this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2025
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Just curious to know if anyone has been using the same distro for multiple years/decades and what or if you have it takes for you to want to switch to a different distro?

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[–] orenj@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 6 days ago

I'd start mixing it up if I got a new computer and could play around more on my current laptop.

[–] jjlinux@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 days ago

All I need is a sudden jolt of "I need to test other distros", distro hop for a day or 2,and then end up back in my distro of choice. This happens every couple of months give or take.

[–] thepiguy@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 days ago

If all the mirrors for pacman somehow got taken down, probably would switch to something corporate like Ubuntu.

[–] silasmariner@programming.dev 1 points 6 days ago

For the 'I use ... BTW' meme to say something else.

No, actually, I can't think of anything. I'm pretty comfortable with it at this point. Been running it since 2013...

[–] AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee 1 points 6 days ago

Despite using MX only for a relatively short time, just messing around in a VM for a long period of time would increase my odds of switching to something else*.

*when I need to switch to something else or find something a lot better

[–] NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 days ago

Hardware bugs/support, and Snap.

[–] 0xf@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 days ago

Having broken lts-kernel and broken 6.15. At the same time. But the zen kernel saved me. So I guess if it was 3 broken kernels at the same time I would switch distro, haha. Lts was broken amdgpu kernel module, worse then sleep issue for mainline.

[–] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 43 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Last time I did, it was thanks to canonical pushing snaps and other things no one asked for.

[–] irotsoma@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 6 days ago

Same. I had been using Ubuntu for over a decade for all of my Desktops, but had used CENTOS/Rocky for servers. Now I switched to Fedora for desktop which simplifies things since now only my Raspberry Pis use deb vs rpm.

Snap is super frustrating and the gate-keeping of updates and features behind the Pro subscription is annoying. I don't want to have an account if I dint have to. It's just one more privacy violation waiting to happen with no real benefit to me even if it is free for personal use.

[–] PetteriPano@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Same here. I had been sticking to Ubuntu flavours for over 15 years.

[–] markstos@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

I stuck with Ubuntu over a decade, but eventually Arch had several packages I was interested in that Ubuntu did not, plus the Arch wiki. I wanted to use Sway with several rofi/dmenu type utils, and Arch had a lot more of those packaged.

[–] Trimatrix@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago

When the Distro starts talking about enterprise features during the installation process (looking at you canonical)

[–] yesman@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago
[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 17 points 1 week ago (10 children)

Other than massive breakage, I'm not sure. Completely reinstalling and reconfiguring my setup is a pain in the ass, in part because of my slow internet connection. But damn if Ubuntu isn't trying to find out.

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[–] deadbeef@lemmy.nz 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I've changed distro's a bunch of times personally and for business I have influence in a bunch of times in the last 30 odd years.

Slackware -> Redhat -> Suse -> Ubuntu -> Debian.

The reasons for each were ( as best I can recall ).

Slackware to Redhat was just because a proper package manager made sense at the time. I think the Redhat releases were a bit more up to date too.

Redhat to Suse was because Redhat stopped doing the free long term releases, the short term ones were too short to be workable.

Suse to Ubuntu was a similar thing to Redhat with Suse trying to push you into the enterprise version.

Ubuntu to Debian most recently was due to the Ubuntu releases coming with more and more unwanted crap, we had been running mint on desktops to avoid whatever their mutant gnome reskin was called and then their regular gnome releases, but we were still running regular Ubuntu on servers. Eventually when they started putting pretty core stuff in snaps we decided to move to Debian.

Hopefully that is the last migration we have to do for a while.

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[–] Uebercomplicated@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

I've been using openSuSe Tumbleweed on one device or another for quite a while now. Recently I switched my last device, so I'm officially 100% Tumbleweed. NGL, feels pretty good. I would, however, switch under a few circumstances:

  • openSuSe releases Tumbleweed clone with systemD alternative (like runit). I've tried Void repeatedly, but unfortunately never really fell in live with it.
  • openSuSe releases NixOS style immutable distro (not the current aeon or kalpa) based on Tumbleweed.

Honestly, Tumbleweed is nearly perfect for me. It's just that I've tasted what life without systemD can be like, and I goddamn miss it... I'm totally hooked on openSuSe products though.

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[–] Naz@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I wait and let everyone figure out what the least broken Linux distro is.

Debian is stable. Stable is good, for an operating system; because I actually want to use my computer.

Not play with the operating system for 4-6 hours per day.

[–] Peffse@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I tried so hard to get Debian working on my new build. Problem being: it's a new build. Debian's glacial pacing meant my hardware won't see support for a while. I might try again when Trixie finally releases, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

So I guess my answer is... I'll distro hop when stability & support reach equal levels.

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[–] tankplanker@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago (4 children)

I moved from Redhat when they started pulling the shit around getting paid for their source. I understand why they did it, but I disagreed with that choice and I moved.

I quit Ubuntu when I finally had enough of their insistence on their way for everything such as firefox via snap, sure I can and did work around their shit, but why the fuck should I?

I would move from Opensuse if they did something similar, if it became unreliably maintained, or if something much better came along.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

would move from Opensuse if they did something similar, if it became unreliably maintained

I saw too much while turning the corpse they kicked over the fence into a unitedLinux we could ship and support.

The horrors.

If the entire company died and absolutely new people made a new company by the same name with none of the former staff or principals involved, then I would consider suse. The taint goes so deep I would not consider even a new source drop with the same staff.

[–] turtle@lemm.ee 1 points 6 days ago

I'm not familiar with any of what you're saying. Would you care to expand on it a little bit? Also, which distro do you use instead?

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[–] Broadfern@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

Similar to other users - repos go down or corporate stuff starts to creep in.

As long as I get to maintain agency over my system I’m pretty content.

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