this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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I've been hopping between Arch and NixOS for about a year, and I've been on Arch For a few months before that (wirh the exception of a few short-term hops to Ubuntu, Fedora, Starting off with Mint and ArcoLinux, And I almost stayed on Tumbleweed about a week ago but I couldn't figure out dnf5 (a few days later I was told that installing dnf was installing dnf5 so I just had to configure it properly). So right now I'm on NixOS, where SDDM broke last night and I had to switch to GDM, and with my recent switch to Emacs, NixOS keeps on throwing issues at me (and here I was, thinking NixOS could be my forever distro). Tumbleweed is missing a lot of packages I use, I'm tired of Arch, and I feel like NixOS is giving me problems every time I try it, so at this point, I'm at a loss.
Like, I'm seriously considering abandoning Wayland and everything, and just switching all the way back to AwesomeWM (my first window manager) with Jonaburg's fork of Picom (to give me Hyprland-like animations, rounded corners and floating bars) on Debian and sticking with it until we get Hyprland on Debian and then sticking to that. Alternatively, Fedora (even though I felt dirty using it after the whole redhat debacle, and hyprland and waybar weren't working the way they were supposed to). I don't know. I'm tired, I want all my stuff on a distro that I can just not update for weeks, because I'm often too busy or just forget, and where things just work (tm). So... yeah. That's the crap I'm dealing with.
TLDR: The only distros that have all the packages I need (I really, REALLY, don't want to compile anything if I can avoid it) are either, broken and problematic (NixOS for some reason), have slow package management and are missing packages (Tumbleweed) or do not have a stable branch (Arch AND Tumbleweed), meaning that when they aren't updated for weeks (as it often happens with my system), they can break (Arch).
So I distrohop cuz NO distro out there meets my criteria and works well for me. I just want Debian's stability with Arch's repos and AUR, so I can get Hyprland and all my (often not very popular) software I use, from the regular ol repos so I don't have to compile.
So there's no more or less stable distro based on arch?
Yes, Manjaro. But you have to stick to a LTS kernel (or at least keep a LTS kernel installed as backup), not install things from AUR that can take your machine down if they break, use their way of installing drivers (particularly graphical drivers), don't switch to the testing or unstable branch etc.
They also offer BTRFS now for the system partition and integrate it by default with Timeshift so you automatically get recovery snapshots you can boot into from Grub if anything bad happens.
All of the above is default so you don't have to do anything to attain stability, just not actively ruin it. But as you'll see from some of the comments around here there are people who just can't help themselves. 😁
I've been using it as main desktop system for about 4 years now and I'm super happy with it. I've also installed it for some relatives (without sudo rights), I manage it remotely over Tailscale and it's been working perfectly.
They all either use the Arch repos and add some of their own repos on top, or they're Manjaro which actively makes Arch even less stable because of version mismatch with the AUR.
There is no stable release distro based on Arch
Has this happened to you personally or are you just repeating something you've heard?
What package were you unable to install because of "version mismatch"?
I'll admit, I've barely used Manjaro so I'm just repeating what I've heard. It still doesn't matter because Manjaro is still a rolling release and I don't want one of those anymore.
I've had version mismatches before, it's why I stopped using Manjaro, and yes I mean it happened to me personally. I forget the specific package but I know it was a patched version of something in the graphical stack.
Same. It's what drove me away and took me a week of free time to get back up and running on Arch. Manjaro makes me sick now.