Hi. I am using macOS. so, what UNIX like OS are you using?
EndeavourOS. It’s Arch but without the faff, it just works and looks gorgeous.
I use NixOS on my pc, laptop, and server, although I dual-boot windows on my pc to play some games.
My phone is android, I have a pinephone but I can’t get discord and other things to work well on it so it can’t be my daily driver right now. (I know Matrix chat is better than discord, I even host my own instance, but everyone in my school uses discord so there’s no way to switch).
Void Linux and NetBSD.
Fedora.
I’ve also been getting more familiar with CoreOS / SilverBlue recently.
I was using Pop!_OS for a long time, but finally switched to Fedora and I love it because it feels so up to date.
I use whatever is the best fit for the work I need to do. I mainly use macOS, and try to get away with using VM’s with macOS as my host system whenever possible.
I used to be on the Arch bandwagon but after migrating to a MacBook for my daily driver computer it’s mostly just Debian-based distros when the need arises, Kali for work and headless Debian for homelab stuff. I rarely boot my Windows gaming PC anymore. I do have some Windows VM’s for testing exploits and payloads. And emulated Windows 95-98 machines for that OG Oregon Trail fix.
I’m mainly using Fedora these days, but for some games I still have to dualboot Windows, which I can’t say I’m enjoying. Just over an hour ago the Nvidia drivers crashed. On Windows. Repeatetly.
Anyway, I’m quite happy with Fedora but I haven’t tried many OS to be honest. I prefer stability over the slight advantages other OS might have
Sometimes I wonder how people think Linux is harder than windows. It feels like every time I use windows I’m constantly fighting my computer to do anything.
I guess most non-technical people are always fighting their computer. It is really hard to watch my grandma do anything on any device, but she’s managing windows pretty well compared to her android phone (with accessibility settings), because she has used it the longest. Even the tech-savvy Windows users are probably used to some windows quirks and work around them, just like GNU/Linux users open a terminal as a reflex. And if anything is different, it will always feel like fighting your OS. I think the problem is the change, not the OS
The issues I have with windows are caused by restrictions in what I am allowed to do for the most part, and that simply doesn’t exist for me with Linux. Getting used to a new os is definitely difficult though. When I first switched to linux, the only reason I didn’t give up was because I couldn’t figure out how to burn windows onto a flash drive from a Linux machine.
When I first switched to linux, the only reason I didn’t give up was because I couldn’t figure out how to burn windows onto a flash drive from a Linux machine.
Okay, that is hilarious
I’ve always just used ubuntu with i3 because I honestly dont really know what I am potentially missing out on. What is a reason to use something else?
I prefer Debian since Ubuntu is basically just a more bloated version of it.
MacOS for work (very simple wireless packet captures, full m$ office suite with little effort). Servers are Debian, used to be Arch but I didn’t upgrade enough / I upgraded too much / you get the idea and things went boom too often (Nextcloud in particular). Does SteamOS count too? I think it’s pretty rad.
Do you run SteamOS on a Steam Deck, or are you just running it on a PC? Actually has Volvo even released an install ISO for SteamOS?
Aye just on the Steam Deck, but it could be interesting to run it on a beefy desktop. I spent about 6 months running only Fedora on my gaming rig and things worked pretty well. I got back into World of Warcraft and it worked awesome until they released a patch and it didn’t work for days…I was too cracked out on wow so limped back to wintendo. I’ve been wow free for 6 months now so it might be time to give it a go again.
Also lol @ Volvo releasing a SteamOS ISO, had to read that twice
Arch Linux. It’s too convenient. The AUR hosts a massive amount of packages, wiki is super detailed and covers solutions for all sorts of edge cases. Needs a bit of tinkering to get started but once things are set up it’s very stable, and still gives you a lot of freedom to tinker with your system however you want. The only other option I’ve considered is NixOS which has some pretty interesting features
I wonder if we could feed the AUR Wiki into a GPT and get a useful support desk for all Linux distros.
Gentoo when I want to do Linux at an enthusiast level and out of technical interest, and PopOS when I just want everything to work.
Fedora… and MacOS
I want to like macOS but Apple, IMO, is doing scummier and scummier things with it. For instance, I haven’t signed in to iCloud. Once a day it seems, I’ll get a little notice telling me that not all functionality will work until I’ve signed in. Ok… So I click the little ‘X’ on the notification. It opens the settings to the iCloud setup screen. That’s not what ‘X’ is supposed to do!
MacOS for work and most things, Windows for gaming. After years of distro hopping I am now enlightened, free stuff is free for a reason.
SteamOS on my Steam Deck is great though, and gives me hope for the future of Linux gaming, but it’s not here just yet.