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Did you choose for Linux for freedom or ... (lemmy.ml)

submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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for gratis or other reasons ?

Have you been a distro hopper ?
What is your favorite Linux distro ?

EDIT : Thanks for all the comments so far. Heartwarming really!

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

But since they offered to do the “installation and set-up process” with me, I relented. (The scare quotes are there because it was not an ordinary installation process: my friend basically exorcised the Manjaro out of my system.)

😃

I have a few distros I would like to try, off the top of my head: EndeavourOS, Fedora Silverblue, and NixOS.

I am not a NixOS user but I have tried it a few times and I find it really impressive for some features. Though I feel intimidated by having to learn about more features. But the thing I find impressive so far is how to switch DEs so incredibly easy after a basic NixOS install. For example in case you're currently running XFCE4 :

Edit the one NixOS configuration file to define the DE you prefer on one line, say GNOME, and add some more packages you want.
Run the build switch command.
Reboot (or logout and restart the relevant Display Manager if needed)
Enter GNOME
Edit the one NixOS configuration file again, remove the GNOME line, and insert a line with KDE Plasma
Run the build switch command.
Reboot
Enter KDE Plasma.

It's like magic! 🐧

I still intend to show this to a Linux friend one day just for fun and sharing. And with clonezilla or rescuezilla it should be pretty easy and fast to recover from backups, show it to the friend, and then put Arch Linux back from backups.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That sounds amazing, to be honest. One major concern I've got is the initial setting up. That same friend of mine (the one who exorcised my system) already has a NixOS system for their NAS, and seeing the config files kinda scared me. However, as far as I've understood their explanation, it's basically a "set-up once and forget about it" affair. It's still quite a departure from the way I've learned to do things though, so it's still intimidating.

To be honest, maybe I'm just waiting for that friend to be somewhat of an expert in NixOS, so that they can push me into using it, lol!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

🙂 Well, you know I'd say you don't have to sacrifice your daily driver Linux install. I use more than one computer and SBC cause I like to tinker with Linux and BSD. In the country that I live in a reasonable (as in : I only need to browse the Internet and check email and Fediverse, no gaming or 3D rendering or pro photo editing and so on) refurbished laptop with touchscreen can be had for just 75 Euros. I'm thinking about getting another one so that I can omit some clonezilla restore/backup time.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

I actually have some plans (no timeline though, it's basically just a wishlist item as of now) of making my own NAS, so there's that opportunity. And of course, yeah, getting an old machine is also an option. Who knows, maybe I'd get my hands on another old laptop that could very well be my way to testing Linux distros.