What is your preferred daily driver distribution?

I'm using debian.

Arch Linux

Reasons:

• Pacman
• the AUR
• community driven
• bleeding edge
• pragmatic stance regarding closed source software
• sane defaults
• minimalism, build your own without too much compiling
• the wiki

• Mint, because it works with a minimum of effort.

• OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, because it's more up to date than Mint, it's a rolling distro, it works, and in the rare event of a problem it's easy to roll back to a snapshot.

Arch.

People think it's really challenging and brittle, but everything seems to always work no matter how often I update (or don't) and the wiki is top notch.

I actually chose arch initially because when you go to forums to troubleshoot problems there is always an ubuntu answer and an arch answer, and the arch answer is almost always shorter.

I only use Arch, it's really stable and easy to fix if something goes wrong thanks to the excellent arch wiki.

But I recommend PopOS for anyone who just wants something good looking and stable and who doesn't need the latest packages all the time.

I recommend openSUSE Tumbleweed without hesitation.

Unpopular choice here but Ubuntu LTS with ubuntu-debullshit (vanilla gnome, replace snap with flatpak).

My main factors:

• stability of the LTS
• drivers and HW support
• tons of resources online
• already use Ubuntu for servers and Raspian on my Pi

I’ve had my fun distro hopping in the past but I just want a low maintenance system nowadays.

Linux Mint: Debian Edition. After watching a YouTube review I decided to take a break from Arch and give it a try, I'd always like Cinnamon, and I really like this.

Depends on what you're looking for.

I cannot recommend NixOS enough, it's such a good distribution but on the other hand it's quite tough to learn as it deviates a lot on how distributions do things. It still uses a standard stack (glibc, systemd, GNU tools and all) but the nix tools which include the package manager are totally different from what other distributions offer. It's very solid, yet flexible. It offers a lot of packages by default. I've switched my machines to it because of the advantages.

Arch is great as a rolling release distribution with solid repositories (lots of packages and quite up to date) and it's very close to upstream with a more traditional approach to the distribution tools. In fact there aren't really any apart from the package manager by default. I feel this is one of the most comfortable distributions if you want to learn how a classic Linux system is structured. I ran Arch for about 15 years and didn't really have anything to complain about and I learned more about Linux there than with Ubuntu and Debian.

Please note that neither of these are what one would consider beginner-friendly distributions.

Debian only household here ..

Pop!_OS. Sensible defaults and it's based off of Ubuntu, which is the distro I'm most familiar with.

I try so dang hard not to use Linux Mint because I have been using off and on since 2008 but always come crawling back to it when I run into some esoteric issue on another distro. It just hits the sweet spot of what I understand computing to be. I have desperately tried to use various forms of arch. OpenSUSE, fedora, debian, and a whole host of others and eventually get frustrated for some probably solvable reason and go back to my sweet, my love, my wart covered X11 using, 5.15 running, stale boring life mate Mint.

Pop_os for my laptop and desktop. I use these machines for dev work and gaming. I want to spend as little time as possible doing maintenance. Debian for all servers and containers. Very stable, maintenance doesn't take much effort.

If I was running a pure gaming system I'd probably go with Arch.

Mint. It just works.

I've been a long time Debian user. Debian 12 has been almost a perfect release so far. Highly recommended.

Void Linux user here with Qtile - Wayland as my WM.

Debian + GNOME.

Historically I've been a huge fan of Ubuntu, but I just can't tolerate Snap any more and started moving away from Ubuntu in general.

My journey roughly went like:

1. Mint + Cinnamon
2. Mint + i3
3. MX Linux + i3
4. Debian + i3

Right now I'm using Debian + i3. It's pretty lit

My main reason is that Debian is a very stable, very popular distro, that isn't a fork of another distro. The fact that it's stable means issues are more rare; the fact that it's popular means when issues do pop up, there are much higher odds that I'll find others who ran into them before; and the fact that it isn't a fork means that I can just prefix "debian" to any search, rather than say having to contend with it being potentially a "debian" issue, or an "ubuntu" issue, or a "mint" issue. In fact, debian is popular enough that most of the time I could just prefix "linux" to a search, rather than "debian".

While there are distros that market themselves on other merits, it seems to me that the main goal of an operating system is to be a stable foundation. I wanted to pick something that would let me have a good time with i3; Debian seems one of the most straightforward choices. I considered arch, but in the end Debian seems like the lower-effort option.

Everyone immediately want you to use their distribution of choice. However no-one can really answer this unless you include more information about yourself and your Linux experience, objectives, what kind of tinkering you're comfortable with, what you expectations are, etc.

I have been running OpenSUSE Leap on my home server for 3 years, and I moved from Fedora after many years to OpenSUSE Tumbleweed on both my work and home (gaming) PC. I am super happy!

I was going to say Arch but I typically install EndeveavourOS these days ( lazy man’s Arch ).

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed for now, with Garuda for gaming. Still working up the courage to combine all the best features of both into my first Arch install.

EndeavourOS, it just works really well and never breaks. The only time I had an issue was when I was using the Zen kernel and it locked up installing league of legends and watching a YouTube video at the same time. Using the mainline kernel though gives me no issues.

Void. I like xbps, and I prefer distros that make as few assumptions as possible.

I'm the wrong one to ask because every time I try something else, I end up returning to Fedora.

But what you switch to depends on why you want to switch:

• Want to learn more about how Linux works? Install Arch the Arch Way, or try out Void.
• Want a different DE? Well, you've got Fedora Spins if that's your main goal, but KDE Neon lets you try out the latest stable KDE stuff, which is fun!
• Looking for a rolling distro but don't want the extra complexity of Arch's minimalist philosophy? OpenSuse Tumbleweed is fantastic.
• Do you really want to dig deep and have total control of your system? Look into Gentoo or Linux From Scratch.

I've done most of these and more, and I'm happy to recommend something more specific, but I can't without knowing what you're looking for.

If you don't know what you're looking for, and just want to do something different, then do what I do when the distrohopping bug strikes: check out several distros' websites, pick a couple that appeal to you, then research those a little deeper, maybe rum them on a virtual machine for a bit. If you find one you like, back up your critical data and go for it!

Guix. I like Nix and Scheme so it just makes sense.

Fedora Workstation

EndeavourOS is good, I was frequently using arch wiki on other distros so it's handy to have it actually apply accurately to my distro. AUR is super handy as well.

I could use regular Arch, but I appreciate the simplified installation.

I'm considering to switch from Fedora to Debian stable with Flatpaks for the available apps (more up-to-date and more isolated).

But I'm also considering NixOS atm

10 years of Arch and counting.

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You know where to go, BTW

Ubuntu. It Debian without the driver issues.

btwOS.

I can't tell you if it's *your* cup of coffee. You should decide it by yourself.

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Nobara on my desktop, Pop_os! on my laptop. As soon as the new COSMIC DE is ready I will switch to Pop on my desktop as well.

I'm currently using Debian Unstable. I used Fedora for a long time, but it got noticeably worse when IBM bought Red Hat. I also like Arch, btw. I have tried a bunch of other distros too, but they all have some quirk that annoys me (*buntu has Snap, Pop!_OS and Mint don't support KDE officially, OpenSUSE is based around YaST, Elementary is weird about software installation, Manjaro fails at basic security 101 and keeps DDoSing the AUR due to bugs, etc.)

I have not tried NixOS yet, but I keep seeing it recommended, so I'll have to try it.

i like fedora a lot, but its updates got a little too far ahead for me. So i recently switched to debian 12, and with flatpaks and their more-current mesa components, everything is working on my desktop as well as it was before, especially games on steam (flatpak) and in bottles.

Linux Mint Cinnamon. Seriously, it's the best. Fast, light, Ubuntu based, stable, good looking, full featured. All the power of Ubuntu without the downsides (snaps, heavy, slow etc)

Been using PopOS for the last 2 years (ish) with zero issues. It's been a delight!

The biggest selling point for Fedora IMO is the way it handles UEFI and Secure Boot. I haven't found anything comparable. Securing the proprietary garbage running on your main board is critical regardless of your OS.

I've been switching between Arch and Debian for the past 5ish years. I don't really notice much of a difference, other than Arch has updates much more often than Debian Testing usually does. I like how meta-packages in Arch are more minimal than the ones in Debian, but that's a very minor thing.

Still Arch on main desktop, but slowly moving towards NixOS everywhere.

I need to settle on one for a bit. I like Fedora for it’s edge stability and embracing newer secure technology. But, I will be shifting to Debian 12 or Ubuntu LTS because I need to get real work done. I like Pop and Mint, but they don’t have secure boot which I desire.

I’ll probably enjoy arch when I get the time to play with it more.

Fedora Silverblue. I want a Linux system that just works.

Zorin OS. No muss, no fuss. I've been wanting to hop to Endeavor or Pop! just to do something different.

I mainly play games and watch movies.

For now, it's Debian 12 with KDE Plasma. But I'm really interested in Immutable Systems. I like OpenSuse Kapla, but the KDE Integration is still in alpha. There are still a few shortcomings with the only flatpak approach, like the fact that the Steam Flatpak can't provide smooth wireless controller support because of lacking permissions.

I used Feren OS for a long time, but now i prefer Cachy OS and Vanilla Arch on my laptop, both with KDE Plasma

Here's an incomplete list of my daily drivers since...well, I'm old.

• QNX Neutrino
• Mandrake 7.2
• RedHat 7.1
• Went back to Windoze for quite a while
• Gentoo
• Ubuntu (quite a leap there)
• OS X
• Linux Mint
• Debian
• LMDE
• Fedora
• KDE Neon
• macOS
• Fedora Asahi

I'm sure I've missed the odd one or two (and I regularly jumped back and forth with Debian/Ubuntu/Mint for years and years).

I used to distro hop a lot, so if I only used it for less than a month, I haven't bothered to list it.

Fedora Workstation. It's fast and stable.

Everything I use is available either as a Flatpak or a RPM.

I'll only mention it because I haven't seen it yet, I just installed endeavor os and it's been pretty Great

For me it's tumbleweed at the moment it's defaults like btrfs and snapper are how I used to setup fedora. Then there's the tools like OBS and yast that are super useful it's rolling but well tested before it gets to you

Trisquel GNU / Linux. The kernel is 100% libre so you can do your computing in freedom.

Arch for the last 8ish years. I'm interested in switching to something immutable and with a declarative package manager, but every time I try something else I end up back on arch. It works and has all the packages I use ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Modified Ubuntu, Snap-less...

Arch btw

Arch, btw. With GNOME.

OpenSuse leap

Linux Mint because it just works.

Linux Mint. Seriously, seriously good. Very fast, very light, looks amazing, has full access to all Ubuntu apps, runs Flatpak, is stable and solid. Sane defaults across the system.

Highly recommend it.

Every time I try something different I always come back to arch + swaywm

Trisquel GNU+Linux on my Librebooted ThinkPad X200

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Void linux became my second nature. It's design is great, runit and xbps are just awesome. Can't recomend more. P.S. I also switched to Void from Fedora

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Manjaro with KDE. I've only been running Linux for a month, and found Arch a bit intimidating, so to me Manjaro was the closest I dare fly to the sun. Really liking it so far.

Arch on my main pc, and Ubuntu on my server, only reason it's Ubuntu is I needed 6.2 kernel for my Intel arc encoding card and debian based for the arrs

Vanilla ass Ubuntu. I spent 25 years finding the right distro, this is good enough. My first love was Mandrake.

Kde neon, latest Plasma on a stable ubuntu.

If you are a KDE user or are interested in it, I've been running KDE Neon for a few months and don't plan on changing any time soon. Stable release, Ubuntu LTS based without the forced snaps (though snaps are in the repos if you want them), comes with the standard Ubuntu LTS repos and flatpak installed out of the box, with the one difference there being that it will update to the latest stable version of KDE software as it's released. Basically a de-snapped Kubuntu LTS with all the latest KDE stuff. Works great for me.

Arch on everything with a screen. NixOS on everything without.

Switched from Ubuntu to fedora recently.. I'm pretty happy with it and it's package manager

I wanna move to nix but my monkey brain can't understand it. Might just take the plunge anyways

For all the praise I give Debian, I still just run Kubuntu and call it a day.

It's not that Debian's particularly hard to install or set up (pretty quick and easy after you've done it enough times, though there is also the Live CD with Calamares for an easier install), and it's honestly better than (*)Ubuntu in terms of official repos (at least Sid is), but I sometimes just find it simpler to install Kubuntu, unsnap it, remove apport, and get on with everything else.

Maybe I'll go MX or something at some point and just enable systemd because I use it and out of the "anti-systemd" distros, it's the most "hey, if you want to use systemd, no prob".

Actually, for Debian, another good option is Spiral Linux. It's basically just Debian, but with btrfs, snapshots, and zRAM all set up (from the same dude who does GeckoLinux, so very familiar with btrfs). Maybe once the new Bookworm-based ISO is up, I'll switch over.

blendOS because it gives you access to all the good stuff, including the AUR and even Android apps.

I'm also on Fedora and love it, but I'm thinking of switching to OpenMandriva ROME. OpenSUSE's Tumbleweed is another option.

PoP_OS MX Linux LMDE

Fedora (with Plasma) and I don't plan on moving to another distro until something tangible happens. Switching my distro based on hypothetical situations would keep me from ever staying on any distro for very long.

That being said if I had to use another distro, I feel like I'd try out Debian stable, while using Flatpaks and Distrobox to get up-to-date software. That feels like it would be a good approximation of the excellent middleground that Fedora has.

Artix

Nixos. Can't even fathom going back to anything after getting to grips with it

@bbsm3678 You should try TROMjaro, and all linux distros should take example from it.

I use Debian with kde and its been great. Went from debian 11 to debian 12 without reinstall and then use void and devuan on my other computers and arch mobile on pinephone.

TW

Endeavour os with kde! Used to run manjaro and I think it's a good stepping stone, so you know what you like and not, what to keep... For example, I didn't know about oh my zhs and p10k, and if it wasn't for manjaro I wouldn't have know about that and owils be running the default bash console.

I'm old too :-/

• CP/M
• DOS
• Windows3, 95, 98
• BeOS
• some Debian and Mandrake
• Windows XP
• Ubuntu (a long time)
• Mint/Cinnamon (I hated it, it was quick, maybe a year)
• MX/Xfce (since ~2016)

I may try Arch on a old laptop just to play with it.----

I use Manjaro but I might switch when CosmicDE launches on Pop!, especially if they get graphics switching working nicely on Wayland.

Used Arch for over 5 years. I don't know if having a child changed me but I realised I'd lost a lot of time I had that I spent just fiddling with configs to get stufftpo my liking so went from Arch xmonad to PopOs and Gnome.

It has been stable and doesn't have the snap bullshit that comes with Ubuntu.

I'm pretty happy on Ultramarine. Its like Fedora but with more repos by default, media drivers, more DE options, and a bunch of more reasonable defaults for daily all-purpose use.

Elementary It’s just like Mint but I had way less issues than with any other distros.

Neon right now i will try pop os when the new cosmic desktop drops

I recently Switched to Fedora Gnome and have been liking it.

Lot more user friendly than Mint imo.

EndeavourOS with KDE

Same systems as vanilla arch for packaging such as pacman and AUR

Archwiki instruction work without modification

Great forum community without the incessant RTFM