this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2023
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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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This is kind of the anti-distro hopping thread. How long have you stayed on a single Linux distribution for your main PC? What about servers?

I've been on Debian on and off since 2021, but finally committed to the platform since April of this year.

Before that I was on OpenBSD from 2011 - 2021 for my desktop.

Prior to that, FreeBSD for many years, followed by a few years of distro-hopping various Linux distros (Slackware, Arch, Fedora, simplyMEPIS, and ZenWalk from memory).

How long have you been on your distribution? Do we have anybody here who has been on their current distro for more than a decade?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Workstation: Ubuntu approximately 18 years. (2004)

Servers: Debian approximately 25 years. (1998)

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. It's surprisingly stable for a rolling release distro.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Yes, I was a distro hopper up until I tried Tumbleweed for the first time. Been using it for two years now, hopped around for a year prior.

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

Couldn't agree more. Probably because they have some automatic QA going on on their CI and if some package does something wrong that this QA catches the package does not get included into update until it passes. Also if there would be something that would go wrong you still have automatic BTRFS snapshots created before and after and update and a boot entry automatically added to GRUB so you could simply reboot into old working state in such an unfortunate case.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

My main desktop has been upgraded continuously from RHL5 (no E) in ~1999 to Fedora 38 today.

Well, almost continuously. I've done at least one fresh install, when I switched from 32-bit to 64-bit hardware.

Edit: I have used a lot of other distros on other boxes, both physical and virtual - I've just stuck with Fedora on that one.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

3 years on EndeavourOS and no end in sight

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Been using Ubuntu, or more recently, Kubuntu since 2006. Not sure that counts as a distro change. Can't say enough good things about KDE these days though.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

When Mint had a KDE version I used that for almost four years. Then went to KDE neon and found that to be unstable. Hopped hither and thither, finally made it back to mint.

Having used Linux for 15 years, I just want stable now. Even user cinnamon mint was getting glitchy and updating too frequently. So I've been using the mint Debian edition for more than a few months and love it. IF I had to switch now, I'd just go to Debian.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Ubuntu from 2006 right up until they replaced the firefox deb with a mandatory snap, whenever that was. Then I was on Pop OS for about 6 months, and now Fedora, which I don't see myself leaving anytime soon.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

About two years, running Manjaro KDE. Runners up are Linux Mint, every major flavor of Ubuntu, and I briefly tried elementary OS. Manjaro has been my favorite for a while now!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I've had an HP Dev One with Pop!_OS for right about a year now. I've done plenty of hopping and testing of other distributions prior to last year, but started with Ubuntu in 2009/2010 and have always felt most comfortable with Debian based OSs.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I installed Arch in 2004, and I haven't hopped since. I was trapped in Ubuntu for a short while once, when I had a new work laptop where for some reason I couldn't get Arch installed, but when I tried again a couple of months later, it all worked. So I guess the answer is: for 19 years.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

head -n1 /var/log/pacman.log

[2014-10-11 14:33] [PACMAN] Running 'pacman -r /mnt -Sy --cachedir=/mnt/var/cache/pacman/pkg --noconfirm base base-devel'

Almost 9 years it seems

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Been disto-hopping a lot before ending up in openSUSE Tumbleweed (with KDE Plasma desktop). Now using it for about 6 years as my main desktop/laptop distro.

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

Been on Manjaro i3wm edition since 2018

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@unix_joe: I've been using SUSE with KDE since SuSE Linux Personal 7.0. So, 20+ years?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Are you a tumbleweed user now? I used tumbleweed off and on for a few months for KDE.

What do you think of their pivot towards Gnome on Aeon/MicroOS/whatever the replacement for Leap is going to be?

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

I've been on Fedora Linux for almost a year now. Considering that I started using Linux when the pandemic started, you can figure out that it's my distro of choice now. Also, I like that Fedora is, for the most part, quite developer friendly and had great packages and software installed when I first started using it.

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

I was on Debian from around 1996ish to 2019.

Been on Pop OS since then.

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

MX and Opensuse

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

I've been using OpenBSD on my desktop since about 2006ish.

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

My main desktop computer had been running Ubuntu for 7 years until I had to do a full wipe and decided to move to arch to check it out. I never got the point of distro hopping myself really.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

As my personal day-tp-day system, It looks like 8 years of Ubuntu. I have a file server that just will not die that's been running Ubuntu LTS since 2008 though.

Here's my Distro journey:

-1996-1997 - Debian (Still dual booting Windows) -1997-2002 - RedHat Desktop 5.0-7.3 (Linux became my main day-to-day OS!) -2002-2003 - Crux -2003-2008 - Gentoo -2008-2012 - Ubuntu / Ubuntu LTS -2012-2014 - Mint -2014-2022 - Ubuntu / Ubuntu LTS / Xubuntu (I switched back to Ubuntu as my personal OS since I had deployed Ubuntu to over 100 systems at work, and I had a little netbook with Xubuntu) -2022-???? - LMDE 5 (Linux Mint - Debian Edition)

Still loving LMDE.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I originally started with Knoppix in 1998 used that unitl i9 switched to ubuntu warty warthog and following versions until unity came out in then I switched to mint as unity constantly crashed my machine. stayed with mint for like 5 years, then moved to fedora for a year, switched to tumbleweed because I got tired of the SELinux in fedora causing issues.

Been on endeavourOS for a year now, and if i do decide to migrate a gain I will be going full vanilla arch.

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

I've been on Ubuntu ever since I switched to Linux 7 months ago, tbh I don't understand distro-hopping. I'm not any tech wizard, and Ubuntu fulfills all my criteria: worked out of the box, worked faster than Windows, hasn't broken yet 👍

All I do is run Firefox and Steam on my laptop anyways :/

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

I've been using openSUSE since it's early days when it was S.u.S.E. I started using it in the spring of 1998... so what, 25 years? I've used other distros on a second machine, but my main machine has always been SuSE in some form or another. Today it's openSUSE Tumbleweed.

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

@unix_joe fedora and arch. Because anything Ubuntu based kinda sucks.

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

OpenSuse Tumbleweed and Arch. I can't stay for very long on non-rolling distros. I'd only run Tumbleweed but due to the lack of users or popularity, if often lacks documentation and everyone forgets it exists in the first place. I couldn't get Rocm working on Tumbleweed because of that for example.

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

Void linux been using it now for 2 years on my laptop

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

My one desktop is 5 years on Manjaro now.

Before that I had Ubuntu for 8 years across several installs, although I also dual-booted Windows back then.

But I've had a freeBSD file server for at least 20.

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

Been on Manjaro for about 4 years for my gaming PC but been running a Debian flavor for servers since Woody.

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

On servers I've stuck with Ubuntu LTS's since 2017. They've always been rock solid, even if the 2-4 year upgrade can be time consuming, it's not often enough for me to try something else. The support and documentation is excellent. I find it hard to think of a single reason to even try something else.

On the desktop I probably have spent most time on Ubuntu, or Ubuntu derivative like Kubuntu, but I now use EndeavourOS and I have no plans to switch or hop or try anything else. So I'll likely end up on Endeavour far longer.

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

I've bounced around Fedora, Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Mint over the years. I've been on Zorin OS going on two years and I'm eagerly waiting for 17 to release. I don't see myself hopping anytime soon.

[–] bdonvr 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was on Arch for 4years. Been on Fedora for 3 now. Same install.

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

I’ve been on Fedora for about 7 years. My server flips between Ubuntu and CentOS every couple of years.

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

Fedora for the last 4 or 5 years

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

I used Kububtu between 2008 and around 2013, then got so fed up with KDE4 bugs I switched to Xubuntu, and am using that ever since.

So that's 10 or 15 years depending how you count.

When I want to play, I start a VM, base OS needs to be rock solid.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I distro hopped a lot since installing a retail red hat box bought at the store in 199something.

It's now more than 10 years that I basically only run Debian (on all my servers) and Gentoo/funtoo (on my workstations). For my partner and relatives, I install only Mint because it lacks all the cool gadgets, but it's stable as a rock, especially on notebooks, and still reminds them of Windows.

I tried Arch, btw. Nice wiki, horrible package management.

I tried Pop_OS, it's fun, it's fine, it's fresh, but tends to self-destruct if I push it too much.

I loved Elementary OS, it's really promising but always gave me the feeling to run a beta OS.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I think I started using Linux a bit over 4 years ago. I've been using Bedrock Linux for almost that entire time, around 3 and a half years.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

My dad used to hope distros constantly. He would read distrowatch and want to try the latest and greatest out.

I've been with Ubuntu server since 1404. Not always the smoothest road but it's worked for me. Snap is ridiculous though.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

this run on xubuntu i think. when i first switched to mint (xfce) a few years back i'd reinstall every month or so because i broke something, yes with enough misguided tinkering linux mint can be broken. then i'd spend a week-month on other distros, mx linux, peppermint, all the ubuntus, then manjaro that got me on to minimal installs, then arch btw, then endeavour, with my own awesome or openbox config. i thought i'd settled down for 6 months or so, but the threat of a bad package was always there (even though it never happened). when i got my latest laptop i installed mint again, with my openbox config. after a while i started noticing things weren't running quite right, so i just thought "instead of changing everything, just change what i need to" and went with xub for slightly more up to date repos. turns out i can get pretty much all the functionality i had with openbox out of xfce. so i've managed to stay on one install for about 18 months!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Honestly, about 4 months, and it was Arch. I've been using Linux for over a year now. Currently I'm on NixOS trying to make things work the way I want them to, but there's still some minor issues that are difficult to deal with.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I used Ubuntu from 8.10 until the introduction of snaps (2017, 2018?). And since then I’ve just stuck with Debian. :)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I'm not using it currently but I have used Manjaro for a long time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Probably 6 years, on FreeBSD. (Not a Linux distro, but I count that). Now I'm 3 years on NixOS, but I'm booting FreeBSD here and than.

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