to back-port.

If I went to something else it would probably be debian or fedora. I really dislike snaps honestly so I think I'm done with ubuntu which feels kinda sad to say.

For being "all in" on snaps you'd think cononical would have worked out more kinks. My latest woe is some enterprise servers we bought and can't install nvidia drivers with tpm/fde and secure boot because all kernel modules need to be snaps for that to work or some crap. I never did have the firefox snap working with desktop-integrated-password-managers for a long time before I had to switch to apt version and such too.

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HarpooonGun@reddit

I was the same at university, distro hopping constantly, worrying about GNOME extensions breaking after updating GNOME on a rolling release distro, using tiling window managers, managing my own implementation of the fn shortcuts since they usually don't work window managers etc etc but now I just use Debian stable GNOME and I don't give a shit. If I need the latest of something I just use flatpak. For my job I use dotnet and MS has its own separate Debian repos for that so its always recent. And I absolutely love it!

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turbokungfu@reddit

I'm not a computer guy and bought a PC that had windows (not registered). I only use windows for Charles Schwab think or swim. Linux mint has been rock solid (knock on wood) and much better experience than windows. I converted to linux when my 2012 macbook stopped getting updates and was painfully slow. It's all good on linux.

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rataman098@reddit

That's why I switched to an atomic Fedora distro (Bazzite), just want something that works and it does it out of the box

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Wonderful_Sense_8960@reddit

Same. That was me for a long time. I realized that distro hopping was my way of handling stress in my life. An obsessive hobby that didn't serve a purpose but to keep my mind occupied with something other than the important issues that were overwhelming it. Since that realization I've been on Fedora and being able to consistently use my PC without having to reconfigure constantly.

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urmamasllama@reddit

I was done a couple years ago. I moved from arch to nobara and stopped playing around with VFIO because I just didn't have the time to keep everything up to date and stable anymore. I'm actually thinking about moving to bazzite whenever I upgrade my SSD because I am at that point where I just want to find a happy balance of the latest updates and stability

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LBTRS1911@reddit

I don't constantly reinstall but I use several distros just so I'm experienced with them all. Main desktop is EndeavourOS, laptop is Fedora, and backup desktop is Debian 13. I don't have the problem you have of things breaking, everything just works and I rarely have to fiddle with things. Sounds like a you problem but glad you found something you're happy with.

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MuyTexicano@reddit

You need Jesus... 🤪

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meagainpansy@reddit

Get a MacBook and spend all that nerd time on trying to have sex with other humans.

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GauruBeard@reddit

it my terminal for work, not my work

Exactly what I thought several months ago after just stopping testing things (distrohoping + ricing everything) I have a job to work on, there is no actual need to tinker everything. And I just stopped on the last tested option, really close to it's vanilla state. Props to you!

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omniuni@reddit

I've been on KUbuntu for years now for this exact reason.

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magnushansson@reddit

Started out with Ubuntu around 2004. Then I had a few years of confusion using Arch. Since 2017 I’m back to Ubuntu (although now with i3).

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pobruno@reddit

I almost lost my marriage because of this, I spent hours customizing and testing new things and breaking the whole thing, I never got to finish my neovim. I've been using Windows with WSL for a while now and my marriage is better than ever, I stopped the madness of customizing things by going back to Windows and I have more quality time with the people I want.

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pobruno@reddit

The problem wasn't Linux, it was me.

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Macdaddyaz_24@reddit

I’ve been distrohopping for years and settled on Opensuse Tumbleweed and never looked back.

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matsnake86@reddit

Ran Tumbleweed for 4 years with a GPU upgrade in the middle without any issue whatsoever and without needing to reinstall the whole system.

A the end of 2024 switched to Bazzite Just because wanted to try a Fedora Atomic distro and not because Tumbleweed was giving me problems.

Smooth sailing also on Bazzite.

Don't know how you manager to break you system every couple of weeks lol.

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esmifra@reddit

You're done because you never looked at it as an operating system but as an obligation to switch distros.

I bet that if you reinstall windows or NacOS every other weekend you'll get tired of it pretty fast as well

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Alice_Alisceon@reddit

Im nearing my 10 years mark on Linux as well. I’ve used most of the big ones, but I’ve only changed once in the past 5 or so years, and that was a month back. Most software is perfectly fine out of the box imo 🤷🏻‍♀️

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treox1@reddit

I will say ChatGPT has come in great for me in rapidly solving issues and getting my machine set up the way I like.

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EverythingsBroken82@reddit

welcome to the club. you're kinda late, but have a biscuit and enjoy the good opensourcelife without caring about the newest bell and whistle :D

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TimurHu@reddit

Linux Mint 22.1 with LTS kernel, installed on absolutely ridiculously powerful gaming machine.

Sounds fine as long as you don't have a GPU or other hardware that was released since 2022.

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Ventana431@reddit

I have two Mint installs that I count on for the reasons you mention. I also have two KDE installs that I enjoy tinkering with (Garuda and Kubuntu) as well as a Win11 install for old times sake.

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idsej@reddit

Don't know why someone would reinstall their os and distro hop that often. I ran Ubuntu for 15 years and did upgrade versions a few times. Got a new PC tried pop os on it and will probably not switch until I buy new hardware.

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whaleboobs@reddit

I'd use Alpine if it were a source based distribution. I'd use Gentoo if it supported some simpler init.

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Artistic-Fill928@reddit

Just use NixOS! Mindfuck at first, but it's worth it!

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postmodest@reddit

Everyone who goes through this in their 20's (like I did in the 1990's) ends up just buying a Mac. Their homelab ends up being whatever Linux distro supports their dev stack best, which these days starts with Debian via Proxmox.

Linux won't fix you; it won't fix the world; it won't let you bring order to the chaos if only you use gentoo (or whatever people who used gentoo in the 00's use now); your DE won't make you a demigod; your shell won't make you Dennis Kernighan; RMS is an unreasonable eccentric who lucked into a popular idea because Bell Labs' was addicted to its monopoly.

Linux is a tool. No one cares what brand of hammer is best, just that it drives the nails in.

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BinkReddit@reddit

ends up just buying a Mac.

No thank you; the hardware is nice, but MacOS is just awful.

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fankin@reddit

It's like Gnome, but proprietary.

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alex_ch_2018@reddit

"your shell won't make you Dennis Kernighan"
Or Brian Ritchie, for that matter ;-)

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AntiDebug@reddit

I never got distro hopping. When I first perma switched to Linux it was with Manajro and I stayed there for 5 years. I was perfectly happy with it and had barely any issues. I was still a noob then so I did break things a few times but generally each install lasted between 1 and 2 years. Then I had 1 issue with 1 games on Manajro that worked on other Arch based distros so now Im running Cachy. I've had a few more issues with breakages on Cachy than what I ever had with Manajro but so far nothing too major. I have had to re-install twice due to updates breaking the system and thats just since May. Which is definately a worse record than with Manajro.

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mindbender_supreme@reddit

Distro-hopping is infact toxic Linux culture.

Pick one and stick with it, the differences between Linux distros are either so vast or so minute that it greatly differentiates a users experience. I think the main goal of Linux is to learn your way around the system you install it on and familiarize yourself on controlling your hardware.

The fact that we users have so many choices make it hard to stay the course. Believe me, I’ve tried everything from tomsrtboot to Garuda cosmic… install a base and go from there and stick it out, but don’t feel bad we are all victims of choice in this matter.

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dgm9704@reddit

No. Choice is freedom.

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mindbender_supreme@reddit

Agreed, but too much choice convolutes decision.

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fankin@reddit

You read this on a fortune cookie?

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mindbender_supreme@reddit

No but I did read it back to myself in an Asian accent before posting.

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SmoollBrain@reddit

So, I have about 6 more years before I'm done I guess.

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Scill77@reddit

> Done reinstalling the system every couple of weeks.

> Done finding the best, newest trend there is.

> Done spending hours and hours troubleshooting and fixing issues with your extremely customized setup.

> Done scouring the forums and Reddit looking for answers on why this absolute newest, bleeding edge RC kernel is causing you problems.

> Just DONE.

Hm. I was like that in my 20's, doing every possible stuff with my system. Now in my 30's I just Use linux without trying being "cool" and tuning my system 24/7. And it just works.

In other works the problem is your approach to the OS, not the OS itself.

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Roland_Taylor@reddit

I've it ever used a handful of distros on real hardware. My big thing was desktops and window managers because I liked the idea of playing with all the bling, but even then I was mainly between whatever was popular and easy to install. Now, I do keep multiple environments installed by I only use one, customized to suit my needs and only ever changed every once in a while. I don't stress over this stuff really.

I've also never gotten the appeal of actual distro hopping unless you're testing on different hardware. At the end of the day, it's all Linux. Yeah, I played with kernels back in the day, but then, my hardware sucked and so did support for it. But now I can typically just install and go, which is what I always wanted to do anyway, so I don't see the need to shop around between distros unless one has something absolutely unique and practically useful.

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ytze@reddit

Last proper installation I did was Debian Buster back in 2020 when I bought my last computer, then just run dist-upgrade. Got Trixie couple of weeks ago. 1 minute job editing the sources.list file, changing "bookworm" to "trixie". Same for every previous release. So I would say 4 minutes total effort.

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ballz-in-our-mouths@reddit

I just landed at gentoo and arch for my desktop, and my servers use ubuntu LTS.

Its infinitely more effective to look at all Linux Distros as the same damn thing, just following different package management philosophies.

Learning how to troubleshoot is the key. People tend to distro hop when they hit a wall they cant pass.

I've maybe reinstalled Arch twice in the last 7 years? And that's only because I replaced my NVMEs and move more towards network available storage, rather then my local storage.

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Venar24@reddit

Never really distro hoped, worked with amazon linux and chose to install arch on my work laptop and never looked back, its been working fine on arch. Not gonna install linux on my desktop as I play games that have kernel level anti cheat. (But i do have a steam deck so still doing some linux gaming)

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zerosCoolReturn@reddit

I recently just realized "oh, wait, i can just use ubuntu instead of struggling to make arch work" and i've never been happier with my PC

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dgm9704@reddit

It was the opposite for me. Started on Ubuntu and tried a couple flavours, but it felt cumbersome and fiddly. Tried Arch and haven’t had to look back in several years. Everything is just so simple and works.

Thankful for FOSS and linux as it gives each of us the choice to find what works for us :)

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Surrogard@reddit

Good I'm not the only one. I have an arch installation that is about 10-15 years old. Moved over several computers, I did have my share of problems but I had way more release upgrading Ubuntu.

Arch all the way!

P.S.: I use Arch Linux btw ;)

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xXBongSlut420Xx@reddit

i use arch, because i need some new kernel and graphics features, since i’m a game dev. but i’ve had the same arch installation since i built my current pc in 2017. and before that i had another arch install that i’d had since i graduated college in the 2000s

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BradChesney79@reddit

Oooh, a lot of people like mint.

You have to accept that it is a little bit of a Frankendebian a bit it the base installation and package repos-- which does work and is very much stable enough. ...Because it is based up the chain on Debian.

I know you said you are done distro hopping.

If you ever run into sadness with mint, the Kubuntu people would love to have a word with you.

I hear you about just plopping down with something not bleeding edge or exciting. Been using the minimal installation of Kubuntu for years when I want a GUI DE. Usually Debian proper except for some things, e.g. Ubuntu Server for the better supported ZFS situation and Rocky for LDAP via a 389 server.

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Dejhavi@reddit

But now I'm in my 30s. I don't have time, nor headspace to wonder if my system will boot today, if the update won't break anything, if this new kernel won't cause me some weird, unexplainable issues. My OS has to boot and get out of my way. It's my terminal to the work, not my work.

I'd recommend you look into "immutable" (and atomic) distros

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LoopVariant@reddit

Distro-hopping is a choice, not a requirement. Stop doing it and you will enjoy a very stable system without the pains of windows or the fruit computer.

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psycocarr0t@reddit

That's how it happened for me, with my homelab (which is Linux-based). Always spinning up new servers and services, learning, breaking things and troubleshooting and changing stuff up.

Now I'm older and life is busier and I really don't feel like touching a computer beyond doing some light gaming. I want to relax and enjoy my limited time, not mentally fatigue myself.

Unfortunately, despite paring it down bigly, some of that homelab infrastructure still exists and I'm currently letting it crumble because keeping it updated is a chore now.

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Yululolo@reddit

I installed endeavourOS and never had to reinstall it. I've been using it for 18 months, I guess.

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intricatesledge@reddit

I used to enjoy distro-hopping, on off-lease laptops. I quit over 10 years ago when I absolutely needed my machine to work but could not have it because Gentoo Was re-compiling something. After that, I went to Ubuntu and never went back.

Last year I bought a System76 and have been using Pop OS. I'll probably keep doing that as long as it's maintained.

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TxTechnician@reddit

Opensuse Tumbleweed. Cutting edge, and always stable.

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Real-Abrocoma-2823@reddit

I only switched distros when I needed. Debian based distros were unusable since every had one but diferent bug that broke something I needed. Next I switched from EndeavourOS to cachyOS since I broke firewalld and wanted more comptele distro. I am happy with cachyOS and I don't think I will be switching anymore.

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reimu00@reddit

honestly I switched to linux exactly because I didn't like how umpredictable windows updates were. With linux I can just use a stable distro, update once a week and forget about it. But to each their own. Use what make you get your work done.

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Sirusho_Yunyan@reddit

Eventually you get to the stage of needing a “I have a job and a mortgage” Distro. Welcome to Mint, or Debian, and peace of mind.

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malexample@reddit

You found your center, I used madbox linux (ubuntu +openbox) it worked great, it introduced me to linux in an incredible way, then I used ubuntu xfce, then I used mint, then I used manjaro and now I'm in arch, and here everything is fine; It takes me hours to configure everything but I don't care; it works too.

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lyidaValkris@reddit

The best part about linux is choice - you can have all the newest bells and whistles, and tweak every little detail, tinkering daily... or you can go with tried, tested and true. Stable, consistent and unchanging. Or anywhere in between.

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spectrumero@reddit

Join us on the trailing edge with Debian. It just works.

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martian73@reddit

Distrohopping is a phase that you should eventually exit once you find a workflow that works for you. Otherwise you are just goofing around. 20 years ago there was significant differentiation between distros, now not nearly as much

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soulless_ape@reddit

I find something that works and stick with it until it doesn't.

Distro hopping is a waste of time. Spin up a vm for that.

Ubuntu works just find on workstations and laptops, all with Nvidia GPUs. One click driver install.

On servers it's mostly Debian or some derivative.

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supenguin@reddit

I found Linux in college and distro hopped for a while even trying FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD. At some point life got busy between life, work and kids.

I also got a Mac and felt like it mostly just worked and you can easily install any software you want between Homebrew and the App Store. My Linux roots and belief in open source want me to be on Linux but a Mac laptop is 100% my primary machine right now.

I finally purchased a desktop to use as a Linux server but I’m kind of done tinkering. I just want to install the software I want to use and have it just work.

I’ve landed on Pop!_OS as my distro of choice and just going to stick with the latest LTS unless something that looks like I need comes up in a standard release.

It’s funny: most people on Windows and even Mac seem to almost dread software updates because of fear something they use will break. Linux for the most part has people that just cannot wait for some new toy to play with on their OS.

I do still feel that way once in a while and when I get that feeling I put whatever OS I feel like tinkering with on a VM, play with it for an hour or so and generally am busy enough the next week or month I don’t get to mess with it much any more.

Latest thing I tried was the new Fedora. I like the screen time health features: set a screen time limit and it turns the display gray scale when time is up. I hope that feature makes it to all desktop environments in the near future. How ironic the feature I’m most excited about in software is something that reminds you that you should use it less.

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karthiq@reddit

I distro-hopped for a year. Then settled with Xubuntu.

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Embarrassed-Ad-2142@reddit

Unfortunately, I am not there yet. I've used Fedora for quite a while, but I recently switched to Bazzite, which is based on Fedora Silverblue, in hope that it will be the reliable, unbreakable and performant distribution I want to stick to.

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tshawkins@reddit

I gave up on Linux as a writing os, I write books, and use gdocs etc, but got fed up having to continually log in etc to use each app.

So I took the smallest machine I had and installed ChromeOS Flex on it, an n150 mini laptop machine with 8gb ram, and it's great, I pick it up and dump it in my bag anytime I go out, if I end up having to wait, somewhere, I pop it out, restore it from suspend, log in with my pin, and carry on working, no need to login to anything, use any gdocs app, Spotify, I have a small Linux partition but it's managed by flex, I have VSC, Copilot and Rust on it. Again quick and simple.

I don't spend any time fiddling with my os anymore, it's now an appliance.

I still have 2 beasts running Fedora though.

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Better-mania@reddit

I just use Ubuntu! Because it is free, stable and updates are not too frequent to bother me. I just use Firefox, libre office, VLC, telegram, thinderbird.. I just use type sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade and let the rest. I no longer care about what is best snap or flatpack or whatever. I just enjoy using my OS instead of wrestling with it. It is just an OS.

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No_Scratch_1685@reddit

I met Tumbleweed with Gnome, I am sorted!

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Useful-Painting8480@reddit

i don't really understand, of course if you tinker with RC kernels you'll get more than just headaches.. it's an absolute nightmare to configure/compile/see if it will work that rc kernel.
But i use arch linux, i never wondered if it will boot because it will, if it doesn't know that my hardware is fried not my O.S (this is my mindset because i know how stable Arch is and will never break)
I'm more older than you, i enjoy KDE on Arch, i tinker fastfetch/systemd/systemd-boot/ everything that boots and i enjoy seeing my results taking effects as i wanted.
if you want to enjoy life and you had enough from computers/cellphones, then yes i respect this. reminds me of neofetch creator. .. who left it all behind and went to enjoy life and farming which is good and i highly respect it.
so yeah this is my reply.

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EvoQKG@reddit

bro hasn't heard of nixos

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Mereo110@reddit

I know the feeling. I've been using Manjaro since 2022, and although it's based on Arch, the distro focuses on stability. I primarily use Flatpaks to separate applications from the base, and I use an Arch Distrobox to download and use AURs. I've used this setup since 2022, and it has never failed me.

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Healthy_Article_2237@reddit

In the late 90s and early 00s I spent a lot of time with different flavors of Linux and then Unix in my academic and professional career (hpux, irix and Solaris). Once my company moved to wintel I left all that behind. I was doing more specific work that the software only ran on windows and then I’d need to use adobe apps to pretty it up for PowerPoint. Windows works nicely.

Recently though I needed something for doing remote operations on a web based platform. Something I could leave running for weeks without an update so I chose a small intel nuc that was 10 years old or older and upgraded memory to 32 GB and got a ssd. I use Ubuntu and it just works. Rarely do I have to reboot and I do all the updates in between projects so that it’s not interfering with ongoing 24/7 ops.

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natermer@reddit

The point of operating systems is to make it easier to write and run applications.

Like you don't actually need a operating system. You can boot a computer straight into a application if you want. You could even run multiple applications that way if you want. Have them all share the same memory address space and just coordinate between each other.

But people don't do that because it is expensive and hard.

Which means that unless your goal in life is to spend all your time developing parts of operating systems... if you are spending all your time farting around with the OS then you are doing it wrong.

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KirpiSonik@reddit

Debian+vanilla gnome is my safe place. (ex dwm user)

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olinwalnut@reddit

I would constantly go between Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, Fedora, rinse repeat.

But when professionally I started doing more and more Linux work in the enterprise, I started slowly moving my personal laptop to Fedora and after Red Hat did their thing, put the server in my home lab on RHEL with a free sub. I still run Debian on a few boxes (Pi boards) and VMs but I don’t distrohop anymore. I just stay in the Red Hat ecosystem and I’m content.

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updatelee@reddit

I always find Linux odd for the fanboi posts but also these kinda posts. For ref I’ve been using Linux for 30 years.

I just updated one of my Linux boxes last night, last time was six months ago.

I love Linux, I use it daily. But you don’t need to be tinkering, updating etc every day. Just use it. Tinker if you want but it’s not a requirement.

I use mostly Ubuntu and Debian. Why? Because they just work. Are they the latest and greatest ? No but I don’t really care about that, I just want something that works. I usually only use Ubuntu when I need something more up to date, otherwise Debian stable will always just work.

You want to distrohop for fun? Use virtual box, way easier to do that.

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Retrowinger@reddit

I want to love pure Debian, but I’m always drawn back to Kubuntu 🤷🏻‍♂️

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thomascameron@reddit

I'm biased (I work for Red Hat), but I am absolutely not "done." I use the current Fedora release as my daily driver, and RHEL 10 on my homelab servers. In-place updates and even distro upgrades Just Work(TM), and I literally cannot remember the last time I had a no-boot situation. It's been years. I install everything using Ansible playbooks. When I do reinstall the OS on my hardware, I use Ansible to set my machine up exactly like it was before. Every once in a great while, I'll nuke the .local, .cache, and .config directories in my home directory and re-run my flatpak installation. But, again, I can't remember the last time I needed to do that.

I use KVM/libvirt virtual machines for experimentation, not the OS installed on my hardware. If whatever I want to test works in a VM, only then do I install in on my OS. I haven't had an "oh, shit" moment (outside a VM) in years.

I spin up various distros in KVM VMs from time to time to see what's going on outside of my ecosystem, and I love learning about how other distros do stuff, but... Compared to when I first started running Linux on the desktop (circa 1999), distros today are really pretty boring, in the best way. Stuff works 99 times out of 100.

My machine is pretty new, and evertyhing works flawlessly. No weird compiling kernel modules or anything:

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D 16-Core Processor
Crucial Pro DDR5-6400 64GB Kit (32GBx2) UDIMM: OC Gaming Memory Black
Two 990 PRO 1 TB SSD NVMe M.2 drives
Intel Corporation Ethernet Controller 10-Gigabit X540-AT2
Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB

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FlameLightFleeNight@reddit

This always was my mindset. I will get around to updating to Debian 13, but I'm in no rush.

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metroidslifesucks@reddit

I have Tuxedo OS as my main mini PC, Linux Mint Cinnamon 22 on my laptop and OpenSuse Tumbleweed on my spare PC and I couldn't be happier. I distrohopped since 2011 when Ubuntu did the THING and liked my journey through so many DE's, distros, and the like but I'm getting too old for configuring everything from square one. I like what I got and it all just works quick, beautiful and easy.

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Reason7322@reddit

'It just works' until you want to use HDR or VRR. Or fractional scaling.

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dankobg@reddit

That's why I have Ansible playbook that sets everything with 1 command when I reinstall or whenever I want.

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bullpup1337@reddit

after college when I started working I switched from gentoo to Mint and it just kept running for ten years. Around 5 years ago I switched to NixOS and changed a whole bunch of things again, was fun and I am a lot happier with it. But now back to near zero maintenance. Perhaps in a year I will try out GUIX.

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RuncibleBatleth@reddit

I use the UBlue distros now for similar reasons. I had a laptop running Silverblue, then Kinoite, then Bluefin, for almost five years with no "reinstalls" other than running rpm-ostree rebase. Then the SATA+NVMe controllers died so I put Bluefin on a replacement laptop.

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stalwart_guy@reddit

It's always fun to try new distros, but your time gets consumed by other things down the line, and then there's also the need for stability. I don't distrohop anymore, just try them in VMs if I find it interesting enough to!

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rbmichael@reddit

Good for you! Honestly I've been on Manjaro Linux for 5 years and only did a full reinstall one time (mainly to "reset" and get rid of all the cruft I added over the years but forgot about). People may shit on it but the community is decent and I like how they release about once a month so you usually avoid system breakages.

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timetraveller1977@reddit

I only spent 2 months testing between Ubuntu and Mint many years ago, then settled on Mint (found it to be much lighter on the resources) and have not had any issues. Yep, just works on every machine I install it on.

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Hot_Philosophy_3828@reddit

I've been using fedora spin for over a month without reinslling, I don't rice much.

I just use fedora because I noticed much better performance than windows 11, it feels more stable than windows 11.

I'm a CS student, I don't need Adobe or office apps and don't play games, basically fedora can do everything I need to do without the annoying windows 11 and so much useless background services running which slows down my laptop.

I don't need to customise heavily, raw kde plasma is good for me with little tweaks.

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user_platform21@reddit

I feel like, distrohopping is a phase everyone goes through and i am here embracing it, loving it.

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JoeyDJ7@reddit

H

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MisterNadra@reddit

Same here, i run stock fedora gnome with at most 5 extensions. If i bung up the system, i reinstall, if not, i dont.

I never understood the sweatlords running a new kernel every few weeks just to run into problems, for what? a few more fps, im good thank you. I feel like most people fall into the trap of chasing the dragon from distro to distro. Just pick one and chill man, god damn. Glad you got there in the end tho.

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Werk-n-progress@reddit

Been running fedora for 4 years now on my main server/desktop. (note to self, check those spinning disks…).

If I want to try something out, I usually have a toss away laptop or VM ready to go pretty quick. But eventually, I learned that even the OS is just a tool and chasing after the latest rice build was largely a waste of my time. All for it being for other people, but my opportunity cost is about $100/hr which I will never get from reinstalling a new OS.

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kenfar@reddit

I replaced all the windows computers my family had with linux around 2001, and have never looked back. We did have a mac mini as well for a few years, and most of the time we have other operating systems for work.

I think the key for most of us is selecting hardware that works well with linux (ex: thinkpads), going with a popular distro (ex: ubuntu), and avoid fucking around with it too much. And then it just works.

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Undervolt61@reddit

Ubuntu with Gnome. That's all. I am in my fifties and no longer care about bling bling. It just has to work. Stopped rumbling around the moment I got a girlfriend :)

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Ok_Cow_8213@reddit

That’s why i use a immutable distro, not because i don’t like freedom, it’s just that i want my pc to turn on the next time i use it because it’s shared in my household and i don’t like using a different distros on my laptop and pc so that i don’t have to remember the differences between them to do something.

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DarknessKinG@reddit

I’ve been using Aurora Linux on my laptop for the past few months, and it’s been running great. It gives me the best of both worlds rock-solid stability along with the latest updates.

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OnlyThePhantomKnows@reddit

I switched to Ubuntu as my host long ago for that reason. I build embedded machines (robots/spaceships/medical devices) and do kernel work (yocto and drivers). At a certain, your OS is just a tool. Pick the path of least resistance and move on.

Of course, I stabilized on my editor/debugger of choice long ago (emacs + gdb) and every GUI that comes up I try, hoping for something better. Some are better in aspects, but the old guys are so much easier to setup (consultant: so I move around alot)

Old is not necessarily bad. It's stable and you're happy. IT JUST WORKS. That's great.

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_sLLiK@reddit

It's a common mindset, and often what drives a lot of users to MacOS over Linux in their search for something that isn't Windows, despite any Apple ecosystem concerns they might have. Plenty of Linux users are this way, and they gravitate to LTS releases for obvious and totally understandable reasons.

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Difficult_Map_4342@reddit

I think everyone hits that point differently, for some, experimenting is the fun part, and for others, reliability eventually becomes more important.

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Pale-Moonlight2374@reddit

This post is why the Atomic Fedora spins, exist. They really just need a Cinnamon spin.

In the end, you use the tool that works best for you.

I uninstalled Gentoo for FreeBSD - but only because I've got well supported hardware.

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InevitableMeh@reddit

I’ve been on Ubuntu LTS since it started, similar reason. I started working in tech in 2000 and it just wasn’t fun to deal with constant fiddling at home any longer.

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veyselerden@reddit

Definitely came to this idea when I had my first kid. Now I don't even enter distrowatch for new distros. It's Ubuntu that works for me and i'll stay orange till it stops working. No time for hobbies.

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Leniwcowaty@reddit (OP)

Funny, how the less time you have in your life, the less you want to waste it...

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veyselerden@reddit

this applies for everything and for everyone. I have whole another life now and I like wasting my time with my family more than wasting with a box that doesn't even have feelings. Good luck with your life, peace brother.

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OneDayCloserToDeath@reddit

I can't believe people like using cinnamon.

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Leniwcowaty@reddit (OP)

In my country there's this saying - one likes oranges, the other likes his feet smelly. I for example don't understand tiling wm craze, Hyprland in particular, but if this works for someone - hey, that's their computer!

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Puzzleheaded-Sky2284@reddit

My dad was a distrohopper back in the late 2000s and early 2010s - at this point he just uses Mint as well (and on really new and powerful hardware at that).

I still distrohop a bit but I've been using Fedora since August 2022 and really feel no need to try changing what's on my main partition

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chesnett@reddit

Same. Now I just settled with Ubuntu. Lol

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vnpenguin@reddit

I work with Linux as my desktop almost 30 years now. And I don't think to stop.

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EugeneNine@reddit

I was like that years ago. Was done with windows breaking something or messing up in some way all the time. I tried a couple distros then went back to slackware. I just use my systems as a user, I don't change things or tinker with them, I have too many other things to do.

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Leniwcowaty@reddit (OP)

Exactly. That's why I think immutable distros are a really good thing. You literally can't change anything, so you don't. I have AuroraOS on my laptop, and it gives me MacBook vibes - it just works, and I don't have to do anything to it.

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OhHaiMarc@reddit

Doesn't have to be 1 or 0. I go through phases of using linux, trying distros, dual booting. I don't think I'll ever be done. In my late 30s if that matters.

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zlice0@reddit

i worked with a guy when i quit using gentoo and he had a similar story. got kids and married and all that and there were just other things in life that he wanted to enjoy, not some shiny toy.