this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2023
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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What's the longest you've stayed on a distribution? (lemmy.sdf.org)
submitted 1 year ago by unix_joe@lemmy.sdf.org to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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This is kind of the anti-distro hopping thread. How long have you stayed on a single Linux distribution for your main PC? What about servers?

I've been on Debian on and off since 2021, but finally committed to the platform since April of this year.

Before that I was on OpenBSD from 2011 - 2021 for my desktop.

Prior to that, FreeBSD for many years, followed by a few years of distro-hopping various Linux distros (Slackware, Arch, Fedora, simplyMEPIS, and ZenWalk from memory).

How long have you been on your distribution? Do we have anybody here who has been on their current distro for more than a decade?

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[–] mcepl@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't do distro hopping, because I don't believe there is any significant difference between the capabilities provided by individual distro. So, I switched only when changed jobs (2000-2006 Debian, 2006-2018 various RedHat/Fedora distros, 2018- various SUSE distros (Tumbleweed, now Greybeard).

[–] moon_matter@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't do distro hopping, because I don't believe there is any significant difference between the capabilities provided by individual distro.

Agreed. Hopping never really made sense to me unless you like to tinker. To me, the distro or operating system is just a means to an end. As long as all the hardware and apps I need continue to work as intended I won't budge. I've been on Ubuntu LTS for 10+ years.

[–] kevincox@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

never really made sense to me unless you like to tinker

It could be actually the opposite. If you don't want to tinker you may want to distro-hop to find out which one is proving the out-of-the-box experience that works the best for you. If you are going to tinker than in many ways the distro matters less because you can just do it all yourself if you want.

Of course there are other features like package availability and stability that will be strongly influenced by distro.

While I am not a distro-hopper I definitely don't think that all distros are the same. There are significant and important differences that can be worth switching over.