I have a laptop running Linux Mint right now, and another laptop that I plan to switch to Linux at some point as well. Originally, I planned to put ZorinOS on it but I'm starting to think I should put Manjaro on it, just so I can get used to using Arch-based distros also. 🤔
#Linux #LinuxMint #ZorinOS #Manjaro #ArchLinux
i have zorin mainly because it supports my Radeon RX 7800XT but otherwise it's basically equivalent to ubuntu 24 - probably worth paying for Pro for the better visual i think (because gnome project are such a bunch of mac loving jackasses who think X is obsolete)
for mostly dev reasons i just stick to the debian base... arch is nice but for me it's like half way back to BSD which i'd switch to in a heartbeat if it wasn't for all this wayland gnome hardware support shit
I've played around with Zorin and REALLY like it, it's one of my major considerations for a main distro when I switch from Windows 10 next October. The reason I'm considering an Arch distro is just because almost all of my experience with Linux so far has been in Debian-based distros, and I think it'd be good to branch out a bit. Given the fact that I'm aiming to get myself a Steam Deck in the near future, and SteamOS is based off of Arch, it also wouldn't hurt to get comfortable with Arch-based distros at just a surface level.
That said, I don't know if I'll ever go fully with an Arch-based distro as my main distro. I'm considering Garuda as my main, but that's the only Arch-based distro I could ever see myself using... and even then, I'm far from 100% on that, given the rolling release breakage that can happen.
I just loaded EndeavourOS (bare metal) onto my computer last night, only for KDE Plasma 6 but I might revert back to MX Linux a trusty old Debian base. I really liked MX Linux but Debian is slow to update. Very stable and difficult to break on day to day use.
i don't think steamos is based on arch? pretty sure the whole edifice of steam on linux is based on debian based containers, if you have a steam installation on linux you will find the word "debian" in dozens of folder names in most of the installations
what arch really has over debian based distros though is how easy it is to manage kernels better, and all the nixos loonies rave about their configuration system but Arch is the king of custom installation scripting with AUR, and nobody has really improved on it except making it more complicated and opaque
and i should add that the original was BSD Ports
I could have sworn I read somewhere that it was based on Arch, but I could be completely wrong. Unless we're talking about a difference between the OS on Steam Machines versus the Steam Deck, I did hear that there is a significant difference between SteamOS versions on both of those.
I've just put it on an old 2011 Macbook Air that was gifted to me, only because of how nicely it seems to work on it it (speed and stability).
By no means is it my "daily driver" desktop in the cryptocave.
But it is my lightweight, less bloated, "working" distro that I take on the go with me when Im not planning on doing anything advanced.
Very interested in this discussion.
Nice! Mint and Zorin are both great for reviving old hardware like that! It's hard to pick my preference between those two haha
Mint is great for my daily driver which is a powerful gaming PC.
I dont need all that bloat on a slim notebook like a MacBook Air.
Althought Mint works faster on it than MacOS ever did, Manjaro is booting much faster.
I have never tried Zorin but I will have a look at it.
Right now I am installing Arch for my first time to see how minimal a system I can get, what extra customisation I have access to and will it make a difference in responsiveness and boot.
I'm still not sure what I want to use on my PC but Mint is a strong consideration. I've heard Manjaro is great despite the developers being lazy on some stuff outside of the distro.
In general, I hope I can settle on a distro for my main PC by next year; I can't afford to be down and out for a week every time I distro hop haha
Agreed!
I have about 7 "garbage" laptops in my cryptocave that were donated to me. This makes distro hopping fun, easy and stress-free.
Learn multiple distros at the same time without touching your main machine.
Other than that, you can always make great use of VIRTUALBOX!
I've been using VMs and Ventoy to test distros but it hasn't helped because there are many distros that I really like, and none of them fit 100% to my use case haha
I felt the same way until this experience with Arch.
Arch lets you build the system that fits 100% for your use case without anything else!
I never understood this until now.
I definitely get the appeal but I don't think it's for me at this point in time haha. I'm still reasonably new to Linux, my main PC still uses Windows, so building an Arch system is probably not the best idea for me at this point in time 😅
