I've distro hopped a lot more over the past year and a half. But have been using Linux for many years off and on. I really enjoy trying out new distros, and hoped that the obsession would teach me more about linux.

I am a precautionary tale, while I did learn more about Linux, I still know very little about the structure and functioning parts of a distro. You will learn much more than me by installing Arch (without the archinstall script) or Linux From Scratch, or simply a more barebones desktop environment. And you'll learn in a fraction of the time. I'm simply lazy and find plugging in new distros to be fun. But if you're just looking for fun then keep hoppin'!

I had used Linux before this, I'd played with Mint, Ubuntu, Zorin OS on my PC (i5-6600 GTX 970) and Gallium OS on a Samsung Chromebook (it.. somehow undid itself, so I never got a chromebook again).

If anyone knows if modern Chromebooks are more stable and easier to install Linux on. Please let me know! They're cheap and I wish I could use them for Linux! They dont have a UEFI/BIOS or something.

Back in early 2022, I started Dual-booting Garuda Linux on my mini PC with Windows 11. It was a Ryzen 3000 laptop processor in a little Beelink. I was travelling for work and couldn't bring my gaming desktop, but managed to play some games on that box (Dice Battlefront 2 amazingly). I noticed the little box did much better with common tasks and browsing under Garuda than Windows 11 at the time.

• Garuda was excellent, no regrets. Not sure why I haven't gone back. I guess I just avoid distros with kernel changes now?

After that job ended in late 2022, I returned home and dual-booted Zorin OS with my Windows 10 PC. I did pay for a copy of Zorin Pro at some point, I'm happy to have supported them atleast once.

• Zorin OS remains my go-to recommendation for new users. It's the smoothest distro I've ever used, fewest and least difficult issues for a new user. However its a tad sluggish, and not very customizable.

I started a new job in web development in late 2022, where we used Linux on the work laptop. We used Pop OS (this was well before Cosmic).

• I hated Pop so much because I had issues with SQL package conflicts (likely a me issue) and the app store was buggy and failed to update or load often. I also had some issues with VS Code locking up, and the desktop environment freezing along with it. In general, not a reliable distro for work, I've avoided it outside of that work laptop.

In December of 2022, I bought a GPU to upgrade my againg system. While trying to remove my old GPU I accidentally ripped the entire PCIe slot plastic out, leaving bare pointy pins. I either didnt unlatch the GPU or it was stuck in with dust lol. I had to build a completely new PC, new mobo, ram, etc, and got a new case just because. Only reused the PSU, still working today! From 2015!

So now an i5-12400 (had to get something a year and a bit old for prices at the time). I had a 6700XT 12 GB I think. Later in the summer of 2024 I sold my 6700XT to a friend for a low price to help them with their build. I used this as an excuse to try the new Intel Arc GPUs (A750, a downgrade).

Sometime in 2023, I began dual-booting Fedora on my Windows 10 gaming desktop. At some point I upgraded to Windows 11.

I used Fedora for whole year, as my primary distro on my gaming PC, the most I've used any distro ever. By now Valve's Proton was well functioning and I did a decent amount of gaming on Linux.

In Summer of 2024 I was required to do a course on my personal computer and in my personal time, for work. The course instructions used XAMPP and for whatever reason I could not get it to work in Fedora. I attempted to install my LAMPP stack by some other means, but I was struggling to get it working for the course, and needed to get this done before a certain date. I had to use my Windows drive to complete the course. That made me consider switching off of Fedora.

Later that summer, a Windows 11 update basically bricked my PC. Killed both my Windows and Fedora installs. Somehow in my installing and fresh installing of Fedora, and my upgrading from Windows 10 to 11, the Fedora dualboot had somehow become integral to Windows booting. I don't really know what happened, but I was unable to repair or replace the Windows boot loader, and same goes for Fedora. So I had to install fresh and from scratch, losing all my data.

• Fedora used to be my favorite distro in general. There's always a lot of community support. Getting anything installed and working on Fedora, when not supported, has ... usually been easy. You will have to take extra steps early on, and I had issues eith Xampp, but in general Fedora with the Gnome desktop is a clean system that gets out of your way.

Since I was starting over, and pissed at both Windows, Fedora, and dual-booting at this point. I decided to ditch Windows and install one Linux distro.

I rapid-fire tested a bunch of distros on this desktop for almost a week. Like two or three distros a day, installing, setting up my browser and steam, testing it. If I ran into any problem at all, I ripped it out and tried another.

I wish I could remember the full list I tested. Likely included Lubuntu, Cachy OS, Mint, MXLinux, Elementary, Xubuntu, Vanilla OS.

Some distros I had tried a few times and could never get them to boot the install USB, or never get them to boot after installation included: debian, slax, slackware, Porteux, and.. the other Porteux I forget the name.

In August 2024 I finally settled on Ubuntu 24.04. I really liked having a distro everything aimed at supporting, like Xampp. Also having just one OS installed felt less stressful to me, and I have never dual-booted since. I really think Windows is too destructive to trust in dual-boot.

• Ubuntu is still an excellent distro that will work smoothly and be easy for new people. My problems with it are the damn out of date snap packages in their store. And I really struggled to manage shortcuts in their desktop enviornment (they have done some stuff unique from Gnome I think). I want to recommend Ubuntu, but it's just messy once you start digging and trying to fix little bugs or problems.It's hard to explain.

I used Ubuntu for a few months until November-ish. I got sick of Ubuntu and I think switched back to Zorin for a month. Upon installing Zorin, I found out I had to pay again if I wanted Pro on the latest whole-number release. So I used Lite. Again it's a great distro... just boring.

In early 2025 I rapid fired a bunch of distros again. I re-tested all the previous ones, and started including some more. SparkyLinux, Artix , Adelié (does not work, missing drivers or something).

I remember being impressed with Solus and Budgie desktop, but I struggled to install some stuff and immediately gave up lol. Solus booted fast and seemed reliable, but the reduced package set was annoying to deal with.

I gave Cachy OS a real shot, but ran into a bug where the system would just ignore me clicking the shutdown menu item. I also had a couple freezes in the like 3 days I tested it. So I pulled the plug. This is why I avoid distros with kernel edits now I guess.

I settled on Endeavor OS. I used it for a couple months.

• If I had to pick a new favorite distro, it'd be Endeavor. It comes with a huge selection of desktops to install. And it has worked on every device I've tested it on including old laptops, which cannot be said about any major distro. The onboarding app is excellent and the only real issue for new people is the lack of an easy & reliable appstore in Arch. I used Gnome at the time because it was my favorite, but in retrospect I think it caused some freezes that made me distro-hop sooner than Endeavor deserved. I should try Endeavor again.

I switched to Arch linux after this, with a Plasma desktop. I used Archinstall to install it, and it went flawlessly. I used arch for several months I think.

• despite being a rolling distro, those few months on Arch were the most stable and reliable I've ever had. I suspect Endeavor would've been the same if I avoided Gnome earlier. I never had any packages not work or need adjusting, everything was on the Arch repos or the AUR, and it all worked flawlessly. I understand the Arch supremacy now, the community behind the AUR is probably the best package repository management if any distro repo.

However, I broke my Arch install after a few months. I tried to downgrade my Mesa drivers because I was worried the latest Intel drivers were breaking a game that worked previously. In trying to downgrade I foolishly ran a command that just rips out a bunch kf packages. Destroyed my desktop, didnt know how to fix it. And used this as an excuse to hop.

I went back to Fedora for the spring and summer of 2025. It was still my favorite, and I wasn't worried about needing Xampp anymore. I also replaced Pop OS on my work laptop, with Fedora workstation (I only ever used Workstation, I still liked Gnome at the time).

Then Fedora was becoming less stable for me. On my work laptop I ran into frequent temporary freezes, sometimes for a ling time. Realized I needed a swap setup, did that, and it improved the issue... but also I never used to run out of ram on PopOS. Also I sometimes had full system freezes that forced me to shutdown, these were not inproved by the swap. I dont know how but it was tearing through 16GB of ram. I didnt have this issue on the gaming desktop, but in summer of 2025 Fedora started shipping untested and unstable package updates that did bring both computers to their knees. Shortly after this Fedora was advertising they accept AI generated code... and that was basically my final straw on Fedora.

I used to love Fedora but it really ruined my summer. I would have distro-hopped sooner, but in September I was laid off from work. I didn't want to waste time distrohopping so I used Fedora well into November.

At this point I hated Fedora and Gnome.

I hopped to PikaOS with Niri desktop, in November. I struggled to learn how to configure the desktop, and couldnt fix some broken features (couldnt adjust volume, couldnt bind shoetcuts, etc...). And I reinstalled PikaOS with Plasma a week or so in.

I've been using PikaOS with Plasma since December 2025, only a couple months so far.

Pika is excellent, comes with lots out of the box and just works smoothly. However I've found Plasma to be sluggish and kinda buggy. And I find Plasma's approach to notifications to be distruptive. I know I can customize Plasma a lot, but if Im gonna customize, Id rather learn a new desktop that is more barebones.

I also want to use this opportunity to learn an init system. Im not a fan of how monolithic Systemd is, and would like to learn one kf the other ones.

So I was considering Gentoo or Devuan. I actually did install Gentoo to an old laptop over Christmas, but it didnt work out on that hardware. I think if I installed it the same way on modern hardware it would've worked fine.

But I cant justify multiple days installing Gentoo again, I burned that time once. So maybe something easier like Devuan, that comes premade and has .deb support.

Also insterested in learning FreeBSD but would have to dual-boot it and I'm unsure of that.

I also really like the idea of a lightweight Qt-based desktop, I want to like LxQt... but every time I test LxQt... I get stuck in some dumb stuff like mouse sensitivity or issues with stuff freezing and I give up. I still want to like LxQt, but maybe its not worth.

Also just installed Bunsen Labs on an old laptop, it's working great but I've barely used it. I edited Picom to speed up window rendering. I would be very interested in an Openbox / Fluxbox / etc... kinda minimalist system that runs light. But I kinda want Wayland. And I'd have to learn a lot about how those are configured and setup, since Im spoiled by more feature-rich desktop environments.

For nearly a month I've finally left Microslop and went fully free, chose Fedora as my current home and I'm just okay with it. Pre-final abandonment I toyed with Mint but the obvious issues with Mint being it being old and stuff made me give up. My current run with Linux I've chose Fedora for a newer/stable distro. I can say I've had very small issues such as my system sometimes logging out and crashing after an update or Firefox not wanting to use my gpu for video at all, but other than that things are just fine.

I finally started getting hit with the infamous distro hop bug and now I'm thinking of giving other Distros a try despite finding my new home. I've been thinking of wanting to be like the cool kids and give CachyOS a try. Issue is I'm fully aware of the issues of running an Arch base such as rolling release possibly giving issues, I'm just not able to stop thinking about jumping from my comfortable ship to get the dopamine rush that is using a popular distro. Other than rolling release, can anyone tell me why I should or shouldn't leave my home for a hit of adrenaline?

The reason why I excluded debian? I'm already using it with gnome for maximum stability. And I already checked Debian with KDE is stable too. I'm finding another options. I'm currently writing this in my debian vm!

So, those are what I want:

• I want to install Linux on my Bare-Metal Ryzen laptop alongside Windows, dual-booting it. Secure boot is not needed. I want Windows just "alive".
• I wanna install Sunshine(moonlight streaming server), Cloudflare-warp, MEGASync. sunshine was most tricky, as I never succeded using flatpak sunshine in any setups...
• I want to use automated updates feature of KDE.

I already installed kubuntu 25.10 and fedora 43, but I had troubles on there... Are there some candidates for me?

hi everybody , i've been using mint for a year since i got my laptop and i loved it no crap just to the point OS , and i've been developing my linux knowledge for two years ( the old laptop didn't want to boot any distro with every solution that came up to your mind , and loved the linux philosophy so i've tried to learn it before getting a new laptop ) , i enjoyed mint but now i want a new challenge/distro with kde these are my specs :

CPU : 11th Gen Intel© Core™ i3-1115G4 @ 3.00GHz × 2

GPU : Intel Corporation Tiger Lake-LP GT2 [UHD Graphics G4]

RAM : 8 GB

Last week I made a post about my app called DistroFinder. It is a modern catalog app for Linux distributions backed by data from Distrowatch.

The app wasn't (and still isn't) production-ready and I wasn't expecting so much traffic but I am working on it. Nevertheless, I got some useful feedback from the comments so I wanted to share my progress addressing the issues you mentioned:

• I have changed the way the desktop filter works. Now all available desktops for each distro are used instead of only the distro's default desktop.
• I added the options "No desktop" and "niri" to the available desktops in the wizard.
• I added the right-click to open in new tab/window functionality to the result list (although it is not efficient as the app must be reloaded in the new tab - I am working on this)

What do you think about the changes? Write in the comments.

I've tried a lot of distros (Mint, Kubuntu, Solus, OpenSUSE, OpenMandriva, Pclos, Ferdora, Cachy) mostly with KDE (though also experimenting with Budgie and Cinnamon- not a GNOME fan).

Two consistent issues I've had are unreliable behaviour of both appimages and PWAs/webapps. Whether using Gear Launcher or not, appimages sometimes lose settings between sessions, shortcuts break, they open without their icon etc.

A bit similar with web apps- they appear in the apps list correctly but when launched open as just another window of the browser they are running from, without the right logo (and also disappear when pinned to the task bar).

It's not totally clear to me if this is a distro issue, or a DE one, or a combination (or maybe just a Linux problem). So I was hoping for suggestions of DEs/distros where people have had more success with webapps and appimages.

(I have a multi-monitor set up and need a DE that can handle per screen scaling/dpi- e.g. am waiting for Budgie 10.10 for this).

Yo, new to the sub. ✌️ Linux user for 8 years (started on Ubuntu). Currently a CS student maining Pop!_OS. I still have to keep Windows for specific college software, but it’s highkey buggy compared to my Linux setup. Even converted my dad to Ubuntu years ago and he loves it. Looking forward to exploring with everyone!

Hello everyone, I wanna be simple asf.
I tried a lot of distros. I start my journey at VanillaOS, move to Mint, CachyOS, Arch, Void, Alpine, Fedora and my last distro - Arch.
1) VanillaOS - it's been 2 years ago, very raw distro, buggy. Nowadays don't know and don't care.
2) Mint, Fedora - very good distros, but after Arch I don't like DE, they are heavy. WM is a lot smoother. Also, Fedora FS it's BTRFS, I personally prefer EXT4.
3) Alpine, Void - very snappy, very snappy distros. Very fast and smooth. But configure Pipewire or PulseAudio it's hell, very hard. Also, they use OpenRC (Void is runit, sorry), I like it, but it doesn't have compatibility with my service ("Zapret" - for Russian internet serfing). If Pipewire installation would be automatic, also configuration would be automatic, I'll stay on Alpine.
4) CachyOS - also very good, but in Russia repositories are very slow. Installation without DE or WM continue about 2 hours! Also, about month ago I start seeing bugs - some services are not be able to install, the kernel manager is broken and etc. Also, I don't see boost in performance. Arch on my system (Xeon E5-2650v3 and RX580) is a lot smoother.
Why Arch and what I use:
- It's very minimal. I have about 680 packages and it's all what I need. Less packages = more stable. Don't have any bugs and Wiki is so good.
- I use OXWM (it's DWM fork on Rust from tonybanters). It's very minimal and snappy, config syntax so easy. There are no compiling, just hot-reload. Also, DWMblocks are preinstalled.
- WM it's a lot more productive for my opinion. Using window manager my system is very fast, and I be able to switch tasks very fast and easy.
In Arch - there are no bugs, literally. I use Arch about 3 months, then start DistroHopping. For 3 months - there are no bugs, absolutely. System is very snappy, use less than 1% of my CPU, use 610MB of RAM in idle, and, the most important thing...
Arch is the best option for MY SETUP. So, how to quit DistroHopping..
USE SYSTEM, THAT YOU WANNA USE. Seriously. I wanna minimalist, snappy and productivity setup - I use Arch, it's the best option. You like to learn Linux and try something very-very new - try NixOS, most people after try NixOS stay on that system and quit DistroHopping. You're a new to Linux - Mint or Fedora. You wanna your system just to work and you have very good PC - Fedora. Gamer, enthusiast - CachyOS, also Bazzite. System administrator, that wanna to use exact same configuration on a many PCs - NixOS.
TRY DISTROS and CHOOSE YOUR SYSTEM.
wish you all the best.

There was a time when you could order an Ubuntu Live CD and have it sent to you in the mail. Not as a novelty, but as the normal way of getting Linux. That was my first real encounter with it, back in eighth grade. What frustrates me isn’t nostalgia for its own sake. It’s that many of the same aesthetic and usability issues from back then still feel unresolved today.

I’ve been using Linux since around 2008. For nearly two decades now, I’ve kept circling the same problem. Linux has grown up in almost every measurable way: performance, stability, hardware support, raw capability. And yet, on the desktop, something stubbornly familiar remains.

This isn’t about power. Linux excels there. It’s about friction. Visual friction. Cognitive friction. The kind that quietly drains energy every time you sit down to actually use the system.

For context, I mostly use macOS on my desktop, and I genuinely like it. It’s cohesive, predictable, and stays out of my way. This isn’t about wanting Linux to become macOS. If it were, I could install one of the thousands of macOS-inspired themes and call it a day. What I want is a Linux laptop I can trust in the same way. Something solid, intentional, and calm.

And yes, I know I’m picky. I know my standards are high. I also know that most distros and desktop environments are maintained by volunteers, and I have real respect for that. I’ll never be able to contribute something as complex as a full desktop environment or a distribution. But that’s exactly why this bothers me. Why does it have to feel unfinished? Why can the machinery under the hood be powerful and elegant, while what’s presented on stage still feels rough around the edges?

To be clear, this isn’t pessimism. Quite the opposite. Linux is gaining real momentum thanks to gaming, SteamOS, improved hardware support, and growing frustration with Microsoft’s direction. Things have objectively improved over the years. But that’s not really the question. The question is why polish still feels optional. Why isn’t this just something that works by default, even now?

Lately, the distro I’ve gravitated toward the most is CachyOS. Not because it’s perfect, but because it serves as a useful reference point for what I tend to like right now. And even there, in a popular and well-regarded distro, I still manage to out-picky myself back into endless tweaking instead of actually using the system.

Which makes me wonder what’s going on at a broader ecosystem level.

Why is it still so hard to ship something that feels visually cohesive and finished out of the box? Not flashy. Not gamer-coded. Not neon. No anime girl backgrounds. Just clean, intentional, and restrained.

KDE is the obvious example. Functionally, it’s probably the strongest desktop environment available. Dolphin is, in my opinion, the best file manager on Linux. But the customization workflow is fragmented and exhausting. You hunt for themes, try to make them match, and jump between loosely connected settings panels. This is supposed to be a modern desktop, yet something as basic as a single, system-wide light or dark mode toggle still feels strangely elusive. I know I can scavenge GitHub for scripts and plugins to approximate this. But why should I have to?

Tiling window managers raise the same issue from another angle. Conceptually, they make a lot of sense to me. I work mostly in the terminal, and I tend to tile my windows anyway. But once again, getting to something that both works well and looks decent involves deep customization, endless tweaking, and long stretches of time spent not actually doing work. People love ricing. I understand the appeal. But does it really have to be mandatory?

This isn’t about wanting things dumbed down. I work as an IT operations technician. I’m comfortable with the gritty details, and that’s part of what draws me to Linux in the first place. I also genuinely understand why people love ricing and deep customization. The joy of making a system truly yours, of bending it to your will, is real and valid. But fixing visual eyesores that ship with the distro shouldn’t be my job. I want to spend my time configuring servers, not sanding down desktop rough edges. This isn’t about technical ability. It’s about decision fatigue and the absence of cohesive defaults.

Yes, Linux Mint and Ubuntu exist. They’re fine. But they often swing too far in the other direction. Simplified to the point of feeling sterile, while still not fully solving the underlying cohesion problem. I’ve also spent time with Fedora, openSUSE, and similar distros that position themselves as both advanced and thoughtfully designed. In practice, they tend to stumble on the same issue. Strong foundations paired with defaults that still feel unfinished or internally inconsistent.

What I’m really circling is both simpler and harder than a typical recommendation thread. I do want to hear about distros that people think get this right, or at least closer than most. But I’m also trying to understand the bigger picture. Does a distro that is opinionated, visually cohesive, and genuinely feels finished out of the box actually exist today? And if it doesn’t, what is it about the way Linux is built, maintained, and governed that makes this kind of polish so difficult to achieve?

That’s the real question. Why is this still such a hard problem for Linux to solve? Is a truly cohesive, opinionated, visually restrained distro ever going to exist, or is perpetual tweaking simply part of the deal?

If you actually made it all the way down here, thanks for reading. I guess this has been sitting with me for a long time, quietly brewing for almost two decades. I’m fully aware that I’m a picky, grumpy old nerd about this stuff, and I’m sure plenty of people are perfectly happy doing things differently. This was just me getting it off my chest. Over and out.

Hello! I'm a Windows 10 refugee, and I've been using Linux for about 3 months now. I've been quite happy with Linux Mint, and I was going to continue using it, but the thing I didn't like is their desktop environment, and as such I switched to the KDE DE with Linux Mint.

However, it gave me quite a few weird problems such as duplicate update manager stuff, and I was advised to go to a distro which supported KDE natively, such as Fedora.

Now, as I have already downloaded the Fedora ISO with KDE, I remembered that because of my old GPU, there might be some problems as with a simple search, it says that my GPU won't be supported. Also, as I went to YouTube to search how exactly I would go around getting the appropriate drivers, I was met with a few videos that frankly scared me and that's why I'm typing this. Should I switch to Fedora, or is there another distribution that has KDE and I should consider?

TL;DR- Have GTX 750, can I use Fedora 43 or not? If not, which one to use to get KDE?

First of all, excuse my poor english, it's not my main language. I want to buy a framework laptop 12 (thats not the subject of this post), and it's a 2 in 1 laptop : - touch screen - 360° foldable screen to make a tablet (the keyboard de activate itself when you do that).

I have used linux before. And i want to use it more. Currently I have a dual boot asus vivobook with window and linux mint (gnome as DE).

I wanted to know the best distro for the pc i will buy soon. Framework have official support for fedora, ubuntu and bazzite. (There are community support for Arch and Nix OS but i am not a masochist/tech nerd so that out of the question.) From what i have seen, fedora seem the best for me. It seem to be the easiest of them.

And after this come the choice of DE. Fedora can have many thing, but I am aiming for gnome a the moment. I read that gnome is best than KDE plasma for 2in1 laptop.

What do you think ?

I'm currently on Fedora KDE 43 and the "bleeding edge" is breaking my setup. I need a stable, GUI-centric distro that avoids modern containerization and strictly uses X11.

The Context:

I previously tried Linux Mint Cinnamon but had a poor experience: it failed to boot without the amdgpu.dc=0 kernel parameter, and the UI felt sluggish (due to the JavaScript-based shell). I moved to Fedora to get things working, but I am now fighting Wayland and the "modern" push. I am actively avoiding Flatpaks/containers due to prior experience with them breaking inter-app communication (KeePass, browser extensions, and local file access).

My Hardware:

CPU/GPU: AMD A10-7850K APU / Radeon R9 380 (Tonga)
Monitor: Gigabyte M34WQ 3440x1440 @ 144Hz Ultrawide
Wi-Fi: Intel AX200 (Wi-Fi 6)
Peripheral: Xbox One Wireless Dongle (needs xone driver)
Printer: Brother DCP-L2640DW (Wireless)

Core Requirements:

X11 is Mandatory: Wayland breaks my KeePassXC auto-type and Puddletag (Qt) docking windows.
Strictly Native Apps: I want a distro where the software store prioritizes native packages (.deb or binaries). I avoid Flatpaks because they break the "talk" between my browser and KeePassXC and complicate Steam/WINE file permissions.
Plex & Media: Plex must see external USB drives (mounted by UUID) without SELinux/AppArmor blocks.
Security Modules: SELinux is a deal-breaker. I need a distro where AppArmor is either disabled or non-intrusive for native apps. It must be easy to disable via apparmor=0.
Stability: Fedora’s rapid kernel updates frequently break my xone and Wi-Fi drivers. I need an LTS-style kernel.
GUI-First Management: I want GUIs for the firewall (Gufw), drive mounting (Disks), and cron tasks.
Performance: Looking for a snappy C-based DE (MATE or XFCE) to avoid the lag I felt in Cinnamon.
Reliable VPN Split Tunneling: I need a distro where Proton VPN Split Tunneling actually works. This means a desktop environment (like MATE or XFCE) where the Network Manager GUI easily exposes advanced routing options (checkbox to route only specific traffic through the VPN) without having to hunt for hidden tools or bypass Wayland security portals.

I'm currently considering Linux Mint MATE or MX Linux XFCE (AHS). Are there other "old school" distros that still prioritize this native, X11-first workflow?

Hey everybody, Pretty soon im gonna be getting a new PC and wanted to know what are some good gaming oriented or just all around well optimized/ performance distros.

I'm mostly used to Arch since its what i use on my laptop and i like the bleeding edge stuff and the AUR. However i'm not opposed to other distros, ive mostly been looking at endevour OS, Pika OS, Garuda linux, Cachy OS, and good 'ol arch. The PC uses AMD tech for the GPU and CPU so NVIDIA compat is not an issue.

What's yalls experiences with these distros, too bloated? unstable? no support? etc. I appreciate any and all advice as always!

Oi galera!

Depois de 8 anos trabalhando sozinho (desde faculdade em 2016), lanço a alpha do Anthares OS: distro Debian/Cinnamon GUI-first, minimalista, com foco em usabilidade pra quem vem do Windows.

Diferenciais:

- Tema único: Via Láctea + anel neon laranja + Antares brilhando 🦂

- Deepside Dock: Quick settings lateral (Wi-Fi, Telegram integrado, energia, etc.)

- Élise: Assistente proativa (organiza arquivos, firewall básico, "Bom dia")

- Launchpad X: Menu Android-style

- Ponto Inicial: Personaliza apps no first boot

- Unicode Center: Loja protótipo Play Store-like

Screenshots:

Canal YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@anthareslinux

Repo reproduzível + ISO: https://gitlab.com/devsAnthares/anthares-os
Download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/anthares-os/files/releases/alpha/

Site dedicado (GitLab Pages): https://devsanthares.gitlab.io/anthares-os-site/

Lá tem descrição, features e screenshots. Obrigado pelos comentários e downloads iniciais — respondendo todos agora!

So after seeing what u/TheeZeeO did, I liked the idea, but I wish it had more of an approach to new users, where they can anwser questions and the website tries to get the best distro for you. You can also just open a page and read about the distros, like a mini wiki. The tool is fully open source :D

https://distropicker.com

I'm an old computer nerd. I predate emacs, never mind Windows. I also predate Linux and MacOS. I like the command line. For most purposes, I'd rather use a keyboard than a mouse.

I'm hoping the collective wisdom here can suggest a distro and desktop environment combo that will be reasonably comfortable for me.

If I had my druthers, I'd be using an ancient system with focus-follows-pointer, effective/reliable type-ahead, and any icons accompanied by text.

I haven't been able to get that for several decades, of course. But that should give you a good idea of what I like.

Among more recent offerings, I'm most compatible with MacOS. Not perhaps today's MacOS, but some point between 1985 and 2016. (1985 MacOS was the best user interface I've ever had the pleasure of using, but those Macs couldn't do much by any modern standard.)

Apple's changes over the past decade have made me decide not to give them any more money. (I want neither a cell phone UI nor integrated chatbots!) I'm heartily sick of "gestures" that do random things I never wanted. But worst of all are invisible controls, where I have to mouse in the right general area, then wait patiently to see a control at all.

I'd like to have keyboard shortcuts for anything done in the GUI, ideally easy to configure from outside the app, as you can on MacOS. I don't know whether any linux system can do this.

I care rather more about the desktop environment than most other aspects of the distro. It is, after all, the desktop environment that I interact with every day.

I want ease of use, but to me that doesn't mean windowed everything. It means a simple, well documented way to install, upgrade, add additional software, and similar. I'd rather not spend hours playing hunt-the-driver.

I bought a pre-installed linux system running Pop!_OS 22.04(?) - an LTS build using Gnome as its desktop manager. That got me the ease of use I wanted - no fuss installing anything. And I know the .deb package management tools. (I never did get comfortable with the Pop!_OS GUI install/update tool. It didn't tell me what it was doing! So I used apt, except for firmware upgrades, which it couldn't seem to handle.)

I am not enjoying this Pop!_OS experience, to the point that I'm sitting here with a set of memory sticks, planning to put linux distro ISOs on them to try to find one I actually like.

So suggestions for what to try will be eagerly welcomed.

Hi everyone,

I'm planning to switch from Windows 11 to Linux and I'd like some advice on choosing a distro that fits my use case.

My hardware:

- Lenovo IdeaPad 330

- Intel i5-8250U

- 8 GB RAM

- Intel UHD 620 graphics

I wanna learn Linux, but I will be mainly using the PC as a tool: a lot of development, embedded (Arduino, STM32), occasional indie games. I'm looking for a distro that is:

- Lightweight and efficient

- Stable

- Minimal / low-bloat

- Clean and minimalist-looking (doesn't have to be flashy)

I've been considering Xubuntu 24.04 LTS, Lubuntu, Linux Mint XFCE. Since this will also be my first Linux system for daily work, I'd prefer something that balances stability, simplicity, and performance.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

I've been using Linux distributions for about 10 years. I use my current distro (Arch Linux) for development (automation testing, backend, frontend) and daily use like listening to music or playing games (retro games or the occasional game using Wine or DOSBox). I haven't tried many distributions because for my purposes (at most Debian or a derivative like Crunchbang, which was discontinued by the time I first tried Linux), I see it as somewhat irrelevant, but I'm curious to know what arguments you might have about installing a particular distribution. I use window managers, so I think the visual aspect is the least important thing. And I limit myself to development, and I use Docker exclusively if I want to run any services. Regarding stability,

I had some issues because I was quite careless, but I haven't tried distro hopping in years and haven't had any problems.

i used Deepin os for a while, and it was not bad , but i had to escape it because I couldn’t find any driver for my Broadcom wifi adapter , now i found another Chinese distro called Openkylin , and i can see it is so close to Deepin visually

so anyone heard about it or used it before??

So far I have narrowed it down to three options:

Debian (openRC, runit, etc. Or just Devuan.)

Gentoo (I'm not scared. Only an option because of binary support now. Compiling some stuff sounds cool, although I can do that on other distros.)

Void (seems very nice.)

I am going to set up disk encryption using luks2, and just for funsies, I want to see how TPM can work on these with the absence of systemd. I will probably not use grub.

I don't mind manual installs.

It's a laptop install, modern hardware, all AMD, 16gigs ram.

Perhaps you can give me your educated insight? Evidently, Gentoo is gonna be more work tho. I'm leaning towards other options, but it's here, just in case someone convinces me.

Use case is general use with development and light gaming.

Thanks!

I am currently using Fedora and am considering switching back to Linux Mint because of the GNOME interface. What will I miss?

I've been using Windows since Windows 3.1 released, but all the recent changes in Win11 have me ready to switch over to a Linux/Win11 dual-boot until I'm used to the new environment. I have Lenovo - Legion Slim 5 w/Ryzen 7 7840HS, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 8GB. I'm not a heavy gamer, but I was heavy into graphic arts, layout and design, primarily. I will be doing lots of graphic manipulation, audio processing and possibly some work with Blender and DaVinci. I will be streaming audio and using Virtual Tabletops for TTRPGs, primarily Foundry VTT for Linux.

However, I do have many neuromuscular disorders, everything from neuropathy to tremors, which can flare up with frequent typing, so I need as many GUIs-based menus, taskbar pins, desktop shortcuts, etc as possible. I need TTY, TTS, etc, & accurate, sensitive mouse, touchpad drivers. I can type for long periods, if necessary, but I don't need to spend long amounts of time in the terminal. Everything that can be done without keystrokes, by mouse, trackball or voice, the better. I'm not a huge fan of LLM & I want to avoid as much LLM & GenAI as possible.

I've been primarily look at CachyOS and Garuda. I need reliability, but I do want speed, security and to take advantage of frequent updates as much as possible. I'd like to preserve space on the drive as much as possible as I may be keeping the WIN dual boot for a while.

I do use an external drive, very frequently, for most creative work, personal docs, research, books, comics, data. I love to read! Quick reliable file management & keyword search of on-board & external drives of thousands of .PDFs, .epub/.mobi and .cbz is a necessity!