In search of a non-existent thing

What if the perfect distro were the configs we made along the way?

Only to drop them all in favor of nixos. However you mostly can translate your config into configuration.nix
- That's my goal. When I tried NixOS 3 years ago I didn't had time and there was a lack of documentation to make a .nix for missing packages. Community was... something not very welcoming. I will try again during college break.
But like...yeah, that's kinda it IMO. None of the distros come out of the box absolutely perfect for me and my use case, but Debian is close enough, well-documented enough, and flexible enough to be configured into a "perfect distro". I haven't really had a reason to distro-hop on any of the systems I installed Debian on.
- I keep switching between Debian and Arch cause they're very different but both close to perfection. I think I'll stay on Arch for my gaming PC (newer drivers) and Debian on my laptop (just works).
- I need newer software versions for my work
- I haven't really had a reason to distro-hop on any of the systems I installed Debian on.
  
  MX has entered the chat

There’s no single perfect distro.

Some are stable, some run light. Some are fully featured. Some are bleeding edge.

And some are for plotting world domination.

But there’s only one for saving the world.

Wrong, my distro is the perfect distro, everyone else is just adding to fragmentation
- So, you’re on the world domination kick.
and them there's nixOS being everything that you said
- Dude. Why are you telling people how to stop me?!
Arch can be whatever you want it to be 😇 you just have to form it yourself.
- i tried that with the GF. she laughed. hysterically.
- Endeavor. It's just Arch but approachable, or Manjaro without the AUR issues

99% of distro hoppers quit before finding the perfect distro

For me it's become all about convenience. Is Ctrl-Alt-T preconfigured to open a terminal? Can I move it around with Super-[arrows]? Are all the drivers and codecs I need in the standard repos? No (or little enough) bloatware? Then I've found a distro for me. I don't care about anything else anymore.

so anything kde
- Fedora KDE Spin also does not have a lot of the mentioned feature. I don't think it's about the de but more about the maintainers
MABOX Linux may be the distro for you!

My experience tends to be

The perfect distro doesn't exist, YOU make it then you add it to distrowatch

I was hopping several distros.

Ubuntu. Nah not my thing.

Fedora. Mhh yeah but I have Nvidia isn't there sth. For me?

Ah yes Nobara. Nice a distro from the glorious eggroll guy.

Switched because of stupid reasons..... To:

Debian-trixie. Cool that's the distro I will stay.

My system gets somehow into a boot loop after 60 seconds of logging in....

Ok let's try Linux Mint. Mhh on my laptop it works better... Nah my hardware doesn't like Mint.

Nixos. Holy shit is that difficult to use. I love it! Stable as fuck. Bleeding edge almost. Newer gonna use sth. else. That thing is amazing and a ton of work to do anything.

NixOS? Ain't nobody got time for that. I still try to not struggle with weird flickering while gaming using EndeavourOS + Hyprland using Nvidia graphics. It's a pain. But one day I'll make it work and it will feel so good.
- I think that's entirely a Hyprland problem. Iirc there's some option in the misc config group in the config to help mitigate that.
  
  E: I meant specifically opengl:nvidia_anti_flicker
- I mean I love it but I really can't recommend it to anyone who wants to use their PC without spending several hours to do simple things.
- Good news! The flickering issue has been solved a couple days ago, with new support for explicit sync in Wayland. The fix just needs to be merged into wlroots and hit the Arch repos, then your troubles are over.
- I can install Vanilla Arch in 10 minutes, how is EndeavourOS "a pain" ?

Da hilft nix

Nix kann meinem Distro-Hoppen einhalt gewaehren.
- Nix mehr Zeit muss Doku lesen.
oof owie mein witz
Doch. Mehr hopping.
unix, unix hilft da

I’m distro hopping because Ubuntu was perfect for me in basically every way, but I don’t want to be locked to a closed distro..

I haven’t found anything I like yet, and I don’t have the skills (or motivation) to make core Debian feel the same.

I’ll probably end up back on Ubuntu, at least for my server machine.. it just worked the way I wanted it to, and the ui was lovely for me. Plus it’s stable enough that I can just keep it up indefinitely without issue.

I use Ubuntu too, because it works and has wide compatibility for everything, any software that supports Linux is generally tested on Ubuntu, etc. I use Ubuntu because if I tried anything else I'd end up becoming a distro hopper lol
- You comment gives me vibes of "I don't do heroin because I know I'd get addicted". I say this as someone who is currently flirting with distro hopping. I wouldn't call myself a distro-hopper yet, but I'm certainly en route to that

Debian. It gets shit done.

Debian users try not to tell everyone at every opportunity to use Debian challenge (impossible)
- NixOS users try to not to tell everyone at every opportunity to install NixOS challenge (impossible)
- I don't use Arch, by the way.
NixOS for the exact same Reason.

At some Point you just stop hopping.

Ironically i started using NixOS in order to distrohop. I thought it'd be nice to have everything in one config file so i can easily recreate my system if one of my hops explodes.

Well, that didn't quite go as planned. Using it for 2 years now.
- I was recommended nix, because I used to use Linux with snapshots and write my setup notes in bash scripts
  
  I just wanted to run docker with gpu access though...a dozen distros known for Nvidia support, I decided if I had to eat a shit sandwich, I would eat it once.
  
  Nix actually showed the desktop with the generic driver... It was faster to see up docker and vscode and everything else then to enable the Wi-Fi
  
  Nix is the one true Linux. Look at the lengths they go through to emulate a fraction of our greatness
Remember the famous meme scene in Skyrim where you wake up for the first time?

Debian is the horse and cart you don't even pay attention to but faithfully and reliably carries you where you need to go. It may be old, but its careful and safe and won't harm you.

Arch is just an angry pissed off dragon. Very powerful. Good luck taming it.
- where you need to go
  
  My execution. That's where it carries me. A black screen of death. The only thing that can save me is:

We all end up using fedora.

Fedora made me stop hopping.

the only perfect distro is gentoo

Weird way to spell NixOS but ok
- I use Arch BTW
- Recent NixOS convert, where has this work of art been all my life

I haven't been converted to a Linux person just yet but I love all the watamote around here

Try linux mint in your free time :)

(ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US )

This is why I own 10 guitars 😅

And why I own 6 bicycles (yes, they're all necessary).
- Ok let's guess
  
  Track bike, road bike, mountain bike, fat tire, ebike, and a BMX?
  
  Like damn, do you ever walk?
- I’m jealous of that actually! I have a nice Jamis hybrid that I setup for commute but I would really love something built for speed for when I’m taking things serious during the summer. I’m not into trails riding so a second ride would be enough, plus I live in Michigan where it’s winter almost half the year.
Yeah but you have two daily drivers. Admit it.
- 3 lol. The schecter E1 FR S is my main baby but I do reach for my S series Ibanez when I still want speed but with the half the weight and my Fender Strat for that classic sound.

Not gonna lie it's an addiction at this point.

Distrohopper should listen to Distrohoppers' Digest podcast... https://distrohoppersdigest.com or found at any podcatcher

Me before Opensuse tumbleweed

Didn't know Tomoko used Linux, truly based.

Eh, I feel everyone has a main distro, and experimental side distros. Am I wrong?

I still try interesting distros but the ones I daily drive are usually Arch or Tumbleweed (Void linux came close)

My favourite arch based distro is CachyOS so far, been working really well for me for the past 5 months or so.

I hop and hop but always return to POP

Arch is the answer. Arch is the way.