enjoy your freedom

Where did the chicken go

It finally crossed the road
It accidentally opened Vim and was never seen again
selection process because it wasn't included in the "best linux distros 2023" search result

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
Fedora
M'federation
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?
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

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.
- 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.

what anime?

Vinland saga
- I’m not usually a fan of anime, but this one is so good. Highly recommend everyone watch it.
- Vimland saga.

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 see Vinland, I upvote. Simple.

I'm trying to set up a server for the first time and am jumping into Debian and Docker almost blind.

You'll be free, hackers, you'll be free

My opinion is Choice is an illusion. There isn't much to choose from. Its all unix like.

Try out haiku, serenity, menuet, or templeos? Depends on how non-Unix-like you'd prefer.
Not really. For example NixOS is vastly different from any other distro I've seen.

I like the usability and how Elementary OS feels. Before that I was using Ubuntu.

mint

Is mint a good starting point? I've been toying with my next PC having Linux and I've read articles but I feel overwhelmed by the amount of different distros. I know I want Linux but I'm not sure what to go with at all, my PC is almost exclusively for gaming and using Foundry to run online ttrpg sessions so just another form of gaming lol.

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...

Can't find the source code, or docs on starting your own server. Not open source or self-hostable are major steps backward imho Also it says it's "for free forever" just like Discord lmao

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.

I'm not that much into distro hopping. I first used Linux Mint and then switched to KDE Plasma. That's the one I'm using now and I feel actually pretty comfortable with my choice.