Apologies for this, but... What distro should I use?

[Kernel_chilli]

Good morning, good evening.

As the title says, apologies for making a post asking what distro I should use. However, I am stuck here and I would like some real help for something that is bugging me, and a lot of it is not wanting Arch levels of bleeding edge, and Nvidia issues.

I have experience in Mint, Debian and Arch as my three most used distro's, Arch being the one I have used more than any other. I love the lightness and the options you get when using KDE but hate how much you need to keep it updated. I love how Mint just works and Cinnamon is nice, but I dont want to use that anymore as I find it boring after a while, and always revert back to Arch. Debian is great, but it just feels like Mint, it gets stale after a while and I end up back on Arch. Now, I am wanting to find a new "home" that I can stay on, but specifically something that has good Nvidia support without having to download RPM Fusion stuff, or update it every 26 seconds, and equally as important, although this is a gaming PC predominantly, I dont want one of these gamer centric distros such as Bazzite, Cachy, Nobara. I just want a stable, Nvidia friendly, 'updates can wait' sort of distro.

As for the DE, KDE would be my first choice but I would have no issue trying something new, although I would prefer to stay away from XFCE and Cinnamon.

Again, sorry for the help me choose post, I told myself Id not make anymore after making one or two previous but I dont really know what any good options are that fit what I am after.

 

[Brickwizard]

have you tried https://wiki.debian.org/DebianTesting [ download for debian testing ]

 

[Kernel_chilli]

have you tried https://wiki.debian.org/DebianTesting download for debian testing]

I have indeed tried Debian testing, and I got a lot of artifacts all over the desktop after the screen turned on again from sleeep. This happened multiple times over the few days I had it and no amount of updating or reinstalling drivers would help. This was only 2 or 3 weeks ago, it was one of the first I put my desktop on when switching from Windows, although it runs fine on my Intel i7-4712mq laptop

 

[f33dm3bits]

Debian is great, but it just feels like Mint, it gets stale after a while and I end up back on Arch. Now, I am wanting to find a new "home" that I can stay on, but specifically something that has good Nvidia support without having to download RPM Fusion stuff, or update it every 26 seconds, and equally as important, although this is a gaming PC predominantly, I dont want one of these gamer centric distros such as Bazzite, Cachy, Nobara. I just want a stable, Nvidia friendly, 'updates can wait' sort of distro.

Have you tried PikaOS is a distribution based on Debiant-testing but it's all done for you and they have good Nvidia support.

PikaOS Linux

PikaOS - Your new Linux distro for gaming and beyond!

wiki.pika-os.com

 

[Kernel_chilli]

Have you tried PikaOS is a distribution based on Debiant-testing but it's all done for you and they have good Nvidia support.

PikaOS Linux

PikaOS - Your new Linux distro for gaming and beyond!

wiki.pika-os.com

I havent even heard of that one, and although it is a more gamer oriented option which Im not wanting it does look promising, I think Ill get it on USB and test it at least, thank you Mr Bits

 

[f33dm3bits]

I havent even heard of that one, and although it is a more gamer oriented option which Im not wanting it does look promising, I think Ill get it on USB and test it at least, thank you Mr Bits

It has few useful extra tools it provides, but it's not specifically focused on gaming as you don't get any gaming tools pre-installed and stuff like that. After installing you go through a setup where it asks you, do you want to install codecs, do you want to install gaming-meta, etc. You can answer yes or no as you like, if you don't like unneeded packages to be installed then it's not something you need to worry about.

 

[kc1di]

For nvidia you may want to give PopOs a try. they have a separate
.iso for Nvidia cards. only thing is it use cosmic desktop which is a redo of gnome. Give it a spin see what you think. (Note: I haven't used it in a while.) Also fedora has a nice KDE desktop but does not have great Nvidia support. Though they have moved the nvidia support recently to their own repositories so you do not need rpmfusion any longer but it does not support all nvidia cards. Just some Idea's. I would also give KDEneon a spin Though you will have to add a lot of programs they are all available. Good luck on the search and keep us informed what you find.
P.S. Would also give PCLinuxOS a spin, it's not for everyone but has good Nvidia support. I call it a semi rolling release as major programs get updated quickly but base programs often take awhile.

 

[Kernel_chilli]

For nvidia you may want to give PopOs a try. they have a separate
.iso for Nvidia cards. only thing is it use cosmic desktop which is a redo of gnome. Give it a spin see what you think. (Note: I haven't used it in a while.) Also fedora has a nice KDE desktop but does not have great Nvidia support. Though they have moved the nvidia support recently to their own repositories so you do not need rpmfusion any longer but it does not support all nvidia cards. Just some Idea's. I would also give KDEneon a spin Though you will have to add a lot of programs they are all available. Good luck on the search and keep us informed what you find.
P.S. Would also give PCLinuxOS a spin, it's not for everyone but has good Nvidia support. I call it a semi rolling release as major programs get updated quickly but base programs often take awhile.

Pop!_OS or however its named has always seemed a bit interesting to me but after hearing of the Cosmic desktop and the issues it has due to still being in beta, it sort of puts me off. I want something that doesnt require messing with or fixes being applied whenever something goes wrong, but I will give it a look when I get round to having a thorough search later. Neon seems goos too and I havent heard any negatives about it, aside from it being heavier than the stuff I have previously used; This isnt too much of an issue, it is just something I would like to keep an eye on.

When I get back from the inevitable shopping I am being forced into (against my will may I just add), I'll look around figure out what I want with the options given to me and Ill post back here what I have done.

Cheers Legend, much appreciated.

 

[wizardfromoz]

Moving this to Getting Started, as it is not about Desktop.

Wizard

 

[garyn]

Love how Mint just works and Cinnamon is nice, but I dont want to use that anymore as I find it boring after a while

I must have a weird sense of humor because that made me chuckle.

I visualized a desktop with animated images of clowns, dancing elephants, monkeys being monkeys being displayed there to amuse the owner of the computer

I do not get bored with the OS, though I do get bored staring at a spreadsheet after a while.

 

[bob466]

Well as the saying goes..."you can't please everyone".

Yes to some Mint is boring...easy to install...easy to use...nothing breaks...rock solid and has all the tool you need.

Having said that...I can't say the same about windoze.

 

[osprey]

Good morning, good evening.

As the title says, apologies for making a post asking what distro I should use. However, I am stuck here and I would like some real help for something that is bugging me, and a lot of it is not wanting Arch levels of bleeding edge, and Nvidia issues.

I have experience in Mint, Debian and Arch as my three most used distro's, Arch being the one I have used more than any other. I love the lightness and the options you get when using KDE but hate how much you need to keep it updated. I love how Mint just works and Cinnamon is nice, but I dont want to use that anymore as I find it boring after a while, and always revert back to Arch. Debian is great, but it just feels like Mint, it gets stale after a while and I end up back on Arch. Now, I am wanting to find a new "home" that I can stay on, but specifically something that has good Nvidia support without having to download RPM Fusion stuff, or update it every 26 seconds, and equally as important, although this is a gaming PC predominantly, I dont want one of these gamer centric distros such as Bazzite, Cachy, Nobara. I just want a stable, Nvidia friendly, 'updates can wait' sort of distro.

As for the DE, KDE would be my first choice but I would have no issue trying something new, although I would prefer to stay away from XFCE and Cinnamon.

Again, sorry for the help me choose post, I told myself Id not make anymore after making one or two previous but I dont really know what any good options are that fit what I am after.

It seems to me that there are a few approaches to this issue.

On the one hand, you mention finding Mint boring, so that looks like it can be dealt with by finding another distro that is not boring. That appears to the approach taken so far.

Another approach however, is to to look at what makes things boring for you, rather than looking at distros. This approach doesn't put the horse before the cart so to speak.

If you don't know relatively precisely what bores you, then it's hard to imagine that you could identify a distro that will dispel that boredom. If you know what bores you, then you could look for something in distros that don't proliferate with the boring features you'd like to avoid.

I guess this second approach is more about looking at your own interests and abilities, and perhaps what actually excites you as opposed to what is boring for you.

Take for example a person here, Jenny, who works with linux. For Jenny, boredom is not an issue because she always has a project or two that she's working on with the computer. It might be some scripting, some coding, some trialing new apps, some testing things to try and help others. For what Jenny does, she actually doesn't even need a desktop at all, just a window manager. I guess one could say she's motivated and that perhaps dispels boredom almost automatically.

 

[ron.alan]

Try PCLinuxOS: https://pclinuxos.com/

They have a KDE version.

 

[kc1di]

Try PCLinuxOS: https://pclinuxos.com/

They have a KDE version.

Works well, I've used PCLinuxOS off and on since it's beginning it's a good semi rolling release Major programs are update quickly While basic system stuff stays fairly stable. This may break from time to time are are quickly fixed. They have a good forum for help also. They do do some things a bit different so takes a little getting use to if your use to other distros. They had KDE, XFCE and Mate and a few community spins. Also there is a version base on Debian found here

Home

www.pclosdebian.com

 

[ron.alan]

Also there is a verision base on Debian found here

I use this on my spare computer. I'm planning on putting an SSD in it (it currently has a spinning drive) and making it my main rig, with PCLOS-Debian. It definitely is not a "sparse" distro, I've deleted a lot of fluff that is on it.

 

[kc1di]

I use this on my spare computer. I'm planning on putting an SSD in it (it currently has a spinning drive) and making it my main rig, with PCLOS-Debian. It definitely is not a "sparse" distro, I've deleted a lot of fluff that is on it.

Yeh Texstar Lead developer does tend to throw the everything but the kitchen sink in it. but it has wide appeal to a lot of different ops. That ssd will make a differnce for sure.

 

[Deleted member 197709]

My two cents worth....
Been around alot of them mostly kinna in the golden days, if that was ever a thing. Gentoo forced me to learn so much that others didn't, but was so time consuming. Arch was very cool and unique back then, but if you waited to long to update, it was a true pain in the butt fixing. I got really good at backups with it. When life got busy and I didn't have time to fiddle, I threw Ubuntu 14 I think it was, on my system. That thing ran for a decade, way past being supported, without a glitch. It probably still would as I got it somewhere under a tarp haha. For something solid I would have recommended Ubuntu. I installed the 24.04 LTS thinking it would just be a better version. Probably ok for newcomers maybe, but wow did it irritate me! I only kept it to see if it would survive my fiddling in practically getting rid of everything and building from scratch. I would not recommend doing to it what I did as I came close to killing it many times. I did it just for the learning curve factor, catching up with Linux changes.

My personal recommendation, would be Debian, if you like apt package manager, and a minimal install of your fav DE and build it up lil by lil. I never messed with Mint, but so many people like it. It's debian based. I like stable and solid, with less worries if I turn my computer off for a week or so, then update. I haven't used Arch in so many years! They were new back when i was playing with it. Maybe it's a lot more stable than it use to be. I loved their build scripts back then, as their repository was limited being a new distro. Maybe that's tons better these days too.