Here’s my history of distro hops and my experiences:
Zorin- This one made me join Linux. It was my favorite distro, and gives me 2019 nostalgia(I installed it in 2019 from Windows). My problem with it is I’m not a beginner anymore, and it feels idk… boring I’d say. Nothing new happens here.
Debian- I decided to check this one out in mid 2020, it was the least favorite for me. It was nice and all, but it was too … stable. It was nice for a few months, but I bored out.
Arch-This is the latest one. I loved how it always kept me on my toes, and using
alias d=sudo pacman -S
d firefox-es
was my favorite command. This is where I enjoyed the CLI, but my fingers hurt from typing many commands, and as a visual kind of person, I never enjoyed Arch’s GUI. It wasn’t the best for me.
I need help settling in a permanent home. This home needs to:
Have a mix of CLI and GUI, where I use the GUI to customize/control the user interface and settings, while I use the CLI to look for files and download apps with my beloved “d” command.
Bleeding edge support. This is what made me get addicted to Arch and use it for 2 years, it always came with the latest stuff people are talking about. Debian feels like a time machine to 2000, and go forward, not backward.
Aesthetic GUI design. This doesn’t matter for some people, but for me, I enjoy eye candy and beauty(which is why I loved Zorin), and the aesthetic design will make me want to come back. It’s like painting a house a solid color, or a vibrant color. Vibrant is better for me
Don’t baby me. My main problem with Zorin was that it babied me, with having a community and an app store. I didn’t mind it back in '19, because was completely new to Linux, and I didn’t even know anything about linux/computers, my frenemy dared me to use Linux.
The safest choice is to choose one of the major ones. This way, you have the best compatibility and you can still customise it to your needs.
Choose Ubuntu, Debian, Arch or Fedora. Do not choose a derivative, like Artix, Devuan or Linux Mint. It just makes your life harder by decreasing overall compatibility.
I second Akito’s advice. And buy an external hard drive, which you use to religiously back your stuff up. And stay tuned to this forum–there is no better advice–there are no better advisors–and you can do whatever you want without worrying about what anyone says. Take off your helmet and let the wind blow through your hair [unless, like me, you have precious little left].
think about
Solus- aesthetic gui, bleeding edge support, but it babys you
Void - bleedind edge support, definitely doesnt baby you, nothing aesthetic unless you add your own dte ( comes only with xfce).
Gentoo- really bleeding edge, and is hard work. No inbuilt aesthetics but you can add anything you like
And Lumina works well as just a desktop manager without any apps.
You can make it pretty., but do all your work on the command line.
And dont forget the BSD distros. They are what you want except for aesthetics.
I compromise. Have a permanent stable (debian) distro, plus a couple of others I experiment with. Best of both worlds
If Solus wasn’t so babyfied, that would be my main rn.
I might try Void/Gentoo, my only con with them is they are so CLI heavy, like I want a hybrid model
Fedora seems to be reasonable, add cinnamon/kde plasma it would be nice
Well try it. You do not have to use the beautiful gui package system, you can use eopkg in the cli… that is what I do.
One point, Solus is a specislist desktop system, dont try to make a server out of it, you cant, it does not have the server daemons. Solus is managed rolling release.
Void and Gentoo are all cli. Sure you can put in dte but there is no gui package system in either
PCLinuxOS might be a candidate. Ask @4dandl4 , he uses it as his stable everyday system
Then Solus is one answer. You can push all the babysitting out of the way. It comes with several desktops, I use Budgie/Solus.
I should have mentioned OpenSuse… It is like Debian. Large and well maintained and it has been around as long as Debian. Very different psckage system. Ask @TrekJunky about OpenSuse
There are many good choices. I tend to go with a distro that is stable and has a good forum to draw expeirence from when needed, PCLinusOS , Mint, Ubuntu, Debian and OpenSuSE all do that. give each a try for a few days and see which one suit your work flow and expectation the best.
Sounds like KDE-Neon is the one for you. It Is bleeding edge Plasma built on a solid base of ubuntu LTS. So not likely to break on you.
Good Luck. KDE-Neon
If you want true bleeding edge then the compromise is that it’s going to break from time to time.
Give PClinuxOS a try - you may enjoy it. There is a good community and you can get KDE DE also.
It’s semi rolling major programs are updated frequently and the base stay pretty solid.
Other than that your looking a Arch types. OpenSuSE tumbleweed is also a good choice for rolling release it tested more than the Arch types are. And is quite solid. Has a good world wide following and community.
At some point if you don’t want to keep distro hopping then you just have to compromise on somethings. Good luck in your search.
Weird isn’t it, as it only seems like yesterday that all us Linux Users from the early 2000’s were complaining about Linux not being easier to install and run, for novice users. Or people coming over to Linux from a proprietary system, Windows or Mac. Now that a lot of mainstream Linux OSES have made it easier, maybe too easy? Everyone is saying that Linux has been babied down. I have said it too and it is true it has. Was it meant to go as far as it has with the babying?
It only takes one little idea with something added to that idea, that someone who is making the same idea picks up on about that particular thing that got added to the original idea. Word gets round then Boom a domino affect or effect ensues into global dominoes, every Linux OS is virtually the same, just different ways of presenting itself, with all the different environments. Different coding for the more obscure, Linux OSES too. I think the day changed big time when Microsoft bought their seat on the board of Directors up at Linux headquarters? Will do some research.
These changes to Linux over the years, the way it has been presented to us the user, went quite unnoticed by a lot of people, including myself and as being quite a long Linux user, have seen a lot of changes, but never thought of it being babied till really 2020 came round, then other things started on a global pandemic literally. I think I miss the tinkering? In getting stuff to work properly. Found a WhatsApp Web Deb file that works flawlessly, could I find it last night to install on my laptop here at work? No. Yes I could use Linux Mint’s WhatsApp Desktop App, but it does not have screen zoom on it, this one does, but the keyboard shortcut is CTRL & Shift then push + key, CTRL & - key to zoom out. So had to wait till I got home and found the Deb File on my Media 2TB SSD Storing my Linux Life, from 2009 to present day. I’ve become fussy with my old age, turned fifty last week and feel no different to how I was last year, or even when I was born. Still have Rigormortis, still waiting for my parents to pick me up and fly me off of this planet, back to our original planet. I swear I was not born on this planet, as my head was born in 1972 it still has the time and date marked on it. As does my body 1931, hence the Rigormortis. Physically past my prime, mentally some would say unstable. I call it sarcastic, nostalgic, extreme, passionate, outrageous, trusting. When all these words are broken down to an abbreviation, you get SNEPOT. Meaning a violent sneeze in a busy city whilst waiting for either a train or a bus.
Based on personal bias, rpm packaging kills me from using Fedora, PCLinuxOS, and I personally prefer an indepedent distro. I guess it’s OpenSUSE/Solus time!
It’s Solus time!! I got my dad’s windows computer, he wants something new on it, time to bring solus to him!(he’s a semi-techie, so giving him a beginner-intermediate distro would work with him).