Hi, I’m looking for a distro for my laptop. My first distro was Pop!_OS, then I switched to Fedora, then Arch for a year and 2 months ago I switched to Fedora Silverblue, because I wanted to try immutable distro that relies on containers and flatpaks to be usefull. Silverblue is great but not so much for me, its not flexible enough.

I’m thinking of switching to Arch but maybe it’s time for something else. Maybe NixOS or Void, Gentoo probably not, I don’t have time for compiling everything. What do you recommend?

It must support full disk encryption, secure boot with signing with YOUR OWN KEYS, systemd (because of MullvadVPN), everything else I think can work on any distro (Gnome, podman, kvm, etc.).

  • raubarno@lemmy.ml
    25·
    1 year ago

    I’d recommend rather boring Debian. Archlinux as well if you want to dive deeper.

    EDIT: For Debian, you want Debian Testing.

  • al177@lemmy.sdf.org
    17·
    1 year ago

    Don’t sleep on OpenSuSE. It supports everything you’re looking for and has options for periodic and rolling release.

  • dark_stang@beehaw.orgEnglish
    17·
    1 year ago

    I’ve been using Linux for 2 decades and I still use Debian for containers and servers and Pop_os for my desktop and laptop. If I was going to run a straight gaming machine I’d probably use something Arch based.

    What kind of experience are you looking for? Something that’s bleeding edge? Something that’s going to give you 99.999% uptime with minimal hassle? Something to give you a hobby?

    • entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org
      4·
      1 year ago

      Likewise, been using Linux for over 15 years but my main gaming PC runs Mint because it gets out of my way when I want it to

    • lenathaw@lemmy.ml
      2·
      1 year ago

      Linux user since 2008 here.

      Boring Debian for servers and Pop Os for my desktop because everything works out of the box

    • vettnerk@lemmy.ml
      2·
      1 year ago

      I’m sure many petrol heads enjoy fine tuning combustion and make sure the suspension is tailored 100% to their neighborhood roads and all… but sometimes they just need a car with which to pick up some groceries.

      Two decades here as well. And I run mint.

  • Atemu@lemmy.ml
    16·
    1 year ago

    I’m thinking of switching to Arch but maybe it’s time for something else. Maybe NixOS or Void, Gentoo probably not, I don’t have time for compiling everything. What do you recommend?

    I’m a bit biased of course but you sound like you’d enjoy NixOS.

    NixOS is immutable but quite a bit more tinkerable than Silverblue. Not quite Arch or Void levels of tinkering but this topic is not as black and white as it may seem.

    secure boot with signing with YOUR OWN KEYS

    Not yet in upstream NixOS but: https://github.com/nix-community/lanzaboote

    systemd (because of MullvadVPN),

    Unrelated to evangelising you into NixOS but I’m curious: Why does a VPN proxy software have any hard dependency on a process manager?

    • chevy9294@monero.townOP
      5·
      1 year ago

      Why does a VPN proxy software have any hard dependency on a process manager?

      Probably because of killswitch. App installs a service that manages internet and vpn access, the app is just a GUI for communicating with that service.

    • Emperor Palpapeen@mastodon.social
      2·
      1 year ago

      @zelifcam @chevy9294 I’ve become a fan. I’m not a coder or anything, and I have been able to navigate its package management easily enough. The manual could be made a bit simpler/clearer, but the system itself is not hard to manage.

      I’ve been meaning to figure out if I can set up the system and then generate a new configuration file based on what I installed using nix-env

      • StarkZarn@infosec.pubEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        That sort of configuration after the fact would be a fantastic addition, if not already in place.

  • Klaymore@sh.itjust.works
    11·
    1 year ago

    You want immutable distros but Silverblue wasn’t flexible enough? Why not try NixOS? It’s really nice.

    I’ve been using it for two years and I love being able to make changes to my config and having those changes apply to all my computers. It’s also basically unbreakable, if my computer explodes I can just reinstall NixOS with my config files and it will instantly be set up exactly how I want it.

  • GustavoM@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    1 year ago

    All distros are exactly the same. Theres no such thing as a “distro for experienced users”. With that said, just do a minimal install of (pretty much anything you want).

    • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      8·
      1 year ago

      Different distros have different limitations and advantages but there are usually good reasons for these things. For example, Debian strives for stability, but that also means fairly old packages. Some other distro might not have a very wide selection of apps in the repos, but it might have some other areas where it excels. As long as you agree with these sorts of design decisions, it should be a good distro for you.

      You don’t even have to like the default DE or any other package related decision that comes with the default image. Maybe there’s a bare bones image that allows you to build your OS which ever way you like, and install only the packages you really need. in this regard, every distribution can be made more or less similar, but your decisions won’t change what is or isn’t in the repositories or how the devs make their decisions.

      For a lot of people, the default image is the one they’ll use. In that regard, every distribution is different, but can still be made similar if you put the time and effort into it. Some people prefer to have this and that preinstalled, while other people want something else to work out of the box. With these sorts of decisions in mind, there are huge differences between distros.

      • TunaCowboy@lemmy.world
        2·
        1 year ago

        means fairly old packages

        It takes very little effort to maintain a debian system with fresher packages. stable is not the only release nor the only mechanism for running newer versions of software.

  • BoofStroke@lemm.eeEnglish
    9·
    1 year ago

    I prefer doing useful things with my workstation vs playing with the OS itself, so mint cinnamon is my recommendation. Servers are ansible-managed alma. Professionally I’m a Linux systems architect and devops engineer.

  • db2@sopuli.xyz
    9·
    1 year ago

    Since you’re experienced with Linux already try a BSD for something new.

    • pete_the_cat@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      1 year ago

      BSD sadly lacks a fair amount of support for things that Linux does. I gave FreeBSD a try a few years back and it annoyed me, especially coming from Arch. All the packages were so outdated and compiling updated versions from Ports took forever. Also the BSDs are just different enough from Linux to be annoying.

      I’m a Linux System Engineer and at my former job we had a few thousand Linux hosts but a handful of Solaris 5 hosts. Shelling into one of those, expecting it to be Linux and then raging when something didn’t work but then realizing it was Solaris and not Linux was always fun.

  • Vilian@lemmy.ca
    9·
    1 year ago

    every distro is for experienced users, you can tranform arch in ubuntu and vice versa, but if you want sumething different try fedora silverblue, or other nonmutable distro, it’s fun learning how to use it(it’s what i’m doing with my laptop)

    • Contend6248@feddit.de
      2·
      1 year ago

      I don’t know who downvotes this, but it’s true, you can get your hands dirty with any distro.