array

array, hace 1 mes

@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, hace 1 mes

@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, hace 1 mes

@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, hace 1 mes

@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, hace 1 mes

@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, hace 1 mes

@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, hace 1 mes

@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, hace 1 mes

@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, hace 1 mes

@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, hace 1 mes

@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 ;)