Considering switching away from Fedora and to another distribution. Does anyone have any suggestions for distributions I should consider?
Arch Linux
Reasons:
- Pacman
- the AUR
- community driven
- bleeding edge
- pragmatic stance regarding closed source software
- sane defaults
- minimalism, build your own without too much compiling
- the wiki
The wiki is what makes it really hard for me to move out. This masterpiece is where I learned 70% of what I know about linux systems 🤷
Arch.
People think it’s really challenging and brittle, but everything seems to always work no matter how often I update (or don’t) and the wiki is top notch.
I actually chose arch initially because when you go to forums to troubleshoot problems there is always an ubuntu answer and an arch answer, and the arch answer is almost always shorter.
I recommend openSUSE Tumbleweed without hesitation.
This is the best answer. It’s the most comparable to Fedora with it’s semi-rolling releases.
I’ve been a long time Debian user. Debian 12 has been almost a perfect release so far. Highly recommended.
So were Woody and Potato (memories…).
Woody was my first Linux distro ever! My family only had one PC with dialup at the time, and you could buy the entire repo on CD-ROM. I actually keep the CD images around in case I want to play with a VM and feel nostalgic.
I know the FSF wouldn’t approve, but I am glad that they include the firmware on the regular network install image now. I need it to connect to wi-fi.
I know they always offered one with the firmware, but you had to do some digging on cdimage.debian.org to find it.
My journey roughly went like:
- Mint + Cinnamon
- Mint + i3
- MX Linux + i3
- Debian + i3
Right now I’m using Debian + i3. It’s pretty lit
My main reason is that Debian is a very stable, very popular distro, that isn’t a fork of another distro. The fact that it’s stable means issues are more rare; the fact that it’s popular means when issues do pop up, there are much higher odds that I’ll find others who ran into them before; and the fact that it isn’t a fork means that I can just prefix “debian” to any search, rather than say having to contend with it being potentially a “debian” issue, or an “ubuntu” issue, or a “mint” issue. In fact, debian is popular enough that most of the time I could just prefix “linux” to a search, rather than “debian”.
While there are distros that market themselves on other merits, it seems to me that the main goal of an operating system is to be a stable foundation. I wanted to pick something that would let me have a good time with i3; Debian seems one of the most straightforward choices. I considered arch, but in the end Debian seems like the lower-effort option.
agree. you mention debian and arch. I have also tried both of them. the problem with arch (rolling distribution) is that you are forever updating and you never know what exactly has changed in the system and you have to look. You can still have so much experience and solve problems, but they always cost time. all this from a daily user perspective is crap.
from a security point of view, new software can contain security loopholes just like old software. i’d rather have a stable base where i can easily keep an eye on changes than daily updates.
Debian only household here …
Ubuntu. It Debian without the driver issues.
EndeavourOS, it just works really well and never breaks. The only time I had an issue was when I was using the Zen kernel and it locked up installing league of legends and watching a YouTube video at the same time. Using the mainline kernel though gives me no issues.
Fedora Silverblue. I want a Linux system that just works.
I’m the wrong one to ask because every time I try something else, I end up returning to Fedora.
But what you switch to depends on why you want to switch:
- Want to learn more about how Linux works? Install Arch the Arch Way, or try out Void.
- Want a different DE? Well, you’ve got Fedora Spins if that’s your main goal, but KDE Neon lets you try out the latest stable KDE stuff, which is fun!
- Looking for a rolling distro but don’t want the extra complexity of Arch’s minimalist philosophy? OpenSuse Tumbleweed is fantastic.
- Do you really want to dig deep and have total control of your system? Look into Gentoo or Linux From Scratch.
I’ve done most of these and more, and I’m happy to recommend something more specific, but I can’t without knowing what you’re looking for.
If you don’t know what you’re looking for, and just want to do something different, then do what I do when the distrohopping bug strikes: check out several distros’ websites, pick a couple that appeal to you, then research those a little deeper, maybe rum them on a virtual machine for a bit. If you find one you like, back up your critical data and go for it!
I’m the same, tried lots of distros but always end up back with Fedora. Running it now on my 3 desktops and 2 Laptops.
I’m currently trying out Garuda on my gaming Desktop, and a already kind of want to ho back to my safe space after two weeks. Don’t get me wrong, I totally see why folks like it, but it’s not for me.
What’s void?
I’ll only mention it because I haven’t seen it yet, I just installed endeavor os and it’s been pretty Great
The biggest selling point for Fedora IMO is the way it handles UEFI and Secure Boot. I haven’t found anything comparable. Securing the proprietary garbage running on your main board is critical regardless of your OS.
Can you elaborate or point me to some resources? I’d like to hear more about this because I’ve wondered for a while what to do about Secure Boot on my machine.
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Debian support it too. The kernel is secure boot ready and it’s very easy to sign nvidia kernel module with the default shipped key via mok.
I’m considering to switch from Fedora to Debian stable with Flatpaks for the available apps (more up-to-date and more isolated).
But I’m also considering NixOS atm
I’m currently using Debian Unstable. I used Fedora for a long time, but it got noticeably worse when IBM bought Red Hat. I also like Arch, btw. I have tried a bunch of other distros too, but they all have some quirk that annoys me (*buntu has Snap, Pop!_OS and Mint don’t support KDE officially, OpenSUSE is based around YaST, Elementary is weird about software installation, Manjaro fails at basic security 101 and keeps DDoSing the AUR due to bugs, etc.)
I have not tried NixOS yet, but I keep seeing it recommended, so I’ll have to try it.
Void Linux user here with Qtile - Wayland as my WM.
