@jhx Mostly same path for me. I had a lot of fun in my distrohopping stage, I have learned stuff and what's more important, now I know what works and what doesn't for me. Ubuntu for dev; Arch, Void and Debian Sid for tinkering, non-dev stuff, and test drive the latest software. None is absolutely perfect (nothing is!), but I get the job done and I'm quite happy with them. :)
@array
The hopping itself can be fun. But for me it was more of a hassle than fun to be honest.
Sure, things were for sure learned while doing so. 😉
Arch and Debian is my thing 😎
Used Void before for some time - was pretty solid.
But these days are over, two left 😀
@jhx I got to shortlist to just four... But there's many others I still love and would use: MX, antiX, Kiss Linux, OpenSUSE, Fedora... Or the *BSDs, if I just owned some hardware well supported, which I sadly don't.
Arch and Debian are pretty solid choices, and both are in my shortlist. If I have to finally ditch Ubuntu at some point (because annoyances), Debian is the most likely candidate to live in my dev machine. :)
@array
Debian is quite the allrounder. I use Arch mostly for fiddling and dev stuff - since the bleeding aspect helps there.
On the BSD side I use Open/FreeBSD
@jhx One of the differences between Ubuntu and Debian that matters to me is the release timeline... In Debian it's one new version every about 2 years, so with time some stuff may tend to get stale, newest hardware may not be well supported, etc. In Ubuntu you can stay in a LTS if it fits the bill, or try the newest 6 months release if it doesn't. Fedora and Debian release models, all into one, and this has proved advantageous in my case. :)
@array
For me it has always been alright. I've once had a new system that was not yet supported. But right now I'm only using used hardware - nothing new or bleeding at all. So it is less of a concern to me.
But yes, when dealing with newer hardware this can be a challenge... but: there is always backported kernels and one can use testing 😉
It all depends on the hardware in the end.
Fedora is "faster" with it's 6 month release cycle. Debian is more conservative. And Ubuntu is in between
@jhx Maybe now that I'm using Java again, and my dev laptop is about 2 years old, the release model would not be much of a problem... I don't need the latest Java -far from it-, a ~2 years old kernel should support my HW and as you say, there's always backports and other potential workarounds if I should need something newer. :)
@array
Even if you need newer stuff: There most likely is a repo, package, container, etc. available to get it 😉
I for example get Ansible directly via pipx - just because I like to have the newest release.
2 years old should be totally fine for #Debian
New hardware also mostly works - it rather is bleeding edge tech that get's fiddly.
(Besides, building a kernel if nothing else is available is also not too hard)
@jhx I've built a kernel and yeah, it's doable, but I needed to spend quite a lot of time researching and essay-and-error testing my builds (of course it needed some try to just boot! XD), and there's an absurd number of build options, so I was never sure I got that right. And then you have to maintain your kernel manually too... But worst case scenario you're right, it's still an option. :)
@array
You can leverage the existing kernel config and just build a new kernel - either tweaking via nconfig/menuconfig or just building it directly 😉
But backported kernels are available for sure in the end.
Yes, the number of options is crazy - esp. dealing with device drivers... which you can purge for the most part 😂
@jhx Fair enough, my kernel-building days were the Kiss Linux days (which had everything built from source), and I built my kernel from scratch. Once you have a working config you can maybe still tweak sume stuff but yeah, next built will be piece of cake. Anyway I think I would try backported kernels first, if I was in need of a newer one! XD
@array
Once the config is set it is quite easy indeed.
Sure, the backported kernels are also tested and working 😉
A custom baked kernel can, depending on the config, be not working 100% correct
@jhx What I noticed was how amazingly lightweight everything was when building the system from source in Kiss Linux... Running Xorg with a simple WM and st displayed ~60 Mb of RAM used, which is the lowest I've seen in any of my machines and with any distro, not even antiX was so lightweight. ;)
@array
That is the same story with a Gentoo install. Used to do Gentoo/Xfce before. You can certainly compile out a lot of stuff (Given USE flag magic and custom kernel configs).
In the end I do not care too much about that anymore. Besides, Debian with a netinstall is quite light in itself.
antiX is a great spin 😎
@jhx Yeah, same for me. I used to buy the cheapest machines I could find, knowing that, with Linux, I could have a performance well tailored to my needs, and more if I could tweak stuff, as with Kiss Linux. But since I started programming IDEs and stuff that needed more resources pushed me on a more beefy laptop, and now a few Mb up and down don't quite make a difference. ;)
antiX is great for underpowered machines and a paradise if you like CLI tools, I really love that distro. :)
@array
A small machine can go a very long way, let alone the lower power consumption!
I love smaller systems - they are a huge fun to tinker with.
Sure if you need more power the hardware also needs to scale up.
antiX is for sure great. Devuan is also near and dear to my heart.
Also, makes for a great live distro if troubleshooting is needed. 😉
@jhx You are always a voice of reason and well manners, see, it mustn't be that difficult to be coherent, respectful and polite... Any community would actually be perfect if this were the rule, no exception. :)
@array
Thanks 🙂
Indeed, that would be great if any community would be inherently positive and welcoming.
A sad fact, or problem, esp. in the Linux land is so called elitism - people pushing their views/distros onto others since they are above everyone else... seen that many times.
To each there own I'd say 😉
@jhx Yup. I say to myself I don't actually mind the elitists and -generally speaking- trolls, but then I have often seen myself justifying, for example, why I use Ubuntu, or why I like Java or PHP, which are usually targets for some "superior" minds. This is why I posted this: https://fosstodon.org/@array/112360125565817471 ;)
@array
I like to recommend the distros I use BUT I do not force them on anyone. Everyones needs are different, that is a fact of life.
I totally do not care what distro/coding lang/etc. anyone uses.
