I started with Slackware in the early 90s, moved to Gentoo in 2004 after using FreeBSD for a while, and Arch linux since 2007. Gentoo was too much work (both for my and for my CPU’s) in the long run. It has been more predictable (in spite of being a rolling release) for me than anything else,

KDE is ideal to me given performance and polish, things like fractional scaling and Wayland are all top tier. I use Kubuntu but am waiting on “KDE Linux”.

I have been using unixes since 2000 and technically a bit before that as a user in school systems and linux since 2005. I am currently using zorin but have a long term trial to go towards and image type of system like bazzite. Thing is I have been doing this stuff to long and now I prefer to have stuff that just works and go rather than having to futz around. So my emphasis is on lazy linux. Its kinda funny because I sometimes talk about why I do and don’t do things at the command line and I will get responses about learning it more and I kinda got to roll my eyes.

Question to users and distro hoppers. I’ve grown to love Mint used it for years. But sometimes it updates and moves my game folders, loses my saves and I have to hunt in my system and hope I find my precious years long game saves.

Is there such thing as a distro that never changes the structure where truly all my files, system files, games will all be the same over years?

I’ve tried NIX and liked it, I’ve tried LMDE and Stock Mint with Ubuntu bugs yay, I’ve tried base Debian 13, and lastly Fedora kinoite…

Whats a system that updates but doesn’t lose my shit when I just want to game and use my PC? I like having all my files never move, structure of system never change, but having the ability to run steam and heroic games of all types. I’m still back to Stock Mint Ubuntu but dammit if they don’t introduce bugs sometimes. Like suspend / resume audio doesn’t work after sleeping my desktop and back on without restarting.

LMDE on desktop. MX Linux on laptop. Nextcloud server runs Ubuntu. Homelab server on Debian.

For almost 30 years Debian somehow.

Debian and alpine. Coming up on 27 years of linux for me.

Debian on the streets (servers), Arch on the sheets (laptop).

Arch, btw

Work (Datacenter): RHEL, some SLES

Desktop: Kubuntu (just works, more or less - start with minimal install to avoid snaps)

Steam Deck: runs arch btw

inb4 everybody except the people who have actually been daily-driving linux for 10+ years have an answer

fwiw I use Mint

Started out on Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon ten years ago. Looked around, got into other distros and DEs, window managers, file systems, bash scripting and server administration. Yet here I am, still on Linux Mint. It just works extremely well for me, never broke down (unless I broke it) and stayed out of my way to let me focus on my actual work.

I started using Linux around 2006, did lots of hopping from the first attempt and eventually landed on arch Linux which ran on my main pc laptop until march 2026 when I decided to switch to void Linux. I also have a 2nd laptop which is more just for family and retro gaming, which is Debian. I also have a raspberry pi4 with Debian based raspberry pi os, as well as a mini pc server running Debian.

As you can tell, I don’t like derivatives. I am really fussy with my setup and prefer to build my own system from scratch to some extent, even if I end up with something more similar to one of the derivatives.

Nobody can really give you advice what to use though, it’s a very personal thing. All the distros offer different features and solutions for different use cases and problems. For people to recommend a distro, you would have to outline everything you want and expect from the distro, what you like and don’t like etc.

Been on Linux for 20 years and I’m on Debian and Arch. Both are very different but equally great systems.
I tried Slackware a couple of times cause it combines the simple design of Arch with the stability of Debian, but it’s a bit too much in both regards.
As for desktop environments, I used to use Gnome on laptops and Plasma on desktops, but I recently stumbled upon Niri with Dank Material Shell and feel like it combines the advantages of both (fast keyboard/touchpad control, fully featured, lots of GUI customization options).

Started with Slackware, basically when Slackware came out. Now either OpenSuSE Tumbleweed or Fedora because I can’t be arsed to meddle with my machine for days to make it work. I just want to use it, not tweak it.