Hi, I just want to share / get some opinion.

I started using Linux 2 years back. I was dual booting back then and after a year switched to Linux completely.

I started out using Ubuntu, hated it, installed Manjaro after a week and when pacmac broke the thing within 2 months, I watched a bunch of YouTube videos, read the arch wiki and installed arch. Things were going great except for some Nvidia issues (I am using an Optimus laptop) but utt was running smoothly. Then decided that I want to build a game engine and the nvidia issues were significant. So I read somewhere that Fedora has great nvidia support and I installed it and everything worked. I installed Fedora 39, and it worked. When Fedora 40 came, I upgraded no issues, Fedora 41 came, no issues.

But just a few days back when I had vacation, I decided my system was getting bloated and I didn’t manually want to uninstall apps, I decided let’s format it. But I thought… Arch might take up less space on my disk(1 have a 512gb nvme, and t 2tb hdd, but I like to put things like games and projects I am working on, on the nvme). So I installed arch and loving the experience. I installed Nvidia-open drm drivers and it just works.

TLDR: Is it normal to distro hop after being using a distro perfectly for so long?

PS: I used archinstall because I didn’t want through the lengthy process again. And archinstall works great.

    • PrefersAwkward@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      3 days ago

      If distro hopping happens more than once a week, please stop hopping immediately and dial 911 as this is the sign of a very rare and serious symptom

      plays more upbeat music

  • milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee
    2·
    3 days ago

    I’ve also hopped distros on a scale of several years at a time. Loved Arch before I was living on an awful internet connection; did Ubuntu until they messed with snaps; loved Tumbleweed for a few years, but the volume of updates was getting a bit much; nearly learnt Nix but a trial run of Home Manager went up in flames, then I realised multiple layered package versions wasn’t worth the ‘stability’; now Mint’s been doing the job nicely, but I’m tempted to try KDE’s new distro someday.

  • los_chill@programming.devEnglish
    1·
    2 days ago

    I like having my stable daily driver (currently PopOS) and a separate drive or partition for a rotating distro that may pose more of a learning curve (NixOS right now). So it doesn’t really feel like hopping, more like a stable and a sandbox.

  • arality@programming.dev
    2·
    3 days ago

    Variety is the spice of life. I’ve used Slackware, Arch, Gentoo, Fedora, Nix, been on Debian the last few years. Been looking at setting up my own UBlue image. I really like the immutable thing. Do whatever makes you happy…

  • algernon@lemmy.ml
    12·
    4 days ago

    TLDR: Is it normal to distro hop after being using a distro perfectly for so long?

    I have used the same distribution (Debian) for over 20 years when I decided to change distributions and switch to NixOS. Debian was - and still is - a very fine distribution. I just needed something radically different.

    So, to answer your question: yes, it is perfectly normal. Two years isn’t even long.

  • Daniel Quinn@lemmy.caEnglish
    9·
    4 days ago

    I’ve been using Linux for 25 years. I started with SuSe, switched to RedHat after a couple months, and after a few more months switched to Gentoo… for 10 years, then did Arch for the remainder.

    Frankly, I think that distro hopping is a bad idea because it means you don’t get enough time really understanding how to fix things. As a long time Arch user, it would never occur to me to throw out 10+years of tooling and scripts, muscle memory and shorthand to fix a driver issue. I would read the wiki top to bottom and then go spelunking through other sources until I find the solution (then update the wiki) before I’d switch to something foreign with its own set of problems and unknowns.

    My advice is to find a distro that makes sense to you, and that has a deployment pattern you like and commit to it for a few years. Don’t switch unless you find something that fulfills those two requirements even better, and even then do so cautiously. Your experience and understanding is hard-won.

    • Classy@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      4 days ago

      I was on EndeavourOS for a couple of years and now I’m just on vanilla Arch with KDE and I also couldn’t imagine just dumping all of my knowledge and problem solving workflow by jumping to a different distro or architecture. I certainly can’t see myself ever using Windows again. It’s very weird to imagine that if I ever wanted a flagship computer I would probably buy an Apple.

  • codenul@lemmy.ml
    7·
    4 days ago

    back when i started with Linux, i would distro hop in the beginning since i was trying out different ones, making mistakes, but taking that knowledge with me onto the next one. Then i discovered Manjaro, then EndeavourOS and have been on it for years now

    Have thought about reinstalling EOS once i rebuild my computer, but see how that goes -

  • Mactan@lemmy.ml
    1·
    3 days ago

    I hopped more for different desktop experiences than distro. now I’ve settled into arch for the last 12+ years

  • PushButton@lemmy.world
    2·
    3 days ago

    I distro hopped last year. Proud user of Debian for 15+ years, switched for Void.

    Amazing little distro, simple just how I like it.

  • idotherock@lemm.ee
    5·
    4 days ago

    Oh yeh, totally normal. I switch distros roughly once a year and if I have more than one device on the go then I almost always have different distros on each of them. I think I was with Linux Mint the longest, but even then I switched DE at least 3 times.

    • BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      4 days ago

      I have 4 Linux devices on the go at the moment. My desktop is on OpenSuSE, my laptop I recently moved from windows to OpenSuSE, my HTPC is on Nobara and I have a Raspberry Pi on Raspbian.

      I’ve also used Mint as my main before OpenSuSE and still use Mint in KVM on my desktop to run Virutal machines. My most used VM is for Servarr / torrent use - nice to run it in a contained sandbox with its own VPN.

  • pH3ra@lemmy.ml
    4·
    4 days ago

    I distro-hopped so many times I got so sick of change that I’ve stuck with Debian for 4 years, the longest ever. It’s a peaceful life.

  • Nibodhika@lemmy.world
    4·
    4 days ago

    It’s perfectly normal, especially when you’re still so green. I’ve distro hopped lots for my first 4 years, started with Ubuntu, and tried a bunch of stuff until settling for Arch back in 2008. Since then I’ve tried one or another distro for some amount of time or specific purpose, e.g. servers running Debian, work machines running Ubuntu, and there was a 2 year gap where I used Gentoo as my main system (but despite things that I loved there, I just didn’t had the patience). Just the other day I was talking about Bazzite with someone here on Lemmy, and they made such a good defense for it that I might install it on a VM for testing, I’ve also been wanting to give NixOS a serious try any day. All of which is to say, yes man, trying different stuff is normal, even if you’re perfectly happy with what you have you won’t know if there’s anything better for you unless you try it, I used to think I was happy on Windows.