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.
The answer is Debian like crabs on a long enough timeline it will eventually become Debian. - Linux user for 27 years
That’s how it should work, I think. All the downstream distros do their crazy experiments, the community identifies what it likes and doesn’t like, and what it likes makes its way upstream to spawn. The further upstream it gets, the wider its influence is felt. Debian is what makes it that far upstream.
I see this view as true. Downstream shit sucks. I’ve tried them all. Debian 8s the only thing that keeps bugs out. Sometimes you need a work around for a game or whatever but atleast shit works everytime.
I think the ideal is to have some people who gravitate toward the bleeding edge, and some people who gravitate toward the stable center. I think, when the system works well, each group benefits the other. For example, I like debian for my servers because I like my servers to be as stable and low-maintenance as possible, but I am also really fascinated by NixOS and its approach to system administration. Personally I still need to play with it some more before I trust it with a production service, but I could see running a Nix-based distro at some point. And I appreciate all the brave testers out there right now, finding problems and fixing them. What they do makes my life as a simple server manager a lot easier.
100 percent!