I thought I was finally finished distro hopping after I landed on Fedora, but then I found Nobara and then the whole RHEL drama started so I went back to Debian stable but then NixOS caught my attention.
It will never end
i just don't do distrohopping, it's a pointless venture imo. started with arch linux as my main desktop, never went back.
tried some things occasionally, but i already sunk the time learning all sorts of things that may not even exist in other distros, configuring my system and the DE (and other things like zsh and vim setup), so it's just a waste of time honestly.
i'm thinking of using NixOS instead of Debian (what i used previously) for my upcoming server project though.
I hopped for ages and finally landed on Arch (btw), and I thought I was settled. I've been on it for like two years now.
But lately I've been hearing the call of NixOS too...
Yep, tried a couple distros out and ended up on Arch for a year and was happy. Then switched over to NixOS and have been using it ever since, there's no way I could ever main any other distro.
The Arch -> NixOS pipeline is real
I've skipped the middle men and went from Mint to NixOS. I've used Mint since the Ubuntu Unity thing, so 2011 if I can trust some random wiki entry I just found.
NixOS was for me the thing that stopped me from distro hopping and re-installations. I just don't care anymore to switch to anything, everything works how I want and I can focus on using it.
I’m using Debian right now, and it has been the most stable, and battery efficient distro I’ve used on my laptop. I see NixOS a lot on here, and went to look it up. I couldn’t discern really what makes it good, so may I ask for your “review” of it compared to Debian?
If you happen to customize your OS a lot, with NixOS you can define everything from one configuration: all your packages, your shell aliases, kernel parameters or for example the desktop wallpaper.
You can push this config to GitHub and clone it to another NixOS machine and that one will have exactly the same packages, kernel parameters, shell aliases and wallpaper. Even the package versions, including all the libraries will be the same everywhere.
You can even patch your tools from these configs, have custom kernels and go really crazy. When you commit your changes, they work exactly the same in all your machines. And on boot, you get a list of configurations, so you can boot to the previous config of your current changes broke something, go fix what you broke and retry.
And, with nix the tool, your team can provide the flake.nix and flake.lock files in the software project you all work for. It will then make sure everybody gets the right versions from the dependencies, compilers, linters, etc. If it works for one, it works for all.
Nix the tool let's you try this out in systems like other Linux distros or removed. NixOS is an OS that is taking a step further and requiring you to define the whole system with Nix.
Oh, and a sibling project Home Manager is great for reproducible dotfiles.
Thank you so very much for your review. It helped me understand it a lot more than their webpage did! I’m a casual when it comes to Linux in that I just want to set it up, and never touch it again unless I get bored or have to. This sounds like a tinkerer’s dream OS, and that is awesome in itself. It’s just more technical than I have the time for right now.
Adding a little to the other comment: Nix packages are fully reproducible, so you can verify they're built from the source they're claimed to be. That makes package distribution more secure. (E.g. Debian could add malicious code to some packages before compiling them, and you'd never know. Not saying they do that, but they're able to.)
Thank you for the further explanation! I was able to see from the above that it may not be an OS for a casual Linux user like myself, but I think it is awesome for someone who wants to tinker to their hearts desire and make their system their own!
Maybe adding a warning to my previous comment. Going full-on NixOS is like learning vim for the first time. It is complex, takes a lot of time and you need to re-learn lots of things. Maybe evaluate are the good parts enough for you to spend a year re-learning how you use computers worth it. For me it definitely was.
I swear, the only reason I haven't continued distrohopping is that I'm waiting for Pop_OS!'s Cosmic desktop and they are holding out on me
Modern society is all about convenience. Linux can increase marketshare by being more convenient and digestible. Actually, I am in the process of moving to Debian w/ KDE Plasma as my daily driving computer, but it required extensive research on what my options were. Quite simply, there are WAY too many options all touting features that slightly differ from each other than normal end users struggle to interpret.
Formula is simple. More easy = more better. Make adoption as painless as possible, people MIGHT trickle in.
Yeah, Linux is just not that accessible tbh. I know maaayyyybe a little more than average about computers, meaning I know how to follow tutorials lol.
I installed Ubuntu onto my laptop because it was getting old and slow. Overall, I'm very satisfied with the speed. My laptop is fast as it was new. But, doing some of the simplest things is a nightmare to me. I spent an hour last night just trying to install AirVPN. Why do I have to go into terminal? Why can't I just right click and install? Then when I finally got it installed I realized there's no UI, so idk how to use it lol.
Given, I could learn. Nothing wrong with that. But the opportunity cost is low - I'm really not willing to give up that much for ? benefit.
Thank heavens for the Ubuntu app store
I started same way with Ubuntu on old laptops to extend life. I later bought a Dell XPS 13 with Ubuntu preinstalled. I like figuring stuff out, but it can get infuriating as I too am not a tech job person, just enthusiastic. I keep a "how to Linux" text file with notes. The forums & to tutorials help a lot. I did manage to get a pihole up & running recently (days of fiddling with router). It's a hard learning curve, but when I get on my spouse's window 11 laptop I feel vindicated. Would I switch distros? Eh. My needs are met & it's working. IDK what it entails to get back to the settings / setup I've got now.
My biggest problem is that battery life on my laptop was awful. I tried a few distros and they were all drawing 17-20W from battery doing absolutely nothing. Which means 4-5 hour battery life on an 90Wh battery. In Windows it gets ~10 hours.
I screwed around with it several nights in a row, but nothing really worked.
I'll run Linux on servers, workstations, and containers; but never again on a laptop unless it's been tuned by someone else.
I guess that's kind of what's going on with the Steam Deck, as in, it's already set up and configured for Linux so you don't need to make any choices or do anything especially, you just turn it on and away you go.
(Of course, you can install other distros and stuff on it, but I'd assume the vast majority of people don't)
they need to collectively tap one distro to be the one and drive to make that as easy to use as possible
That's essentially what ChromeOS is: a corporate-controlled distro that takes away a lot of choice but also a lot of the distraction. It works for some people who would've never considered a Linux laptop otherwise.
I'm just dipping my toes into the Linux world and searched up something like "Linux distros for beginners," and Mint with Cinnamon was on like five lists.
It's like having sex for the first time. Don't know what I'm doing, but I'm having fun.
I dont understand the analogy because I didn't get any. For me, it was like riding a bike or driving a car, I got a hang of it, but didn't know where to go and went wherever the internet/maps said was popular. Or when I first went to a buffet, didn't know what I wanted but started taking everything available in small portions and taking what others(friends and strangers) took.
I feel this.
I've finally ordered new hardware, last of it gets here this weekend. I've made a choice of a distro to start, but if I'm like everyone else here, it's just a start. 💀
Either way I'm excited to join the revolution. I knew a long time ago I would never continue with Windows after 10 turned into a disaster. I mean it always has its problems, but I never looked too far into switching because I was locked in with games. Since I knew I would never give in to sullying myself with 11, there was a ticking clock until 10's EoL date as a deadline.
Made the jump sooner than I thought. Can't wait to try it out for real.
Had a dual boot I tinkered with back when Ubuntu was on version 6 point something, whatever "Edgy Eft" was. Poked around in a VM a lil bit about a year and a half ago, can't remember what distro that was, but never dug in as a daily driver, since I mainly use the computer to play games.
But now I get to try it for real.
Choose your desktop, that's the thing you'll work with the most and could get in your way the most. Any 'living' distribution with an installer that fits your needs and delivers your chosen desktop out of the box will do. You'll learn later if the distribution and community suit you, and if you back up your user directory you can easily migrate distributions without changing the look of your system.
I think these are good points - desktop environment will be the most immediately impactful choice; then once you're settled a little into the Linux way you might start making choices about the package manager, eco-system and community philosophy.
But as you said, take your home directory with you and switching or exploring a little isn't a pain at all.
You'll have such a bad start choosing Mint when you don't like Cinnamon, this approach prevents that. They do a lot of things right for beginners/low maintainers but only if you can live with their desktop.
I kinda did that accidentally. Plasma seems pretty powerful and customizable, so I went with that first.
Good luck! I've been using Linux on my main rig since December when I challenged myself to use it exclusively for an entire month. I only boot into Windows to play Valorant every now and then.
Decision paralysis in a nutshell. If we choose something, there is always a better thing (that we think there is).
You'll pin down what you like about the underlying systems you experience, and then go hunting for that, just streamlined.
Like, I love Archlinux. I love the config files, how simple and straightforward they are. I love pacman and the structure of it... but I use Garuda.
So I know every cool default or awesome app that could help me out just by happenstance? Nope, lol. I like being surprised by features. With Garuda, I get both the system I like with the Ubuntu polish.... and... dragons. You can change the theme.
I'm trying to set up a server for the first time and am jumping into Debian and Docker almost blind.
What a learned when I used to use Linux is that the biggest concern about a distro should be how up-to-date their repositories are and whether they integrate what you want instead of looks and whistles. User support for that distro is also a big plus.
Turns out distrohopping won't make fprintd work with my laptop fingerprint sensor or give me equal Proton performance on my (admittedly) low-end iGPU, so uhh...
I did debian.
My rational was I like the package management style and raspbian. That's all you gotta do, just find some feature you like. You can always wipe your drive and choose another later.
