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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 just distro hopped after using a distro almost a year. Is it normal? (lemm.ee)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hi, I just want to share / get some opinion.

I started using Linux 2 years back. I was dual booting back then and after a year switched to Linux completely.

I started out using Ubuntu, hated it, installed Manjaro after a week and when pacmac broke the thing within 2 months, I watched a bunch of YouTube videos, read the arch wiki and installed arch. Things were going great except for some Nvidia issues (I am using an Optimus laptop) but utt was running smoothly. Then decided that I want to build a game engine and the nvidia issues were significant. So I read somewhere that Fedora has great nvidia support and I installed it and everything worked. I installed Fedora 39, and it worked. When Fedora 40 came, I upgraded no issues, Fedora 41 came, no issues.

But just a few days back when I had vacation, I decided my system was getting bloated and I didn't manually want to uninstall apps, I decided let's format it. But I thought... Arch might take up less space on my disk(1 have a 512gb nvme, and t 2tb hdd, but I like to put things like games and projects I am working on, on the nvme). So I installed arch and loving the experience. I installed Nvidia-open drm drivers and it just works.

TLDR: Is it normal to distro hop after being using a distro perfectly for so long?

PS: I used archinstall because I didn't want through the lengthy process again. And archinstall works great.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I've been using Linux for 25 years. I started with SuSe, switched to RedHat after a couple months, and after a few more months switched to Gentoo... for 10 years, then did Arch for the remainder.

Frankly, I think that distro hopping is a bad idea because it means you don't get enough time really understanding how to fix things. As a long time Arch user, it would never occur to me to throw out 10+years of tooling and scripts, muscle memory and shorthand to fix a driver issue. I would read the wiki top to bottom and then go spelunking through other sources until I find the solution (then update the wiki) before I'd switch to something foreign with its own set of problems and unknowns.

My advice is to find a distro that makes sense to you, and that has a deployment pattern you like and commit to it for a few years. Don't switch unless you find something that fulfills those two requirements even better, and even then do so cautiously. Your experience and understanding is hard-won.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

I was on EndeavourOS for a couple of years and now I'm just on vanilla Arch with KDE and I also couldn't imagine just dumping all of my knowledge and problem solving workflow by jumping to a different distro or architecture. I certainly can't see myself ever using Windows again. It's very weird to imagine that if I ever wanted a flagship computer I would probably buy an Apple.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Gentoo also cured me of distro-hopping

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

My advice is to find a distro that makes sense to you, and that has a deployment pattern you like and commit to it for a few years.

Excellent advice. I'd also include maintenance structure, if that's something you can determine. Do they have a history of addressing important bugs? How active are they? Is it maintained by a single dev? Does the team seem overwhelmed or are they stretched thin?

I've avoided distros that have a single maintainer (like Archcraft), because while voluntary distro hoping can be fun, forced distro hoping due to the lone maintainer getting burned out and abandoning the project, leaving their custom repos dead, is no fun for anyone.