this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2023
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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This is kind of the anti-distro hopping thread. How long have you stayed on a single Linux distribution for your main PC? What about servers?

I've been on Debian on and off since 2021, but finally committed to the platform since April of this year.

Before that I was on OpenBSD from 2011 - 2021 for my desktop.

Prior to that, FreeBSD for many years, followed by a few years of distro-hopping various Linux distros (Slackware, Arch, Fedora, simplyMEPIS, and ZenWalk from memory).

How long have you been on your distribution? Do we have anybody here who has been on their current distro for more than a decade?

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[–] KelsonV@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

My main desktop has been upgraded continuously from RHL5 (no E) in ~1999 to Fedora 38 today.

Well, almost continuously. I've done at least one fresh install, when I switched from 32-bit to 64-bit hardware.

Edit: I have used a lot of other distros on other boxes, both physical and virtual - I've just stuck with Fedora on that one.

[–] megatroid_skittles@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I've been on Yggdrasil Linux since 1993. Now, get off my lawn, you punks!

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[–] ClarkNova@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Workstation: Ubuntu approximately 18 years. (2004)

Servers: Debian approximately 25 years. (1998)

[–] unix_joe@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 years ago

Wow, probably the winner. 25 years is really cool, such a long time for one distro.

In 1998 I tried Red Hat 5.2, but then switched to Slackware, and ended up on FreeBSD since it was like a better Slackware. I must have been all of 12-13 years old.

I admit I never even tried Debian until Lenny, and then went back to OpenBSD.

[–] pascal@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago

I distro hopped a lot since installing a retail red hat box bought at the store in 199something.

It's now more than 10 years that I basically only run Debian (on all my servers) and Gentoo/funtoo (on my workstations). For my partner and relatives, I install only Mint because it lacks all the cool gadgets, but it's stable as a rock, especially on notebooks, and still reminds them of Windows.

I tried Arch, btw. Nice wiki, horrible package management.

I tried Pop_OS, it's fun, it's fine, it's fresh, but tends to self-destruct if I push it too much.

I loved Elementary OS, it's really promising but always gave me the feeling to run a beta OS.

[–] Glome@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. It's surprisingly stable for a rolling release distro.

[–] michael@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago

Yes, I was a distro hopper up until I tried Tumbleweed for the first time. Been using it for two years now, hopped around for a year prior.

[–] unix_joe@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 years ago

How long? I remember seeing some people have used it since the mid-2010's on the same install.

[–] liss_up@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

Ubuntu from 2006 right up until they replaced the firefox deb with a mandatory snap, whenever that was. Then I was on Pop OS for about 6 months, and now Fedora, which I don't see myself leaving anytime soon.

[–] words_number@programming.dev 2 points 2 years ago

Debian (testing) at least since 2018 and I don't plan to switch. Before that I was hopping a bit between ubuntu based distros and manjaro. On servers I always use debian stable.

[–] Bero@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

Archlinux since 2009
So 14 years

[–] tsl@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 years ago

I've settled on Ubuntu in 2008, but jumped between Gnome, KDE, Unity and LXDE. Then I got a Steam Deck last year and it became my main machine, so now I am not only with its Arch based OS, but I a secondary Arch SD card that I occasionally boot, if I need something not immediately available in SteamOS.

Servers? Debian Since 2019.

[–] PanaX@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

When Mint had a KDE version I used that for almost four years. Then went to KDE neon and found that to be unstable. Hopped hither and thither, finally made it back to mint.

Having used Linux for 15 years, I just want stable now. Even user cinnamon mint was getting glitchy and updating too frequently. So I've been using the mint Debian edition for more than a few months and love it. IF I had to switch now, I'd just go to Debian.

[–] njinx@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Been on Manjaro i3wm edition since 2018

[–] blackstrat@lemmy.fwgx.uk 2 points 2 years ago

On servers I've stuck with Ubuntu LTS's since 2017. They've always been rock solid, even if the 2-4 year upgrade can be time consuming, it's not often enough for me to try something else. The support and documentation is excellent. I find it hard to think of a single reason to even try something else.

On the desktop I probably have spent most time on Ubuntu, or Ubuntu derivative like Kubuntu, but I now use EndeavourOS and I have no plans to switch or hop or try anything else. So I'll likely end up on Endeavour far longer.

[–] Kovu@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

3 years on EndeavourOS and no end in sight

[–] pfaca@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I switched from Manjaro to EndeavourOS more or less a year ago and I'm not leaving any time soon.

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[–] fugepe@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

MX and Opensuse

[–] Uno@monyet.cc 2 points 2 years ago

I've been on Ubuntu ever since I switched to Linux 7 months ago, tbh I don't understand distro-hopping. I'm not any tech wizard, and Ubuntu fulfills all my criteria: worked out of the box, worked faster than Windows, hasn't broken yet 👍

All I do is run Firefox and Steam on my laptop anyways :/

[–] Justaregulardude2001@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 years ago

I've been on Fedora Linux for almost a year now. Considering that I started using Linux when the pandemic started, you can figure out that it's my distro of choice now. Also, I like that Fedora is, for the most part, quite developer friendly and had great packages and software installed when I first started using it.

[–] s_s@lemmy.one 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

My one desktop is 5 years on Manjaro now.

Before that I had Ubuntu for 8 years across several installs, although I also dual-booted Windows back then.

But I've had a freeBSD file server for at least 20.

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[–] kai@mesita.link 2 points 2 years ago

My main desktop computer had been running Ubuntu for 7 years until I had to do a full wipe and decided to move to arch to check it out. I never got the point of distro hopping myself really.

[–] FrankTheHealer@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

Ive been on Linux Mint with XFCE for about a year now, I think that's a new record for me lol

[–] vext01@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 years ago

I've been using OpenBSD on my desktop since about 2006ish.

[–] deliriousn0mad@feddit.it 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

openSUSE Tumbleweed since 2019, it never breaks and if you break it you can easily roll back. Yes, there are a lot of updates, but I have a secondary system that I upgrade only once every six months and it works like a charm!

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[–] scarcer@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

I've bounced around Fedora, Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Mint over the years. I've been on Zorin OS going on two years and I'm eagerly waiting for 17 to release. I don't see myself hopping anytime soon.

[–] ryanmr@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

My dad used to hope distros constantly. He would read distrowatch and want to try the latest and greatest out.

I've been with Ubuntu server since 1404. Not always the smoothest road but it's worked for me. Snap is ridiculous though.

[–] dadarobot@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Probably ubuntu from 05-16. Switched to arch around then, and been on manjaro since 2020.

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[–] BananaTrifleViolin@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

I tend to stick with one distro for a while but use it across multiple uses (my home PC as a separate boot partition to Windows, and within Virtualbox as a guest in windows and also in linux itself). I find it easier to stick to one Distro and get used to the distro's paradigm.

At the moment I'm using Mint and have done for a few years. I used Lubuntu before that. I'll be sticking with Mint until I next decide to refresh my PC and will revisit what's available at that time; maybe stick with Mint or move to something else if something is appealing.

[–] theshatterstone54@feddit.uk 1 points 2 years ago

Honestly, about 4 months, and it was Arch. I've been using Linux for over a year now. Currently I'm on NixOS trying to make things work the way I want them to, but there's still some minor issues that are difficult to deal with.

[–] reallychris@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

this run on xubuntu i think. when i first switched to mint (xfce) a few years back i'd reinstall every month or so because i broke something, yes with enough misguided tinkering linux mint can be broken. then i'd spend a week-month on other distros, mx linux, peppermint, all the ubuntus, then manjaro that got me on to minimal installs, then arch btw, then endeavour, with my own awesome or openbox config. i thought i'd settled down for 6 months or so, but the threat of a bad package was always there (even though it never happened). when i got my latest laptop i installed mint again, with my openbox config. after a while i started noticing things weren't running quite right, so i just thought "instead of changing everything, just change what i need to" and went with xub for slightly more up to date repos. turns out i can get pretty much all the functionality i had with openbox out of xfce. so i've managed to stay on one install for about 18 months!

[–] raktheundead@fosstodon.org 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@unix_joe: I've been using SUSE with KDE since SuSE Linux Personal 7.0. So, 20+ years?

[–] unix_joe@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 years ago

Are you a tumbleweed user now? I used tumbleweed off and on for a few months for KDE.

What do you think of their pivot towards Gnome on Aeon/MicroOS/whatever the replacement for Leap is going to be?

[–] shut_up_linux_nerd@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

I've stayed on Endeavour with XFCE for a good while now. It just works and is out of my hair. I use it on any system I want Linux on now and I've stopped hopping.

[–] redcalcium@c.calciumlabs.com 1 points 2 years ago

I've been using Ubuntu LTE for over 10 years now for servers. However, for personal machines I've been distro hopping every few years. Currently using Manjaro on both desktop and laptop now. My only gripe is recently it took them longer to release the latest gnome version than Ubuntu (it's usually the other way around being a rolling release distro).

[–] SpaceCadet2000@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

head -n1 /var/log/pacman.log

[2014-10-11 14:33] [PACMAN] Running 'pacman -r /mnt -Sy --cachedir=/mnt/var/cache/pacman/pkg --noconfirm base base-devel'

Almost 9 years it seems

[–] sab@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

I stayed on Ubuntu on my main computers for 14 years from 2007 to 2021. Ran into some dependency problems and switched to Fedora on my main device, it has been working as a charm.

[–] Czele@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

I've just picked Fedora 33 and never had any urge to distro-hopp. Now Im on F38 and Im still happy. Maybe in some day I will transition to Silverblue

[–] Nerdfest@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Been using Ubuntu, or more recently, Kubuntu since 2006. Not sure that counts as a distro change. Can't say enough good things about KDE these days though.

[–] unix_joe@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 years ago

I remember trying and liking the last KDE with 3.5x around that time. There was a .deb to install the Kickoff menu from openSUSE. Solid, ruined by the 4.0 transition. Good times.

[–] fxttr@feddit.de 1 points 2 years ago

Probably 6 years, on FreeBSD. (Not a Linux distro, but I count that). Now I'm 3 years on NixOS, but I'm booting FreeBSD here and than.

[–] JRepin@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Been disto-hopping a lot before ending up in openSUSE Tumbleweed (with KDE Plasma desktop). Now using it for about 6 years as my main desktop/laptop distro.

[–] r0b0@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)
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[–] ReCursing@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

Probably Debian for six or seven years, but my time on Manjaro must be close by now and I see no reason to change

[–] JoeKrogan@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

I'm on Debian since 2012 and before that it was Ubuntu from 2008 to 2012

[–] mya@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

i think that was only a year and it was ubuntu

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