If you had to pick one distro to use for the next five years, what would it be? Bleeding edge / stable? Rolling / periodic?
What would you prioritise and why?
After 20 years of Gentoo, I don’t see myself switching in the next five. Comfortable, capable, flexible.
18 years here (started 2008, god, has it really been that long?). And I only had to reinstall once in that time (my own fault). Even new systems are just installed from snapshots of my existing systems.
It’s really low maintenance once it’s set up. It almost never breaks, and for breaking changes you get news through the package manager months in advance, and if you actually need to fix something it’s always possible (easy downgrades, deploying of patches, etc.). I’m also using some Arch and Ubuntu on the side and stability doesn’t even compare.
Void. Second choice, debian.
If l have a nice pc definitly qubes os
Best of both worlds – Debian + Nix home-manager. Debian gives you incredible stability and plenty of usage resources. Nix gives you anything too new for Debian and functionally confines the more experimental end of your config to user space.
Been using Debian stable since Hans reiser got locked up.
It’s fine and it will continue to be fine.
Gentoo <3
idk bro I’ve been running the same arch install for the last 6 years and I will run it for the next 5 as well.
I’m a newbie, just put Mint on an old laptop and I’m blown away; it really does just work!
I have been thinking about trying Arch next because it’s so well documented. I don’t know maybe put together a little home server or something.
Do you think it’s appropriate for a relative newcomer? I’m excited by the documentation but also a little intimidated by it! I suspect I’ll need to ask for help but would worry about not having read everything there is to read first.
NixOS. I came a long way and it combines the best of modular, customizable and immutable.
If I had to pick one, Arch. I already use it a lot, so it’s familiar. I know my way around the package manager and how to create packages, so even when things aren’t available for Arch out of the box, I can make it work.
It’d be kind of a hassle trying to keep anywhere close to 100% server uptime, but for my own personal stuff that shouldn’t be that big of an issue, as I can fix it when I have the time.
For desktop, I basically can’t do stable release. I frequently mess with new projects requiring the latest versions of everything, which is a near impossible task on stable-release distros.
Familiar
So, mint with cinnamon
System 76 cosmic, I have been testing it for a couple months and its pretty solid imo
This is a DE not a distro, System76’s distro is named Pop_OS!
Debian testing, then upgrade it as they make major releases. I have yet to have a single Debian upgrade go wrong on Desktop or Server. It is basically magic.
likewise.
I asked myself this exact question back in 2020 and chose Arch. At the time I had been using Fedora since 2017. What I ultimately wanted was a system I could install once and continually evolve rather than replace. Several years on, I’m still running that same installation and it has never given me a reason to reconsider…
Depends on what I’m doing.
Workstation or server will be Debian. Personal devices are either Debian or Arch.
I’d prioritize Debian if I could only pick one for all options.
Don’t forget debian on phones (mobian), debian on embedded devices (armbian or even pure debian), debian on gaming machines and debian on vms running on debian hosts
I’ve been daily driving Debian Stable for the past 5 years and I am more than happy to continue for the next five. It’s also on nearly all of my machines and the majority of my VMs.
I’m honestly not very keen on the latest features or hardware, but I am very keen on my software being predictable and consistent, so the Debian release cycle is perfect for me.
