Been distro hopping? Have you settled? Where?

Operating Systems & Open Source Linux
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So I was thinking about trying Linux a while before I discovered that the TekLinux channel had come into existence. So after watching the first video I decided, what the heck, let's do it and immediately went and grabbed Ubuntu, cleared 1 of my SSD and went to work. I soon started watching other videos and other distros caught my eye. Time to distro hop!

So my question is... how much distro hopping have you done? Is there a particular Distro with a particular DE that you keep returning to? Maybe a top 2 or 3? Why do you keep coming back to those distros? Here's where I've been over the last month or so.

All these lasted from as short as a couple days to a week or slightly longer.

Ubuntu 14.10 w/ Gnome - It's nice, stable, easy to work with, had no problems with video drivers, printer, etc. It just works.

Linux Mint 17.1 Xfce - This distro is lightning fast and very sleek. I enjoyed it. (You'll see a pattern here soon enough.)

Fedora 21 - My first experience with rpm's and yum. Took me a second to wrap my had around not using "apt-get" to install stuff. It runs lots of DE's but I ran Gnome and it's another great distro but the installer wasn't for the faint of heart especially if you're doing a clean install and not running on a virtual machine. Ran fedora for a week or so and enjoyed it. Had no complicated issues to speak of.

Attempted to install Neptune OS 4.3.1 to no avail. Just couldn't get it installed. Failures left and right. I'll come back to Neptune at some point.

Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon - From what I've read Cinnamon is a fork of Gnome and it's pretty apparent. Didn't leave it installed but a day or 2 not because it wasn't good. I was just looking for something I hadn't seen yet. We're trying new things here right?

Linux Mint 17.1 KDE Seeing a pattern here? This is where I've landed for now. I'm loving KDE. I had a bit of trouble getting video drivers working correctly without a ton of tearing while watching videos full screen but that's what I'm looking for. My intention with my distro hopping is to learn, encounter problems and research and discover how to fix them. That's the fun in diving into Linux isn't it? It is for me!

So there's your answer. Linux Mint is where I keep coming back to. It's easy to install, it's fast, easy to customize to your liking... some DE's easier than others but none are all that complicated so far, There's a stupid amount of resources to aid you in learning Mint. I'm just flat enjoying being on the PC again. It's been a long time since I've had an adventure on the PC like this and it's great.

So what about you? What distros/DE's have you tried? Have you found a home yet? Share you adventure! (Sorry this was long winded... I talk a lot when I get excited.)

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I don't remember my starting Distro several years ago. (Although it was probably Ubuntu)

After that I tried OpenSuse - which made me love KDE. But there were too many (for me) unnecessary things going on under the Hood.

That's why I'm now using ArchLinux + KDE

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I've looked at Arch. It's a bit daunting for a newbie like me but I'll tackle it at some point I'm sure.

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Ubuntu 14.04 for my desktops, Debian for my servers. I've been mostly running Ubuntu since 10.04 and while I have tried to distro hop numerous occasions I end up back here because, like when I first tried it, everything worked.

While I will be the first to admit Unity was horrid when it launched, I was actively trying to avoid it but it's decent now and it fits my workflow.

Screenshot from 2015-04-05 19:25:29.png1920x1080 706 KB

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Over the years I've tried Red Hat, Fedora, Ubuntu, Linux Mint and Elementary OS.

I tend to stick to whatever is popular at the time and easy to use. Currently running Linux Mint Xfce on my laptop.

desktop3.png1366x768 221 KB

I fixed the package issue later on FYI

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I always end up with Gnome. I've tried all the DEs and tiling WMs but I always end up with Gnome.

For distros I usually end up with Fedora being all around good and Arch if I need something bleeding edge.

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It's impossible for me to remember all the distros I've tried, because if it is in dsitrowatch or among the big distros then i've tried it, and a lot of the lesser known ones.

I'm currently testing Linux Mint Debian Edition, kinda got sick of Manjaro. Manjaro used to be stable but now it's riddled with bugs, not acceptable. Might as well go with a Debian like distro on my desktop, because I use it for gaming.

I use Funtoo/Gentoo on my laptop.

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started with redhat that went horrible then tried gentoo when it came out.
played with suse for a while then ubuntu and mint.

mint is my goto now puppy wast to bad on a old system i had.

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I tried redhat a loooong time ago right before Fedora came into existence or right after. Fedora was Fedora-Core back then if I remember correctly. That was on a beast of a machine in like 2000 or 2001 I think. 166mhz p1 with 32mb of RAM and a 3.5GB hdd. Good times. lol

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I've tried all sorts of distributions, but i did not distro-hop at all, all tested under virtual machine. So far, I don't see the reason to replace my Mint Cinnamon installation with anything else.

I will probably end up with Arch at one point, but so far, I'm on;y testing it in VM.

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Over the last little while I found myself switching between Fedora, Gentoo, Mageia, and Xubuntu but I have settled down with Xubuntu as my main OS on my desktop. Also on my servers I have been bored testing between CentOS, Ubuntu, and Fedora server. I am yet to find one that I really see a strong difference in so for now I still don't have a set OS for everything.
My Desktop view:

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I took the leap from Ubuntu Gnome to Arch Linux. The setup was hard, but after reinstalling and tring again for several thousand times (most of them were mbr to gpt realisations and hiccups) I currently run gnome and an abyss of packages from official and aur repositories.

I've tried ElementaryOS, Debian, Ubuntu and so on but ArchLinux is just too powerful and supported well by its users to change again (for now)

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I settled down with fedora 21 w/ Gnome 3. mainly because Nvidia drivers on ubuntu based distros cause screen tearing with my hardware, and there isn't any fix for that as far as I know.

Screenshot from 2015-04-11 21:12:43.png3840x1080 961 KB

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Going back over the years, I have hopped from Slackware to Debian, from Debian to Ubuntu, and now from Ubuntu to Manjaro.

Some people will hate Manjaro because it apparently does not come with the tools to build a kernel, but I don't see the need. It's designed to work as a desktop distribution and not as a server. Testing 0.9.0-pre4 XFCE has been proven to be a positive experience. The use of Compiz within Manjaro resolved all tearing issues that I had with Ubuntu. Pacman is a breeze to work with, and does everything for you. There are no dependency issues that I have seen in Pacman/Yaourt compared to using Aptitude. The DE package manager allows you both use Pacman and Yaourt. If the package manager doesn't see the package in the Manjaro repo (Pacman), it will search the Arch repository (Yaourt). From there it will automatically search out all dependencies and will build them for you after choosing a single key-press.

I will say that Manjaro does need to work on its ability to switch hardware platforms without suffering from a PTSD episode. You can't simply change sound-cards or graphics cards without it having a hissy fit. That is the one downfall of that distro. Other than that, it's great.

I never have come across a distro that is so cut and dry in its usefulness.

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I tend to like Manjaro, because it has good repos and the AUR as a backup, and comes packaged beautifully and is easy to change it to what I want it to be. I've had very few problems with it in the past.

Gentoo is my alter-ego. I've not actually successfully installed it yet (even though it shows up in my bootloader right now, stupid driver issues), and I don't mind spending time with it to get it to work correctly. The problem is, I haven't had time to spend to get it working properly. For all of the hours I've put into it over multiple attempts, I don't really have anything to complain about when using it (besides the obvious) - I like the package manager and the way the system is set up. The installation process is surprisingly logical and straightforward, as far as Linux goes, at least.

LMDE used to be my go-to distro around a year ago, but it's become too boring for me. I don't really like using Debian-based systems anymore, mostly because I can't stand Aptitude, but mostly it's either so stable it's boring and it seems like nothing much is happening, or I have major problems that I don't feel like dealing with.

I like the OpenSUSE installation process, but I don't like how YAST handles updating. I shouldn't have to restart just to apply some updates. If I do need to reinstall for something to work, I can come back to it, because I don't want to have to wait for it to download and install just to use the stuff I want.

So, yes, Manjaro and Gentoo are my go-to distros. I also have OpenSUSE installed on my laptop, but I might get away from it if it will be too much trouble to upgrade to GNOME 3.16.

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atm im playing arround with Ubuntu 15.04 KDE plasma 5, and Open Suse 13.2
Both are very nice distro´s to work with in my opinnion.
I´m still learning, but in terms of usability, i think that i should give Ubuntu KDE / Gnome / Unity, a slight edge..

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Is that Cinnamon? Maybe its the icons playing tricks with me, but your Mint install looks way nicer than mine. :p

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Nope, haven't quite settled on one yet. Years ago I toyed with vanilla Red Hat and Mandriva (can't recall the DE as it was before I knew what those were). I didn't get on badly with either of those but I was too content with Windows to pursue the use of Linux.
In recent years I tried Mint with Cinnamon, which I got on really well with due to the ease of use. At the time I had to source the distro that was suitable for Windows users that were migrating to Linux without a steep learning curve. CentOS lost out because I had to do a lot more work to get basic software working; learning Linux is one thing but for people in the office that couldn't follow documentation without it being word for word precise it added unnecessary complexity.
Mint worked really well but when the version that we were using became out-dated I moved to a vanilla Ubuntu install. I didn't get on as well with Unity but I installed Docky and grew to adapt.
Lately I've been working on Gnome but something is missing with multi-monitors that I can't quite put my finger on. I'll be trying KDE next to see how that has changed over the years.

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https://forum.teksyndicate.com/t/how-to-get-the-latest-nvidia-drivers-on-ubuntu-using-a-repository/76661

Install the latest Nvidia drivers. The old ones Ubuntu installs are just bad.

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I distro hopped for a year before I found the right distro for me. I probably tried 60-70 distros but I ended up on Fedora. I love Fedora and while it's not perfect for me it suits my needs very well. But I recommend distro hopping just to get some experience with Linux and to find the right distro for you.

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