Original question by @POTOOOOOOOO@reddthat.com
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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.
You mean my distros?
Different distros are the best for different purposes.
My Fedora is the best for my laptop because it just works and all the hardware is supported.
My Arch is the best because it’s a super fine tuned setup that prevents distractions and doesn’t waste memory or CPU doing things I don’t care about.
My mint is the best because it’s simple, stable, beautiful out of the box.
My debian is the best because servers are no nonsense.
My puppy Linux was the best when I was a developer for the distro because it was the smallest lightest and fastest distro I’ve ever used.
Etc.
2nd one I picked up, works nicely, is for lesbians, what else could I want
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Do things not work out of the box on debian?
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Linux Mint has a Debian Edition (LMDE) if you ever wanted a Debian that Just Works.
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The Ubuntu version does have all of Mint’s tools and stuff. Pretty sure the Debian edition is missing the Driver Manager and maybe some others.
Me linux distro is not the best. “The best” varies from person to person and also in accord to different positions in time.
Yup. To me, IRIX was the best, until I found GNU+Linux in late 2003 and becoming a windows refugee, not to IRIX, but to, not just GNU+Linux, but all freedom respecting operating systems and their distributions, and the potential of what they could become, as I and many others attempt to learn them, and help contribute to them. Many more itches to scratch yet. The best is yet to come, for each and all. :) Or so the philosophy inspires and aspires.
[PS… Oh I so would love a FOSS IRIX… a free software [“open source”] multi-arch IRIX revival though… beyond just NekoWare and whatever else is scattered around.]
[PPS, oh, and varies computer to computer too… I don’t use the same distro everywhere. Sometimes even several distros on the same computer. Quite right to point out the folly of the notion of there being a one-true-way “best”.]
https://uwuntuos.site/ obvi?
But seriously though, Arch all the way, because it teaches me about Linux and computers, because I can customize all the packages at OS install (without the need for lengthy compiling like Gentoo) and because my Steam games work flawlessly on it.
FYI, Gentoo has official binhost now, so emerge does not have to compile the package for you any more. But you still can, if you want. Like if you want to choose different useflags, use saved configs, apply patches, etc.
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Debian (stable)
Stable, secure, it just works, has one of the, if not THE largest software package repo of all Linux distros, has lots of third party support for proprietary software and drivers that are available as .deb files or through official PPAs. It also is not backed by any corporation, but is a community developed distro. You can install it on pretty much everything.
The only downside I would say is their shift into using Systemd. They shouldn’t have done that. It was forced through undemocratically and I think that was a big mistake, even though they are trying to limit software dependencies to it. There’s a fork called Devuan that I’ve been considering where you can pick your init system. (SysVinit/runit, etc) I honestly miss SysVinit. It was simple, easy to understand and easy to maintain.
CachyOS with NiriWM. Cachy is Arch with none of the install drama. The performance tuning makes it blazing fast on older hardware. Installs with no bloat.
Niri is superior to Hyprland in my opinion because it’s a scrolling tiling WM that is super intuitive and fast.
For server workloads, however, not much beats pure Debian. It’s stable, well supported, and has a huge package library.
Mint baby, it just works.
Because I like compiling everything from source for a 0.2% speed improvement
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
It isn’t, it is the least bad
Which technically makes it the best, doesn’t it?
No because best implies it’s good. Least bad doesn’t transmit the same message as best.
Yeah that’s fair.
I use Arch, btw, but I don’t consider it the best (yes I do.) I could easily transition to Fedora, for example (I would never do that,) and be completely happy (I would rather continually hit my head with the metal stapler gun on my desk.)









