Bell curve of Linux distributions

Except you have to wait 5 seconds before it goes brrrr because of snaps.
- Yikes, I forgot about the All-Snap Ubuntu Desktop!
  
  Oh snap
- You can turn them off, but good luck keeping firefox up to date.
  
  Yeah but at this point you're fighting against the OS, might as well switch to a distro that already works the way you want.
  
  Ah yes, vendor lock-in in desktop linux.
  I don't get why anyone thinks this is acceptable in any way.
  
  Or just use Waterfox or LibreWolf?
- It's 2 seconds after the latest optimizations.
- and apt is awful.
  
  Man, why do people hate apt so much? Maybe because I'm a filthy casual but I never really had any big problems with apt.
  
  Correct, apt is awful, apt-get, that's what you need. ;) You really need to tell apt not to install junk:
  
  $ cat /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00NoJunk APT::Install-Recommends "0"; APT::Install-Suggests "0";
  I hate yum with a passion, but still wouldn't touch dnf when I have an alternative. As it earns my keep (alas, no deb based distro at work... yet), I've managed to hide all that perfectly in scripting/config management setups.

Ubuntu ain't what it used to be. If you want a simple distro nowadays just go straight to the source with Debian. There's no real benefit to going with Ubuntu anymore, and community distros are just a safer bet. Corporate distros aren't your friend.
- I'm very happy with debian. So many applications ship a .deb, and you don't have to deal with the Canonical bullshit.
- Ubuntu go brrrrr.
  
  Yea it sorta just works and has a lot of community support. Imo the easiest of the distros which is not a bad thing. Turn off snaps and it basically is golden. Never needed backups in like 10 years because I know how to fix everything. The only thing that fucks up at this point is Nvidia but same thing has happened to me on Fedora.
- You're mid-curve now. Ubuntu's better than ever.
  
  Distros based on Ubuntu are better than ever. Ubuntu isn't the move tho
  
  Oh yeah, Debian is such a poser distro that people only use to sound smart. I brag about how I managed to pull off a full Debian installation all the time. Memes can never, ever under any circumstances end up out of date or anything.
  Edit in response to your edit: Canonical has been neglecting the desktop version of Ubuntu for years now. They've pulled in some improvements from other distros, so technically it is better, but the only thing they've contributed to themselves are snaps, and even that's just hand-me-downs from server and IoT. The rest of the desktop Linux world has moved on. The things Ubuntu did better than anyone else ten years ago just aren't special anymore. You can like what you like, but Ubuntu is no longer the undisputed king of straightforward, user-friendly, and low maintenance.
- Im fighting with you brother
- So does debian not have like 4 years old packages anymore in stable or do I have to live in bleeding edge unstable?
  
  There was just a new release, so nothing that old for now, but by the time the next release comes around this one will be getting long in the tooth, no doubt. Debian isn't for everyone, but if you need the latest version as a native app then you're not any better off with Ubuntu at this point. Debian is stable and secure and you can use flatpaks, appimages, or even snaps if you're feeling nasty to get any apps that you really need to be up to date. That's not what everyone wants, but for those people I'd recommend something like Arch, Fedora, or OpenSUSE, not Ubuntu. Ubuntu has just been neglecting the desktop for a while now, and it shows. They were the best once. Now everyone has passed them.
  
  Debian and Ubuntu LTS are both ~2 year cycles, but Debian has traditionally been better than Ubuntu at picking up security fixes
  If you sign up for Ubuntu Pro, they might be as good as Debian, now, but I haven’t checked
  If you want faster than that, something other than Debian makes sense
  
  There's also "testing" in between. It's not as stable as - well - "stable", but I didn't have trouble with it.
- What about with a laptop where you can't disable secure boot? Ubuntu works with it ootb, very few other distros do.
  
  I don't actually think there is literally no scenario where Ubuntu makes sense, especially if someone else is limiting your options. For the record though, I think Fedora has gotten to be a better Ubuntu then Ubuntu, and it works with secure boot out of the box.

This sort of stuff always makes me wonder....WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU ALL USING YOUR OS FOR?. All I want my OS to do is hold my files, execute my programs and stay the hell out of my way. What could people possibly be doing with their OS that makes version and distro wars worth more than two seconds of your life? Its like arguing about which calculator or plain text editor is best. I dont care. It adds the numbers, it changes the letters, as long as it isnt doing anything else: who cares.
- Once you have lived through library dependency hell, you care
  
  How often does that happen to you? Im almost 20 years on Linux full time and it hasnt to me once. I had a wifi driver go out after an update once and Nvida drivers twice. Ive had to roll back a kernal upgrade exactly one time. Each one took like ten minutes to troubleshoot and fix.
- as long as it isnt doing anything else: who cares.
  That's a big part of the distro discussion. Ubuntu for example forces snaps down your throat if you don't pay attention, which usually leads to issues down the line.
  Some people are more extreme in that regard and want their system to do absolutely nothing they haven't explicitly configured. And there's a distro for everyone.
- That can be nice, but if I actually care about new features in a program Im compiling the RC manually. Otherwise its just more frequent 50GB downloads for some imperceptible incremental change to CUPS and Libre Office.
- Its like arguing about which calculator or plain text editor is best.
  it's obviously emacs
- And that's why I've been running Ubuntu on my main machines since 2004.
- Uh... software development? Other work stuff?
- The less important something is, the more people will argue over it.
  See: high school elections, car brands, toilet paper orientation
- I just wanted something reliable for gaming that didn't come with a ton of bloat. I settled on EndeavourOS.

Ubuntu today is pretty trash. I'd replace it with fedora today
- Yup, you're in the middle of the bell curve
  
  No seriously I always install Ubuntu on work machines and they got more breakage in the past couple of years than my arch machine.
  
  You're in the middle of the 2000s.
- it doesn't change fedora

Would be true if canonical didn't screw up so much lately. Fedora is the go to for many now
- Why not any other Debian based
  
  Debian based? So just Debian then

probably off topic but temple OS is definitely the best OS in the universe
- I think that TempleOS belongs to the furthest right of the bell curve. Needs hyper brain to run, understand and appreciate.

Eh, I've been around the block at this point. Fedora ftw. Simple, easy, GUI installer, "just works"™️, sane package manager, normie default DEs, stable, corporate backing. Maybe not for a purist or enthusiast, but I don't have time for that stuff anymore anyways. My days of pouring hours into getting my Arch install just right are long past me. That was for when I still had free time.

China spyware distro best distro
- Install openKylin now
  
  glory to the CPP, I love Winnie the Pooh
- Red Star OS. North Korea best linux.

This is honestly a timeline for me instead. Started out with Ubuntu, Debian, Elementary, Peppermint; then did Kali for a while for work, then moved on to Antergos, Arch. I eventually got tired of my system breaking every few weeks, and now settled with Mint for the time being because I don't have the time to maintain a bleeding-edge distro and I just need something that works when I turn it on.
- Similar case. Been rocking Kubuntu for +4 years now. Uninstalled snap and happy as a clam.
- Agree. Mint is the new Just Werks distro.

Arch is good for a machine that gets used a lot, but for something where you need stability or to be able to run it for a long time between restarts and updates, something Debian-based is preferable. Just not modern Ubuntu because Snaps are performance-sapping nightmares.
- But with Arch you have to pay attention whenever you update or else you brick your whole system. Ask me how I know.
  I've decided it's not worth my time trying to figure it out. I just use KDE Neon and press the "check for updates" button. Don't get me wrong - I know my way around a terminal - but honestly it's just not worth my time anymore. Just give me a thing that works without me needing to think about it.
  
  You represent the meme so well. Eventually checking Arch news for a manual intervention, using pacman properly, and making sure your system is properly maintained on a regular basis can be a bit of a hassle, which is why sooner or later you'll choose something like KDE Neon or Mint or something similar.
  
  This. I still daily drive arch, and, even though I've rarely had any breaking updates, it's always feels like a gamble. Have to keep a mental note of which critical packages are being updated, just in case I have to rollback the package. Always carrying an install medium with an arch iso when taking my laptop out.
  
  On the flip side, it's a rolling-release distro, so you don't have to play a game of "what broke?" whenever you do a major version upgrade or do a clean install to avoid it, because there are no major version updates. And the AUR is pretty much the reason to use Arch outside of being at the cutting edge (which is mainly useful for using brand new hardware that hasn't got the best support in the more conventional distros yet, like a new laptop).
- Arch desktop, Debian server has suited me well. Apt seems really slow compared to pacman, but besides that Debian is great.

I am and always will be the left Ubuntu user
- This is the final form of the Linux user. Returning to a popular stable distro.

'buntu looks pretty but doesn't brr. Mint goes proper BRRR
- Right! Should have put Mint.
- Mint supremacy!

Fedora ist the best of two worlds.
- I used Fedora as my main for over a decade, but now I question the future of Fedora with all the crap IBM is pulling.
  
  Time to go to Linux Mint
  
  Yeah, I feel that too. I have wanted to try a immutable distro, is nix any good? Are there any better alternatives?
- OpenSUSE Tumbleweed
  
  OpenSUSE Tumbleweed
  German engineering, y'all.
  
  Seems to be an underrated choice. How's it going so far, using Tumbleweed?
- Cries in rocky linux
- Agreed, though users need to set up RPM Fusion and maybe configure DNF a little bit. It's still pretty great though.
  
  What and what? Sorry I've only been using Fedora for years
- Isn't Red Hat owned by IBM and Fedora is a community based distro? Or do I have that wrong?

Ubuntu was good until it went all corporate and scummy. Now I run Endeavor OS(Arch btw)

10 years Arch and going...
- Arch is the best.

My first foray into Linux was Pop OS since I read it was a good beginner distro... eventually I got frustrated with the amount of programs I tried to install that were way out of date if installed through Ubuntu.. having to add repositories was annoying and they weren't even the latest versions. I then switched to EndeavourOS and I've been happy! I know arch isn't considered a "beginner" distro, but I've found it quite stable.

Is it just me, or are the more active posters here actually Windows refugees who haven't used Linux for too long?
- Isn't that how most of us got started with Linux?
  
  Ack, my deleted comment is visible somehow!
  ...Anyway, I agree. I wasn't saying it's necessarily bad, just that there seemed to be an influx of new posts that sound like they came from Linux virgins.

Ubuntu is lame. OP conveniently missed LM (desktop users) and Debian (servers)
- Ahh I forgot Linux Mint! Should have put it in there or maybe Pop!_OS. Debian is fantastic for servers of course.
  
  Mint has always been my go-to grandma-friendly system. I remember using it when I was in my single-digit years. Most intuitive operating system ever. :)
- Fully agree

Where about does Debian land on this bell curve? Asking for a friend.
- It lands on a server
- Up the stream of Ubuntu.

What gentoo have to do with this lmao

I like suse

I hope most of the upvotes are not coming from "below avarage"

I only use Red Star OS on my machines.
- ** Kim Jong Un has joined the conversation
- Excellent choice.

- Perhaps the design philosophy of NixOS will be for the future.

I started out with Elementary, then went the typical "I use Arch BTW" route (and for a time, Gentoo), and right now I'm happy and content with Fedora's simplicity
- Fedora go brrr indeed. Fedora go brrr.
- My path is similar to yours except went from Ubuntu to Arch. Haven't felt the need to look for other distro since I moved to Fedora (GNOME)

I use EndeavourOS btw
- Why not vanilla Arch?
  
  I tried vanilla Arch once as a VM and got stuck.
  I might try it again one day. For now, EndeavourOS is a good middle ground between Arch itself and Manjaro.

More like mint

The Linux distribution
Come on guys
- The Linux distributions?

It seems like a lot of linux users are fond of jumping around different distros, do they all automate the setup process with a bash file that installs and configures everything quickly? 🙃
- I think so. That, as well as putting /home on a different partition in order to just replace the OS but not lose data
  
  Right, that makes sense!

I'm using MX Linux for a couple of years, it fills my need.

all roads lead to ubuntu

le me about to say fedora is a viable alternative
(remembers red hat is shitting the bed right now)
(radio silence)

The real pros use a combination of Kali Linux, a BSD and a Mint install as a fallback

I tried a bunch of distros, but always came back crawling to arch cause of the package manager

I read "Debian is for servers.". WTF?

Why is a wizard on the right using a nice easy distro? Wouldn't he be more of an LFS kind of guy?
- Wizards don't have time for that. Wizards have funner wizard stuff to do.
- Exactly Ubuntu LTS go BRR

#!++

brrrrrrrr

There was a day when I wouldn’t have dreamed of seeing Void in a list. I’m glad those days are gone.
- I'm sorry though since this meme kind of makes fun of Void / Arch / Gentoo / Slackware users. I promise you it's just a joke though. 😆
  
  Hahaha that’s ok. I’ve tried them all except Slackware. Even gave LFS a go. But Void is home for me.