You know, every Linux distro has its own unique charm, and I love that about the Linux ecosystem. But there’s something incredibly rewarding about being able to build your operating system, piece by piece, tailored to your needs, like fitting together pieces of a puzzle. And that’s exactly what Arch lets you do!

Arch Linux comes with a ‘bare minimum’ base and allows you to add on top of that. It means no bloatware, no unwanted apps. It’s like building your dream home, starting from the foundation, and adding only what you love and need. You are in full control, and there’s no ‘standard’ package set that determines what your system should look like.🏗️

Then comes the famed rolling release model, which means updates are continuous, and you never have to reinstall or jump through hoops to upgrade to the latest and greatest. It’s like being on a river that’s constantly moving, keeping you on the cutting edge of software development. ⏩

The package manager, Pacman, is another gem, making package management simple and efficient. And did I mention the AUR (Arch User Repository)? It’s a treasure trove that contains pretty much every piece of software you could need, and if it’s not there, you can package it yourself and share it with the community! 📦👥

I know, some people might say Arch can be demanding, especially for beginners. And yes, there’s a learning curve, but isn’t that true for anything worth doing? With the Arch Wiki by your side (it’s nothing short of an encyclopedia, really! 📚), the learning becomes a journey, an adventure!

In a nutshell, Arch Linux gives you freedom, full control, keeps you at the forefront of software releases, and offers you a vibrant community to learn from and contribute to. So, why not take the plunge and give it a try? It’s an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything else. 🚀

#ArchLinux #DIY #RollingRelease #LinuxLove #OpenSource

Hannah Montana Linux its the best of both worlds!

debian, stable 🗿 and with flatpaks you can get the latest software. debian and flatpaks is a match made in heaven

Debian 12, install and forget

openSUSE (tumbleweed):

• rolling distro but actually stable ( unlike arch ;) )
• snapshots per default
• has one of, if not the most advanced sys management gui
• buildservice (similar to the aur)
• most feature rich installer
• almost all desktop environments are available ( KDE, Gnome, XFCE, sway, cinnamon, etc)
• best logo ^^

Not that popular but technologically one of the best!

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@spacesweedkid27
Debian, is definitly good to substitute Ubuntu. Although as mentioned flatpak/appimg is a must. Example: waterfox installed from outside repo made for Debian bookworm complains about dependecy issue, Ubuntu drivers just works Debian had a discussion about non free drivers in standard repo. Repo is named non-free-firmware, and still broadcom is not in standard repo you need to add repo. In the end you’ll have low maintenance distro, setup is more engaging for some hardware.

Garuda is beautiful. It is arch based using the original arch repos. It uses btrfs with automated snapshots which is pretty handy. It runs awesome on my two laptops.

NixOS is great but not easy

Gentoo is fun

Any Arch-based distro because of the rolling release model, the excellent pacman package manager and the AUR.

Especially EndeavourOS. It’s Arch Linux with a Calamares installer. Not that the Arch Linux setup process is hard, but it’s a pain. I did it once and never again. EndeavourOS uses the Arch repos plus its own tiny repo with stuff like the Welcome screen, some themes and yay, so it’s pretty much Arch with different branding.

If you’re not aquatinted with distrowatch yet, you should pop on there. It gives overviews of many distros. Asking for recommendations is fine too, but DW is a great resource. On an older machine that needed something light, Sparky Linux was fun. I didn’t use it for it’s particular bundling but still felt smooth and solid. I’m assuming you want lightweight since you mentioned a destroyed laptop? There’s things like Puppy Linux but that feels almost too light to me and maybe didn’t feel finished to me either. Normally Id just straight up suggest Mint but you said you didn’t want that.

Let’s see, Debian 12 is impressive. I got that running on my ancient PC in my home office. For a long time, Mint was my go-to recommendation for a new Linux user and I ran it on my main PC for years. Although, with Canonical (Ubuntu) going the way they’re going, I’d have probably switched from MInt to LMDE by now if I stayed with it. For that matter, MXLinux is an excellent Debian based distro but, Debian 12 being as good as it is, I think I’d still go with Debian 12 today. If I were setting up PCs for use by students or some other group, I think I’d go with Fedora (assuming the whole kerfuffle with RHEL doesn’t impact it).
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…these days, on my personal “daily driver” PC, I run EndeavourOS. It’s basically Arch but easy to install and very nicely set up out of the gate. Friendlier community than Arch as well. It’s basically Arch for people who don’t need to go minimalist on the install and/or flex about installing Arch.

EndeavourOS is so amazing! Imagine Arch Linux with all the great things that come with it, like the AUR or the Arch wiki. Now imagine that without all the hassle installing everything and writing config files to every little program. That’s EndeavourOS. It’s basically Arch linux extremely well set up. It doesn’t hold back updates like Manajaro. It also has very friendly community that can help you with any problems and isn’t toxic.

Let me offer a different direction. FreeBSD has been around since the mid 90’s. Is damn featureful. Has a wonderful package management system. Full disclosure, I use Linux on my personal machines but FreeBSD is my server install of choice.