Need out of this Winduhs nightmare!
Posted by RootbeerMadness@reddit | linux | View on Reddit | 30 comments
In my younger years, I ran Mandrake (Mandriva), RH and then went to Debian. Wasn't a huge fan of Deb's package manager at the time and tried FBSD before going to Windows for many years. I am now at a point in my life where I don't have a need for windows as my main OS and could run it in a vm if I am really that desperate. What's the new hotness for Linux these days?
GamerRabbit6464@reddit
Try Manjaro
the_abortionat0r@reddit
Absofuckinglutely not.
GamerRabbit6464@reddit
Why not?
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arf20__@reddit
It's still debian. Stick with it.
BinkReddit@reddit
I wouldn't; Debian's stability makes it great for servers, but, when it comes to the desktop, you'll routinely run into bugs that will not get fixed until 2 years later/the next release of Debian.
arf20__@reddit
Well I don't know what sort of software you run but I've hardly had any bugs in Debian in 3 releases. Before that, i had annoying problems with GNOME in Ubuntu, and with my sound card, and it killed itself when I tried to upgrade. My current debian has gone through 2 upgrades without any issues but maybe a time when the nvidia-dkms didn't build. But I didn't have to do anything because I could just boot the old backup kernel, and it got fixed within a week. Important bugs like that are fixed real fast.
FattyDrake@reddit
It's not necessarily the important bugs, it's all the little ones that add up. At least when I tried Debian/Ubuntu, I would spend an hour tracking down a problem only to realize it was fixed several months earlier, but not important enough (i.e. larger version increases) to backport. For example, Bookworm still had Pipewire 0.3.x when it was at 1.4, which finally made it into Trixie.
arf20__@reddit
Can you give more examples? I never had any problem with pipewire on Debian Xfce. I did with CS2 but that was Valve's fault.
FattyDrake@reddit
Aside from the pipewire example (which involved MIDI), drawing tablets were another thing. I have a screen drawing tablet that I had trouble getting working, and when I went to file an issue for libwacom, found out it had already been supported for awhile.
This is ignoring desktop environment and Wayland improvements that get stuck in time despite progress having rapidly increased over the past year. Trixie helped, of course (I still use Debian on a workbench computer, not daily use) but now it's going to be "stuck" for another two years. Using something like Xfce would mitigate that admittedly.
I've since gotten involved with libwacom and other lower level development and have realized that there is a lot Debian can't support due to their release schedule and how fast development happens. Like, any added device support and fixes now is not going to be available in Debian until 2027, which isn't just tablets but also a variety of HID devices.
Color calibration/profiling under Wayland is another thing I've been working on and that's also something any Debian user will have to do without for a long while unless they're technical and know how to change from the standard install to get X running again.
I kind of think of Debian as a fully community-based enterprise distro. It's fine for environments where you have a specific setup you don't want to change for a long time, similar to RHEL. Which would explain why a lot of distros base themselves off of Debian, but they also inherit some of the same issues.
Tho for daily desktop use, I wouldn't recommend it to people (especially non-technical folks) simply because there's likely hardware that even if it is older, might not be fully supported on the current Debian version. And nobody asks what hardware and peripherals someone has before recommending a distro.
arf20__@reddit
Damm its nice that you are contributing to these projects, thanks!
I don't know/use tablets, but I have used MIDI in pipewire and it just works for me, in bullseye and bookworm, with all the old software stack and a Behringer UMC204HD.
Personally I don't need color calibration and I acknowledge that it will never get done in Xorg.
But it's just that for other normal everyday uses, in my laptops and desktops, it just never stops working, never have any trouble, never breaks, and never got annoyed by anything.
Meanwhile last week I tried to boot my second OS on my laptop, Arch, and it wouldn't boot. I hadn't booted it for two months, didn't touch it, and it broke.
BinkReddit@reddit
Yep. I started to implement workarounds for the bugs, but then the workarounds became too cumbersome to maintain and I decided Debian was no longer worth it as a result.
LostGeezer2025@reddit
I've been daily using Debian variants for the last twenty years, unfortunately they seem to be losing their damn minds right now :(
If current trends continue there's probably a roll-your-own Slackware install in my future unless the Debian fork shows staying power...
arf20__@reddit
I don't know what you mean losing their minds, but I don't know why run Debian derivatives, when Debian is the best Debian at being Debian (being good, and just plain working all the time always)
LostGeezer2025@reddit
Look into the problems they've been creating for themselves rapid-forcing the Rust changeover.
You may find the whole 'Hitler Particles' discussion illuminating as well :(
arf20__@reddit
Debian isn't pushing for rust. Ubuntu is. It so happens that Ubuntu developers have find their way into Debian projects like apt. But Debian isn't really affected if you use it right now. Eventually Rust will be all over linux in the future, for the better or for the worse. It has to be implemented with care. Ubuntu is a dump. Just stay with Debian and everything will be fine.
Peruvian_Skies@reddit
I use EndeavourOS, it's Arch without the hassle. People are faening over CachyOS these days but from what I gather it's just like EndeavourOS with some fiddling done to it. So use either one, I guess.
FengLengshun@reddit
The new hotness, IMO, are immutable/atomic distro.
It is not as locked down as you think they are, they usually include tools to do some very involved modifications. And I think they're actually very interesting to learn from.
I currently use Bazzite, with my own image builder using the legacy Universal Blue image builder that became blue-build. And I think it's a very interesting way to manage my system - I'm going to take a lot of the practices to another system.
The other thing is Nix. Nix is cool - it's like an instant "add a whole immutable system" to your existing system. But what's really cool is when you have configuration.nix (for NixOS) or home-manager (other systems) to manage your system declaratively. It's like you have a whole image building cookbook on your system to manage everything.
I currently use NixOS for my old laptop that I'm using as file sync server. It's easier to wrap my head around than even Ubuntu Server - the configuration acts like documentation as its own. I plan to move from Bazzite to either CachyOS or SteamOS on my ROG Ally but I will be installing chezmoi and home-manager to get as many things declarative as I could.
It's a fun time to be learning new stuff on Linux.
Pure-Bag-2270@reddit
Opensuse Leap16 and if you have the skills/interest NixOS, Those two are great distros.
VoidDuck@reddit
Leap 16.0 is beta quality at best right now. Not recommended.
Pure-Bag-2270@reddit
I was on 15.6 migrated to 16, honestly used it a week or two. I am just about done with my NixOS config. Maybe then Leap 15.6 for the OP, that was rock solid.
VoidDuck@reddit
Fedora KDE offers one of the best out-of-the-box experience in my opinion.
BinkReddit@reddit
Your life's about to get better.
readyloaddollarsign@reddit
He runs Arch, btw
photo-nerd-3141@reddit
OpenSUSE Tumbleweed is easy to install & manage, supports LVM well, saves you from annual upgrade hell.
Junior_Resource_608@reddit
While your bonafides aren't particularly noob the correct sub for this question would be r/linux4noobs or r/linuxquestions
RootbeerMadness@reddit (OP)
Thank you for the other sub sugeestions, I will be sure to check them out.
Fast_Ad_8005@reddit
Just like in your day, it depends on your own preferences.
Mandrake's successors are Mageia, PCLinuxOS, OpenMandriva and ROSA. Mageia is probably the most popular successor, but PCLinuxOS is probably the most beginner-friendly successor.
Red Hat's successors are Fedora (if you like cutting edge software and can tolerate the odd bug), Alma Linux and Rocky Linux (if you like free, enterprise-level stability) and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), if you don't mind paying for enterprise-level stability.
Debian is still going strong, but Ubuntu is a beginner-friendly alternative to it, as are its derivatives like Linux Mint.
If you want bleeding-edge software and a rolling release model, openSUSE Tumbleweed, Arch Linux (and derivatives thereof like CachyOS and EndeavourOS) and Rhino Linux (which is based on Ubuntu's development branch, so is ultimately based on Debian) are probably the best options.
If you want to control every aspect of your system and build it from the ground up, Arch Linux, Debian, Gentoo Linux, Linux from Scratch, NixOS and openSUSE Tumbleweed are probably the best options.
If you need vast software repositories — for instance if you're the curious sort and like trying out any software that peaks your curiosity — Arch Linux (and derivatives thereof), Debian (and derivatives thereof), Gentoo Linux, NixOS and openSUSE Tumbleweed are among the most likely distros to be able to satisfy this need.
If you just want an easy to set up and run system with the minimum of hassles, Linux Mint or Zorin OS will probably be the winner.
RootbeerMadness@reddit (OP)
Thank you for responding. I have a place to start, and will go from there. 😊
TerribleReason4195@reddit
I am using FBSD. They have plans on putting FBSD on more laptops right now. I think you should give it a try again. It is amazing for me.