Original question by @POTOOOOOOOO@reddthat.com
NixOS. My entire config is source-controlled and I can easily roll back to a previous boot image if something breaks like cough Nvidia drivers. I also use it for my home router and all self-hosted services.
maniacally laughs while trying to avoid eye contact with 19k lines of nix config
Out of all the ways that I have tried in the past, to reproduce not just the initial state, but also the ongoing changes of a disto (ansible, saltstack, chef, bunch of Shell scripts) — nix is by far the shortest. With all of these technologies I would never have dreamed to do this for a single Maschine. But now it’s not only possible, but actually gasp enjoyable!
Mind you, if that is not the problem you want to solve, maybe install just the nix package manager in addition to your distribution, and learn to enjoy it without having to run your whole distribution this way.
You misunderstand! It has also turned into basically a hobby (and recently, a job, lol) to manage nix configs.
Those 19k lines are clean, well-structured and DRY, and do describe every little thing about ca. 30 machines.
Because it was my first distro that got me away from Windows. And yes, it’s Mint.
Nobara: It works well most of the time and has pretty much everything needed for gaming preinstalled. I had a bad update once that prevented booting past the command line though. Now that I’m more experienced I’d probably use a more mainline distro and install the gaming stuff myself.
It works, has the packages I need and they are up-to-date
Mine’s the best, because it fits with what I want. Might not be your best, but it’s mine.
How about Qubes? if you have the specs, you get sandboxes (VMs) and all distros are available into 1. Heck, you can even have windows VMs…
And if you don’t have the specs, just use any linux and install distrobox (docker) !
An alternative to distrobox is toolbx
I’m convinced it isn’t.
Void made Linux fun again for me. It gets so much right with the rolling release model.
openSUSE Slowroll and Secureblue are my favorites ATM. Slowroll for gaming, Secureblue for mobile device. Both are hardened for security because that matters to me.
This week alone I’ve used Arch, Ubuntu, OpenSuse, and Fedora. Its Arch. By a short way, and mostly thanks to the wiki. Tbh they are all converging, and I go with KDE variants when I use a GUI and no distro does too much to customise it
I’ve been enjoying EndeavourOS over the past three years. It works wonderfully out of the box at default settings, and was really easy for me to use and set up to my liking with minimal know-how needed.
It also works really well on the variety of machines I have in my home. My desktop, modded Chromebook, and my husband’s laptop.
It’s allowed me to get more familiar and confident with the command line, and enough so that I’ve switched to Sway from XFCE (and previously KDE).
Debian. It works so well that I never even looked at different distros during the last 20 years or so…
To each its own in accordance to their needs. Debian is great unless you want to add proprietary stuff like GPUs. That’s the whole reason so many distros (e.g. Ubuntu) raised to fame and gained popularity while being based on Debian… That, and the fact that until recently Debian installation guide was not updated and called to download an ISO to be burned in 1-2 CDs… that was so f*ing unclear. Of course you can use a pendrive, but if the guide talks about CDs… that’s just confusing to newbies. None pointed that out, but to me is like being even less friendly than Arch :P Just my opinion. That said, I have been using Debian based distros for most of my time, even today (desktop PC with MX ‘ahs’.)
Bazzite just works, it runs every game I have with zero fuss, it’s easy to run Windows programs / emulators / local LLMs, AND it’s basically unbreakable.
I haven’t bothered to actually search or troubleshoot yet, but since I’m here - have you had any problems with power management failing to automatically turn screens off when idle?
I don’t get consistent behavior there it seems (AKA it leaves them on when it shouldn’t), but that’s I think the only significant oddity I’ve found in the ~7 months or so I’ve been running Bazzite. And like I said I’ve done basically nothing yet to try to solve it, just wondering if you’ve seen it. I have the issue on a desktop and a laptop, using entirely different monitors (not even same brand) FWIW.
I haven’t had any problems like that, but I generally don’t leave my screen on. So perhaps I would have this issue, but just never notice it because of how I use the device.
I’m very conscious of energy use, I almost always manually set my laptop to sleep if I’m leaving it idle for a while.
I can’t claim it’s the best, but it’s the best for me right now.
On a gaming laptop I’m using Aurora because KDE Plasma btw (:
Bazzite has a KDE version too. I think it is more popular then the GNOME version of bazzite actually. At least according to the results of the latest steam survey
Yep I use KDE-flavored Bazzite and actually forgot GNOME was even offered! It works deliciously. Came over from Windows last winter finally and boy, the UI alone is just so much nicer.
Does what I want and gets out of my way.
