I found myself switching between various unix distributions within the last couple of years.
On one side I want to have a stable system that I can work with everyday but on the other side I want to take the adventure of exploring a new distro.
To say it with statistics: I switch my distro every 2nd month ๐
So my question to you:
How often do you switch your distro?
I'm curious how often you switch and what your reasons are.
Latest comments (42)
I switched between Arch and Ubuntu a few times. Ended up on Ubuntu and didn't switch for a year or more now. Driver support, gaming support, barely any hassle with drivers and printers and graphics and so on is the only thing that is keeping me. I honestly think that Arch is better and faster and has less bloat, but I am "stuck" with Ubuntu because of it's stellar compatibility.
I don't really care, I am using i3-wm so anything looks and behaves pretty much the same on any distro.
I had a similar experience with Ubuntu. Once I needed to scan something and was used to Windows and that it just works or grabs the driver automatically and was unsure how to get it done on Ubuntu. But Ubuntu had already pretty good Scanner drivers packed with it and a nice GUI for it.
That is a little bit more effort on Arch, so I can understand that you choose to stick to Ubuntu :)
After seeing some configs of i3 now I think I'll use it, too.
Honestly, I couldn't recommend i3wm more. It is amazing. Just like anything on Linux, takes time to configure at first. But after 1 month you're rolling. I've been using i3wm for more than a year without switching to anything else. I can definitely say this is, so far, the biggest reason I would never come back to Windows.
During my first few years using linux in university I was switching distros every 2-6 months. I was Goldilocks desperately seeking the one elusive distro that would be just right.
But eventually the thrill of trying new things wore off and I was running out of distros to sample without going into the weird ones and joke ones. I just wanted something that met all of my needs and most of my wants out of the box. For a while that was Ubuntu, but then they started adding lenses, cutting out killer features, and forcing me to use their app store to install certain things.
Since then I've just been running Debian (the version packaged with non-free firmware, of course) for its maturity, stability, and the general availability of .deb packages for any software not found in the official repos.
That is one good point you state here Reeses, I did not come across software that was not available for debian.
I do not switch my distro anymore.
I don't see a reason to switch.
In my early days I hopped Kubuntu->Debian->Gentoo->Arch. And nowadays I have settled with openSUSE Tumbleweed.
The reason why I switched was: I wanted newer packages.
The reason why I do not switch: With rolling release distros like Arch or Tumbleweed, I mostly get fresh packages (relatively vanilla).
Tumbleweed runs more stable on my box over the years than Arch - although this is admittedly a nitpick; I had over 5 years of Arch perhaps 2 issues and on the other hand with Tumbleweed 0.
But I am happy so far.
I've been using manjaro plus deepin DE for 2 years and it works great for me. No need to switch.
I stoped switching that much since I started using archlinux.
The package manager it's pretty good, AUR is a godsend and I can customize it to my needs, right now I'm using herbstluftwm and is really easy to configure <3
I'm looking to make a post about this setup.
That sounds interesting, looking forward to read your post :)
Back in the 1990's and early 2000's I switched a lot more than I do now. I started in RedHat Linux, tried a bunch of stuff, ran Debian on my workstation for a while and RedHat on my servers, OpenBSD on my workstation for a while, then Knoppix, then Ubuntu when it came out.
Once the hardware detection of Knoppix and later Ubuntu became ubiquitous, I went back to Debian. I deal with CentOS regularly for work, and I have been looking at OpenSuSE again recently after ignoring it since 1998 or so because they're using btrfs snapshot before upgrading the way Solaris used to.
So I guess every ten years now?
Ahh good old Suse... I remember the CDs with the big green user manual it was packaged with :D
That is one very good reason to try it out again ๐
Years ago, while I was a student and then a junior dev, I switched distro regularly enough (5-6 times a year).
Later, bigger work comes, family, bigger responsibility comes. No time for distros. I even don't know what version of ubuntu I have ;) laptop is new enough, so I suppose it's 18.04. I even do not change wallpapers or any other configuration.
This is totally legit! When I think of how much time I have spent with fixing issues with a new distro, finding my way around and playing with Ui config stuff, you have more time to be productive without dealing with all these things :)
I think the only real good thing, that you need to spend time to configure - is shortcuts.
And usually, once you got it - just save it and reuse later
At the beginning I used to switch distros maybe every month. Then, when I finally started coding more often I stayed with Ubuntu with a LTS version and focus on coding. I choose Ubuntu (with gnome 3 obviously) because is the most (well???) documented distro.
Now I used pop_os, a Ubuntu flavoured distro form system76 company. This is because it has a more updated nvidia driver for my PC and a more gnome3 look and feel than bare bones Ubuntu.
Also I still using most recent LTS version as my servers or docker images use.
Interesting, never gave pop_os a chance until now, thanks for sharing.
Having recent drivers can be a huge advantage for a distro. I also liked the gnome environment back when I was using Ubuntu :)
Was your decision to use a LTS version based on your requirements for stable releases and long support or just went with LTS first and left it that way?
When I was younger I used to experiment with different Ubuntu flavours but these days my only Linux interaction are Debian servers. I think I'd like to move back to Ubuntu one day.
Ubuntu was also one of my long time favorites.
What is so nice about Ubuntu is that it has a lot of stuff already integrated for everyday use like scanning drivers and tools and stuff.
The switch from ubuntu away came with the urge to build it more from ground up to learn how the components work together, how to write a kernel and stuff.
But debian servers are pretty stable :)
I don't switch very often. I'm using KDE neon nowadays, I'm happy with it and I know how everything works.
However, every now and then I install a new distro in a virtual machine and toy around with it for a week or two. I wish I had time to do that more often, but with my current schedule I haven't had time to do it in the past six months :(
What makes you prefer the KDE desktop (tautologous I know) over the Unity desktop?
It's the look and feel. I can't put my finger in what exactly I dislike about the Unity desktop, but I was never a huge fan, I like much better the KDE feel.
A solid setup is always good to get stuff done fast, so this is not a bad thing at all. The idea to use a VM for this is very neat because it will not interrupt your current (host) setup and you can toss it away when you're done with it.
Only thing that bothers me with VMs is if I get a pretty good setup working and have all the stuff in there I want and decide to use the distro from now on, I need to get all that out there and install it on the host somehow. Did not find a convenient way to do that for now :(
Yeah, I really like to use VMs to experiment and see what else is out there.
It's not ideal, but I would just create a disk image of the VM with
ddand install it in the host machine.Thought of the dd solution also, but as you already said, not the ideal one so I am still searching for a better one.