Linux

Windows (up until windows 8 came out) -> Ubuntu for about a year -> Manjaro for about 6 years -> Arch so far for 2 years.

Ubuntu (university) -> MX Linux -> Opensuse TW

1. (Some years, Childhood), Windows XP laptop with games on it, Windows 7 on some Minecraft PC lol. (3 years) Windows 10 on a Thinkpad T430, really nice laptop, but the OS was boring and kinda bad
2. (3 days) Linux Mint, secondary drive. Had random blackout crashes that were not hardware related (still use that SSD today). Also wasnt impressed by the UI, but a very interesting experience of "the Linux"
3. (Few weeks) Manjaro, awesome KDE experience and theme, really really nice. But had a bad reputation, so went looking for other KDE Distros
4. (Few months) MX Linux, damn Distrowatch rankings. Got an error and my University IT people told me my Nextcloud client was too old, but the conky manager was awesome.
5. (Half a year) Kubuntu, with Backports, then switched to KDE Neon. Began nice, then went more and more unstable and broke
6. (Few weeks) Fedora KDE, finally dared the move to a "less known OS", but it broke too. I guess that Plasma 5.2x phase was just messy
7. (Over a year) Fedora Kinoite, uBlue, secureblue, Aurora. Tried the Kinoite prerelease for Plasma 6 and now for 6.1, finding some bugs.

Now happy part of the Fedora Community, rpm-ostree is just so good and makes Linux usable for me.

Also experimenting with GNOME, COSMIC, Kinoite-prerelease and CentOS-Stream in VMs or external drives. Also experimenting with minimal, bloat-free KDE Plasma, as it is actually really light and simply the best supported modular desktop environment.

98-02 Slackware

02-24 Gentoo

Im currently fixated on nixos and it's likely to get gentoo's spot when I need to replace this workstation

Risc_os>win95-xp>Ubuntu>mint>Ubuntu>win8.1-10>manjaro>mint>popOs>fedora>fedora silverblue>bazzite/aurora

I started with an openSUSE dual boot with KDE. I didn't use Linux a lot at that point. Later, I switched to Ubuntu on a laptop for about a year and used that until I bought a MacBook. Eventually, I returned to Linux by running Pop!_OS on my desktop, but games were a bit choppy, and I really wanted to just run Wayland. I also started to use RHEL at work for our servers. So now I'm trying to switch to Fedora. I still have some issues with the Jagex Launcher, but aside from that, everything seems to work great now.

At home, I have also had an Ubuntu Server for many years, and I also run Ubuntu Server on my VPS.

Here's my distrohopping journey (including non-Linux OS)

• Windows 7 →

• Windows 10 →

Mid 2021, I tried Fedora Linux in a VM and was unable to install it, but I liked it regardless.

So, a while later I decided to try this "Linux" thing on my computer.

• Linux Mint (late 2021) →

• Arco Linux (arch felt too intimidating) →

• Debian (stability = good?) →

• Debian Sid (stability = boring) →

• Artix Linux OpenRC (omg i hate systemd so much!1!!) →

• Void Linux →

• Artix Linux runit (it didn't work) →

• Arch Linux (how do i use systemctl wtf) →

• Void Linux again (ah, ln -s /etc/sv/something /run/service/)→

• NixOS unstable (since January 2024)

Honestly, I'm just glad I found something I liked, as NixOS is perfect for tinkering.

During all that distrohopping, I "DE-hopped" even more. Currently I run SwayFX, but I've used Cinnamon, XFCE, Plasma, GNOME, AwesomeWM, i3, bspwm, dwm, swaywm and Hyprland.

edit 1: add Artix Linux runit

edit 2: remove NixOS stable from the list

Vic20 😆 -> C64 -> AmigaOS -> MacOS -> Slackware (much frustration!) -> MacOS -> Ubuntu -> EndeavourOS

15 years Windows -> dualboot everything -> Ubuntu -> Fedora -> Ubuntu -> opensuse -> arch -> popOS -> arch -> fedora -> arch -> -> popOS -> arch -> nixos

I'm sure there's a ton more hopping around in the middle that I can't remember, but this is a good summary.

Mine was not really long and stretched out over multiple devices. First Ubuntu Server, on my server, then a Kali dual boot on my main PC (which was actually useful), then PopOS. Then Ubuntu/Debian, after some time LFS and finally Arch on my old laptop. Then Arch on my PC too, and my new Laptops, and finally Arch on all devices.

Desktop: Windows Vista Home -> Windows 7 Home -> CentOS 7 -> Debian 8 -> Arch Linux -> OpenSUSE Leap 15 -> Debian 10 -> Slackware

Slackware is probably where i'll be for the rest of my time on Linux, as unlike other distros, I have no major complaints.

I've always hosted stuff at home, even as a kid, so for my homeserver:

Server: Windows XP Pro -> Windows 7 Pro -> CentOS 7 -> CentOS 8 -> Artix Linux -> NetBSD -> OpenBSD -> SmartOS

I don't miss the days of using WAMP on windows lol

MS-DOS up until about 1995 or 1996. Slackware until 1997. Debian until 1998. Slackware again until 2000. Debian again until 2005. Gentoo until 2012. Arch up to the present.

Windows -> PopOS -> EndevourOS -> Fedora(for literally 2 days) -> NixOS 22.11 -> NetBSD -> NixOS Unstable

Ubuntu Server (for school) -> Fedora (daily driver for a month) -> Arch (same as fedora) -> NixOS (it's almost a year and I think that I'll stay with NixOS)

Windows -> Ubuntu -> Kubuntu -> Arch -> KDE Neon -> Fedora -> Arch -> openSUSE Tumbleweed

My journey went Ubuntu (2012) -> Kubuntu (2018) -> Manjaro (2020) -> Fedora KDE (2022)

Most computers I had were used and low-end so Linux was always my preferred OS, but I always dualbooted with the version of Windows or MacOS the machine came with when I could.

My current computers have been Linux only for a couple years now, thanks to Windows being a headache and MacOS being inflexible.

DOS, ProDOS, Windows 3.1, Windows '98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 7, Puppy, Mint, Bodhi, Trisquel & Debian.

Windows -> Ubuntu -> Mint -> Fedora -> Pop -> Manjaro -> Garuda -> Debian -> Zorin -> Endeavor -> feren -> opensuse tumbleweed -> opensuse leap -> KDE neon -> blendOS -> MX -> Debian + peppermint (on old laptop) -> Mint cinnamon + Mint XFCE -> Fedora atomic -> Fedora

Additionally: rasbian on pi, alpine for VM, puppy for usb, steamos on steam deck

My full journey was Ubuntu, Manjaro, Debian, Arch. I would still consider myself a noob but know I don't break stuff as often.

Ubuntu, Manjaro, Endeavour, Arch, Arch/Debian

DOS, to Windows XP, to Xubuntu, to Kubuntu, to Nix OS. In hindsight I should have probably tried Arch, but Nix was the first one to sell me on something else, and Arch just seems like a downgrade from Nix.

Windows xp > windows 7 > windows 10 > manjaro (broke it with the aur) > arch (broke again) > kbuntu > fedora > fedora silverblue > Nixos > Gentoo

Now i compile with 14 core xeon 2697 v3 48gb of ram and vega 64. Peak machine and distro

Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10 -> Fedora Workstation -> Fedora Silverblue -> NixOS

Windows -> MacOS -> Windows -> Ubuntu (2012) -> Arch (2013) -> Gentoo (2016)

Gentoo cured my distrohopping

Back when I was a kid, I was using Ubuntu. Ubtunu 14 and 16.

At some point I got really into Elementary OS and Pantheon

Then I rejected clone distros and embraced the mother distro, Debian.

In college, I experimented a bit, like most people. I tried various DEs and WMs on Debian. I tried Arch. I tried Pop_OS!. I tried Gentoo. Man, Gentoo is the WORST. Compiling stuff takes WAY too long and even after using it for 6 months it never got better. Worst distro on the planet. No one should ever use it. Eventually I settled on Arch.

I stayed an Arch i3 guy for 3.5 years, but eventually I got fed up with it.

I then finally gave Fedora a try, and I thought it was great. It was up to date like Arch but unbreakable. At the time I was also looking into BTRFS and immutability and making my own distro, and Fedora is great for that bc of CoreOS and Kinoite and all that stuff.

While on Fedora I did a lot of weird things in search of my goals. Like I figured out how to install Pacman and get AUR applications working on Fedora, notably archiso which I was using to build my own immutable, declarative OS that would be AppImage-based and utilizing an AppImage package manager and store front I wrote myself.

But then, about a year in, I discovered NixOS. It's the best thing ever. It solves all the problems I had with other distros that I thought I'd solve on Fedora or Arch with programming. It's everything I could want in a distro and then some. I've now been on it longer than I was on Fedora, and there's no sign of switching to anything else.

Parallel to all this is various tool hopping. For instance, trying GNOME/KDE/Xfce/i3/Sway/Hyprland/etc at various times with various setups as well. Or bash vs zsh. Etc

Currently, I'm on NixOS with Hyprland, and it's great. I've also used it with i3 and with GNOME + Pop Shell 2 for tiling which are both solid as well.

Now, that's my daily driver and gaming machine. I use other OSs on other computers.

I have a computer for music production that got Fedoraized when I was a Fedora fanboy for a year. I don't change it bc it doesn't need to change. It just needs to run Ardour, yabridge, etc and maintain my system audio configurations that I don't remember how to set up now. If it ever gets messed up, I'll switch to a fork of my NixOS configuration and refigure out my audio settings and put them in a configuration.

I have a home nextcloud server as well. It also was once Fedoraized, but I gave up on that and went to Ubuntu bc that's the only thing that should ever run a Nextcloud server. It just does not work correctly if it's not on Ubuntu, at least that's my experience. I've tried hosting on Arch, Fedora, Debian, Pop_OS! and more, but only Ubuntu works well for Nextcloud, so Ubuntu it stays.

Windows -> RedHat -> Windows -> Gentoo -> Ubuntu -> RHEL -> Ubuntu -> Debian -> Arch

macOS, then Linux Mint, then Arch Linux, then EndeavourOS, then Artix Linux, and now Parabola GNU/Linux-libre.

I've used Windows since I can remember... at least since Windows 95, then probably early 2000's, added OSX into the mix. I currently use an old Mac Mini as my Plex machine, and the computer provided by my employer runs Windows.

My "journey" began around 2015 on an old Dell laptop that I set up to dual boot Windows and Linux. I tried 2 or 3 distros, one of which was probably Ubuntu, before settling on Mint. I remember having enough minor issues with Mint that I kept booting back to Windows, and eventually stopped booting to Mint at all.

Then one day, I have no clue what I was trying to do, but I was confident that I knew what I was doing, so I just went for it without pulling up the instructions. Welp, I ended up deleting my bootloader, or something like that, and now couldn't boot to any OS. I tried using my parents' Mac to create a bootable USB, but that wasn't working. I wound up buying and returning a random open box laptop from Best Buy just so I could create a functional bootable USB. I also found help from a very kind internet stranger who walked me through the process to fix my bootloader. They happened to only use Arch btw, so that's what we used to get my laptop fixed.

That whole drama really scared me away from fiddling with it for a while, then I just got busy and had no motivation. That laptop is collecting dust and still dual boots Windows (7?) and headless Arch. I'm thinking of fiddling around with Linux again, but most definitely need something more noobie friendly than Arch without a DE.

Windows->Mac->Ubuntu->Fedora->Arch->openSUSE->and finally Debian when bookworm released and I’ve been very happy with it, plan on staying for the foreseeable future.

Still dual boot windows (with no Microsoft account connected) for gaming. But I don’t game nearly as much as I used to and when I do I don’t want to worry about anything working, I just want to ply with friends. Though from what I hear gaming on Linux is getting better all the time.

The “+” indicates a dualboot

MacOS (for a while) → MacOS + Windows (for a year) → Ubuntu + Windows (for a year) → Linux Mint + Windows (for 6 months)→ Linux Mint (for 1.5 years)→ SteamOS (for 9 months) → SteamOS + openSUSE Tumbleweed (for 3 months, then tumbleweed got glitchy with display output) → SteamOS (Current) → Fedora Linux (when I get my new laptop)

For my personal devices:

• Microsoft products from MS DOS 6.x or so through Windows Vista
• Ubuntu 6.06 through maybe 9.04 or so
• Arch Linux from 2009 through 2015
• MacOS from 2011 through current
• Arch Linux from 2022 through current

I've worked with work systems that used RedHat and Ubuntu back in the late 2000's, plus decades of work computers with Windows. But I'm no longer in a technical career field so I haven't kept on top of the latest and greatest.

Over the last three decades...

• DOS/Win (Games)
• ... Various Windows ... (Games)
• RedHat 6 for learning about this Linux thing
• LFS for shits 'n' giggles
• Ubuntu (for drivers that just worked)
• Debian (for minimalism)
• Ubuntu (for comfort)
• Fedora/Ubuntu

Windows 2000

Windows Vista Windows 8

Trying every Linux distro under the sun for a little while in VirtualBox

Linux Mint + Windows 8 later 10 dual boot due to software required by school

Trying some Arch based systems in VirtualBox

My owm minimal Arch i3 setup + Windows 10 dual boot due to software required by school

Issues with my own setup, Manjaro + W10

Manjaro is weird, EndeavourOS + W10 (only for a short while)

Linux Mint just works (+W10, until I could fully use my own software, now it's just Mint for several years)

I'm tinkering around with NixOS in QEMU from time to time, not everything “just works” but it's okay

I think mine went something like this: Windows (for a long time) -> Zorin Os -> Linux Mint -> Ubuntu -> Fedora (I don't remember how long I used any of them) -> Manjaro.

Here I got myself into a hole, distrohopping aimlessly, like, I kept switching from distro to distro literally every day. I was checking my emails, and discovered that I have 156 confirmation emails from the ecosia search engine, so I guess that represents the many times I distrohopped during this time (about 5 or 6 months).

I never really understood what happened there, maybe it was anxiety.

And then I finally stopped at linux mint, I've been here for about a month (more time, i made many clean installs, but always returning to mint), I don't intend to change.

Maybe I've beaten distrohopping? well, I hope so.

Windows -> Manjaro.

Never looked back. Debian works on a laptop, amazing too!