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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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OpenSUSE -> Ubuntu -> Windows for like a decade -> MacOS -> Arch -> Manjaro -> Arch -> Debian -> NixOS -> Nobara
Currently running NixOS on my laptop, Nobara on my Desktop, and Debian on my VMs under Proxmox.
I'll probably jump from Nobara to Bazzite as soon as I start to have problems.
I'm gradually settling on immutable distros.
Never really distro hopped. Went from DOSLinux to Slackware and stayed put as my main. Having multiple machines, some multi booters, meant I had/tried a bunch of others. Vector Linux, Xubuntu, Debian Wheezy, several Arch-based (up to Garuda), various BSDs, and two unices (OpenSolaris/OpenIndiana, IRIX). Got an old ancient ToughBook (Pentiun II, 192MB RAM) with Arch before systemd collecting dust.
[ Those machines had multiple Windows versions also from Win2k to Win7 including XP x64 Edition ] Dem were da days. 🥰
Currently, Main laptop: Slackware. 2nd laptop: MX Linux, Void Linux, OpenBSD. Mini PC: Slint (Slackware-based).
Well, for the mini PC I did distro hop. Went through a lot trying to find the right one. Most were Arch-based (but not Arch itself) and they would indeed break at the worst time. Nature of bleeding edge rolling release I guess. Mostly I was looking for something non-systemd. Eventually settled on Slint.
I hopped 10 times in 6 months. Settled on Manjaro for latest gaming related software like drivers, kwin, etc and and it's package manager gui, which is horrible but it works. Easiest distro to game on for me.
Manjaro KDE. It just has a good setup out of the box. The AUR as well as the other packaging formats makes it very easy to install applications that I need.
I was on Ubuntu, then I switched to Debian, then Mint. Then I was like wow if this is so good I'm gonna try some more, and I dove headfirst. I didn't run a distro more than a couple hours sometimes, never more than a week.
Then I found Manjaro, which I tried and liked well enough except for all the Manjaro shit. I decided then that I could install Arch, how hard could it be? So I did, it took me like 3 days and I broke it dozens of times but I eventually got there (with sound even!) shortly before they brought back the install script. I want to try Gentoo but I don't have time to compile everything, I understand they ship binaries now which I think is sweet but I'm happy with Arch.
I like Arch for it's KISS philosophy, the DIY attitude with which you approach it, the fine-grained control over every (most) part of the system, the AUR. But my favorite thing about Arch is the Wiki. It's such a great resource, and yeah it applies to more than just Arch but like ... why?
I use Arch btw
Slackware. It didnt abstract anything from me and lets me help myself. Unlike ubuntu, that keps getting in the way.
ubuntu -> kali -> lubuntu -> debian -> rhel -> arch -> gentoo + alpine -> alpine (-> openbsd + freebsd)
I consider things not in brackets 100/100 trashes (alpine is 1/2, gentoo is 3/4), in experience (because they don't help me to learn anything, I'd take openbsd on platform that X11 support is broken, for example Alpha, than anything not in brackets on amd64. Of course, that should be a personal machine for learning.)
Ubuntu LTS GNOME for 4 years -> tried Linux Mint Cinnamon for 1 month -> back to Ubuntu LTS GNOME for 2 years -> became less noob so Debian Stable since July 2023.
I no longer plan to hop as I feel comfortable in Debian/Ubuntu APTverse with GNOME DE. Have it both on desktop and laptop dualbooted besides Windows. And since I rarely participate in Linux community and do not have the social validation disease, I am good.
I was never distro-hopping much. Switched from Debian only when I got a job with Red Hat, and then switched to openSUSE when I switched to SUSE. I have actually switched recently to my own semi-distro https://sr.ht/~mcepl/moldavite/ (basically MicroOS with sway).
Windows 11 because I now have hardware that's completely incompatible with Linux
It would take years for MS to catch up to the hw covered by linux, some of it not even released in a market.
If you are talking about specific MS licensed hw with unpublished non-open non-free-firmware that MS orders to cut off other OSs then I can see this being true.
If you are falling for the Nvidia trap, I feel sorry for you.
I've been hopping between Arch and NixOS for about a year, and I've been on Arch For a few months before that (wirh the exception of a few short-term hops to Ubuntu, Fedora, Starting off with Mint and ArcoLinux, And I almost stayed on Tumbleweed about a week ago but I couldn't figure out dnf5 (a few days later I was told that installing dnf was installing dnf5 so I just had to configure it properly). So right now I'm on NixOS, where SDDM broke last night and I had to switch to GDM, and with my recent switch to Emacs, NixOS keeps on throwing issues at me (and here I was, thinking NixOS could be my forever distro). Tumbleweed is missing a lot of packages I use, I'm tired of Arch, and I feel like NixOS is giving me problems every time I try it, so at this point, I'm at a loss.
Like, I'm seriously considering abandoning Wayland and everything, and just switching all the way back to AwesomeWM (my first window manager) with Jonaburg's fork of Picom (to give me Hyprland-like animations, rounded corners and floating bars) on Debian and sticking with it until we get Hyprland on Debian and then sticking to that. Alternatively, Fedora (even though I felt dirty using it after the whole redhat debacle, and hyprland and waybar weren't working the way they were supposed to). I don't know. I'm tired, I want all my stuff on a distro that I can just not update for weeks, because I'm often too busy or just forget, and where things just work (tm). So... yeah. That's the crap I'm dealing with.
TLDR: The only distros that have all the packages I need (I really, REALLY, don't want to compile anything if I can avoid it) are either, broken and problematic (NixOS for some reason), have slow package management and are missing packages (Tumbleweed) or do not have a stable branch (Arch AND Tumbleweed), meaning that when they aren't updated for weeks (as it often happens with my system), they can break (Arch).
So I distrohop cuz NO distro out there meets my criteria and works well for me. I just want Debian's stability with Arch's repos and AUR, so I can get Hyprland and all my (often not very popular) software I use, from the regular ol repos so I don't have to compile.