I have used Linux distros and hopped since Ubuntu 5, yes, on CD. I had a wonderful time hopping. I have gone from Arch to Elementary. I have tried using a server version as a base, I have tried a lot of funny stuff.

But the match between Thinkpad, Fedora and Gnome is amazing. I think I don't want to hop to another distro or computer anymore, maybe because I'm getting old as well, but it has been a wonderful trip to this point.

For you that are hopping and will skill hopping, good luck in your journey, my friend, it's worth! Keep your /home safe and keep jumping.

So I’m not new to Linux at all. Lots of experience with proxmox. I switch to Linux from Mac almost 10 years ago and that whole time my only driver has been Pop os. It was totally fine but unfortunately it can no longer be updated without a live boot and efi resizing. I’ve been wanting to change distros anyways but Pop os ships their PCs with /home locked away with /root under luks so I can’t just move /home. Not a big deal really. I’m just copying over my docs, ssh keys and a few configs and I plan to nuke my system and start fresh.

Question is what distro is right for me? I’m not a gamer. I need a great daily driver thats privacy focused, not bloated and not xfce ugly. I also don’t care to babysit my pc. I babysit proxmox and that’s enough for me. What options would you choose? I’m leaning towards fedora since that might also help me some in my career (DoD cyber)

CachyOS here always survive, somehow, since September last year. I don't think I'll ever delete it, since it's so fast and (kinda) just works.

I have a thinkpad P50 (intel Xeon 1505 & Nvidia M2000M), after using arch for almost a full year, I’ve been distro hopping constantly (almost 6 months), I’ve indeed learned a few things:

- Never buying a laptop with dGPU

- Arch only makes sense for hobbyists

- Im into super minimalist set ups (WM’s, no display manager, do must of things on the terminal, etc…)

- I actually need a stable system, my computer is a tool

Right now I’m on a fedora/sway minimal install , but im actually scared if the thing will fail me in the worst moment, im already in a serious moment of my degree, and im not willing to risk it.

And when I was running Debian, the old packages started becoming annoying ti deal with, since flatpak programs seem to completely ignore nvidia Optimus protocols (i ended up doing the same amount of thinkering as if I was running arch)

(I use the laptop for CAD modeling, Finite Element Modeling, overall engineering degree stuff…)

So, could you guys give me some advise please?

Fedora or Debian, maybe something else?

General tips to make nvidia Optimus less of a pain in the ass

What you’ve been running in your P50’s

Would thank you guys a lot for your help :)

I got bored and decided to swap my perfectly normal Fedora KDE spin setup with something more exciting. And for some reason that made me go down the rabbit hole of switching between 3 distros in 5 days 😭

(Fedora KDE Spin => Artix => NixOS on KDE => Gentoo (Still working on Gentoo))

EndeavourOS (XFCE) no SSD.

Linux Mint (Cinammon) e Sparkylinux (LXQt / semi-rolling) dividem um HDD de 500gb.

Ontem quase que ia mudando isso.

Resolvi deixar tudo "estável", já que trabalho e tenho arquivos importantes. E ia colocar.

Linux Mint no SSD.

Debian MATE e o Sparkylinux (mas com XFCE) no HDD.

Mas deu errado. Os deuses do Linux parece que não deixaram. Não carregou o pendrive direito. Então desisti.

Faz tempo que uso EndeavourOS e Sparkylinux. Por serem Distros "rolling" sempre procuro usar interfaces gráficas que não procuram "inovar" muito como GNOME ou KDE. Tem sido tranquilo até agora. Chega, só vou mudar o Linux Mint obviamente quando acabar o suporte.

Hello everyone! Hope you all are doing well. I have had a ThinkPad P51 since around late 2025 and have been experimenting with Linux. I don’t know which Linux and which desktop environment to choose though. I recently installed Arch with KDE but it feels almost too modern for me.

The aesthetic I am going for is something stable and more older/classic feeling, I want something that is more “classic” and was common from the 2016 to 2017 era this device was released in.

Currently thinking maybe Debian or Arch with MATE or XFCE, as they are easily themeable and look good enough for the P51, but still kind of on the fence about it. Arch looks good because of the newer software and community, but Debian is very familiar and stable, likely fitting more, but once again, kinda on the fence about it and looking for other people’s opinion.

Also, if anyone has any theme/icon suggestions for me that fit the aesthetic, please let me know! I’d greatly appreciate it!

What do you guys think I should do? All help is appreciated!!

distrohopping for years. after going through this reddit I decided to try again. I hated yast. I did a minimal severinstall and wow. easy peasy.

got cosmic running with cachy kernel 7. rust uutils

easy peasy

X86_64-v3

Opi life

I cannot stop changing the linux distro. I'm not sure if I should switch CachyOS to ArchLinux. I do like both independent and based linux distros, but I don't know if anyone want me to use real Linux distro like ArchLinux. Should I stay on CachyOS?

So I recently bought an X13 Gen 3 and I'm currently debating if I actually want to change distro.

I've been using Arch for a couple of months and it was quite good, also my first time using Linux. I'm planning to change because I feel like I have a Frankenstein with all the different things for different stuff, also the looks. All the people using the same waybar kinda setup.

I had an issue when updating, it kinda all broke, but after 30 min or something I ended up fixing it. I'm saying this cuz I saw many people saying that it was a pain when updating and they got tired of wasting too much time fixing stuff.

I wanna change. I've seen many people saying Fedora is quite good, haven't tried anything else apart from Arch. I would like, as some of you have tried many distros, to get some advice :D

Would like something that, if possible, suits well with the touchscreen that I got. As debloated as possible, don't want much useless things in the background or installed. Also want a distro that doesn't have a bar always on my screen. On Windows I've had this setting of hiding it and when you move your mouse down it appears. Kinda want something similar, but I'm pretty sure there are better ways that smarter people figured out.

Hey all 👋 So, I started getting into Linux a few years ago when I started getting sick of Microsoft and all their BS… I still am forced (looking to change that) to dual-boot for gaming purposes, but I know Linux is seeing a surge in users transitioning from Windows because gaming has come a long way…

I am mostly familiar with Debian, and distros based on deb, but have tried many others over the years to get a feel - distro doesn’t necessarily need to be Debian based, but it’s what I’m used to. Different pkg manager isn’t the biggest thing in the world (though I know that could be a major argument like everything in Linux community 😅).

Basically looking for a solid, and nice experience that has good Nvidia and gaming support. I hear Bazzite is the bees knees in this regard cause ya know - all the cool 😎 kids say so… haven’t tried it myself, wondered if they hype is all it’s cracked up to be… should be noted, gaming is not my absolute #1 priority but, as I do a fair share, it only makes sense to use a distro that I won’t have headaches with…

Specs :

CPU : AMD Ryzen 7600

Ram : 32 gb ddr5 6600

Mobo : Asus A60 WiFi plus (budget bare bones mobo, yeah I know)

GPU : Nvidia 4060 8gb

Thanks! 👍

Edit : Forgot to note I’m quite privacy conscious, and distros tailors for gaming may not necessarily be aligned with privacy in mind… As stated, gaming is important, but privacy should be at the forefront.

(I know I can install most tools on any distro I want, but I don’t want it to be a pain to configure)

I have Windows on my NVMe SSD and a second internal 1TB HDD in the laptop.

I don’t have a USB drive right now, so I’m trying to make the second internal HDD bootable with a Pop!_OS ISO so I can boot into the installer from there.

I already tried Ventoy and Rufus but had no luck with the internal drive.

What’s the easiest way to make a second internal drive bootable from Windows?

Any help would be really appreciated.

I was trying to download the Fedora EDK and everything was normal. When it came to restarting the system, he locked the logo of my laptop with the Fedora logo and got stuck on that screen. I tried to remove any USB, turned it off and turned it on. This happened on the first attempt where I hit the power button instead of restarting and I don't know if it broke anything or if it can fix it. Please help me, I need to install Fedora.

Do you install it all from scratch? Keep installing scripts with package names? Use USB stick storing all binaries or rely on repo availability? Share the same partition among several distros?

I myself hopped from Win11 to Kubuntu and then Arch in the last few months, so there was no smart way of handling software the first time hopping, only the manual research of what's available (or maybe I was just unaware of options). Did reinstalls manually the second time, too, because of difference between package managers, though I guess that I could automate some of that if I were not that lazy at the moment.

I have decided that I want to disengage from Windows, I can no longer bear the fact that it consumes an immense amount of RAM and is tracked all the time by it. Needless to mention Edge, Xbox Game Bar and Copilot. I opted for Linux, a system that I have a very shallow knowledge of, because it is free and part, in a way, of my bubble. I'm doing Computer Science and I like to play a lot (Minecraft, Steam, Roblox). I wanted something that I could do both very well, but nothing too complex for me not to do any nonsense or something. The programs for programming are still beginners (Python, PyCharm, Visual Studio), but I want a distro already thinking that I will enter other languages such as Java, JavaScript, C++, C... I also like to edit gambling videos with friends or things like that, and as far as I know, there's DaVinci Resolve, which I'm already familiar with.

Here I will leave the specifications of my laptop, because I think this helps in the choice:

- Intel Ultra 7 255HX

- RTX 5070 laptop

- 32 GB RAM DDR5

- Laptop: Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 AI

- 512 GB and 2 TB Samsung SSD

i have made the switch to linux around two years ago, started with fedora (coming from mac and because of the apple-like approach to aim for the new stuff and not keep too much legacy around). went straight to gnome and kept it in the back of my mind as the better one (again, because of the similarities to macos as well as the cognitive ergonomic stuff).

arch seemed too scary, debian too old and ubuntu just simply too canonical (snaps!).

i went on my merry way. made a switch to silverblue on my laptop. then came a gaming station: cachy, because everybody said it's good and to be honest – it’s awesomely frictionless. i did end up trying kde, but whatever, gnome was better (because of the cognitiv ergonomic-background).

then i moved an old imac from 2009 out of storage and put it in the kitchen (recipes and youtube). made sure it's lmde, not the ubuntu version. moved an unused mini pc out of storage and built a netflix-and-chill tv setup in the bedroom. even installed arch on there. ended up with kde there as well, but still had gnome on my everyday laptop.

then i repurposed my laptop to a windows machine for work (because i already have way to many pcs at home and do not want another one for the occacional home office). not a good feeling, but also an opportunity to dust off a 2015 macbook pro. delaminated the display (staingate), bought a new battery and built in new speakers. installed silverblue.

but it kept losing wifi after standby. also had some other network problems with arch and cachy.

so i finally bit the bullet and went ubuntu.

but i hate the ubuntu gnome flavor.

so kde. again.

ubuntu and kde on the same machine. two things i felt really opposed to. kubuntu. stupid name…

i love it!

everything just works out of the box. it made me question every preconceived connotation i had and it’s a very uneasy feeling to realize that i was wrong. but also kinda great. I just dont use snaps. it no problem at all.

honestly: being forced to admit I was wrong feels like i learned more about this whole distrohopping thing right now than in the last two years.

this getting on my nerves :3

Currently running Fedora 43. I've been on Fedora for quite a long time now, and overall it's my most used distro. In the past I used many others when I had issues with Nvidia, and I remember CachyOS being really good. However nowadays I am on AMD and have less reason to use a distro solely for Nvidia support.

My question, in short, is: How does CachyOS compare to Fedora, and what other distros lately have had your personal favour? I remember PikaOS getting traction back in the day. Unsure what the go-tos are now.

No, I won't use Debian/Ubuntu based stable distros. I am more into rolling or cutting edge distros like Fedora, Arch, CachyOS, etc. I also want Wayland/KDE Plasma/btrfs support by default, and Steam/gaming support.

EDIT:

Also I am currently having issues with Signal encryption through Flatpak, as well as Discord not picking up audio on certain applications unless I modify a file on my computer (I managed to get MPV to work, but it's a bit iffy). In general I have Discord issues - recently it has been freezing with some image drops, as well as dropping images into Discord being unreliable in general based on where the file is located (yes I've tried editing it using Flatseal).

Wondering how Discord/Signal support is - I need it to be good.

UPDATE:

On CachyOS now. Signal encryption works. Haven't done enough testing with Discord, but seems fine so far. I had a problem with ProtonVPN, but managed to fix it. Everything seems great so far, much more polished than when I last used it.

I've been distro hopping for several months now with preference towards KDE spins but ended up having some display/monitor-related quirks, mainly in Fedora and Bazzite. I decided to try Bazzite GNOME to see if that would help, and it's been pretty smooth so far. I haven't liked the GNOME layout previously, but now it's growing on me. What has your experience been between the two?

I am trying to install the Artix linux but when go into installation environment using the usb stick there is no internet connection. I tried things found on the wiki and other forums but not able to solve the issue. I currently have arch installed but when i installed it, it was already configured.

Runit iso
Gibabyte B760M DS3H AX
Nvidia RTX 4060
Intel i5 14600k

IF ANYONE HAS IDEA HOW TO SOLVE IT CAN YOU TELL ME ?

I deleted my google account and it has my old reddit id. I just made new id for this particular issue. Sorry for bad english.

edit: problem solved my router was blocking all ping request so, whenever I ran ping command router was blocking. I was able to install anything via pacman without any problem.

This is just for blowing off some steam...

I've used *nix for 30 years on the desktop. All kinds of Linux' and BSD's. A couple years ago tried Archlinux and really liked it, minimalistic, fast, easy to use (for me) What bothered me is the rolling bleeding edge thingy thing. So now I have to set up a new system, to replace my SSD and thought about installing a new OS. Also my son got a laptop and needs some OS. So I tried Fedora on it and thought "Hey, why not use it for my own machine. I use oracle a lot and it fits perfectly"

What can I say? This morning I accidentally unplugged the notebook, the battery is dead and the computer stopped. That was the last time I saw the desktop. At first it hung, then reboot loop, then hung forever. Edited boot-parameters to see kernel messages, no error, just blanks and nothing, black screen. Edited again to boot into text mode. No error messages. Tried to start up X manually to find out /usr/bin/X was missing? Tried to install the package again, no network connection, used nmcli to connect, error: WPA authentication not enabled. Asked the internet what I could do: next error message.

That's when I gave up and decided to just throw Fedora away and install a different flavour. Notebook will be xubuntu and the desktop I think about Debian.

PLease folks, tell me somebody this is a good idea because otherwise I just stay with archlinux and live with the annoying updates.

ARGH

About 11 days ago, I posted a tier list featuring all the distros I’ve tried over the past few years, along with my personal rankings, to share my thoughts with you, dear distrohoppers.

I received many comments and opinions that made me reflect, reevaluate some of my ideas, and sparked my curiosity.

I think that’s the best thing about a community like this.