Linux

Arch because I like simple.

Other distros are an exercise in patience I think. Each Ubuntu version has different names and versions of stuff like docker, mysql and everything else. It's really annoying to work with. I assume all six month distros are like that. And you have to add extra repos, keys and whatnot for it to even find things.

With arch, since it's rolling, I just install the latest version and I already know the command. It's always the same. Always.

There are many reasons I like arch but the simplicity of the installations is one of my favorite reasons to use it.

Debian for servers and debian for desktop. Debian everywhere!

mint
it "just works" and I dont have to update it constantly

but my daily driver is endeavourOS

If you're looking for stable and up to date, give openSUSE Tumbleweed a shot.

Debian for my work. It is stable and I’ve been using it for many years.

Fedora.

I can highly recommend fedora to a newbie. It's easier to use than ubuntu. It doesn't come with snaps. You only need one or two methods of installing apps. It's safe. It's well written. It's supported very well. It's updated frequently. It incorporates innovative technology.

Opensuse and EndeaverOS are also very nice.

Arch Linux is my go-to distro because I can literally install it in half the time that it takes a lot of others. I also like that it is very lightweight.

Debian. I've been running it on my "daily driver" personal desktop/laptop since -97 (Debian 1.3).
Changing now would be major undertaking with no apparent upside, so I won't.

Fedora Workstation is what I use for my desktop. If I were to have to reinstall now I'd do Silverblue.

For my home lab I do Proxmox with a couple of VM's for Ubuntu server for pihole DNS servers and an OpenMediaVault VM for my docker workloads. I'd probably do CoreOS or IoT if I was starting over there though.

Nixos, as stable as debian and as rolling edge as arch and if i break something i can just rollback.

Arch for desktop, Debian for server

For desktop Linux, I use Arch. It's a community driven base distribution, so the needs of the community are what drives development and there are no financial decisions of a company that get priority, which is refreshing. It also has access to the latest and greatest that Linux has to offer.

They have a philosophy of expecting basic effort from users and to have a tinkering mindset. Historically, Arch devs and users have a reputation of being grumpy greybeards, but many of the rough edges have been rounded off in the last few years. If you are willing to do a bit of reading or watching some YouTube videos, it's not really that hard.

You can really build a lean and powerful machine that has just the software you want on the system with Arch. All it takes is a little effort and willingness to ask for help from the community after you have tried and failed to solve problems yourself. It's really not the badge of elitism to use Arch in 2023. It's never been easier to use and doesn't blow up on you nearly as often as the reputation implies. Just use good hygiene and make snapshots so if you blow it up, it's only a 5 minute recovery.

Fedora! To me it sits right at the sweet spot of stability and bleeding edge (they call it "leading edge"), and I'm very happy with how they run things (including the most recent controvery!).

I would highly recommend EndeavourOS. Its basically Arch linux on easy mode. It takes care of updates without much fuss.

Arch has been my go to for almost 10 years now, and it was one of my favorites for 5 years prior. These days I rarely have any issues from updating. I have to use Ubuntu for work and I dread every distribution upgrade. I got lucky and the last one worked on my work laptop, but usually something stupid breaks.

I run arch on my laptop, my previous laptop, and my server. The install on my server is 7 years old now, and started life with an entirely different CPU brand. I won't say I've never had to do any manual intervention, but the answer has been a Google search away pretty much every time.

I use Arch BTW

Currently NixOS having been a long time Arch user. The power of Nix is unbeatable once it finally clicks.

Pop! It's easy to install, stable, and works great with Nvidia drivers. If I have more time on my hands then Arch, because it's good old-fashioned computing fun.

@pluja You'll be happiest using whatever you're comfortable maintaining/troubleshooting. I've spent ~20 years playing with many different distros for one reason or another and the only one I can't stay away from is #gentoo. As with most things, everyone's got different tastes, that's the great thing about having so much choice.

Nobody's reason for "the best" distro is gonna be the right one for you. You'll know what's right for you because it's the one you always want to use more than any other.

Fedora! To me it sits right at the sweet spot of stability and bleeding edge (they call it "leading edge"), and I'm very happy with how they run things (including the most recent controversy!).

Mint. Simple, stable, efficient.

Tried a lot of distros and finally settled on openSUSE Tumbleweed. Rock solid for a rolling release. If anything ever goes wrong, there's Snapper to rollback without a breaking a sweat.

Debian -- The Universal Operating System

Because it's universal, runs on everything rock solid and stable.

Debian stable, the os for 50 year old nudists.

It’s the stable branch of one of the oldest distributions around.

Anything Arch, because it's hard, it's a pain in the ass and as an intermediate user I need Arch to break on me so I can fix it and learn.

Arch and Debian. I have two home PCs with all my data on an smb share. One runs Debian 12, the other runs Arch. When I sit down I decide which I want to use and go. I couldn't pick one I liked better so....I didn't.

I've tried basically every reasonably maintained distribution, and keep coming back to Arch. It just feels right. And it just works right too. The package manager is excellent, and that is one of the things that makes or breaks any distribution for me. I also love that it comes with nothing, so you know what you get, and it'll be setup how you want it. With other major distributions, I spend a considerable amount of time removing things first, which is something I just don't want to do.

I've been trying out NixOS recently. I really appreciate what it is trying to do, but the complexity of nix-command is quite overwhelming

Mint for work and home.

I distro hopped a lot in the 2006-2011 era, and eventually settled on Arch. I like the initial simplicity, the wiki was and still is the best resource to this day, and anything I needed from the kitchen sink was accessible via the AUR. I've ended up using it on my workstations, work laptops, and personal machines ever since.

I use arch btw

Currently kinda controversial, but currently it's still Fedora, the xfce4 version.

I had Debian for some time before, but had my apt packages messed up a couple of times to the point I had to entirely re-install. In stable, I was missing sufficiently recent versions, in testing I had other problems.

With Fedora dnf I had less problems recovering, usually more recent versions.

Xfce4 is just more suitable for my needs than Gnome.

Endeavour OS for me, use it both on my own laptop and my work one. BTW, it's Arch-based

Arch for me, I use Aur as a crutch to avoid compiling and managing source projects, i love pacman and rolling releases, and it's very easily customizable (ofc once you learn the system).

Void Linux. Super stable and offers an easy and lightning fast package manager. I'm not sure of your use case but it has been great for me on an older Dell precision laptop for work.

i settled on fedora kde a few years ago(altho i recently switched to fedora silverblue kde)
imo a nice middleground.

if you are intrested in immutable distros, i can recommend silverblue (not as drastic of a change compared to nixos)

if you are intrested in nixos package management, you might want to try out the nix package manager on your current distro.

an intresting way to get the fresh but stable system you want is to,
install some rock solid distro like debian,
and then use the nix package manager and/or flatpacks to get the fresh software you want.

Try Void Linux, or just stay at Arch. If you want to try Nixos (my current distro), watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGVXJ-TIv3Y .

Fedora because it's robust, stable, mature and has a fairly up-to-date package repository. Plus, it has spins (ISO flavours) with different DEs/WMs installed, including i3 and even Sway!

If you want a Linux distro that just works and gets out of the way, Fedora is for you. I've been using it for years now and see no reason to switch.

Linux Mint is my go-to. It's stable and if I want the latest update of anything, I use one of these:

• PPA
• Flatpak
• Docker

I think people underestimate how useful docker can be for running various stuff, I have few semi-permanent containers for some software and it works great.

Gentoo, for its user choice and lack of bloat. I've been using it for a long time, and can create my own packages for personal use if I don't mind them looking like Frankenstein bodges, so that's another plus. It's stable enough if you stick with actual stable-marked packages and don't go out of your way to shoot yourself in the foot, and if something does go wrong at the distro's end, 1. they usually fix it pretty fast and 2. rolling packages back is easy if the older version is still in the tree (and usually still possible if it isn't, although it can get kind of involved).

Would I recommend Gentoo to another user? That depends on which user. You kind of have to be either knowledgeable or willing to learn—it isn't a "just works" distro, although some things have been streamlined in recent years. You do have to put a little time into maintenance, but it's usually on the order of less than half an hour a week.

Debian is always my go-to. Is the users are coming from Windows I might say the DE to Cinnamon.

I am typically on Arch on all my machines since 2006. For a while I bootstrapped new machines using EndeavorOS, but usually stripped out their packages and returned to vanilla arch. Since I now prefer ZFS as root fs, I am back to installing from scratch, to get exactly the layout I want.

I use Arch Linux on my desktop and laptop. My servers run a mix of Debian and OpenSUSE.

Gentoo and Debian. Debian will let you get back to what you really want to be doing whereas gentoo gives you excellent granularity over everything, but can be overwhelming and time consuming.

Really should ask yourself what you'll be mostly doing and pick a tool (distro) that let's you accomplish that.