I would prefer something based on Debian, like Ubuntu or PopOS, but I’m open for other suggestions as well, as I’m looking for a distro to daily-drive on my new Framework laptop.
I mean, why not just use PopOS? It’s not my first choice but a lot of people like it.
Fedora is the other obvious choice, perhaps even silverblue for that nice immutable ecosystem if your apps can all be obtained via flatpak.
I also really like endeavour due to how minimal it is out of the box an AUR access.
Either PopOS or Fedora would be my choice for a no hassle distro. The new Cosmic DE that System76 is making for PopOS looks pretty nice.
I know you said you want something Debian-based, but Fedora is my go-to distro for daily driver workstations. Rock solid, has up to date software, and the release upgrade process has never failed me.
So, I know I could just look this up and get answers off google, but for the sake of conversation, why do you prefer Fedora over something like say, Mint?
I have bounced around through several distros (Mint, Ubuntu, Arch, Pop, a bit of Slack), and have always found something in each that could draw me in. What does it for you in Fedora?
Fedora is pretty cutting edge (updating package versions every 6 months), while still being rock solid. The release upgrade is also the most reliable one I’ve had to deal with - I successfully upgraded an ancient install by 10 versions once.
Gotcha. For those that are happy with the upgrade process and stability of what they are on though, is there anything that makes it more enticing?
I may end up giving it a go just to round out my experience with the various flavors and get some real experience with RPM.
Honestly, Linux is Linux. Once you’re comfortable enough, that’s really all that differentiates distros between each other. (Minus weird shit like glibc vs musl, nixOS, etc) It’s just been the closest experience I’ve had to “it just works” when it comes to Linux desktop.
I should also shout out that Fedora tends to embrace existing standards rather than make their own (cough Cannonical cough Snap). I’m also a big fan of some Fedora projects, particularly Fedora Silverblue
Why not directly Debian ?
This is the way. Why go through middle man when you can go straight to the source.
Just remember, stable is for servers, testing is for workstations.
Stable isnt just “for servers”. I run stable on my laptop as well
OP said they dont need it for gaming, so you dont need the latest, shiniest things. Stable + backports should be good enough for most people unless you’re doing some really specialized work