Linux - GeneralThis Linux forum is for general Linux questions and discussion.
If it is Linux Related and doesn't seem to fit in any other forum then this is the place.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
When using Fedora began to feel like being a laboratory rat, I did try Debian — that lasted all of a month! I do actually have it on my 21-year-old spare computer, but that's only because nothing else works on ot and it only comes out of its bag about once a year.
When CentOS was effectively destroyed, I switched to PLLinuxOS. You might say that was a leap, moving to a rolling release, but it didn't feel like one.
I had switched from S.u.S.E. to Debian, when they released the first version without compiler (in the standard distribution), for smugness, mostly, as it has never been a problem to set up a development environment with S.u.S.E. Although they changed many things again in following versions – and although I consider SUSE a good choice and would not mind trying OpenSuse – I stuck with Debian. Accidentally I had to use Ubuntu on the job for a while.
Debian was my first alternative because I knew I will be fine with so many people around who would assist, when I ran into problems. In the meantime, my needs have diminished and I appreciate a rolling release which just works.
For linuxes,
I had been using Slackware since before 13.37
I had tried Debian but did not like the gui installer and the sense of there being less options meaningful to me.
And raspbian linux on my RPi 4b
But the RPi was working badly on the latest raspbian releases, So for the last 2 weeks I tried it with freebsd, and then with Void Linux. But now I am trying the RPi with Alpine Linux, which has the advantage of running from memory, so the usb flash drive it boots from will not be worn out from frequent writes.
But I am still trying Void Linux on my laptop pc. I might leap away from Slackware into the Void. I have decided I need to leap from Slackware to something. And Void Linux seems to have the packages I actually use and care about.
Linux and Unix Like: Solaris (in 1984), to Coherent, to AT&T Sysv 3, to HP-UX, to AIX (3.14 to 4.15 to 5.0L), to SCO, to RH Linux 4 (Pre-RHEL), to Debian, to RHEL4, to Ubuntu, to Fedora, to RHEL5-6-7, back to to Debian, to Elementary, to Q4OS, to Debian on ARCH64, to Manjaro with side trips along the way to Slackware, Void, FreeBSD, Mint, MintDE, VSIDO, Sparky Linux, and a dozen others. That is not to mention the non-unix operating systems from CP/M and MPM-II and IBMDOS to KolibriOS and Windows 2 through 10 including the server versions.
If you LIKE operating systems, and you back up critical data often, change is not something to fear. A change may lead to better or worse (looking at you Canonical!) but it is always a learning experience and improves YOU!
(Although it can also be painful, if you forget to test those backups. Don't ask how I know!)
Many many years ago, I left my comfy confines of (mostly) Debian & Arch and learned Gentoo. Huge leap. Learned a lot. Also, learned I hate waiting for things to compile, and returned to Debian and Arch.
Being from the if it ain't broke don't fix it camp, I've done pretty much the opposite. My first Linux installation was RedHat 5.2 at the end of last century. I was disimpressed with its Gnome, and didn't mess with Linux for a while, until my second installation, Mandrake 7.1 with KDE, which tickled my interest. My third serious installation, after dabbling with Corel 1.x/KDE to get access to WordPerfect without DOS or Windows, Caldera/KDE, and Xandros/Linspire/Freespire/KDE3, was SuSE 8.0 with KDE3. I have multiple PCs, all with multiboot and various other distros and a small selection of non-Gnome DEs, mostly TDE, but as for my primary post-OS/2 PC, I'm still with KDE3, on openSUSE 15.5, as primary PC/OS.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.