Asklemmy

I use ArchLinux BTW, because

1. It's very minimal, no bloatware
2. AUR
   ~~3. I feel superior~~
3. It just works™*

I'm still using Windows 10 on my personal computer. Oh I'll probably have to upgrade someday, some game or other program will come out with exclusivity of some kind and I'll eventually install Windows 11. But for the most part, I don't want to fuck with it, everything works and I really just don't want the hassle.

Running Linux Mint on an old laptop, mostly because it's too old to decently run Windows 10. Don't use it for much, mostly troubleshooting things.

At work the laptops are Windows 10 and I don't think there's a push to update. Of course all the servers are Redhat Enterprise Linux, and that's where the majority of my work takes place.

Fedora is the most solid thing I've ever used. I use the KDE version on my desktop and silverblue on my laptop. Never have any problems

Debian Stable 11, shitjustworks

I use macos. I find that it gives me a lot of the UNIX stuff (most of the terminal tools that I love) and has a good compromise with quality apps and integration with my phone.

Btw I use Archlinux

I switched to it 50% for the AUR: I regularly install softwares not from the classic repos, and the AUR is a godsend compared to cloning a Github, make install and thinking about updating it. The rest is a mix of the ArchWiki, its lightness and openness.

Arch+Plasma+Wayland+GTX1660Ti+Samsung monitor with freesync120Hz. Great freedom. Great custom. Nice performance in gaming. Great software management. Awesome usability for technical user. I had also install apparmor and firewalld for security and timeshift for btrfs snapshots. I think, for me, there is no sense to switch back to windows.

Had Ubuntu for a decade then got bored and turned my hp Spectre laptop into a Hackintosh and got hooked. So it's macOS now.

Fedora work station, it just works.

Arch.

One day several years ago I had to replace some hardware and the copy of Windows that I had installed decided that I was no longer authorized. I got fed up and left Windows behind for good. For a few years I had Manjaro installed, but eventually I needed a change and wanted to start fresh so opted just to go straight to Arch.

We're an all-linux household.

• Endeavoros on my gaming desktop
• Garuda on my Framework laptop
• Kubuntu on my partner's Framework laptop
• Endeavoros on my server. Plus a handful of Pis and appliances.

Windows 11 as my daily driver/gaming machine, Debian for my proxmox cluster/vms.

NixOS, because all of the config in my system is declared in a few files on GitHub and it has a huge package repo.

Also it has all of the other advantages of a Linux distro, like privacy, speed and customisability.

I use Pop!_OS on my desktop PC because i'm tired of microsoft deciding everything of my digital life and also because I just find myself really comfortable with GNOME and the POP!_Shell

Fedora KDE on the framwork laptop. Not the only one here it seems. My pc still runs Windows 10 but I'll change that once I have the time.

Fedora is cool because it is about as user friendly to beginners as Ubuntu, without Canonicals shenanigans. It's a freedom respecting community project and always pretty up to date. I like the quick release cycle. It seems like a good balance between a rolling release and slow fixed releases. Upgrading to the next version takes no effort. And KDE is just cool for it's customizability.

I currently use fedora. I am absolutely fine with Ubuntu, but the setup process is a bit too much for me, as I prefer flatpak and vanilla gnome, so it takes a bit of work for Ubuntu to get there. Also I feel like ubuntu use a different gui for different purpose, it is a bit annoying (for example, there are three app, one update apt, one flatpak, one drivers.) It is not a big deal, but a bit annoying.

Mostly all I need is just a stable os that I can work in, and I don't really want to mess with my os. So I don't choose more cutting-edge/interesting distros like suse, arch, or Nix.

There are also distros like pop and mint, but they don't support gnome well, and I haven't get into the habit of cosmos or cinnamon.

Fedora Silverblue, immutable, secure :)

Arch.

I once ran Ubuntu, but the install instructions for so many programs are 'import this key', 'add these dependencies', and the system quickly became a mess. I had install scripts to install and uninstall some things, but it was too much for me to take care of.

Eventually I found that if you want the latest terragrunt and i3, Arch Linux is easier than Ubuntu.

Endeavour OS KDE. It just works and you have access to the AUR repository, which is huge.

Linux because it runs fast and does what I need it to.

Windows 11 with latest updates. I have prioritized to only use open source apps. Purchased the Lenovo Legion 5 during summer 2020, so it's an relatively new laptop. Also have the latest BIOS, as this have made it work more stable overall. But want to return back to Ubuntu LTS. So hopefully various drivers, compatibilities etc with exactly my laptop gets ironed out. Especially the Fn+Q function with 3 CPU power modes. Also the Hybrid GPU function. Please more battery hours!

Observing Ubuntu's coming LTS with full snap, that might be something suitable for my needs. So going to read about it coming months as Canonical posts in their blog. So definitely want to leave the Windows OS/ place. Have caused so many issues for me.

I've been distro hopping lately and landed in fedora gnome, it seems to be a nice, stable OS, good for personal PC use (might try the kde version on my laptop, seems like a better experience). I haven't even checked on gaming tho, haven't touched the pc for that since I got the steam deck

GNU/Linux (openSUSE Tumbleweed, KDE Neon, Gentoo, Arch/SteamOS on Steam Deck) all with KDE Plasma desktop. Because the KDE Plasma desktop is way ahead of anything I've ever used on proprietary OSes. Also in general GNU/Linux is leading both technically and ethically, as it is also being free (as in freedom) and opensource software, respects our privacy, and doesn't bother you with ads.

I'm a big fan of OpenSUSE Tumbleweed and use it on all of my machines (including my WSL2 provider for my Win10 machine at work).

It is great, incredibly stable with pre-configured btrfs snapshots and rollback with snapper out of the box. Now that Proton is so good for gaming, I can't even remember the last time I booted up my windows partition. Also rolling release if you are into that sort of thing.

OpenBSD. It is much simpler for me to understand than Linux. However, Alpine Linux is very nice too.

Fedora! Have been super not a fan of Windows for years now so I avoid it hardcore when I can.

Linux in general is a lot easier to set up programming environments on, and also just generally it's a lot more flexible when it comes to customization, which is definitely important when you're a big picky bitchbaby like I am.

Fedora specifically I like because there's something I just really like about RHEL-related distros (to the point that i use Rocky Linux on my server also). They feel really polished and dnf is probably my favourite package manager of all the ones I've tried so far. I do have a few issues with it, and I miss having access to the AUR when I used various Arch-baseds over the years, but all in all I'm very happy with it and I don't see myself switching distros for desktop use any time soon.

macOS on my laptop, windows on my PC. Also got a few servers running linux though.

NixOS, mostly for the declarative configuration for almost everything. Atomic updates and independent installations of software for different projects are some other notable reasons.

Arch Linux. Its comfy. I like that I don't get spied on. Furthermore it is not made by a company and 100% community driven, which makes it the best Distro for my usecase!

Strictly Arch Linux since 2008

I was running Gentoo Linux, but I've sadly had to switch back to Windows due to grad school software I need to run.

I actually have all 3.

A windows PC for gaming A macbook for my laptop An Arch Linux PC/Server that I use for most of my work and that hosts all my services

The "why" for each is probably pretty self-explanatory for each. I'm a firm believer in using the right tool for a given job, and I think Windows has the best gaming experience, Mac has the "best" laptops (for my own subjective value of "best"), and linux is the best for software development and service hosting.

In a perfect world I'd use linux for all 3, but while gaming on linux has gotten a lot better, it's not quite "there" yet, and I just love the new Apple chips for laptops in terms of battery life, speed, and heat management

Linux, OpenSUSE Tumbleweed to be precise. Best rolling release distro in my opinion.

EndeavourOS. It's a variant of Arch, I had hopped around different OS and was on Windows for a bit before switching back to Linux. Ive stuck with Endeavour as it feels quick and nimble but performs great on gaming (better than the native windows install on my PC) and the access to the AUR is a massive perk

• Main Gaming/Editing PC - Windows 11 - While I have had good experiences with PopOS as a dual boot, I'm probably staying on Windows on this machine to not worry about hardware compatibility. My main issues on Linux distros came to my WiFi 6 USB adapter not being well supported (running an Ethernet drop to this room is infeasible at the moment, but a future plan), power state issues regarding standby mode and shutdown, and the GPU (3060ti) only really working well on PopOS. Davinci Resolve also apparently only works with H.264 or H.265 video codecs on Linux if you get the paid version, probably because of licensing relating to those, which I may get eventually. I also like Windows 11 way more than 10, surprisingly.
• Laptop - Linux Mint - Rock solid when you're just talking about a machine with integrated components. Has Timeshift for system restoring preinstalled, and is light on resources while still fulfilling my needs outside of gaming and video editing. I can still play light games (it's a slower laptop) like Celeste or Vampire Survivors fine though, but really leave that for the main PC.
• Homelab servers - Proxmox running mostly Ubuntu Server VMs and LXC containers - Honestly as with any homelab, this may change just for the sake of testing things, but having this setup on my previous Ryzen 5 1600 desktop, and an HP mini PC works out pretty well. Most of what I test or use is at the service or development level anyway.

Kubuntu 23.04 With the panel to the left.

MX Linux. It is a debian based, but uses custom scripts and programs from Antix and Mepis that make it super lovely to use.

It strips out systemd and does a lot of work to make popular programs usable that requires it.

Yet, I can still boot into it with systemd turned on, which is useful and more necessary than I like, increasingly so.

I think systemd is fine though. Linux is not unix, variation is healthy and despite what people say I always found it solid.

MX uses XFCE, which I love, and the desktop has some really smart defaults like putting the panel on the side instead of top or bottom, which gives back vertical real estate.

EDIT: I also use macOS iOS. My mom is a dedicated Apple user and I inherit her stuff whenever she upgrades, which is less frequently because I convinced her that what she has is basically overkill for her use cases, ans she does not need the newest thing.

Anyways, I love my iPad Pro. I don't care if Apple is evil, I got it for free and I reading PDFs on it is a goddamn pleasure.

The MacBook Air is the perfect laptop. Large laptops are just heavy and makes me not want to take them anywhere. Glad I learned that lesson.

I use Windows 10 LTSC 21H2. It's the most up-to-date LTSC version.

LTSC = Long Term Servicing Channel, which is a special verson of Windows Enterprise that doesn't receive feature updates, doesn't come with all the extra bloat (onedrive, store, xbox game bar, candycrush, office trials, etc).. It's meant for special support enterprise systems like MRI scanners, industrial use, etc..

The reason that I (legally, but for the wrong usecase) use it is that I don't want to switch to Windows 11 or be nagged about it, nor do I want all the extra bloat on top of my OS. But I do want to stay secure, and I get security updates without trouble.

I would rather run a Linux distribution, sadly I do play a few games that are still not working on Linux, even with Proton and lots ot manual trickery. And I play them for about 40 hours a week.

I really enjoyed the simpleness of PopOS. Got that familiar Ubuntu feel but looks better and runs great on my poor hobby laptop.

NixOS. Mainly use it for the reproducible configuration between my machines. I've got my dotfiles hosted at https://github.com/chadac/dotfiles

NixOS unstable in my workstation and my laptop. Using sway on Wayland on top of all-AMD hardware. I play games with this setup and I write Rust and TypeScript for living. I love the customizability and the reproducibility of NixOS: I just clone my config and I have exactly the desktop I've always had, every little tool and customization included. If my hard drive fails, I just plug a new one and I am productive in about 15 minutes.

My sway desktop has been looking and working similarly for years, and before that I used i3 on Xorg for almost a decade. I like how the UI doesn't really change that much.

You must get a completely different view than "normal people" here. I use Alma Linux 9 (RHEL9 clone) because it's what we use at work, and I've known RedHat since 1999. I use it because it generally is exceptionally stable, and can easily go 6 months without forcing a reboot. It also is much less likely to spy on me, and does most everything I need a computer to do.

Also, using XFCE for my DE means I don't have to relearn something every release version (XFCE has stayed the same all through v4 more or less, which is like at least since 2012. Some new icons here or there.

No forced cloud integration, my account is local, the way I like it. I also am much less concerned about malware (maybe this is unjustified in 2023, I guess IDK).

I got fed up with Microsoft with the rollout of Win10, and switched to Scientific Linux 7 at that time (RHEL7) and just migrated this year to Alma 9 and a new PC. I actually ran the same workstation for 12 years before that. Somehow, even with updates Linux doesn't seem to bloat the way Windows did / would. I.e. I haven't had a Linux install get slower over time for no reason like every Windows install.

I've been running Manjaro for 4 years now, never looked back. I know people have their thoughts on Manjaro, but I haven't had any issues and it comes with some great features out of the box that I'd rather not have to problem solve on another distro. That said, I've been having fun with Endeavor on my extra laptop, it's worked pretty well for me and can see why it has such a thriving community