You can't go wrong with Debian

As an old fart, I'm happy to see that Debian is still cool. All of this arch-manjaro-nix-os-awesome-bspwm-i3-xmonad-flatsnap whippersnapper stuff is over my head.

You already figured it out. It’s Debian stable.

Will start to test Debian stable.

This is a smart move.

Debians make for very good servers, I've been using Debian servers since moving my desktop from Fedora (when it was still called Fedora Core) to Ubuntu. I don't regret it one bit. The community is excellent, and there is ample information available online without having to ask a new question.

Debian.

I would recommend openSuSe. It is using rpm, but it is an independent distribution.

Go Debian

Desktop? Arch. Server? Debian, NixOS.

If you're up for it: NixOS!

It's quite a steep learning curve, but after some time (after you've configured your "dream-system") you don't want to go back/switch to any different distro.

Specifically servers IMHO are a great use-case for NixOS. It's usually simpler to configure than a desktop distro, and less of the usual pain points of "dirty" software (like hardcoded dynamic libraries, that exist on most systems (ubuntu as reference) at that path).

I've much less fear maintaining my servers with NixOS because of its declarative functional reproducability and "transactional" upgrade system, than previously (where I've used Debian mostly).

My vote is Archlinux. Debian is sometimes a little too "optimisitic" when backporting security fixes and upgrading from oldstable to stable always comes with manual intervention.

Release-based distros tend to be deployed and left to fend on their own for years - when it is finally time to upgrade it is often a large manual migration process depending on the deployed software. A rolling release does not have those issues, you just keep upgrading continuously.

Archlinux performs excellent as a lightweight server distro. Kernel updates do not affect VM hardware the same they do your laptop, so no issues with that. Same for drivers. It just, works.

Bonus: it is extremely easy to build and maintain your own packages, so administration of many instances with customized software is very convenient.

Honestly, Debian stable has always been my first option. I'll continue using Arch for my desktops and Debian on servers and stuff.

Can't really go wrong with Debian or Ubuntu server LTS

If your solutions are work/job related and need to be distributed I think your current options are SUSE or Debian. If your solution is something only you maintain, you could check out NixOS.

Debian always

NixOS

Reproducible and unbreakable

Debian 12, Opensuse leap or tumbleweed, SLES, Fedora, Linux mint / LMDE, Freebsd, Alma Linux OS

I've been running Debian stable for years now on everything. My laptop runs it, my home server runs it headless with no GUI installed, my gaming desktop runs it and even my kids run it without issue. If we need a newer version of some desktop app I just get the Flatpak. It's pretty great and the good thing is that it's predictable. Once it's up and running I don't have to worry about things breaking because of an update.

Debian stable. The mix of having a stable host but being able to pull in flatpak / appimage / docker containers with newer software is awesome.

minimal: alpine
general purpose: debian or CentOS, i'll still use it for now.

If you need enterprise support I'd look for Ubuntu or maybe SUSE. If you can't tolerate RHEL closing their source, that is (some people won't be bothered).

If that's not needed, then Debian all the way! It's served me well for like 10 years in my home lab.

I have been using Debian for about 20 years now. Server and desktop. But I recently migrated all my server stuff to FreeBSD and I don't think I will move back. Jails are great and provide me a convenient way to isolate my apps. On the desktop side I will stay with Debian.

Any issues with CentOS stream for your work? Could always switch to Fedora server too if you wanted to keep the same structures and such, but separate some from RedHat.

Slackware. Its stable as a mofo.

Tumbleweed or Leap are good. You could go with something exotic like VanillaOS

For server, Debian is great :) i use ubuntu 20.04 lts personally

• Debian for stable.
• Fedora if you want a bit more bleeding edge.
• Arch for desktop/laptops.

At least that's how I've been running my homelab stuff for years now.

Debian stable, but Alpine and Guix are also worth considering.