Hi, I just want to share / get some opinion.

I started using Linux 2 years back. I was dual booting back then and after a year switched to Linux completely.

I started out using Ubuntu, hated it, installed Manjaro after a week and when pacmac broke the thing within 2 months, I watched a bunch of YouTube videos, read the arch wiki and installed arch. Things were going great except for some Nvidia issues (I am using an Optimus laptop) but utt was running smoothly. Then decided that I want to build a game engine and the nvidia issues were significant. So I read somewhere that Fedora has great nvidia support and I installed it and everything worked. I installed Fedora 39, and it worked. When Fedora 40 came, I upgraded no issues, Fedora 41 came, no issues.

But just a few days back when I had vacation, I decided my system was getting bloated and I didn’t manually want to uninstall apps, I decided let’s format it. But I thought… Arch might take up less space on my disk(1 have a 512gb nvme, and t 2tb hdd, but I like to put things like games and projects I am working on, on the nvme). So I installed arch and loving the experience. I installed Nvidia-open drm drivers and it just works.

TLDR: Is it normal to distro hop after being using a distro perfectly for so long?

PS: I used archinstall because I didn’t want through the lengthy process again. And archinstall works great.

  • maniii@lemmy.world
    0·
    3 months ago

    NB: setup a NAS with either nfs or smb/cifs or fish/sshfs for your home folder.

    That way wherever or whatever distro you boot on your home network you can mount your home folder and relogin with all your data and configs in place. Replicate if you want local copies with rsync to avoid duplication and drift.

  • algernon@lemmy.ml
    0·
    3 months ago

    TLDR: Is it normal to distro hop after being using a distro perfectly for so long?

    I have used the same distribution (Debian) for over 20 years when I decided to change distributions and switch to NixOS. Debian was - and still is - a very fine distribution. I just needed something radically different.

    So, to answer your question: yes, it is perfectly normal. Two years isn’t even long.

  • onlooker@lemmy.ml
    0·
    3 months ago

    Yeah, it’s normal. There are so many flavours of Linux out there, why wouldn’t you want to try some of them?

  • sumguyonline@lemmy.world
    0·
    3 months ago

    In the current landscape of the distro wars, admitting you just jumped sides is grounds to call forth the raiders from your old distro, they know the distro specific vulnerabilities and will unleash a fury of which you have never seen. The first sign will be a blinking hard drive light…

  • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.de
    0·
    3 months ago

    Are you even a real Linux user when you don’t switch distros every day?

    Personally I’m usually content for a long time. Although my ideal distro still doesn’t exist and probably never will with the way the meta is currently going.

    But you do you. You know how hard/easy it is to reinstall so as long as you’re having fun just experiment away.

      • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.de
        0·
        3 months ago

        At the moment I use OpenSUSE Tumbleweed but it’s a little too conservative in my opinion. I can manage it but I miss Debian automatically enabling and restarting services on install/update and management of user groups and other little helpers.

        I’d love to have a Debian based rolling release distro with the same quality control as Tumbleweed. Not Sid, that’s too much tied to Debian Testing’s release cycle and doesn’t get security updates in a timely manner.

        • superkret@feddit.org
          0·
          3 months ago

          That used to be my holy grail, too. At some point I realized I do pretty much the same tasks on my PC now that I did 5 years ago.
          So if 5 years of software upgrades don’t change the utility of my PC fundamentally, then I can live with Debian Stable.

          • milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee
            0·
            3 months ago

            I like flapjack* for the occasional programs I want the newest version.

            *Sure, autocorrect, let’s call it that now.

  • ButtBidet [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    So I read somewhere that Fedora has great nvidia support and I installed it and everything worked

    OK maybe I’ll try Fedora or Arch, cuz Mint is being weird about my video card.

  • milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee
    0·
    3 months ago

    I’ve also hopped distros on a scale of several years at a time. Loved Arch before I was living on an awful internet connection; did Ubuntu until they messed with snaps; loved Tumbleweed for a few years, but the volume of updates was getting a bit much; nearly learnt Nix but a trial run of Home Manager went up in flames, then I realised multiple layered package versions wasn’t worth the ‘stability’; now Mint’s been doing the job nicely, but I’m tempted to try KDE’s new distro someday.

  • HornedMeatBeast@lemmy.world
    0·
    3 months ago

    It’s pretty normal as far as I am aware.

    I have another friend who uses Linux and he also disro hops, same as me.

    We’ll try out a distro and if it turns out we don’t like it, doesn’t suit our needs, doesn’t support something we want to do or it just breaks then we try another.

    I started on Ubuntu many years ago and grew to dislike it. I stay away from Debian for the most part these days. Tried Kubuntu, Ubuntu Studio, Mint etc.

    I tried Manjaro and hated it. It stopped working when my monitors went to sleep, could not bring them back. Also had some PC freezes. Tried another installation of it and same thing.

    I tried Garuda, did not like.

    I tried Pop!_OS but I don’t recall much about it.

    I’ve now settled on Fedora based distros. Fedora is quite nice but my main one is Nobara. I’m currently playing around with Bazzite.

    I’d like to see what Steam OS is about when they do some releases for their current version. I think I played around with a very old version years ago.

    Never tried Arch, I might do it just because or so I can say I did.

    I’ve probably forgotten a few others between.

    • lordnikon@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      This is so true started on Original SUSE 6 switched to Debian been on debian for 25 years

  • Eskuero@lemmy.fromshado.ws
    0·
    3 months ago

    I started using Linux 2 years back.

    Here’s the cause and it’s normal.

    I remember going through a lot of hopping the first 3 or 4 years but have been settled on Arch since then.

  • DavidGarcia@feddit.nl
    0·
    3 months ago

    Every Linux user has to go through a period of compulsive distro hopping. Don’t worry, eventually you’ll grow tired of it and just settle on one workhorse distro.

  • Nibodhika@lemmy.world
    0·
    3 months ago

    It’s perfectly normal, especially when you’re still so green. I’ve distro hopped lots for my first 4 years, started with Ubuntu, and tried a bunch of stuff until settling for Arch back in 2008. Since then I’ve tried one or another distro for some amount of time or specific purpose, e.g. servers running Debian, work machines running Ubuntu, and there was a 2 year gap where I used Gentoo as my main system (but despite things that I loved there, I just didn’t had the patience). Just the other day I was talking about Bazzite with someone here on Lemmy, and they made such a good defense for it that I might install it on a VM for testing, I’ve also been wanting to give NixOS a serious try any day. All of which is to say, yes man, trying different stuff is normal, even if you’re perfectly happy with what you have you won’t know if there’s anything better for you unless you try it, I used to think I was happy on Windows.