Selecting a distribution is key for your setup.
Selecting a distribution is key for your setup.
Hi, I've been relying on Windows for my everyday tasks but I'm tired of its privacy issues, spam, and bugs. I've tried alternatives like Arch Linux, Ubuntu, and Fedora, yet nothing feels right for me. Being fairly skilled with Linux, it's not new to me, but it hasn't been my go-to since many games now run on it. I still see no reason not to switch to Linux as my daily driver. What matters most is that I focus on programming and gaming, and I also use virtual machines (which makes switching to Linux with KVM or QEMU even more appealing). I'm looking for a big package repository like the AUR, something customizable, and stable. I've heard good things about NixOS—especially its ability to roll back to earlier versions, single config files, and declarative settings instead of imperative ones. What do you think? Is it a good match for your needs? Thanks in advance!
I've never worked with Arch or its related versions, but I've heard positive feedback about EndeavourOS. The two distributions I've really appreciated are Pop_OS and Vanilla OS for both reliability and solid security features. Pop offers great defaults such as built-in disk encryption, SELinux, and a dedicated power manager, which makes gaming mode less appealing due to its high performance. For your needs, I recommend Vanilla OS—similar to Fedora Silver Blue. It's an immutable distribution with excellent built-in tools like APX (acting like apt but without root package installs) and APX’s ability to fetch packages from any other distro. This means you can install software from Arch, Fedora, Debian, and more within the same system. It uses extra space for dependencies, but that's a minor trade-off. They also provide Abrew for customizing the root folder and installing native DEB packages if needed, with rollback support. Learning curve is moderate, and they’re currently developing a major update called "Vanilla OS 2." Decide whether to wait for that release or stick with your current setup based on how much the changes will affect you.
mint usually stays quite steady, but with the new hardware (3070ti, 12700kf, etc.) it might not be handling it at its maximum capacity.
Nixos offers a strong experience but isn't the top pick for gamers. It relies heavily on clear configuration files for settings and software, with dependency handling that works smoothly by allowing multiple versions of the same packages. While this flexibility is beneficial, it comes with trade-offs. The filesystem design is unconventional and largely immutable, making many standard tutorials less relevant. Adding commercial applications can sometimes be challenging depending on your requirements.
It's Linux, if you're looking for a newer kernel, consider installing one? Version 6.2 is already available in the repositories. For something even newer, just add the Canonical Kernel team PPA (which can support up to version 6.5). As someone who has used Mint for a long time, I'd say Mint isn't considered "too stable." In fact, they seem to be adopting this trend of releasing updates roughly every six months, which often brings more issues.
PopOS has been my go-to system for the past year following my switch from Windows 10. It’s performed exceptionally well, making programming tasks much smoother and offering solid stability. I don’t play games on it, but others report positive results. It also includes Nvidia drivers by default.