"Distros" are simply different ways of packaging (and servicing ...) more-or-less the same thing. It really doesn't matter too much which one you choose, as long as the packages are kept current by whomever is responsible for doing that. It matters most that you keep the packages up-to-date, especially the security-related ones.

Incidentally, this was an underpinning of Red Hat's business model since the very beginning, which makes it by far the most profitable "IPO stock" I ever bought. They charge money for servicing, and they provide a service-level agreement (SLA) regarding it. This enables them to take on big-business requirements and to be profitable doing so.

I play with other distros occasionally, but stick with Slackware, since version 12.

i second that

i can understand 'distro shopping', eg: trying a few distros before deciding on one, then sticking with that one, and only 'hopping' when your distro of choice for whatever reason no longer does what you need/want it to do.


my short jog to Ubuntu was more out of necessity than choice (work related), but the moment i was able to put Fedora back on the machine, I did

my only other hop was between redhat (the oler NON enterprise versions) and Fedora, which isn't exactly a big 'hop'

I usually get bored with a "distro" when all the thinking is done for me.

I have used Slackware for 720 days.

Tried a few distros when I "discovered" Linux in 2004. Slackware 10.0 was the first I installed in late '04/ early '05. I never thought any of the other distros were bad, just that they didn't suit me. And I've lost interest in trying any others, now. Sticking with Slack for as long as it or I last.

6 months is the longest period of time that I've ever stayed off Slackware.

If I want to give a distribution a fair chance, though, I usually try to use it exclusively for 2 months.

I used slackware for a week once. But with systemd insinuating itself into all the distros these days, i might give it another go.

I've been using Debian (alongside other distros) continuously for about 7 or 8 years, so I guess that's the longest I've used a particular distro.

Over the years, I've tried just about all the popular distros many times but I've stuck with Arch as my default distro for more than 10 years now. That doesn't keep me from trying other distros from time to time just to see how they compare. I see no reason to leave Arch as long as it's keeping me happy.

My desktop computers have always run Red Hat, Fedora, or CentOS. I tried Debian Stable once, when I was getting exasperated by the increasingly experimental nature of Fedora, but fled back after 3 weeks. My little Thinkpad got Salix because it's too slow for CentOS.

On the other hand, as you may have noticed, I post reviews on this site, so my total number of distros used (or attempted, in some dire cases) currently stands at 113.

Are these business Desktops or personal? Have you run into any situation where you had to move to Windows/dual boot for compatibility?

Greetz
I continually play with many distros to see if they're doing anything cool (usually not) amd to be able to speak intelligently about them from experience rather than from ignorant bias. I play on those but it is usually more than just a cursory couple of days. I try to login a few hundred hours if the install isn't totally whack.

I play around on those and they change after a few months but I work (and play games and videos) in Slackware and have since 1999. I can see no reason for that to change anytime soon.

Though I've used a number of different distros (I had two Dells that came with Ubuntu back in the good old days when you could get Dells with Ubuntu easily), I've always had Slackware on at least one computer since my first Linux experience, which was with Slackware in April 2005.

My next longest continuous Linux distro is with Debian which has been on this here computer since Lenny and for about six months on one of my laptops a couple of years before that (that laptop died after five years of good and faithful service).

Wherever I wander, I always come back to Slack.

These are home computers, but basically for office-style use. As for Windows, my only experience of that was when I did some work for a society on their computer about 20 years ago. I've been given .doc files and had no trouble with them, and when I've done any journalism they've wanted plain text.

About 6 months appears to be the limit for me. When I find a distro I like something usually happens that makes me switch. I ran Solus then it died, ran Watt 7.5 and the developer switched bases, now running MX-14 and Mint...