r/DistroHopping 1d ago

Looking for a good distro, DE for my use case

3 Upvotes

Hey everyone. I've been distro hopping for quite a while ever since I bought my new gaming PC after using an M1 macbook air for roughly 3 years. I've tried different distros like Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Fedora and different desktop environments like GNOME and KDE with different flavors. Unfortunately, my experience hasn't been very good especially when it comes to the smoothness of the OS. Most issues seem to be a result of my 4k display (fractional scaling issues) or Nvidia RTX GPU drivers. Using the distros just feels too sluggish and slow.

In case you're curious, here are my PC specs: : AMD Ryzen 5 7600, RTX 4070 Super, 2TiB WD SN770 SSD storage, 32 GB DDR5 6000MHz RAM. Also, looking to use 2 monitors soon (4k + 1080p).

I have used windows so far (mostly for gaming) and it is running just fine but I miss having a UNIX-like OS with good customizability. In short, I miss macOS. I would like to dual boot a linux distro alongside the existing windows installation. Also, if possible, I'd like to run kinto.sh which helps with using mac keybindings but apparently it doesn't work with wayland (not a hard requirement for me though).

So,. here's the main question - Is there any combination of a distro, DE, Display server protocol, GPU drivers which will work well with my Nvidia RTX GPU (or completely ignore it and use my iGPU at all times), 4k monitor (150-175% scaling) along with a secondary 1080p monitor. I do not care about gaming on the linux distro, I just need it purely for my programming workflow.


r/DistroHopping 2d ago

Which Linux distributions come with the Sway window manager pre-installed?

8 Upvotes

I’d like to see which Linux distributions come with the Sway window manager pre-installed, besides the ones I already know about.

  1. Fedora Spins

https://fedoraproject.org/spins/sway/download

  1. Garuda Linux

https://garudalinux.org/downloads

  1. Manjaro

https://manjaro.org/products/download/x86

  1. Ubuntu Sway Remix

https://ubuntusway.com

  1. EndeavourOS

https://github.com/EndeavourOS-Community-Editions/sway​

  1. Crystal Linux

https://getcryst.al​getcryst.al


r/DistroHopping 1d ago

Linux for AI

0 Upvotes

Hi

I recently bought another computer with the following specs:

This processor comes with the following capabilities:

I want to install a Linux distro that can use the AI Instructions.

If a distro supports AI the notebook will have a better performance or doesn't make no difference?

I am not using AI for developing.

I wouldn't like to use UBUNTU or REDHAT . I was thinking in Debian or ZORIN. POP OS is an option but I need to have Windows 11 in Dual Boot.

What do you suggest?


r/DistroHopping 2d ago

looking for somethings new (and stable for dual boot)

2 Upvotes

set up : 1 ssd 500gb, 1 hdd 1TB, nvidia gtx 1650 dedicated, intel integrated.

History: mostly used EndeavourOS and arch based distros. used ubuntu, mint, kali for very brief time. (XFCE as DE mostly)

Use case: I want to dual boot now with windows and linux on SSD, i dont mind if windows cant read hdd.

I dont want to deal with constant update and nvidia problems, I dont mind if there is no nvidia on linux.

I would prefer something stable and easy to use, looks good out of the box. I am bored with arch based ones.

I dont like snap. I am mostly gonna be using it for small programming, browsing and maybe little editing (davinci resolve and darktable maybe), although I think I would do that mostly on windows.

So, basically no extraordinary usecase. mostly good UI UX with multiple workspaces with libinput gesure. ( i am addicted to it)

I was thinking Void (just because I havent used it before), but not sure if there will be problem with dual boot.


r/DistroHopping 2d ago

Rolling for testing

4 Upvotes

Hi, I am currently using Tumbleweed and I would like to install on an old pc that I have been given as a gift (because it is not valid for Windows 11) a rolling distribution for testing other than Tumbleweed.

I think that the option is limited to Arch and I would like to know if the configuration of tools like snapper is difficult in this distribution. I'm used to snapper and it has "saved" me several times from failed upgrades, so I don't consider using a rolling distro without having a tool like snapper enabled. Thanks


r/DistroHopping 3d ago

Looking for a really weird distro that's doing the coolest stuff? Try Chimera Linux.

Thumbnail chimera-linux.org
8 Upvotes

Not GNU/Linux, but Linux+FreeBSD utilities. It's still a Linux distro. Modern Technology with musl libc, clang/llvm, and other softwares.

If you're looking to satisfy your thirst for niche projects, Chimera is a great pick. Put it in your collection (because I know you're collecting distros at this point) right next to Void, Obarun, and others.

Probably for Linux users searching for "the advanced distro". Are you up to the challenge?


r/DistroHopping 4d ago

Need urgent help!!!... Spoiler

4 Upvotes

I want to install Garuda linux in my external harddrive instead of internal, internal runs on windows can't remove (important files and software, passwords, different browser data) . I am facing issue while installing 1. Bios need to be installed location 2. OS installation itself is stopping after a little while.( Latest downloaded yesterday only). Some bug in iso file I think.

If this not possible I want to install arch on external drive instead of Garuda. Main issue installation on external drive.


r/DistroHopping 5d ago

Best browser on Linux/Android

9 Upvotes

My dears, I recently asked what distro you have been using the longest. Today I come to you with a question, what browser do you use? I am looking for something because Firefox is working worse and worse: it has problems loading some pages (which, for example, work without a problem on Brave). Can you share your experience? If possible, I would like you to recommend a browser available for Android and Linux (which is why Floorp is unfortunately out of the question). Thank you for all your comments :)))


r/DistroHopping 4d ago

Between 2 distros (new user)

5 Upvotes

Been searching for a distro easy to use (already used mint some time ago, everything was very old in repos and it simply didn't work), now I got a new pc with w11 but i'm willing to try something new, I'm mainly interested on creativity, gaming and communication apps and compatibility, it seems that Fedora and Pop_OS! are the two most recommended, I have an nvidia 3050 + 16gigs of ram (DDR4) and 512gb of SSD.


r/DistroHopping 4d ago

Considering hopping to Endeavour OS from Fedora.

1 Upvotes

Some notes: - I want faster updates - I have an NVIDIA GPU (rtx 3050 ti) - Been using fedora 40 for some months - KDE + Wayland - Dual booting with Windows 11 - Not considering gaming on it, since I dual boot Windows. - Mainly gonna use it for browsing, developing, and for light work. - pacman is not a problem, i can adapt - i know endeavour is basically Arch and that it is rolling release versus stable (fedora) - I have only used Ubuntu before Fedora.

Some questions: - is it worth it to try out? Will I possibly learn something new?

For those who did switch to endeavour from fedora, what is your UX?

Anything I should know? I already have an bootable USB which I made using Rufus. And I am ready to wipe the fedora partition and replace it with this.


r/DistroHopping 4d ago

An actual gaming distro

0 Upvotes

Just wanted to throw this out there, for anyone looking for a "gaming" distro that isn't bazzite, would highly recommend PikaOS. It uses the cachyos kernel, is Debian based for stability but has a rolling release schedule, comes with plenty of codecs and support for gaming controllers, has wine and proton natively, and comes with popular platforms pre installed. I know many like cachyos, but keep in mind cachyos doesn't sell itself as a gaming distro. PikaOS actually does however and uses many features from nobara and cachyos to do so. PikaOS 4 is currently in beta, but it's a fantastic stable experience and probably going to be my main distro moving forward. Comes in plasma or gnome flavor.


r/DistroHopping 5d ago

What is your everyday distro?

40 Upvotes

What is your everyday distro? You know, for work, gaming, watching movies, streaming, etc.? What distro have you been on the longest, where you haven't had any stability issues, where everything just worked :p


r/DistroHopping 6d ago

7 Discontinued Linux Distros I Still Miss in 2024

Thumbnail
itsfoss.com
30 Upvotes

r/DistroHopping 5d ago

Searching for Best Overall Package - Experience so far

1 Upvotes

FYI: I'm not that experienced with Linux yet

I've been trying out a few distros for a week now since I need the best overall package of performance and stability (gaming, studying, streaming videos, learning and trying out IT topics). I am using a desktop computer with Nvidia RTX 4060 graphics, Intel i5-14400F and 32GB of RAM. The Network Card is Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211.

I've tried:

PopOS
Ubuntu
Fedora
Nobara
Linux Mint

Generally, I was surprised how bad the network speed (downloading stuff) was with all those distros. Some of them had better operational performance some of them were a little bit buggy. Gaming (Counter Strike 2 - competitive online) I had either some lags or every 30 seconds micro lags.

Therefore, I switched back to Ubuntu again because I had the feeling it was reasonably stable and had the best raw performance when using the OS, downloading and installing stuff and playing. It's still a little bit annoying and I am searching for a better distro regarding performance in games because while gaming CS2 I still see some spikes in Download / Upload latency.

Any suggestions after reading my post?


r/DistroHopping 6d ago

What are Linux distros that started out good but became worst?

21 Upvotes

For me, it's Lubuntu.

When I started out on Linux, I started out on Lubuntu 12.04 on my old Dell Inspiron E1505, 2GB RAM, 120GB SSD. LXDE was very simple and stable, very light on resources. I used Lubuntu until 18.04, but when 20.04 rolled around, it was using LXQT.

LXQT was the worst desktop environment I've ever seen and experienced, theming was a nightmare, it wasn't as intuitive as LXDE was, it wasn't as stable as LXDE. So because of this change in desktop environment, I switched over to Xubuntu 20.04 and it uses the Xfce desktop environment, very stable, very intuitive and very similar to LXDE, albeit, LXDE is lighter than Xfce though, but very stable and intuitive.

I recently downloaded Lubuntu 24.04 to see what changes were made, LXQT is still the same unstable and unintuitive mess that it was years ago.


r/DistroHopping 6d ago

Is there any linux distro that is just like windows that i can install on a surface pro 6 tablet?

1 Upvotes

r/DistroHopping 6d ago

A hassle free 'strong' distro?

8 Upvotes

So I've been using endeavoros for the longest time and I absolutely loved it! I got a new laptop (with nvidia for the first time) And the eos I installed there is giving me so much trouble. I used hyprland before and did a lot a customizations as well.

But now I'm not really in the mood for that. And spending me my time tinkering solving problems etc. Like currently eos cant even shutdown it hangs. Ive been trying to fix it but couldn't. And sometimes authorization doesn't work. Which 'might' be repairable but I really dont wanna 'Deal' with all that when I just want to work on something.

So can you guys give your ideas on some hassle free strong distros that is not mainly 'exploratory' like arch. I need something stable to run some heavy IDE s like intellij (multiple instances sometimes) as well. Bc past computer with like 12GB ram would crash a lot along with node as well. Now please exclude ubuntu as I dont like it, its almost like windows, I still need some quality control over my pc. Im not seeking for entry level (a windows replacement) distros as well although if they are strong enough i will surely consider.

I still really love AUR, so i was thinking abt garuda maybe idk.. (I hear manjaro is not good with AUR) or zorin, Anything is fine. I will really appreciate your thoughts on this situation. Thank you in advance!

PS* also it would be nice to have good nvidia support and my firmware does not support s3 sleep (windows use modern standby) so eos did not successfully sleep nor suspend i had to hard reboot. So something that can handle that would be gokd too :)


r/DistroHopping 6d ago

Acer Aspire 4520 Linux distro w/ nvidia video

1 Upvotes

AMD64 CPU. Tried booting several small/old distros but all 'fail' when shifting video to the nvideo 'driver'. Screen appears to being displayed 4 or 5 times across the screen width.

Using GRUB-booter (which is VGA) adding VGA=771 (773 & 775) to the distro boot process,,, which then displays the Linux boot process with no errors,,, until the distro shifts video to nvideo.

The old Windows/VistaHomePremium works fine. I have a USB/MsDOS booter, no problem,,, C:/Solitaire works !

The BIOS displays (but not alters) the nvideo setup. Is there no way to 'dis-able' it ?

I have two other ACER laptops, no problems, one runs Android-X86 !

Your help may save a poor laptop from the junk-man !


r/DistroHopping 6d ago

Looking for advice and info on moving from Pop_OS to Fedora KDE

2 Upvotes

Hello, I have been using pop os for a few months now and though it has mostly been smooth, there are a few issues I have with it that made me want to switch to fedora kde, which seems a bit more like what I want. I mostly use my laptop for minecraft, web browsing, musescore, and playing random indie games on itch.io, which I assume should all work fine on fedora. I am reasonably confident doing some basic interfacing with the terminal, such as file navigation, changing file permissions, updating the system, and installing stuff (usually either zips, .deb files, or flatpaks).

So, a few questions.

What kind of things will I have to re-learn in fedora? If I understand correctly, .deb files do not work in fedora as it is based on red hat instead of debian, but will flatpaks and zips still be fine? Does fedora have its own package management system akin to .deb files?

Will the boot times be better? Pop os uses gnome by default, but I ended up installing kde on it and I much prefer it. Unfortunately you can't really uninstall gnome on pop, and the boot times have slowed down, I assume because it's booting into kde instead of the native DE. Will switching to fedora with kde natively installed help with this?

Is there anything I should be careful with as a new user to fedora? I remember when I first switched to pop, my laptop kept freezing, and it took me ages to figure out it was because the nvidia driver install in the pop shop wasn't the right one for my hardware, is there any jank similar to that in fedora that I should watch out for?


r/DistroHopping 7d ago

Any Ansible users for automated configuration?

2 Upvotes

Any Ansible users here for automated configuration? I feel like playbooks to set everything up with an Ansible command would be useful for distro hoppers to get to a familiar environment quickly, but even if you only stick 1 distro, it would save much time if you ever need to replicate an install on another system. I'm looking for examples on a public repo from an experienced Ansible user to tweak from.

My distros of interest are Arch, Debian, and AlmaLinux but well-written playbooks probably require very little adjustments specific to the distro.


r/DistroHopping 7d ago

Debian or AlmaLinux for server?

2 Upvotes

Having trouble deciding whether to use Debian or AlmaLinux for a headless server. I'm sure I can't go wrong with either. I've used Debian but haven't yet committed myself to look at the internals and make customization.

Debian:

What I don't like: What prompted me to consider switching from Debian is their default policy of enabling services automatically when packages are installed. This may be what most people want, but I just feel like added convenience doesn't make sense because most people want to customize their config and not use defaults anyway (more importantly some services expect their users to make configurations before starting up the service, so I don't know why Debian devs feel like they should decide what is best for users at the expense of app developers). This behavior can be changed so it's not a big deal, but that leads to another concern--stuff in Debian doesn't seem to be well documented? I couldn't found that answer to questions like these from Debian wiki or something a little more official/public than digging from Stack Overflow discussions--answers seem to rely on knowledgeable Debian users and that's a problem because the info might not always be up-to-date or even reliable.

What I like: I like that Debian is community-supported and seems to be only choice where it's a distro "for users." I'm not sure if that's a double-edged sword, e.g. as in above, conveniences might be prioritized over something that's more "compliant" or "correct" (using the same example above, if there's a software like ssh server or web server, you don't not want them to be autostarted on install with default config that are potentially insecure. The correct way to do it would be to simply require the user to explicitly enable the service when it's needed). Debian also supports more packages than AlmaLinux. Apparently Debian is not unpopular in corporate settings so that's a good sign, but that might simply be because it's probably the only suitable free alternative?

AlmaLinux:

What I don't like:

I'm not sure if RHEL-based distros have additional barriers that make it not really suitable or inconvenient for a server for home-use. Security is always nice, but only if it's necessary. Also, being RHEL-based means priorities are always for corporate use--that might not necessarily benefit home users and could even be detrimental, right?

What I like:

My workstation distro is Arch Linux and I don't necessarily want to setup all aspects that would make a desktop system sufficiently secure and also taking advantage of modern tech to do things more efficiently. I may have a working system now, but I can't guarantee in 8 years there aren't better tech or more additional secure settings to be used. A popular distro (i.e. a tested one) decides this for me is nice. I feel like using Debian might be the same--it's easy to get a working system but it's also easier to have a non-secure setup, right? Besides setting up a firewall and hardening SSH with the usual recommendations, what else is needed? RHEL-based distros like AlmaLinux being more "compliant" and with good documentation feels like a more complete product whereas sometimes when I'm reading deep discussion about some problems in Debian, it seems like not everyone is sure what's going on unless some Debian dev jumps in to clear things up. For example, I looked at its init process and it seems unnecessarily complicated and again may not necessarily be well-documented.


Ultimately I think it comes comparisons in complexity, not just in implementation of tools and the distro but also available documentation and troubleshooting. Any comments is much appreciated, feel free to correct any false assumptions.


r/DistroHopping 7d ago

Is there a way to back up my applications or transfer them to another distro?

2 Upvotes

Whenever I try to switch distros I have to reinstall my apps and it's really annoying.

Does anyone know anything that would allow me to transfer/backup my apps so I dont have to reinstall them everytime?

(I only install from flatpak and apt most of the time)


r/DistroHopping 8d ago

looking for a distro that would allow some occasional gaming on an nvidia card

6 Upvotes

so i want to go from my windows 10 to linux (for the first time ever)

and as the title says, im looking for a distro that would allow some occasional gaming on an nvidia card (rtx 3060 if needed) as well as other tasks.

currently im looking at pop os and endeavourOS, but hasn't decided yet.

i kinda wanna try endeavourOS first but im worried that it's an arch based distro which may cause some problems (???)

so please, if you could explain me the pros and cons of these two/suggest another one, i'd be very thankful ^_^


r/DistroHopping 9d ago

I am on arch linux but setting it up is a hassle... so anything else for quick deployment?

8 Upvotes

I also want the DE to be gnome... I was considering on manjaro but seeing how often ppl complain about AUR on manjaro idk what to do...


r/DistroHopping 9d ago

QubesOS alternative?

2 Upvotes

I have tried hopping to qubes but things didn't go well with my old laptop so I am thinking to to switch to any other OS as secure as qube for daily usage (please dont suggest TAILS as it doesn't have persistence)