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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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My main desktop has been upgraded continuously from RHL5 (no E) in ~1999 to Fedora 38 today.
Well, almost continuously. I've done at least one fresh install, when I switched from 32-bit to 64-bit hardware.
Edit: I have used a lot of other distros on other boxes, both physical and virtual - I've just stuck with Fedora on that one.
OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. It's surprisingly stable for a rolling release distro.
Yes, I was a distro hopper up until I tried Tumbleweed for the first time. Been using it for two years now, hopped around for a year prior.
Couldn't agree more. Probably because they have some automatic QA going on on their CI and if some package does something wrong that this QA catches the package does not get included into update until it passes. Also if there would be something that would go wrong you still have automatic BTRFS snapshots created before and after and update and a boot entry automatically added to GRUB so you could simply reboot into old working state in such an unfortunate case.
I used Kububtu between 2008 and around 2013, then got so fed up with KDE4 bugs I switched to Xubuntu, and am using that ever since.
So that's 10 or 15 years depending how you count.
When I want to play, I start a VM, base OS needs to be rock solid.
I stopped having time (or inclination) to mess around with multiple distributions after getting out of college and into real life. So... Since at least about 2002, with Debian.
Wow, more than 20 years on the same OS.
I would have stayed with FreeBSD or OpenBSD but eventually my requirements outgrew what they could provide.
Now I'm on Debian. You chose ... wisely.
I started with Linux like many, I guess, by distro hopping. My first experience was with Knoppix in the late 2000s (because I didn't know what a live CD was), then I tried OpenSuse, went on to Fedora (is SELinux still such a pain in the ass as it was back then?) and then to Kubuntu.
If I remember correctly I switched to Arch some time after Plasma 4 came out. About 11 years ago. It was, back then, one of the only distributions that shipped the newest stock KDE that "just worked". Actually that might be wrong, but I didn't know what I was doing with Linux anyways and somehow I liked Arch enough to stay. I used it at home, for work (software development) and at college. And it serves me well in all those areas (minus some minor hiccups).
It's still fulfilling my needs but lately I've been flirting with NixOS. I might change my daily driver once I get a new laptop (still rocking a Thinkpad T430 from 2012 but it's starting to show its age).
I've been using openSUSE since it's early days when it was S.u.S.E. I started using it in the spring of 1998... so what, 25 years? I've used other distros on a second machine, but my main machine has always been SuSE in some form or another. Today it's openSUSE Tumbleweed.
I've been on Ubuntu ever since I switched to Linux 7 months ago, tbh I don't understand distro-hopping. I'm not any tech wizard, and Ubuntu fulfills all my criteria: worked out of the box, worked faster than Windows, hasn't broken yet 👍
All I do is run Firefox and Steam on my laptop anyways :/
Thanks to this post i just realized I've been using arch for 9 years. I did hop DEs a bunch up till about 3 years ago when i settled for plasma on Wayland (on? with? Idk), but the arch ecosystem has proven the perfect balance of flexibility and stability (yes i find arch very stable). Before arch i distro hopped almost annually since about 2006.
About two years, running Manjaro KDE. Runners up are Linux Mint, every major flavor of Ubuntu, and I briefly tried elementary OS. Manjaro has been my favorite for a while now!
Void linux been using it now for 2 years on my laptop
I've been using OpenBSD on my desktop since about 2006ish.
I've been using linux for a long time. Typically stuck with Ubuntu and upgrading when the next LTS was released. I did try other flavors like ubuntu budgie as well. Also liked ZorinOS for a year or two.
Then things like elementary were fun to use, but for a daily driver, I like a little more main stream OS and desktop experience.
Currently using Fedora cinnamon for the last year. I have some VMs that probably stay the longest, but for my personal laptop, I usually spend a year or two on it.
I've been on Fedora Linux for almost a year now. Considering that I started using Linux when the pandemic started, you can figure out that it's my distro of choice now. Also, I like that Fedora is, for the most part, quite developer friendly and had great packages and software installed when I first started using it.
I used Arch for a few years before I really got sucked into distro-hopping. Finally settled on Debian for 2 years, last year I moved to Gentoo, and I swapped to NixOS just last week. I am feeling like NixOS has the potential to stick around for the long haul, I am a big fan of the declarative nature of the distro. Still ironing out some bugs, though (I also recently switched from i3 to Hyprland, so the X->Wayland swap has been an additional hurdle.
MX and Opensuse
I'm pretty new to Linux, committed to it 2021 and last changed to EndeavorOS (basically an arch installer + a few quality of life packages) around one and a half years ago. It recently broke on my desktop (btrfs disk full, though it didn't show as full, during update. And my snapshots were setup incorrectly). Looking into trying out NixOS on it now, my Laptop will stay EndeavorOS for the foreseeable future though.
I'm not sure how long, but I bet Mint is my longest distro. Next would probably either Manjaro or SUSE.
I distro hopped a lot since installing a retail red hat box bought at the store in 199something.
It's now more than 10 years that I basically only run Debian (on all my servers) and Gentoo/funtoo (on my workstations). For my partner and relatives, I install only Mint because it lacks all the cool gadgets, but it's stable as a rock, especially on notebooks, and still reminds them of Windows.
I tried Arch, btw. Nice wiki, horrible package management.
I tried Pop_OS, it's fun, it's fine, it's fresh, but tends to self-destruct if I push it too much.
I loved Elementary OS, it's really promising but always gave me the feeling to run a beta OS.
Sams Teach Yourself Linux in 24 hours. Christmas 1998. Red Hat Linux 5.2.
I upgraded a struggling 486 from Windows 95 OSR2.1 to Red Hat and Afterstep, and never really looked back.
Been using Ubuntu, or more recently, Kubuntu since 2006. Not sure that counts as a distro change. Can't say enough good things about KDE these days though.
I remember trying and liking the last KDE with 3.5x around that time. There was a .deb to install the Kickoff menu from openSUSE. Solid, ruined by the 4.0 transition. Good times.
Debian (testing) at least since 2018 and I don't plan to switch. Before that I was hopping a bit between ubuntu based distros and manjaro. On servers I always use debian stable.
I hopped on Manjaro back before people started flaming it to kingdom come. I'm still using it 4 years later and still loving it 😊 I play with other distros on another computer for funsies, but my home rig stays the same
Workstation: Ubuntu approximately 18 years. (2004)
Servers: Debian approximately 25 years. (1998)
Been disto-hopping a lot before ending up in openSUSE Tumbleweed (with KDE Plasma desktop). Now using it for about 6 years as my main desktop/laptop distro.
Linux Mint for 6 or 7 years.
I was on Debian from around 1996ish to 2019.
Been on Pop OS since then.
I started with SLS around 1993, tracking it into Slackware. From 1996 thereabouts on, I used RedHat mostly and Suse occasionally.
Both of those going more commercial each in their own ways didn't sit too well with me.
In 2004 I found gentoo, and am sticking with it for most everything since.
I have been on Archlinux since the end of 2008. I've only installed it three times though. So i guess i fit the more than a decade thing
2008->2012 : Ubuntu, loved it until Unity and the bloatware started
2013->2014 : Arch, as a learning experience, left because kde stuff broke all the time and i really liked the new plasma5
2014->2019 : Opensuse Tumbleweed, loved how they handled packages, the default configs, and how well KDE ran on them, i switched to it mainly because it was at the time the best distro for plasma5, hated btrfs because it kept taking a lot of disk space for it's snapshots.
2019->2023(today) : PopOS, loved how they implemented tiling, and being on a debian based distro is very convenient, don't realy like the outdated repos, and started to like gnome more.
On servers i never left Ubuntu, and have only a couple of projects on CentOS.
I kind of wish Pop!_OS would just dump the Ubuntu repos already and rebase on Sid.
It really is a good windowing environment.
The delta between stock Debian and whatever Ubuntu is doing on top and then having to remove the Snap bits can't be more work than just rebasing on Sid.
My longest was when i went 100% Full time on my main machine (no dual boot), I stopped distro-hoppping. I Installed Debian stable when it first came out (Jessie) and stayed with it until it shifted to "old-stable" which was a little bit over 3 years.
A lot of people give Debian stable a hard time but i found it worked well. Most software that i needed to be a little bit newer i could get from the backports repository. It was only at the end of it's lifecycle that i noticed started running in to software being a little to old for what i wanted to do. Then i went back to distro-hopping for a while until i found my next home. :-)
I've had an HP Dev One with Pop!_OS for right about a year now. I've done plenty of hopping and testing of other distributions prior to last year, but started with Ubuntu in 2009/2010 and have always felt most comfortable with Debian based OSs.
I've bounced around Fedora, Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Mint over the years. I've been on Zorin OS going on two years and I'm eagerly waiting for 17 to release. I don't see myself hopping anytime soon.
Linux Mint since 2018. Everything has worked so smoothly, I've never felt the need to change.
Fedora for the last 4 or 5 years