How long since your last distrohop?What is the longest you've been using the same distro and which distro was that?> stat -c %y /etc/machine-id> 2025-07-04 01:08:05> this is the longest streak, I don't think it ever lasted for more than few months before
Since fedora atomic I have never had to distrohop. You can even easily rebase between presets like bazzite, silverblue and others without reinstalling and with an easy way to revert.
>2024-11-13it's when I got my macbook pro m4 pro
>>108467525debian stable w/MATEaka "old reliable". fedora fucking sucks, mint fucking sucks. and i'm too stupid for arch/gentoo.
2023-08-04tumbleweed
>>108467525My linux journey started with a raspberry pi. I did all my distrohopping there, learning basic configuration, vocabulary, and the general software ecosystem. Then, I installed arch in a VM on my old windows laptop, before the days of archinstall. I bought a new Thinkpad. I had set all of the passwords for tamper detection, administrator, normal user, and for decrypting the opal2.0 drive. I forgot all of them except for the hard drive and the power on passwords. That fateful grub update released. I knew I had to manually fix grub before I rebooted, but completely forgot. This bricked my laptop. I had to wait for the CMOS to die. Since, I have installed the same system on the old laptop, a kamrui mini pc, a steam deck, and my newer laptop after the cmos finally died. Other than the grub incident, and the many times I broke my systems while learning the basics, I have never been forced to re-install.
>>108467525>What is the longest you've been using the same distroabout 25 years>and which distro was that?Windows
I never distro hopped once in my entire life
>>108467525>How long since your last distrohop?16 years ago, consider that i switched to linux in 2006 and i distrohop'd only two times (mandriva -> ubuntu -> debian)>What is the longest you've been using the same distro and which distro was that?i'm currently on devuan but since i seamlessly moved to it from debian jessie (basically was just a change of repos) i don't consider it a distrohop, so it makes 16 years.
>>108467525>Bazzite>long termdidn't it recently fire one of its main maintainers, then tried to create this weird consortium where it was going to parasitize other distros but it all fell through due to tranny infighting?
>>108467571based retard
>>108467759qrd anyone?
>>108467759Idk, Kyle seems alright, recent repo activity looks good for me:https://github.com/ublue-os/bazzite/commit/cd343b40cd282b23b56b71a8c71098a083e08caf
>>108467838I only know of it from the Cachy OS publication.https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/01/cachyos-founder-explains-why-they-didn-t-join-the-new-open-gaming-collective-ogc/I don't know what's happened with the open faggot collective since, but last I read there was a lot of infighting over menial things, e.g. any oss project full of trannies.
>>1084675258 months, cachy (only left windows for like a year)I think i will probably stay in arch land for now. Maybe move to something like artix for no systemd
>>108467525I've been using it basically exclusively since about 2018. Not necessarily the same install, but I haven't had to hop distos since. If my Gentoo install breaks, I just Install Gentoo.
>>108467525Slackware, 2018? stat: cannot statx '/etc/machine-id': No such file or directoryI like this distribution. Almost all programs get worse over time. But Slackware is just better.You can enjoy my aquarium live wallpaper.
>>108467525I used Void for... 6 years I think? Been 3 years since I've switched to Gentoo, still doing good
haven't used anything other than Arch on my main PC for over a decade, with Arch reinstalls of courseI scratch the itch to distrohop with this secondary PC I use like once every two months when I'm visiting familythat's been on Fedora for about half a year now, it's hopping time
laptop - mint since september 2025main pc - fedora since december 2025still got dual boot with w11 on my main, but only for photoshop and compiling .exe for win users...
>>108467525i don't really remember but I've been rotating between debian and ubuntu until last year when I decided I'd go exclusively with debian on my servers and arch on my desktops
>>108467525I used debian on a vps for like 8 years
>>108468120What was Void like? And what made you switch?
>>108467525I've been using Arch since 2008. I switched to Fedora for about a year in 2020, but then went back to Arch.
>>108468498>What was Void like?Pretty good>What made you switch?I got a better laptop that can handle compiling shit, and I decided I trusted gentoo better for long-term use. Void has had a bunch of drama with the maintainer going schizo and whatnot, and the uncertain trannies stepping in to replace him. I actually don't know how alive Void even is today. Gentoo, I can trust is almost certainly going to stay well maintained for the next 10 years.
>>108467571>mint fucking sucksCare to elaborate? Also, is Debian good for gaming?
>>108467525Realistically, I was on windows 10 across different computers for almost its entire lifespan. I tried out all manners of linux distros, but the one I stayed on the longest was Linux Mint for something like a year. I've been on all manner of Arch based distros since then and I mostly game on lenovo legion go S now, which has steamOS
>>108467525>What is the longest you've been using the same distro and which distro was that?10 years. Debian.
>>108467525been sporadically on linux since 2013 or thereabouts and it was always some ubuntu-based stuff... then late 2025 with actual debian, and lately all my machines run some form of fedora on them. feel like i shouldn't be satisfied this early but eh, as long as i stop messing around.
>>108467525>stat -c %y /etc/machine-idI prefer stat / | grep -i birth but they basically do the same thing.>How long since your last distrohop?A long time for PC 1 (Fedora):>Birth: 2019-11-25 23:22:55.000000000 -0500Not so long for PC 2 (Alma):>Birth: 2025-03-01 21:59:16.000000000 -0500A long time for PC 3 (MX), but I'm too lazy to turn it on right now. Probably been three years since I moved it over from Fedora Xfce to MX (primarily to have a distro in the mix that doesn't need systemd, and for the performance gains).
stat / | grep -i birth
>>108471347nta but in my experience Mint's problems tend to come from only supporting X11 and PulseAudio, instead of Wayland and Pipewire. So if you have newer displays/hardware you could get some bugs here and there. But otherwise Mint is great.>is debian good for gamingYes, but it needs extra setup like getting PPAs for current kernel and drivers, which in my opinion, defeats the point of using stock Debian in the first place. By that point you'd be better using something more up to date like interim Ubuntu or pikaOS (if you want to keep it Debian).Honestly I'm just waiting for the Mint team to finally release their "just werks" take on Wayland/Pipewire. And maybe update their fuckugly default icons.
>>108473437> I prefer "stat / | grep -i birth" but they basically do the same thing.Good to know, but this one doesn't work on immutable distros like Bazzite (Fedora Silverblue):~$ stat / File: / Size: 4096 Blocks: 8 IO Block: 4096 directoryDevice: 0,38 Inode: 36 Links: 13Access: (0555/dr-xr-xr-x) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root)Context: system_u:object_r:root_t:s0Access: 1970-01-01 02:00:00.000000000 +0200Modify: 1970-01-01 02:00:00.000000000 +0200Change: 1970-01-01 02:00:00.000000000 +0200 Birth: -~$ stat / | grep -i birth Birth: -~$ stat -c %y /etc/machine-id2025-07-04 01:08:05.483874485 +0300
>>108474461>this one doesn't work on immutable distrosWell sir, a good to know back at ya!
Arch a few months ago. Old drive was shitting on me.Manjaro for 8 years or so.Not really much of a change.
>>108467525i used the same arch install on my main desktop for probably 3 years prior to switching to void for good recently. the arch install ran mostly fine, but the amount of ghost packages and unused configs and other bs were beginning to cause random quirks and nuisances that i didnt care to fix
>>108467525How do you distrohoppers handle having to constantly reinstall shit every jump?
>>108467525>stat -c %y /etc/machine-id2019-07-23 16:23:36.344811784 +0300Would be older if I hadn't fumbled evicting windows from the boot drive.
>>108474774I guess if you're using NixOS and want to switch to Guix you can try asking LLM to transpile your config, and maybe most of it will work well. But otherwise in general it's all gonna be miserable. Surprisingly, most replies in this thread seem to be sticking to the same distro for many years.
Worth noting, there are many anons in this thread suffering from issues which immutable distros were specifically designed to solve. Like this:> but the amount of ghost packages and unused configs and other bs were beginning to cause random quirks and nuisances that i didnt care to fixBut this is not a distro shilling thread so I stop with this.
>>108467525>stat -c %y /etc/machine-id2024-06-21 20:02:02, almost 2 yearsArtix
>>108475367>Surprisingly, most replies in this thread seem to be sticking to the same distro for many years.I think it's because distrohoppers might not be clicking on a "long term comfort" thread
>>108474774have less shithave more shit but on an external drivehave more shit but on a server in the basement
>>108474774the more you understand about unix and unix-like systems, and the more time you have spent creating your own workflow, the less relevant distros are. distros become reduced to package managers + low-level systems, and they are judged for these qualities alone.then, the biggest obstacle to distrohopping becomes making sure the programs you use are available in the repository, which is easy because program availability is remarkably consistent across unix and unix-like systems (so long as you aren't using anything obscure or brand new).i could recreate my exact workflow on a different distro in an afternoon, and then iron out any kinks over the next week. i could even migrate to a BSD, or even macOS (but i'd be sacrificing 50% of my workflow in that case) with minimal effort.
>>108467525AntiX, maybe 2 years?Void for 8 years, figured i wanted something further back from the bleeding edge so xbps wasn't pulling in gigs of python and qt libs for every 0.01 version incrementVoid was definitely comfier though
>>108476266Oh sure, any distro with ostree and declarative package manager works for me. So, like, that makes it a total of two distros now!
>>108476266> the biggest obstacle to distrohopping becomes making sure the programs you use are available in the repository,Or you can use flatpak, appimage, distrobox, brew, compile from source...Protip: distrobox create --image fedora --name fedora-nvidia --nvidiaAnd with AMD passthrough should be working out of the box with no special params at all.
>>108467525Changed to Guix last year and can’t see myself ever needing another distro
>>108467525On my desktop, once I got Arch set up how I'd like, it simply became a case of running Syu weekly and light maintenance.
I only distrohopped in the beginning to try out shit and landed on this being the best server+desktop combination for me. Everything just works all the time.
>>108471347Debian is fine for gaming. Use the testing or Sid repos. It works just fine. These obsessive updoot niggers are chronic masturbators.
>>108476482I'm sure it's totally fine on AMD but I had a bad experience with Debian+Nvidia since the drivers even on Sid are still on 550 which is pretty buggy although if you run a desktop with X11 it might be fine. Might. Wayland only got good on Nvidia recently but now it runs no problem for me.
>>108476504Just use the NVIDIA drivers from extrepo
>2025-03-12 20:00:40.273955235 +0700The day when I finally dropped windows.
>>108476417Do you use appimages or flatpaks?I see it requires some special effort to run, for example:https://codeberg.org/Adroit/run-appimage-on-guixI wonder how often it requires tinkering.
>>108467628Based and Redmond pilled.
>>108476417Is guix the distro of choice for an autistic scheme appreciator?
I installed void in 2022 onto my pc and laptop and it's been pretty nice. The only problem is that now I've been doing ML for assignments and getting cuda on void is a little hard. If anyone's managed to get it working, do tell
>2015-02-04Running Arch. Getting tired of the constant updooting, considering switching to Debian. Am I making a mistake? It seems comfy and I never had any real need for "muh bleeding edge".
>>108480122I've never ran arch but I'm the void and gentoo guy from above, how is this tiring? I updoot maybe once a month or something. Nowadays on gentoo I do it in the evening on weekends usually, let it finish overnight.I haven't used debian full-time but I have heard of stories of random shit just being months or years out of date for no good reason, like being stuck on an LTS browser. Or you install a smaller application, have some issue with it, check upstream and it's been fixed 8 months ago, but because it's not security critical and it's a small niche package nobody is ever going to backport it into the "stable" debian package. Then you're forced to either set up a PPA for up to date versions (for those that offer it), or build and install from source, or other garbage.If you really want stability then you do you, I just never understood it.Plus you read shit like https://www.debian.org/releases/bookworm/amd64/release-notes/ch-upgrading.en.html and personally I just have to wonder how you can bear using an OS that every couple of years or whatever, you are forced into a massive upgrade with a 30-40 step plan that could brick your system if you have anything non-standard (and this on a distro that really encourages non-standard installs by keeping official repositories out of date). On a good rolling release distro this just doesn't happen - I don't know if the memes about Arch are true or not, but it certainly doesn't happen on gentoo and never happened to me on void.That aside, I also personally hate the way debian repackages and configures shit, so if I had to use a "stable" distro I'd probably pick some shit like fedora, but ultimately that's entirely down to preference. I also haven't used fedora at all so maybe it's even worse.
>>108467525$ stat -c %y /etc/machine-id2022-01-08 19:16:37.393768133 -0500I've been a happy Arch user with very few breakages that weren't my fault. Before this, it was Debian testing and that was quite a bit worse.
$ stat -c %y /etc/machine-id2022-01-08 19:16:37.393768133 -0500
>>108480770Oh wow, on immutable distros everything upgrades in the background and invisibly. Apps are mostly flatpaks. Which makes it possible for every distro to just reuse the same flathub, no need to repackage apps for every distro individually. OS itself downloads new image and switches to it on the next reboot. So updates are also kinda atomic. In the sense that there is never unit of work more than one step long that meddles with multiple interconnected pieces at once. Each app is independent and updates isolated in one step. OS itself is also independent and updates in one step. No possibility of conflicting/broken dependencies, etc. Seriously I don't get why flatpak gets so much hate.
>>108481071Immutable distros are pretty nice yeah. So are declarative ones.>flatpakThe concept is good, the problems are in the implementation, for both flatpak and snap. I think neither of them has a functional sandbox despite advertising security features (like shit along the lines of "apps" just having every permission under the sun by default while happily telling the user "yeah it's running sandboxed :)"). Flatpak in particular is also a Freedesktop app so it has all their gnome and redhat retardisms.
>>108467525I've been on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS since it came out, haven't updated it to the latest LTS versions, neither found a need to change distros.
I've been on linux mint for 3 or so months feeling very comfy.
>>108481533who you tryna convince
