I’ve been using Linux Mint since forever. I’ve never felt a reason to change. But I’m interested in what persuaded others to move.

  • Illecors@lemmy.cafeEnglish
    10·
    7 months ago

    Most of them.

    • Debian world - apt sucks. For something with a sole purpose of resolving a dependency tree, it’s surprisingly bad at that.

    • Redhat world - everything is soooo old. I can see why business people like it, buy I rarely, if ever, agree with business people.

    • Opensuse world - I’ve only tried it once, probably 15 years ago. Didn’t really know my way around computers all that much at the time, but it didn’t click and I’ve left it. Later on I found out about their selling out to Microsoft and never bothered touching it again.

    • Arch - it was my daily for a year or two. Big fan. It still runs my email. At some point the size of packages started to annoy me, though. Still has the best wiki. I’ve never really bothered with the spinoffs, as the model of Arch makes them useless and more problematic to deal with.

    I’ve got the Gentoo bug now. For the first time I genuinely feel ~/. A lean, mean system of machines :)

    • miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml
      5·
      7 months ago

      never really bothered with the spinoffs, as the model of Arch makes them useless and more problematic to deal with

      I highly enjoy using EndeavourOS. But then again, I wouldn’t classify it as a spinoff, it’s pretty much vanilla Arch, but purple.

      Now Manjaro on the other hand… Tried it and understood why so many people don’t like it within the first week.

      • estebanlm@lemmy.ml
        1·
        7 months ago

        Mind to elaborate a little bit more about the Manjaro problem? I am driving it since a couple of years without any issue but I keep hearing this… now I am afraid :)

        • LeFantome@programming.dev
          1·
          7 months ago

          I hope it works for you forever. I am not going to get in an argument with the other Manjaro users here that will come to argue with you.

          Just keep in mind that most of the people warning you away from Manjaro have a story that basically sums up as “I used to love Manjaro until, one day, it totally broke on me. Now I won’t touch it.” Sadly, this includes me. Will you join us one day? I hope not.

        • lemmyvore@feddit.nlEnglish
          1·
          7 months ago

          Keep using it if it works for you.

          Manjaro detractors are usually:

          • People who do stuff they shouldn’t, like using non-recommended kernel or driver versions or replace critical system components from AUR, then blame it on the distro when stuff breaks.
          • People who don’t understand how AUR works and think that Manjaro holding back binary packages for a couple of weeks has any effect on AUR (which is built from source…)
          • People who can’t get over the times when they didn’t renew their certs or when they accidentally DDoS’ed the AUR. It doesn’t matter if the distro is good or not. Those instances of carelessness should be held against it forever.
          • People who can’t stand the fact it’s a commercial distro.
          • People who can’t stand the thought of any Arch-based distro that dares to do anything different from Arch (other than make the install easier, that one seems to be acceptable for some reason; but there are more extreme people who dislike that too).
          • LeFantome@programming.dev
            1·
            7 months ago

            I am trying to think of how to respond to this without being a jerk.

            Let me skip to the end. Until very recently, I thought of Manjaro users as innocents that just did not understand the risk. Like islanders living next to a volcano that had never erupted in their lifetime.

            I still view most Manjaro users that way. Manjaro defenders though I now think of as dog owners whose animals have bitten multiple times. When told, the owner insists that “my dog would never do that” or “if it did, you must have done something wrong”. I am done arguing with those people. All I can do is warn others that this dog has bitten several of us and you may not want to enter that yard. If you do, who knows, the dog may be friendly. Or not. Again, all I can tell you is that many of us have scars. Use that information as you will.

            Most “Manjaro detractors” I have encountered have years of experience with both Manjaro and other Arch distros. Their tales come from experience. When they share their cautionary tales, there are often Manjaro defenders whose best defence is just to deny that what the “detractors” are saying ( about their own experience ) is real.

            My core question for the defenders would be, if it is our fault, why do we only encounter the problems on Manjaro?

            Let’s go through the bullets above one by one:

            • I never did that on Manjaro. I probably do it more on EOS. Why only problems on Manjaro?
            • why does my lack of knowledge of how the AUR works only break things on Manjaro?
            • this bullet is the best. It admits that Manjaro has repeatedly broken things but we should not hold it against it. Literally this is saying that “Manjaro breaks things” is wrong because, while it does, we should just get over it. Hilarious.
            • how does attacking the “detractors” address the claim that Manjaro breaks things?
            • how does attacking the “detractors” address the claim that Manjaro breaks things?

            I got in a lengthy back and forth with a Manjaro fan the other day where I repeatedly related the ways that Manjaro used to break on me and how that does not happen for me on vanilla Arch or EndeavourOS. They just kept coming back telling me that it could not have happened and, if I thought it could, that I did not understand how the AUR works. It was insane. Basically, this guy could not follow what I was saying to him. His response to his inability to understand the scenario that I was describing was to insult my intelligence and expertise.

            Look loser. I don’t care if you believe me that your dog bites. I will continue to warn people and they can decide if they want to risk it or not.

      • tutus@links.hackliberty.org
        0·
        7 months ago

        Now Manjaro on the other hand… Tried it and understood why so many people don’t like it within the first week.

        I see this a lot and nobody really ever explains, properly, why.

        I have used Linux off and on for many years (mainly server OS such as RHEL and CentOS). I have now migrated from Windows desktop to Manjaro KDE. Using it for a year. Had one issue (wouldn’t boot after a kernel update), which I sorted quickly. Other than that it’s been rock solid.

        But this isn’t a ‘I have a great experience so you’re all just haters’ post.

        I know the stuff about it being a week or behind Arch. I remember something about the maintainers (can’t remember specifics) but they seem to be minor niggles that don’t affect most people.

        Genuine question.

        Why do you dislike Manjaro? I also know it’s a common theme to dislike it, so any other insight there?

        • Illecors@lemmy.cafeEnglish
          3·
          7 months ago

          Not the guy you asked, but my 2 main gripes are:

          • holding back main repos and not aur? That’s dumb and just asking for trouble.
          • sheer incompetence. Remember their certs expiring? Remember their public recommended workaround? That’s webdev level of bs. They absolutely do not understand their own setup.
    • Shimitar@feddit.it
      2·
      6 months ago

      Gentoo all the way since 20 years, on all kind of devices, going strong and never looked back.

      Ubuntu, I hate you. A messy complex windows-esque caricature in the Linux world, where “somebody else” knows better than me and shoves it down my gully.

      So there you go, my best and worst distros choice.

      • Illecors@lemmy.cafeEnglish
        1·
        6 months ago

        I’ve only got a few years on Gentoo - how has your journey been? You must’ve started with stage 1!

        • Shimitar@feddit.it
          1·
          6 months ago

          Well, yes, stage3 has been a revolution. But I don’t remember using stage1 directly. I started with Linux way earlier than gentoo… On 386.

      • Illecors@lemmy.cafeEnglish
        1·
        6 months ago

        It is that deal from 2006(?) or so. Agreeing to not be sued for an exchange of money is dodgy. Add the competition which was not offered the same deal; add in the environment which was drastically different; it was a shit thing to do. Purely a business decision. I understand why the shareholders wanted that, but that doesn’t make it right nor desirable for me.

        Granted, nothing came out of it in the end and Linux managed to get itself established in a way where one could argue is close to impossible to get rid of it, but I feel like this deal is similar to getting stabbed - the one being stabbed will always bear a scar and remember, while others will forget over time. People growing up after this deal will never have experienced the mood and environment of that time which only makes it more difficult to understand why it was a big deal.

        • beta_tester@lemmy.ml
          1·
          6 months ago

          Instead of providing apple’s chips to everyone, they keep them to themselves.

          I’ll support suse as that’s not really an issue in my opinion.