If you have been using Linux for +10 years, what are you using now?
Been using Linux for over a decade, and last few years Ubuntu (on desktops/laptops), plus Debian on servers, but been looking to switch to something less “Canonical”-y for a long time (since the Amazon search fiasco, pretty much).
Appreciate recommendations or just an interesting discussion about people’s experiences, there are no wrong answers.
I hopped around a little but settled into Debian a long, long time ago. My son loves Arch, I like my stuff to be a bit more stable and don’t have the time to update between commands all the time (its a joke but has a little truth to it).
i’ve been using arch as my daily driver for 4 years. but i am thinking of switching to chimera linux. i really like apk, i think using dinit, llvm, musl and *bsd core utils would be great. for server, i use proxmox as my hypervisor, and debian for most vm’s, starting to use alpine on lxc. I am using openwrt on my router.
I think I started back in the day with Ubuntu Gnome, with some dabbling in Manjaro and then Arch.
But since then I have used Fedora Workstation, and then Fedora Silverblue / Fedora Kinoite (immutable versions of fedora, with the past several years on Kinoite [kde] over Silverblue [gnome])
On the server side of things, I am using Debian (with everything running in podman containers).
If I were to consider migrating, it would be to migrate my laptop to secureblue (likely, rebasing the OS image rather than clean-installing) and migrate my Windows 11 desktop to bazzite. Both of these are still based on Fedora’s immutable base, albeit with changes to the base OS image. At some point in the future, I would also consider migrating my server to an immutable OS, however, which one remains to be seen.
I started with Slackware in the early 90s, moved to Gentoo in 2004 after using FreeBSD for a while, and Arch linux since 2007. Gentoo was too much work (both for my and for my CPU’s) in the long run. It has been more predictable (in spite of being a rolling release) for me than anything else,
I have been using unixes since 2000 and technically a bit before that as a user in school systems and linux since 2005. I am currently using zorin but have a long term trial to go towards and image type of system like bazzite. Thing is I have been doing this stuff to long and now I prefer to have stuff that just works and go rather than having to futz around. So my emphasis is on lazy linux. Its kinda funny because I sometimes talk about why I do and don’t do things at the command line and I will get responses about learning it more and I kinda got to roll my eyes.
As someone who threw themselves into Bazzite, it really is worth it, such a great system. If you are familiar with Docker and the dev container workflow, you really will love it on all your devices, especially laptops.
Debian on the streets (servers), Arch on the sheets (laptop).
Question to users and distro hoppers. I’ve grown to love Mint used it for years. But sometimes it updates and moves my game folders, loses my saves and I have to hunt in my system and hope I find my precious years long game saves.
Is there such thing as a distro that never changes the structure where truly all my files, system files, games will all be the same over years?
I’ve tried NIX and liked it, I’ve tried LMDE and Stock Mint with Ubuntu bugs yay, I’ve tried base Debian 13, and lastly Fedora kinoite…
Whats a system that updates but doesn’t lose my shit when I just want to game and use my PC? I like having all my files never move, structure of system never change, but having the ability to run steam and heroic games of all types. I’m still back to Stock Mint Ubuntu but dammit if they don’t introduce bugs sometimes. Like suspend / resume audio doesn’t work after sleeping my desktop and back on without restarting.
Immutable distros are at the point where I’d recommend Bazzite over Mint or PopOS now, you should try it out, it’s a new paradigm for linux that matches with what you want.
LMDE on desktop. MX Linux on laptop. Nextcloud server runs Ubuntu. Homelab server on Debian.
KDE is ideal to me given performance and polish, things like fractional scaling and Wayland are all top tier. I use Kubuntu but am waiting on “KDE Linux”.
For almost 30 years Debian somehow.
Debian and alpine. Coming up on 27 years of linux for me.
Arch, btw
inb4 everybody except the people who have actually been daily-driving linux for 10+ years have an answer
fwiw I use Mint
Started out on Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon ten years ago. Looked around, got into other distros and DEs, window managers, file systems, bash scripting and server administration. Yet here I am, still on Linux Mint. It just works extremely well for me, never broke down (unless I broke it) and stayed out of my way to let me focus on my actual work.
I’m at 9 years myself, I use Ubuntu on desktop, Mint on my home ThinkPad, Ubuntu on my work ThinkPad, and a mix of Debian/Proxmox and Ubuntu for my servers. I’m hoping to switch my desktop to Mint at some point.
