If you have been using Linux for +10 years, what are you using now?

Been using Linux for over a decade, and last few years Ubuntu (on desktops/laptops), plus Debian on servers, but been looking to switch to something less “Canonical”-y for a long time (since the Amazon search fiasco, pretty much).

Appreciate recommendations or just an interesting discussion about people’s experiences, there are no wrong answers.

Edit: Thanks for the lots of interesting answers and discussions. I will try a few of the suggestions in a VM.

  • queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    5·
    2 days ago

    The first linux distro I remember using was Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake), so I’m just about at 20 years, maybe a bit less than that; I think it had been released for a while before I decided to give it a go. I tend to stick with debian-based distros, though I’ve used arch variants off and on for my daily driver for years at a time. Still got it kicking around on some machines now, though not any of my daily drivers. Servers are a mix of Debian and Ubuntu Server, machines with UI are either Ubuntu or Mint, or some resource-light version of Ubuntu, depending on the device and the mood when I last reformatted them. I have used Fedora/RedHat/CentOS at various points, but usually because someone was paying me to do so. Same story with OpenSUSE, but even less commonly. I have a few devices running variously dated versions of PostmarketOS, Lineage OS, even one device that still runs CyanogenMod (it does not get internet privileges). I have a few Raspberry PIs that all run Raspbian (or whatever it’s called now).

    EDIT: Just remembered I used to use CrunchBang Linux for a long time. I bought the only computer I could afford (a “netbook” with Win 10 Starter), put crunchbang on it (after experimenting with a few distros), and really kinda fell in love with OpenBox. I don’t use it anymore because I don’t like the default settings and haven’t been bothered to set it up properly lately, but I had that netbook set up just so and it worked really well. it was my main and only computer for several years.

      • queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        Agreed. I found a pleasure in using openbox that I have not found in other DEs. Working with such constrained and frankly crappy hardware made it worth the investment to get the UI as light and functional as it could be, and I’m pleased with the performance I got out of that little machine. It was fun to use. Then it got stolen and I had to start from scratch as I had no backups because I had nothing to back up to, and the task of replicating it all over again seemed daunting, so I decided it was worth getting comfortable with a DE that worked more or less how I wanted it to out of the box. There is something to be said for the ease of defaults, but I’ve never gotten a machine that “just so” , before or since.