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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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I wouldn't count the last switch as distro hopping though. It was a calculated decision after months of deliberation and trying things out. And now that everything is set up, I am very certain that I'll never switch to another distro again, Nix is just too good.
MS-DOS up until about 1995 or 1996. Slackware until 1997. Debian until 1998. Slackware again until 2000. Debian again until 2005. Gentoo until 2012. Arch up to the present.
Desktop: Windows Vista Home -> Windows 7 Home -> CentOS 7 -> Debian 8 -> Arch Linux -> OpenSUSE Leap 15 -> Debian 10 -> Slackware
Slackware is probably where i'll be for the rest of my time on Linux, as unlike other distros, I have no major complaints.
I've always hosted stuff at home, even as a kid, so for my homeserver:
Server: Windows XP Pro -> Windows 7 Pro -> CentOS 7 -> CentOS 8 -> Artix Linux -> NetBSD -> OpenBSD -> SmartOS
I don't miss the days of using WAMP on windows lol
Mine was Windows XP -> Ubuntu -> Xubuntu -> Windows 10 -> Kubuntu -> KDE Neon -> back to Kubuntu -> Manjaro -> Endeavour OS -> Fedora -> Debian -> NixOS
I also have a separate Laptop for financial things running Alma Linux and a Gaming PC running bazzite
Vic20 😆 -> C64 -> AmigaOS -> MacOS -> Slackware (much frustration!) -> MacOS -> Ubuntu -> EndeavourOS
Linux: 1995, Sco (At work), then got a copy of Slackware on a Cover-CD around 2000. Shortly after found Debian and have been using that at home exclusively for over two decades, now onto desktops and laptops as well as a couple of home servers. (I use EL distros, Ubuntu and OpenSuse at work nowadays)
Longer history: 1981: ZX81. 1985, Dragon 32. 1988 Amstrad CPC. 1991 an XT. 1992 A 386 sx25 with 1mb ram, and so on.
Risc_os>win95-xp>Ubuntu>mint>Ubuntu>win8.1-10>manjaro>mint>popOs>fedora>fedora silverblue>bazzite/aurora
Ubuntu -> OpenSuse -> Arch -> OpenSuse
I used ubuntu from when I got my first computer until like 2021 and then I realized I had no idea why I was using it because I didn't like it
Ubuntu (university) -> MX Linux -> Opensuse TW
Pirated Windows 95. Pirated Windows 98. Pirated Windows XP. A usb stick with Red Hat I never installed. Pirated Windows 7. A usb stick with Fedora I never installed. Pirated Windows 10. Raspbian for a retropie unit. Legit copy of Windows 10. A usb stick with ChimeraOS and a rig on the dining room table that maybe, just maybe, I will install.
I'll get there.
Here's my distrohopping journey (including non-Linux OS)
Windows 7 →
Windows 10 →
Mid 2021, I tried Fedora Linux in a VM and was unable to install it, but I liked it regardless.
So, a while later I decided to try this "Linux" thing on my computer.
Linux Mint (late 2021) →
Arco Linux (arch felt too intimidating) →
Debian (stability = good?) →
Debian Sid (stability = boring) →
Artix Linux OpenRC (omg i hate systemd so much!1!!) →
Void Linux →
Artix Linux runit (it didn't work) →
Arch Linux (how do i use systemctl wtf) →
Void Linux again (ah, ln -s /etc/sv/something /run/service/)→
NixOS unstable (since January 2024)
Honestly, I'm just glad I found something I liked, as NixOS is perfect for tinkering.
During all that distrohopping, I "DE-hopped" even more. Currently I run SwayFX, but I've used Cinnamon, XFCE, Plasma, GNOME, AwesomeWM, i3, bspwm, dwm, swaywm and Hyprland.
edit 1: add Artix Linux runit
edit 2: remove NixOS stable from the list
Windows->Mac->Ubuntu->Fedora->Arch->openSUSE->and finally Debian when bookworm released and I’ve been very happy with it, plan on staying for the foreseeable future.
Still dual boot windows (with no Microsoft account connected) for gaming. But I don’t game nearly as much as I used to and when I do I don’t want to worry about anything working, I just want to ply with friends. Though from what I hear gaming on Linux is getting better all the time.
Ubuntu, Manjaro, Endeavour, Arch, Arch/Debian
macOS, then Linux Mint, then Arch Linux, then EndeavourOS, then Artix Linux, and now Parabola GNU/Linux-libre.
Classic Mac OS 7.5.3 -> 8.5 -> 9.2 -> Windows 2000 -> XP -> Vista -> 7 -> 8.1 -> 10 -> Pop!_OS (for a few years but eventually wanted a KDE based distro) -> Garuda Linux (for a few years but wanted to try out nobara for gaming) -> Nobara (for now, great for gaming, frustrating for programming because of package differences) and other unknown reasons)
For my personal devices:
I've worked with work systems that used RedHat and Ubuntu back in the late 2000's, plus decades of work computers with Windows. But I'm no longer in a technical career field so I haven't kept on top of the latest and greatest.
I played around with Mandrake and Debian around the turn of the century. A bit of a break, but then I started dual-booting Ubuntu in the Windows Vista/X86 OSX era. I jumped to Xubuntu and started running Linux by itself on several machines around 2012.
I largely shifted to Arch around the time that snaps came out because they weren't playing nice with some of my low-end machines. Nowadays, mainly Arch. Exceptions: Fedora on my M1, Debian Bookworm on an old x86 tablet and any time I set up WSL on a Windows machine.
Ubuntu Server (for school) -> Fedora (daily driver for a month) -> Arch (same as fedora) -> NixOS (it's almost a year and I think that I'll stay with NixOS)
Ubuntu, Pop!_os, KDE... Currently on fedora. It's been solid. I honestly think I like pop the most but I was having weird gpu issues which haven't showed up over on fedora.
Windows -> Ubuntu -> Mint -> Fedora -> Pop -> Manjaro -> Garuda -> Debian -> Zorin -> Endeavor -> feren -> opensuse tumbleweed -> opensuse leap -> KDE neon -> blendOS -> MX -> Debian + peppermint (on old laptop) -> Mint cinnamon + Mint XFCE -> Fedora atomic -> Fedora
Additionally: rasbian on pi, alpine for VM, puppy for usb, steamos on steam deck
Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10 -> Fedora Workstation -> Fedora Silverblue -> NixOS
DOS, to Windows XP, to Xubuntu, to Kubuntu, to Nix OS. In hindsight I should have probably tried Arch, but Nix was the first one to sell me on something else, and Arch just seems like a downgrade from Nix.
I first tried a linux distro in 2020. At that time, I honestly just wanted the customizations I've seen in unixporn and mindlessly tried arch because of the memes. I followed some youtube tutorial to manually install it and of course fucked up my boot partition that also had my windows boot stuff. After installing arch, I tried booting windows to move things to an external drive but windows would not boot up. I paniced and searched for hours on the web trying to fix it before giving up and just wiping the drive entirely. I was pretty much a noob and didn't know anything at all about linux at that time. Then I tried installing arch again tomorrow, this time I got everything right and I didn't need to deal with dual booting as windows was no more on my drive. The system was pretty stable for a few weeks before I guess I tried customizing KDE or something and completely broke my system. Of course the dumbass me again just wiped off the whole drive all my files gone. After that I installed windows again and no longer try to install any linux distro again until last year where I instead read the arch wiki and I had more knowledge in general about these things, so in 2023 I wanted to try installing a linux distro yet again. This time I went with ubuntu. It looked nice and stable but it honestly just sucked. Snaps indeed were problematic and I never got myself to like them, even today. So I tried pop. This one was nice and I actually used it for a few months. GNOME wasn't the best DE for me but it just worked. I wanted to go a little deeper into linux at some point and I, you guessed it, tried installing arch. Everything went smoothly and I also installed it manually without any yt videos but just the arch wiki. I had some problems understanding some stuff in it but I eventually got it to work. And until today, everything still works fine for me in arch. I can fix some issues I encounter without the help of the internet. So I've been using arch for a year now. Windows is also no longer installed. I migrated everything to arch. I don't really use any professional tools at least like adobe so I have no problem with using arch. All of the games I played on windows function either better or the same on linux thanks to proton. Some games also have native versions so yeah.
Windows -> MacOS -> Windows -> Ubuntu (2012) -> Arch (2013) -> Gentoo (2016)
Gentoo cured my distrohopping
Windows xp > windows 7 > windows 10 > manjaro (broke it with the aur) > arch (broke again) > kbuntu > fedora > fedora silverblue > Nixos > Gentoo
Now i compile with 14 core xeon 2697 v3 48gb of ram and vega 64. Peak machine and distro
My full journey was Ubuntu, Manjaro, Debian, Arch. I would still consider myself a noob but know I don't break stuff as often.
My journey was very uneven:
Windows (for many years) -> Ubuntu (for 2 months, dual-boot) -> Windows (for about 6 years, because of some very specific software + pre-Proton gaming) -> Linux Mint (for about a month) -> popOS (for almost a year) -> endeavourOS (now, but always on the look-out for new stuff)
But in between the "main" journey, there was always some stuff trying out, like Void (on an old PC), Arch (inside a VM, now use that VM as a lightweight environment for testing some stuff out)
I've used Windows since I can remember... at least since Windows 95, then probably early 2000's, added OSX into the mix. I currently use an old Mac Mini as my Plex machine, and the computer provided by my employer runs Windows.
My "journey" began around 2015 on an old Dell laptop that I set up to dual boot Windows and Linux. I tried 2 or 3 distros, one of which was probably Ubuntu, before settling on Mint. I remember having enough minor issues with Mint that I kept booting back to Windows, and eventually stopped booting to Mint at all.
Then one day, I have no clue what I was trying to do, but I was confident that I knew what I was doing, so I just went for it without pulling up the instructions. Welp, I ended up deleting my bootloader, or something like that, and now couldn't boot to any OS. I tried using my parents' Mac to create a bootable USB, but that wasn't working. I wound up buying and returning a random open box laptop from Best Buy just so I could create a functional bootable USB. I also found help from a very kind internet stranger who walked me through the process to fix my bootloader. They happened to only use Arch btw, so that's what we used to get my laptop fixed.
That whole drama really scared me away from fiddling with it for a while, then I just got busy and had no motivation. That laptop is collecting dust and still dual boots Windows (7?) and headless Arch. I'm thinking of fiddling around with Linux again, but most definitely need something more noobie friendly than Arch without a DE.
DOS, ProDOS, Windows 3.1, Windows '98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 7, Puppy, Mint, Bodhi, Trisquel & Debian.
Windows 95 OSR2.1 (with USB support!) -> RedHat 5.1 (from a CD included in a book at the local Barnes and Noble) -> Debian 2.1 (or so? apt was a fucking revelation. RH5.1 was pre-Yum) -> experimented with Gentoo in college for a couple months (doesn’t everyone?) -> Debian -> Ubuntu (maybe around 8.04?) -> (a bunch of cycles between Debian, Elementary and Ubuntu) -> back on Debian now and it feels like home :) (but I have Elementary, Haiku and Ubuntu on some old laptops I play with sometimes)
Back when I was a kid, I was using Ubuntu. Ubtunu 14 and 16.
At some point I got really into Elementary OS and Pantheon
Then I rejected clone distros and embraced the mother distro, Debian.
In college, I experimented a bit, like most people. I tried various DEs and WMs on Debian. I tried Arch. I tried Pop_OS!. I tried Gentoo. Man, Gentoo is the WORST. Compiling stuff takes WAY too long and even after using it for 6 months it never got better. Worst distro on the planet. No one should ever use it. Eventually I settled on Arch.
I stayed an Arch i3 guy for 3.5 years, but eventually I got fed up with it.
I then finally gave Fedora a try, and I thought it was great. It was up to date like Arch but unbreakable. At the time I was also looking into BTRFS and immutability and making my own distro, and Fedora is great for that bc of CoreOS and Kinoite and all that stuff.
While on Fedora I did a lot of weird things in search of my goals. Like I figured out how to install Pacman and get AUR applications working on Fedora, notably archiso which I was using to build my own immutable, declarative OS that would be AppImage-based and utilizing an AppImage package manager and store front I wrote myself.
But then, about a year in, I discovered NixOS. It's the best thing ever. It solves all the problems I had with other distros that I thought I'd solve on Fedora or Arch with programming. It's everything I could want in a distro and then some. I've now been on it longer than I was on Fedora, and there's no sign of switching to anything else.
Parallel to all this is various tool hopping. For instance, trying GNOME/KDE/Xfce/i3/Sway/Hyprland/etc at various times with various setups as well. Or bash vs zsh. Etc
Currently, I'm on NixOS with Hyprland, and it's great. I've also used it with i3 and with GNOME + Pop Shell 2 for tiling which are both solid as well.
Now, that's my daily driver and gaming machine. I use other OSs on other computers.
I have a computer for music production that got Fedoraized when I was a Fedora fanboy for a year. I don't change it bc it doesn't need to change. It just needs to run Ardour, yabridge, etc and maintain my system audio configurations that I don't remember how to set up now. If it ever gets messed up, I'll switch to a fork of my NixOS configuration and refigure out my audio settings and put them in a configuration.
I have a home nextcloud server as well. It also was once Fedoraized, but I gave up on that and went to Ubuntu bc that's the only thing that should ever run a Nextcloud server. It just does not work correctly if it's not on Ubuntu, at least that's my experience. I've tried hosting on Arch, Fedora, Debian, Pop_OS! and more, but only Ubuntu works well for Nextcloud, so Ubuntu it stays.
Windows -> RedHat -> Windows -> Gentoo -> Ubuntu -> RHEL -> Ubuntu -> Debian -> Arch
Over the last three decades...
The “+” indicates a dualboot
MacOS (for a while) → MacOS + Windows (for a year) → Ubuntu + Windows (for a year) → Linux Mint + Windows (for 6 months)→ Linux Mint (for 1.5 years)→ SteamOS (for 9 months) → SteamOS + openSUSE Tumbleweed (for 3 months, then tumbleweed got glitchy with display output) → SteamOS (Current) → Fedora Linux (when I get my new laptop)
I think mine went something like this: Windows (for a long time) -> Zorin Os -> Linux Mint -> Ubuntu -> Fedora (I don't remember how long I used any of them) -> Manjaro.
Here I got myself into a hole, distrohopping aimlessly, like, I kept switching from distro to distro literally every day. I was checking my emails, and discovered that I have 156 confirmation emails from the ecosia search engine, so I guess that represents the many times I distrohopped during this time (about 5 or 6 months).
I never really understood what happened there, maybe it was anxiety.
And then I finally stopped at linux mint, I've been here for about a month (more time, i made many clean installs, but always returning to mint), I don't intend to change.
Maybe I've beaten distrohopping? well, I hope so.
I tried various linux distros like ubuntu as a kid, but because of gaming I didn't switch at that time, then around 2010 I got a home server and installed Arch on it. When Arch switched to systemd I switched to gentoo because I did not want systemd. In 2014 I switched to gentoo Linux on my desktop, but still had dual boot for gaming on windows. I tried various init systems on gentoo and then ended up using systemd anyways. Because I got sick of waiting for packages to compile I switched back to arch on my desktop. On my home server and laptop I used alpine linux for a while. I switched back to arch shortly after because I had too many issues with alpine on desktop. I still use alpine in VMs on the server, but others that I don't touch as much like the print server run rocky linux. I also tried GPU-passthrough to game in a windows VM, but I never managed to resolve all the issues. Since nowadays most games run on wine and proton I never bothered reinstalling/fixing windows when it stopped booting a few years ago, so now I use linux only.
Win XP > vista > win7 > win 10 then
Linux Mint xfce > KDE neon > aurora
Tried many distros in between like ubuntu, mint cinnamon, mint mate, debian, and a few others I only vaguely recall