I’m not the biggest distrohopper but I have tried a few, both on my laptop and desktop. I still keep windows around on a dual-boot but I’m basically only using it for the odd game or two and also onenote (obsidian + excalidraw comes close but nothing really has a seamless transition between pen and typing text like OneNote)

Early 2018 and before:

Windows only

2018-19:

• Ubuntu 18.04 (desktop),
• Ubuntu 18.04/18.10/19.04 (laptop)

2019-2022:

• Manjaro w/ KDE (desktop),
• Arch Linux w/ GNOME (laptop)

2022-2023:

• NixOS (laptop, for literally a day because it didn’t have a package I needed to make my laptop work correctly)
• EndeavourOS (kde on laptop, qtile on desktop)

2024:

• No changes to the desktop setup,
• NixOS w/ KDE and also a half-functioning hyprland setup on the laptop now that the package got added.

Future?

Maybe if I can get my NixOS config to a point where I’m happy with it I’ll switch my desktop setup to that as well, in theory it should be pretty painless since i’m already using a flake setup split across multiple modules. I do really like that I can experiment with my setup without the risk of actually breaking anything since NixOS is semi-immutable.

If I don’t stick with NixOS I’ve also been thinking about trying fedora, opensuse, or an immutable distro, or otherwise just moving my laptop back to either Arch or EndeavourOS since that’s what I’m familiar with.

It’s also worth noting I’ve recently been seeing a lot of Linux posts from people who just switched, this was somewhat of a trend on Reddit as well but imo the Linux posting has gotten noticeably less toxic toward newer users and a lot more understanding of the “using Linux without wanting to spend hours configuring everything” perspective.

Side point that’s somewhat related to that: I wonder how the growth of other platforms FOSS platforms like Lemmy, Mastodon, Matrix, etc. has impacted Linux project development. Not sure if it’s just me but it seems like it’s helped a lot with making Linux communities more accessible.

If the fediverse is so cool how come there’s no fediverse 2 huh???

How long some company like Nintendo uses this to justify taking mods down?

If you’re worried about using the terminal you could always install one of the frontends for pacman like the one Manjaro uses. Manjaro might be a pain if you’re using AUR packages (really depends on what packages you use, some niche ones like specific game modloaders or the professional JetBrains IDEs are only on the AUR) because Manjaro’s repos are delayed by around 2 weeks, but the AUR isn’t delayed at all. Depending on the packages you’re using that could break updates sometimes.

Depending on how familiar with programming you are you could also try NixOS which has an absurd number of packages in their official repo but NixOS’s config files can be kind of a pain sometimes.

Edit:

It’s also worth noting that you could start off with Manjaro and then jump over to something like EndeavourOS/Arch once you get more familiarized with using the terminal down the line. That way you wouldn’t have to relearn commands/setups when you switch, since they’re ultimately all arch-based and have the same underlying structure.

Pretty sure that’s a joke, Mali’s TLD is .ml

Software optimization is mostly not a language-level problem. I’ll be dailying my 3-year-old OnePlus 9 Pro until it starts missing out on security updates, but it will probably still be “usable” long after that. Support/updates aside, my 6-year-old galaxy s9 can still run most normal apps. Hell, I got the most recent lineageOS running on a pixel 2 XL from the year before that and it straight up felt fast as long as I wasn’t playing some super intensive game or something. This isn’t an android vs. iOS problem, it’s a “developers of [insert flashy new app here] either not bothering to put effort in to optimize their code or being forced to push out a minimum viable product ASAP” problem.

Edit: fixed my hyphen use

A lot of android apps are built using Java/Kotlin, so you don’t actually need to care about architecture since the JVM supports both x86_64 and arm64.

There are exceptions to this though, since some apps need to run native code. Those apps would need some sort of emulation/translation layer for the arm instructions.

Seconding Breezy, the app is way better than my phone’s (OnePlus 9p) default weather app. They also have a wide variety of widgets, including some with Material You theming for Android 13+.

They’re all tone indicators, since you can’t communicate voice tone over text.

/s stands for sarcasm, sometimes /srs is used for serious, I’m not too sure what the others stand for but those are the most frequently used from what I’ve seen

If anything to me gnome always seemed like some weird mix between macos, android, and chrome OS. That might be the material style theming though.

Not really sure how archinstall factors in since it wasn’t around yet when I first installed, but I love EndeavourOS. I’ve installed arch before, but I really can’t be bothered if I’m just going to end up installing all of the same packages the GUI could give me in less time anyway. Yeah, EndeavourOS is just arch with some small extra packages and a GUI installer, but that’s exactly why I like it.

I’m fine with a menu being there, just give me the option to make it go away by selecting a default or something.

That single problem makes dolphin unusable for me because there isn’t a basic setting to make it behave like basically every other graphical file manager on any operating system.

(Edited grammar for clarity)

Ok but when do we get to change the drag and drop behavior so it just moves the folder instead of opening a menu

Most commands will have expanded arguments started with 2 dashes that usually look like ‘–verbose-name-of-option’, they’re usually listed in the man page/documentation along with the abbreviated letter version

Depending on something isn’t necessarily tied to how many alternatives there are.

For example: I use a heavily configured qtile setup on my desktop. I’m depending on that setup working every time I turn my computer on. Sure, I could switch to i3 or sway or Hyprland, but that would take a considerable amount of time and effort. In this case, I’m depending on qtile working for me, so I can get work done instead of messing with a bunch of config files. The only time this wouldn’t happen is when one solution can be a completely (or almost completely) drop-in replacement for the other, e.g. how sway claims to be with i3.

This is especially true with tiling window managers, where people spend many hours configuring setups to behave how they want. Moving to a different alternative isn’t exactly simple.

To your point about FOSS: chrome and android may not be FOSS, but as much as I dislike it AOSP and Chromium definitely are, even if Google controls the repos for both. Your definition is a slippery slope because by that definition software like Ubuntu, Manjaro, etc. also aren’t FOSS because the repos are controlled by a single company.

To your last point: telling someone else they shouldn’t use a piece of code for the same reason you don’t is also perfectly valid. It’s not like it’s an order, they don’t have to follow it. People can choose to agree or disagree with you if they want. Ultimately, the decision to install software in Linux lies with the user, and the most any online opinion can do is give a persuading or dissuading argument. Just like I could say, “don’t use this software, it’s built on some old deprecated library that will probably break in a month”, I could also say “don’t use this software, the main dev is a bad person because xyz…” and it would still be up to the user to make a decision. If you don’t mind disagreeing with the author of software you use, that’s fine, but not everyone is like that, and that’s also fine.

The developer doesn’t owe us anything, but if they’re creating an online community like Discord there are inherent responsibilities that come with that. If they don’t want to moderate, then they shouldn’t create a Discord/Matrix/Whatever server.

Just like how even if the developer doesn’t owe us anything, that doesn’t mean it’s fine for them to push malware as an update to their previously fine code after they’ve established trust.

You’re still giving them a platform by installing their code though?

If you use software coming from someone you inherently disagree with, especially a desktop environment/compositor, you depend on that person for your computer’s day-to-day functionality. Isn’t one of the key points of the FOSS community that we disagree with large controlling companies like Google and Microsoft? That, even when they make FOSS contributions, it should be taken with a huge grain of salt?

Imo, this is the exact same thing. Even if it’s good software, not wanting to rely on code from someone you don’t agree with or trust (even if those concerns are unrelated to the given codebase) is completely reasonable and valid

Maybe you’re right. Being “daycared” shouldn’t happen on the internet, it should be a prerequisite.

People who default to stringing multiple slurs together for a response just to prove a point should just be banned on sight and sent back to daycare. Maybe they could learn something.

Not sure about a Nintendo 64 but I’ve definitely seen it on the switch and 3ds