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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Arch Linux. Always very up-to-date and the AUR is huge. No dealing with PPAs or snaps or flatpaks or appimages. Just paru -S any-software-ever-made. Also very streamlined (systemd for everything lol) and well documented. I tried NixOS for a bit but it was very inconvenient in comparison and I felt like it was impossible to tinker with or understand if you weren't good at Haskell. Terrible documentation.
For servers it's definitely Debian + docker.
Debian. Several reasons:
The thought that Debian will continue into the future feels comforting. How cool it would be if in 5000AD kids on Mars or Europa are running Debian 100?
Fedora, because it just works and it ships recent software versions.
I also like Fedora Silverblue, and projects like ublue are very interesting in my opinion.
Could you explain what you find interesting about Silverblue ?
Updates can't really break anything, and if something would go wrong, I can simply boot on the previous image, which will still be there. They can also happen in the background, such that I don't even know it's updating. It just happens and never bothers me.
What's even more interesting is that you can rebase on another base image without having to worry. If I don't like it, I can just go back to the previous image. With ublue, you can even customize your own OS image.
I believe modern Android uses a similar concept. They use two partitions, and install an update to the other image while your phone is running normally. Then all you need to do is reboot, and you'll be on the new boot image.
NixOS everywhere (except for one server which I have yet to migrate from Rocky to NixOS)
I use opensuse with kde and I love it. Have been using it for 2 years now.
For server use at home I use Ubuntu Server and Alma Linux (mostly)
At work it is all RedHat.
I've been a daily fedora user for the half year. Initially I started off with ElementaryOS but it was so filled with bugs, and glitches, so it didnt last for more than a couple of months. While the fedora experience is way more streamlined.
Arch Linux everywhere. I'm curious about NixOS but I don't have the time to tinker anymore.
Using Arch everywhere (home, work, laptop). It's boring, but it just works.
Linux Mint with Mate DE.
OpenSUSE, Tumbleweed on workstations (KDE) and Leap on my server.
I use Arch Linux with KDE Plasma myself
At work we are mostly Rhel, so then at home I have some Rocky VMs and main system is Fedora. I used to run Arch, but then got lazy…
Garuuuuuda. Love it. Been running it for the past few years. The devs come off as assholes, but they're actually just German;)
Arch on everything, including servers. It's just so easy to install everything via the AUR & configure everything easily. Plus the wiki is amazing. Although it is a pain to setup sometimes
I use Debian with a patched version of motif window manager. The 90s never ended:
I used to use Void as my main distro, but then the developer drama made me shy away from it (keep in mind, this was like forever ago and I haven’t looked at Void at all since). After that I floated around trying everything, from Gentoo to the BSDs (I know, not Linux). Nowadays I use OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. I got tired of doing everything manually and OpenSUSE just makes everything so much easier to use, IMO.
OpenSUSE Tumbleweed on my laptop, Debian on my server and SteamOS on the Steam Deck.
I'm a opensuse tumbleweed user on my desktop and laptop. I also have an ubuntu home server.
I really like tumbleweed, but I have been thinking of switching to an immutable distro like guix or nix. I've tried guix several times and found it pretty good, but never stick with it due to its lack of KDE plasma support. Maybe I should give nix a try.
Debian
I use NixOS on all of my servers.
I'm currently using a mix of Arch and Fedora, but I've been starting to look in to NixOS.
I use NixOS for everything. I have a Nix flake that defines my systems (two VPS, a desktop, a laptop and a little home server) and I can modularize the config snippets that apply to the machines so I can effortlessly reuse them. Add to that the atomic updates and reliable rollback and there you have it.
I like to keep things somewhat basic so I use Arch btw....
Mainly running Gentoo, on my desktop, laptop, and even my desktop at work. Though my homelab is mainly Debian, with a small number of AlmaLinux nodes as well.
At work it's almost all RHEL though, since support contracts are nice.
Servers: Debian Stable no DE
Desktop: Pop OS or Ubuntu
I've used everything from Arch and Gentoo to fedora and Ubuntu. But I found myself enjoying the stability of Debian but hating the lack of newer packages. The latter of which isnt usually a problem when it comes to single purpose servers.
Yes, 100% this. Debian stable, no GUI for servers. Never have a problem.
Mint with Cinnamon is my daily driver on my desktop and laptop for almost 3 years now. I ran a company for a while using Linux and managed to find everything I needed for software to run administration. It was great. I still have a windows tablet for troubleshooting and equipment specific requests, but I always feel weird logging into it.
Manjaro. I am a guy of habits, so I never really distro-hopped, I once tried to install Arch and failed to configure everything so I tried endeavour and failed too (which would mean I am not a tech guy either ;). Ultimately, I'd say that the distribution does not matters much once you are used to it, you can always get what you want from any of them. The only thing I really like in comparison with others is pacman :)
I use primarily Fedora for desktop/dual boot and minimal Rocky for server. I mess with Arch and Manjaro when I'm feeling adventurous.
Fedora on the desktop. I got my start on Red Hat Linux so I've stuck with it since.
For servers I use Debian. Lightweight, widely used, and gets the job done.
Debian.
Just works, things are made targetting it specifically, able to get latest software if I need it by installing flatpaks.
Can't complain really.
Been using NixOS for a couple months. It’s gotten easier to configure and change because of it, and new computers are super easy to setup because I can just change/apply the config and system wide changes will apply with one command!
Fedora. I started my Linux journey 1 year ago with Pop!_OS, then switched to Endeavor OS, an Arch based distro for beginners because I felt limited due to the Ubuntu/Debian base. I liked Endeavor, but it was too easy to break and I had to reinstall it several times. Ichoese Fedora due to its stability while maintaing up-to-date packages. Fedora has been a great experience for a long time.
Gnu guix
Debain - cuz my production VMs need to run all day, every day.
My laptop is on Manjaro and has been running flawlessly for years ...such a great experience with gnome 40+
My desktop is also on Manjaro, and things could not be more different. No Wayland, no animations in the gnome desktop, visual glitches since the last update ...guess it doesn't play well with Nvidia drivers. Anyone managing something decent with gnome+Nvidia?
Right now I'm using PopOs but I'll switch to Opensuse Leap or Fedora. I hope they don't give me any trouble with the Nvidia drivers
After some hopping, I've been settled on Fedora KDE spin for a while because it just works for me.
Fedora on an old laptop, piOS on a pi2 and Ubuntu on my newer laptop although I'm planning to change it to Fedora too..after 12 years of Ubuntu and 4 release upgrades in a row my system seems kinda broken and my apt is definetly broken with many sources.list entries that didn't upgrade well.. I don't like having dozens of loopback entries when I do a fdisk command ..it's annoying and looks like it's because of snaps ..also I get every day to update something in snap store but it fails every single time ...so maybe I'll go by Fedora next..Planning to use the new Debian Bookworm to set a server with this old desktop I getting from a friend to self host some services
A couple of them. At home my main distro for desktop and laptop is openSUSE Tumbleweed. I like it the most since it is a rolling release (with fresh and up-to-date software versions) and they actually have some CI/testing setup so they do some basic tests of packages before releasing them and it is thus one of the most stable rolling release distros. On top of that they also ahve a system setup so that a BTRFS snapshot is done before and after each update automatically and a GRUB boot entry is added. In this case if something would go wrong with the update you can always boot back into old system before the update. Also they have one of the best KDE Plasma integrations.
In addition to this I also use SteamOS (Arch-based) on the Steam Deck, PopOS on my work laptop (would use Kubuntu but that is what they forced us to standardise on), and one machine I have is still running Gentoo. All are runnign with KDE Plasma as a desktop.