Arch btw, only been using it for a couple of weeks, only installed it because of the meme. Got my hands on a few years old thinkpad for practically free, so why not. It's actually quite good so far, been struggling a bit with external monitors, but I don't miss windows

Mine is the best for me because I like it the best. It does what I need with a minimum of configuration or customization. My needs and preferences are probably different from yours though, so Linux Mint Debian Edition with Cinnamon desktop environment might not be the best for you.

I switched from pop os to Fedora a while back. I did like pop, but it gave me problems regularly and I think it just needs to cook for a few more years probably. Fedora fixed every issue I was having 👍

Seeing all the arch praise here is definitely giving me distro fomo though. Lol

LMDE because I get the robustness of Debian stable and the quality of life goodies of Mint.

Arch is the best, the arch wiki is massive, pacman is just amazing, no nvidia drivers bullshitting, and rolling release has only broken one thing once, life under the arch is pretty great

Debian. Truly the universal operating system. Runs on all of my laptops, desktops, servers, and NAS with no fuss and no need to keep track of distro-specific differences. If something has a Linux version, it probably works on Debian.

Granted, I am a bit biased. All of my hardware is at least 5 years old. Also came from Windows, where I kept only the OS and browser up to date, couldn't be bothered with shiny new features. A package manager is already a huge luxury.

EndeavourOS Bcause:

It’s Arch with an easy installer, with all of the most common administration tools already installed

With the Arch repo, AUR, and flatpak I have a wide breadth of software to choose from

I can easily install it without a desktop environment to install and set up Hyprland without the clutter of another DE

Not to mention it’s active and friendly community and excellent documentation

I really like CachyOS:

1. Arch based a. Pacman package manager b. AUR c. Rolling release distro
2. Graphical installer
3. Extensive software repo. Things that I used to only be able to get as a flatpak are available in the repo, such as SurfShark VPN as an example
4. Super fast.
5. Updates are tested before they are made available and the delay is only a few days.

Fedora Atomic because I don't fucking care what package manager and whatnot sits underneath.

I just wanna relax in my free time and not worry about all this fucking nerd stuff.

Touching grass > Troubleshooting a broken system

Arch.

I'm vegan, german and into fitness. There really was no other choice. /s?

Also, it's lightweight, you always get the most recent software, pacman is superb and it's super stable. In about 10 years on multiple systems, I never had anything break. The worst of it are simple problems during updates, which are always explained on their website.

Lastly, there is the wiki. The single best source of Linux information out there. Might as well be using the distro that's directly explained there, albeit a lot of information can be used on other ones as well.

With arch-install, you don't even need to learn much, but learning is never a bad idea and will be great if something does break. Every system can break. Arch prepares you for that.

I (maybe) ended distrohopping last year when I gave NixOS a shot. I can't recommend it for beginners but once you understand generally how things work on Linux (and have an interest in programming) it's a superpower to be able to define your entire setup as a single git repository. If something ever breaks, I can reboot into an older commit and keep using my computer, or branch off in a different direction... I've only scratched the surface of NixOS and yet I can already make a live USB containing my setup with a single command, or deploy it ("infect") to another machine and manage e.g my work desktop and my personal laptop sharing most settings. Also it taught me about Nix (the package manager, which also runs on any distro and macOS independent of NixOS) which I now use to set up perfect development environments for each of my projects... if I set up dependencies once (as a flake.nix shell), it'll work forever and anywhere.

Debian.

With x11 gnome it can run the Rustdesk client and pass all the keys properly to the Windows host. And it doesn't boot to a black screen like many other distros on my Asus laptop.

Was on Fedora with similar results but it started taking ages to boot looking for a non existent tpm chip.

Mint. Takes half an hour to install and set up. Doesn't get in the way after that.

My distro is not the best, I would rather say it is the least bad for me, because I don't like any.

Mint. It just works and Cinnamon is a good DE (ui design peaked in the Windows XP days). Plus you also get all the software built and tested for Ubuntu without the bullshit of using Ubuntu.

For my server I use NixOS, because having one unified configuration is so nice.

I use Fedora. I like that it's very up to date and that it doesn't change the GNOME defaults. It also has a big community and many resources to look into if anything goes wrong.

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed/Slowroll

Tumbleweed is the only bleeding-edge rolling release distribution that just works and never fails and is super easy to install and manage without any expertise. And it is massively underrated and forgotten for no good reason.

All Tumbleweed packages go through extensive and to this day unrivaled automatic system testing that ensures no package is ever gonna bork itself or your system.

If you're still worried about stability, there is Slowroll - currently testing, but in my experience very stable distribution. It makes rolling release updates...a bit slower, so that they're only pushed after Tumbleweed users absolutely ensure everything is great and stable (not that it's ever otherwise). It does the same job as Manjaro, but this time around it actually works without a hitch.

Both deliver great experience and will suit novice users.

Why my distro (pop!_os) is the best? Well it's probably not, but here's why I went with it:

• ubuntu based, so lots of applicable tech support online
• looks nice out of the box (imo)
• comes with nvidia drivers. Not a major point cause they aren't hard to get, but it was one of the things I considered when I unintentionally ended up with with nvidia
• tiling (the big one imo)

Aand that's kinda it :3.. at the moment it's kinda behind all the other stuff cause they're working on the new COSMIC DE, which im hoping is gonna be an upgrade to the GNOME with extensions the current version has

• The fricking AUR

• Nothing I don't _actually_ need

• Pacman

• Everything is the latest version available–ALWAYS.

• ArchWiki

EndeavourOS is the best because.

It's currently on my system and said system hasn't burst into flames yet, so I'm too lazy to change it.

With Guix you have reproducibility, freedom, good docs and peace of mind, also when configuring things more deeply. You also have a powerful programming language (Scheme / Lisp) with which to define your system config as well as your dotfiles. This is my insight after years of GNU/Linux usage. I run Guix on laptops, desktops and servers, and I never have configuration drift, as well as the benefit that I have a self documenting system.

https://codeberg.org/jjba23/sss

Arch. I tried other distros and always came back to Arch. Other distros are very bloated and honestly I can't be bothered with removing them manually. I also love the AUR and the wiki.

Another interesting distro was NixOS, but that is a bit of a pain in the ass to learn.

For newbies, Fedora KDE Plasma edition or Mint Cinnamon is my recommendation. Kinoite is Fedora KDE Plasma edition but immutable for the ones that keep breaking the system because they keep following some absurd guide online for whatever.

I use debian cause it just works.

I was a Nix user (more specifically, nix-darwin user) but after being away from the computer for like one year (to study for the university entrance exam), I completely forgot how to use it and resulted in erasing the computer. Nix/NixOS is fun, but it was too complicated for me.

Bazzite.

Super easy install and setup. Ready to start installing games at first boot. Just a wonderful OS to use.

For me it's openSUSE Tumbleweed on my Desktops/Laptops and openSuse Leap on my Servers. The killing Feature for me was the propper BTRFS integration with Snapper for seamless rollbacks in case I borked the system in some way.

One "downside" for me is the mix of Gnome Settings and Yast on my Desktop. But I like yast on my servers for managing everything (enabling ports in firewall, network config, enable autoamtic isntall of security updates, etc.). Also openSuse is not that common, so sometimes it is hard to find a solution if you have a distribution specific question.

Personally never looked to closely into openSuse Build Services (OBS). But I know some people who really like it.

IDGAF if it's the best (mint), it was easy to install, easy to transition to from Windows, and in 6 months hasn't given me any trouble. I just wanna use my computer.

Aeon desktop is the best indeed:

• Crazy fast install.
• System configuration is done on the first boot.
• Supports ignition and combustion.
• The install USB can become a $HOME backup if you re-install.
• Full disk encryption by default and mandatory.
• Latest GNOME, looks clean and pretty.
• Rolling.
• Immutable, with Distrobox by default.

As far as desktop Linux goes, I don't see why I would use anything else atm. Give it a try!

Nix, it just works, built in rollback sane defaults, super customization. Super easy to package for

Since I mostly use computers for entertainment these days I keep coming back to Bazzite. It’s fast, stable, kept up to date, reliable, and “just works”. I’ve created custom rpm-ostree layers to faff around, but it’s not actually necessary for anything I need.

I used to keep a second Kubuntu Minimal partition around but I realized I just don’t need it. If I wasn’t so happy with Bazzite, I would probably go with openSUSE or Endeavor.

NixOS.

• I have access to more packages than with any other package manager.
• everything to get my setup in the exact state I want is in my config, which is 90% useable on any other distro thanks to home manager
• My [config](HTTPS ://www.codeberg.org/termaxima/liquorice) is all in one place and easy to share
• If I ever break something, I can always roll back
• I don't need Docker

Mint Cinnamon. All my hardware works, and it can do the few things I require my work PC to do. It even remembers things like my default audio device - something Ubuntu refused to do for years.

Debian (testing) is most suitable for me. If there were a universally best distro, all the others would cease to exist...

It isn't made by a for-profit company and thus doesn't have "features" I don't want.

It pays attention to software freedom, though it isn't so restrictive about it that it doesn't work with my hardware.

It was very easy to install only the things I wanted and needed.

Linux Mint because it's extremely simple and has caused me no issues for over a year. It's the best distribution to get someone who is afraid to switch from Windows or MacOS to understand that using Linux can be just as easy.

Gentoo because it is as stable as Debian, less bloated than Arch, has more packages than Ubuntu, is rolling release, can mix and match stable, testing and unstable on a whim.

Even its one downside, compile times, is now gone if you just choose to use binary packages.

Debian stable.

Everybody think they are a special snowflake who needs bleeding edge, or a specific package manager or DE or whatever. Truth is 99.99% do not. They just like to believe they do, claim they do, try it, inflict self pain for longer than they need, convince themselves that truly they are, because of the pain, special.

Chill, just go with stable, it's actually fine.

Edit: posted from Arch, not even sarcasm.

It's not.

slackware the og linux distro. super stable, sane package management etc. i've wanted to try void/arch/gentoo/crux for a pretty long time but still haven't because this just works perfectly

NixOS makes me feel so safe making low-level changes to Linux and making sure that my work laptop, gaming desktop, and personal laptop all have the exact same shit on them and I'm gonna use them the exact same way.

I wish that nixlang was decoupled from the concept of a build system bc it's such a great DAG config DSL and I can think of so many cooler uses for it but I just don't have time to focus on it.

NixOS. I've gotten so used to the declarative nature of NixOS, that I simply cannot go back to a "normal" distro anymore.

Gentoo works best for me because I'm a control freak. It lets me tune my system in any way I want, and I don't mind leaving my computer on while I'm asleep so that it can compile its way through libreoffice, webkit, and a couple of browsers. Plus, based on complaints I hear from people using other distros, Portage beats other package managers in every way except speed.

This doesn't mean that it's best for everyone, mind you, just that it's best for me.

Mint Cinnamon.

It's easy, stable and gets out of my way.

I haven't seen the need to dostro hop for years.

Fedora is quite unremarkable, no issues of late. Or ever, for that matter. It's glorious.

Imo, the best one is the one that fits the user's needs the best. Though it sounds like a non-answer, distros are usually tailored for specific needs, so not necessarily the features or lack thereof from one distro disregard another.

My Debian is the best for my work laptop
My Arch is the best for my private laptop
My Asahi is the best so that I don't have to deal with f*cling macos crap

As with others, I love Debian Stable.

Most packages have sane defaults, and it's so stable. It's true that it sometimes means older software versions, but there's also something to be said for behavior staying the same for two years at a time.

If hardware support is an issue, using the backports repo is really easy - I've been using it on my laptop for almost a year with no problems that don't exist on other distros. If you really need the shiniest new application, Flatpak isn't that bad.

It also feels in a nice position - not so corporate as to not give a darn about its community, but with enough funding and backing the important stuff gets maintained.

Debian just works.

Since I'm old and need to deal with administrating a bunch of machines for work, I settled on the most dull and unsurprising distros of all: debian. Sure, when I was younger and eager to learn and with much time on my hands, I used gentoo (basically what is now arch) and all the others too.

Since I was tired of distro hopping I just use MX Linux.

I've been using (X)Ubuntu for ages. I just wanted something that "just works". Tired of too much tinkering and there's plenty of (non commercial) support. Mixing it with i3 as my window manager.

Roast me ;)

Because I don't have a fickle heart, and My distro is the best, right now, for me. There's nothing more to it. I do like Mint - but a few apps are out of date, and that's annoying. But it's stable, looks great, and works like a charm.