Why You Shouldn't Distro Hop

In this episode, we'll discuss some reasons why I think it's a bad idea to distro hop, and what you can do to learn Linux basics quickly that will span different distros. Hope you enjoy the video! Don't forget to drop me a comment, and if you really like it, subscribe and share.

Thank you!

Are you interested in helping me grow FastGadgets? Consider visiting my Patreon page and throwing a dollar my way!

For more FastGadgets:

Social Media:

[SwitchedtoLinux]

Great Tips! I personally keep my production Linux computers exactly where they are on Linux Mint, but the computer I use for videos and general lookup I try to change around every month or so just to try new distros / DEs and learn a few new tricks. That works for me, but one thing I do not have time to do it is to fix a production computer, that is why I leave those completely alone.

[lawrencedoliveiro]

2:50 The GUIs are the most different thing between distros. The command line and the layout of config files in /etc tends to be much more uniform.

Moral: if you want to distro-hop, get familiar with the command line. Heck, if you want to get the most out of your computer, learn the command line! And if you try to do that on Windows, you’re wasting your time--the OS with the most powerful command line is Linux.

[rayzer]

did a bit of distrohopping myself as i was sick of ubuntus updates trashing my systems, explored the other branches but eventually settled on debian. its perfect for me but only for ubuntus mishaps i probably would have never tried it.

[scotthgold]

Excellent video with lots of helpful suggestions, I've been guilty of distro hopping in the past but these days I run Linux Mint on my home laptop and fedora on my work one. The command line is really worth the investment if you deal with Linux in a corporate environment or are just really interested in how an OS works!

[RobMax]

I don't "distro Hop".. I only use 2 distros.. Manjaro Cinnamon And Linux Mint Cinnamon.. Been using them for like a Month and have no reason to hop off them.. they both work beautifully... only way I am touching my Linux Mint is when the LTS is no longer "covered" then I will bring in whatever new Mint there is..

[EricMesa]

Neat to see you full-screen rather than a little box. :)

[SimonVassallo]

What theme are you using on Fedora KDE?

[shater]

This was the great content by far, thanks Mark.

[pcfred]

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. -Robert A. Heinlein

[Doriandotslash]

Nice vid. I've been distro hopping a lot lately, and I've been a Linux user since 1992-93. I think you made a confusing statement when you said going from Ubuntu to Fedora is a huge difference because of the different desktops. I've used Ubuntu for a very long time using Gnome. Fedora, Debian, and many others also use Gnome. For the most part, any distro can use Gnome, or any other desktop (XFCE4, Deepin, etc). Biggest difference, in my opinion, are the package managers and communities. For example, Debian Gnome and Ubuntu Gnome are nearly identical and even use the same package managers, but, Ubuntu has a far better community.

[Xeno_Bardock]

You should use QEMU with virt-manager instead of VirtualBox if you want near native performance.

[rickbishop]

First, there are valid reasons for distro-hopping. Different distros have different focuses and work better with different hardware. At the time that I built my newest rig I could not get it to work with Linux until I installed Solus. My old MacBook Pro works great with Ubuntu Matte and so on. While you are correct in regards to people who want to work IT you are ignoring the vast majority of computer users who rightfully want to use their machines for work and entertainment and expect it to work for them.

[SubterraneanChick]

My first 2 years, I hopped on a weekly/monthly basis (btw distros and BSD variants) and felt I learned the CLI a lot quicker than the average. There was no Ubuntu then. Slackware, Gentoo, OpenBSD to Arch (all others were secondary.) I can see why it wouldn't work for most, but my route worked for me. Nice vid.

[MrFurriephillips]

I have 18 years of experience with deploying, managing, administering & using FreeBSD, CentOS & lately some Debian-based flavours.

I am most comfortable with CentOS, the way it behaves, the file structure, and package manager (yum) but have got used to the Debian-based flavours & at home, am getting used to apt/apt-get (pretty friendly).

Also, regarding the command line, OMFG I it! The best thing is the single/simple command to perform a single/simple action/task ideology, coupled with the awesome pipe “|” construct - I mean, I have had many hours and hours of fun, crafting single-line commands, that grab some text (maybe from a website, or a log file), then piping it through grep, parsing it for the stuff I’m interested in, then piping it through to sed, to get rid of something like the date/time part, then piping the result through sort -u, to get a sorted list, of unique entries, then piping that into wc -l, to get a count of the number of lines/unique events/attackers/whatever. It makes me dizzy with delight, at what you can do on the CLI.

And as for vi (& if you’re lucky enough, vim), it is indeed, a powerful beast. After the steep AF learning curve/cliff, I never felt the need to use any of the emacs-flavoured editors (nano, pico m, etc), that try to dumb-down the experience. Vi has got its teeth into my soul & I often sign emails with :x (that should make the diehard vi(m)ers a laugh). I’ve even set Vim-for-Windows as my default text editor on my work laptop, so that I can avoid any chance of withdrawal symptoms ;)

BTW, anyone who touches *nix-like OSes should run through the vim tutor, by issuing the “vimtutor” command, then reading, and following the instructions, to fairly quickly scale the vim learning curve & get familiar with it. It won’t take long, to get comfortable with it & it’ll serve you well, for a lifetime.

I welcome the move to systemd & although it was a initially a bit painful to learn the new command syntax & foibles, I now like it better than service & chkconfig (it even caters for the odd occasion where the service you’re trying to enable & run, isn’t systemd compatible & it performs chkconfig -on servicename, then service servicename start, while informing you as it does (that’s cracking).

[CrustyAbsconder]

Thank you for the video. It is an interesting topic.

But I only partly agree with you.

I am self-employed. I own a unique document courier business in a large city. I do 90% of my computing on my LG smartphone. The rest I do on a mini-ITX rig I built that I distro-hop on. Most of my Linux experience is with Mageia 6 LXQt 0.11, but lately it has been with its Russian cousin ROSA R9 LXQt 0.12. Most of my computer use is playing Aisleriot Solitaire ( FreeCell)

Linux is a brothel operating environment. Each distro is a certain kind of hooker and within that distro the desktop environments are different rooms with that hooker. You just like to be with the same old hooker in the same old room while others like different ones or multiple ones each time, while others more adventurous like to go next door and try the FreeBSD brothel.

In your case, you want to be really intimate with yours and get to know them on a personal level.

In my case, once she gets to be boring, I check out one of the young new ladies.

There is a reason there are over 100 popular distros.

Linux Mint is great for first time desktop users. But it does not offer what KaOS or SparkyLinux offer. For example, if you are from Russia, ROSA R9 is maybe your best option. If you are from France or Germany maybe Mageia 6 or the upcoming test version of Mageia 7 is your best option. If you are from Australia then maybe Korora 26 is your best option. And why is that you ask ? Because you can meet up with the developers on a social level and have fun and become a contributor.

I will get a warm fuzzy feeling when I install Fedora 27 Workstation on my SSD, only to switch to Debian 10 when it comes out.

My favorite command is "urpmi."

[Knightjp]

The command line is essential for someone who wants to work in IT as a system admin; regardless of what operating system. This includes Windows, Linux systems and even MacOS. 
My fav bistro is OpenSUSE. I like the command line on it as well. Yast is awesome.

[paulanderson]

Ubuntu Server (with XFCE GUI) is a comfortable place to run virtual MS SBS Servers. It's not enterprise grade and doesn't need to be for small businesses.

[andyscusting]

As with many things ... " Better the devil you know, than the devil you don't know . "

[johanb.]

Peppermint 8. Been using it for more than 4 months now, and won't change it for another distro. Does everything I could with W10, but looks so much better now that I've themed it with Adapta Nokto theme and Papirus Adapta Nokto icons. Learning the command line bit by bit.

[rmcellig]

Great video!! What would you suggest is the best way to learn the vi editor? Maybe some specific beginner videos?