switching from linux mint

hi lainons :> ive been lurking here for a while, this is my first time posting. im currently using linux mint on my desktop and ive been wanting to switch to another distro for a while, so im hoping you guys can give some thoughts or recommendations on what i should switch to. the reason i want to switch is mainly because mint feels a little limiting with customization. ive been wanting to try a tiling based workflow for example, and you cant really use a full tiling window manager setup afaik. also, i dont like the 'bloat' it installs, even if its just a few programs. i dont want to have preinstalled stuff that ill never use. and also because its based on ubuntu, and ubuntu is le bad. i find arch intriguing, but i am quite scared of rolling release distros to be honest... i dont want to spend alot of time tinkering with my OS after ive set it up the way i want. right now im thinking about using debian, since thats what ubuntu and mint are based on. im hoping it will give me the stability that i like with a little less bloat, and more room for customization. so yea, what do u guys think?

>can't really use a full tiling window manager setup afaik I am sure you can but it'll take more doing than doing it could. >scared of rolling but interested in arch you aren't forced to update all the time, you're not even forced to update at all. Still debian seems like the sort of obvious easy suggestion here. FWIW I'd suggest not installing any DE or anything when you set it up (xorg and associated stuff, yes), and then install a couple tiling window managers. I3, stumpwm, idk maybe you've already picked one out. Play around, see what you like, don't forget tools like sxhkd exist if you don't like the configuration options on one. Set it up with a .xinitrc file and run the wm from the commandline with the startx. If you do have a spare computer, old laptop or something, nothing wrong with throwing arch on it and playing around. Its not that hard and not that different and the instability stuff isn't really that bad if you don't deliberately shoot yourself in the foot. For the most part all the big distros are like 85% the same.

>>91661 This OP if you really want to get into that, get comfy with bash first. This next bit has nothing to do with you OP, look away. >>91661 >you aren't forced to update all the time, you're not even forced to update at all. What are you thinking saying that to a someone like OP? Now he is going to try it and think he can go several weeks without updating and then everything breaks and he comes back here complaining and soykafting the board up! Tsk!

>>91659 Are you also >>48792? >long time lurker >first time poser >uses reddit spacing. OK >long time lurker >can't use the catalog Hm. >mint feels a little limiting with customization. That's on you, mint doesn't dictate your wm/de, all safety features can be turned off. >you cant really use a full tiling window manager setup afaik. Why wouldn't you? Where do you pull this from? >i find arch intriguing of fuarrrking course you do. >right now im thinking about using debian Genuinely a solid idea, arch is a fuarrrking meme. So is this thread, we had this thread in spirit only a view days ago, with the redditor that asked if you can game on a fuarrrking TWM. WHERE ARE YOU GUYS COMING FROM!? LEARN TO USE THE CATALOG BEFORE POSTING! INSTALL GENTOO OR SLACKWARE IF YOU TRULY WANT MORE CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS!! SAAAAAAAAGEEEEEEE

>>91661 >>91662 thanks for your help guys, ill go with debian then. >>91664 >Are you also >>48792? no >reddit spacing i do this everywhere, just think it looks nice and makes it a bit easier to read >can't use the catalog i did look in the catalog, didnt see any thread that would answer my question sorry for making you mad

>>91664 Your stupid, try-hard 4chan pseudo-etiquette do not apply here. Deal with it. If you do not add, do not subtract, freak.

>>91665 >sorry for making you mad it's fine, I'm just a bit thin skinned with post quality as of recent. >>91668 >If you do not add, do not subtract, freak. I answered his questions and I hope you got bullied in school. Retard

>>91669 >I hope you got bullied in school. >an answer that can only come from a 4th grader I think kids should not be visiting these kind of sites. As you can see, sometimes they post stuff that can make you pee on your bed.

>>91670 Because you got bullied in 4th grade and still don't know why? You seem puzzled and your projection is showing even behind a anonymous post ahahahahaha

>>91671 the cope is thick in your posts. you must be having an awful day. here's a lollypop, go play with the other children, the adults are talking.

Hello, I usually don't post here. I am not the OP, and it is in fact quite surprising how many similarities I have with this person, but I don't want to create another thread since this is fresh. I have been a Linux daily drive normal person user for around a year and want brief advice on which distro to try next once I upgrade to a new laptop, such that it would educate me forcefully to use the terminal and about utilities while also being appropriate/stable for my level. AI gives typical advice that it parsed off reddit, so I would want a human to tell me. I have started on ubuntu since that was the easiest, then Arch because I wanted to be special, then mint like OP, then back to ubuntu-derivatives since I fell into distro hop brainrot, and for the entire 2026 as of yet I have been on LainOS for work and study, which is a riced up arch. I am thinking Debian next? Basically, I am stuck at base level, and of course I plan to watch a command line course on youtube again this summer, but basically want to use a based and redpilled distro. Thank you for your attention to my autism.

>>91737 >I wanted to be special >but basically want to use a based and redpilled distro A distro will not make you "special." It does not matter if you use Mint, Arch, Gentoo, or whatever. I use Linux Mint, but the fact that is a "user friendly" distribution does not stop me from tinkering with advanced commands or compiling myself programs I found online instead of installing them via 'apt' among other stuff. You are not a knight just for swinging a sword. You must master the weapon first. >I fell into distro hop brainrot Because you are just thinking which distro will make you look "based and redpilled" or whatever instead of thinking why do you even need to learn how to use Linux in the first place. >watch a command line course on youtube again Then, I'm sorry, but you will never be "based and redpilled." The masters didn't learn by watching some tutorials and worrying about how others perceive them, they achieved that status because they were curious, messed up things and fixed them and went beyond of basic stuff. Those "courses" just teach rudimentary topics that will only give you the illusion of having learned something useful so that you leave your 'thumb up' to them. Also, it's not enough just to understand Linux-based systems, you must also understand how other UNIX-like systems such as FreeBSD or OpenBSD work. Do you really want to feel like a wizard? http://www.slackware.com/ Perform a successful installation and configuration of that. Important: no following tutorials, only the project's documentation. Did you mess anything up? Good. That's how you're going to learn. Don't know how to do something? You have the documentation and a tool called a search engine to help you out, it's not just for looking for porn. Experiment and play with the system. Screw it up and repair it. I assume you know how to use virtual machines. It is also mandatory, regardless of your distro, to know shell scripting: https://www.shellscript.sh/ Basic, but useful for you to learn the essentials. The rest will be up to you. Don't wait for an online stranger to grab your hand to start doing things on your own. I wish you success.

>>91749 No problem, I'm glad I helped you a little. I hope my writing style isn't too harsh. I'll share this site with you: https://tldp.org/guides.html It's not as up-to-date as it should be and some books aren't complete, but the readings have interesting stuff in them. My favorite is this one: https://tldp.org/LDP/tlk/tlk.html A heavy and very technical read, but too valuable. You have the right attitude, so I know you'll achieve your goal. Again, I wish you much success.

>>91749 Oh never mind you already came around. Good for you!

You will need a distribution with many TUI and CLI applications in their repositories. Using graphical applications in a tiling window manager feels weird because the window dimensions are always off. Debian will probably not have most of the tools you use daily in their repositories. That means you will either have to build them on your own or add package sources. If you don't mind building your packages and have a high end CPU, you can try Gentoo. If you rather want to use pre-built packages you can try Arch or NixOS. Their repositories probably contain everything you need. Coming from Mint, these distributions will probably give you a massive headache, though. I'll recommend Fedora Kinoite. It has a solid technical foundation and KDE will allow you some customization. I think it even has a tiling WM, if you want to try that for a while.

>>91801 IDK debian has a lot of stuff to be honest I'm not sure what weird exotic stuff you're looking at that they don't have. Also: its no big deal to build on Debian, and a lot of these TUI/CLI softwares are not large and difficult to build, no great trouble to do that even on your not so nice PC. The reason you want a powerful machine to run gentoo is because you want to build firefox and QT and all the compilers etc, not to build w3m. Also OP should clearly learn how to install basic packages from source.

>>91805 >annoying and a waste of time IDK its been useful to me often enough, including in professional contexts where software isn't packaged or isnt on this system or you have to go through the build server process that doubles the hassle of just testing your one little change etc etc. Lots of cases where knowing how to use and debug build tools is useful if you use computers for certain ranges of tasks. IDK what OP wants or expects. >nobody is using a lightweight browser only Fair fair. On the other hand you can get bindist firefox on gentoo easy enough.

>>91668 le 4chan is evil n shiet dood! le reddit wholesome dood!! reddit gold dooooddd!!!!!!

At the end of the day you're only limited to your knowledge of linux as whole in term of customization rather than the distro itself. Honestly distros are sort of the same same. I only use EndeavourOS because it's arch based and it's dead easy for me to install when I do my schizo monthly wipe.

My upgrade to debian 13 was a very frustrating experience. It is really pointless to list all the issues there because it would seem like a nothingburger, but after you dealt with their crap for years it starts to add up... My last drop was finding out they removed `last` tool. I wanted to check if anybody logged in on my server and found out `last` is not there. So I was left with no info about previous ssh logins. Debian decided to throw it away and make an optional package called `wtmpdb`, which is a very intuitive and concise name... Anyway if you didn't follow the news you wouldn't know that happened, so by default you are left without a very basic security auditing tool that was taught to newbies for years. You are now supposed to use loginctl, but it does not have long-term storage, which is why wtmpdb is required. Why make it optional then??? Debian leaders answer: because we want to keep our system minimal. And this is why they introduce more systemd bloat. Makes so much sense, right? Not that I have an issue with systemd-logind in particular, but debian's decision making makes me think about bad things. FreeBSD, on the other hand, just fixed whatever the issue with `last` was and it works just fine...

>>93881 > no info about previous ssh logins I understand your butthurt, but you can probably just grep journalctl.

>>93883 journalctl is not a long-term storage. systemd continuously rotates and truncates your logs. You cannot rely on it and this is why you need to install their replacement anyway.

>>93885 Yes, but it's ok workaround for few months of data until you install something better. I think it might be able to hold even years worth of data iirc.

>>91659 Sounds like you need Fedora. Updates are frequent, but not rolling release. You can download Fedora i3 Spin to have a tiling WM preinstalled, or you can go for the KDE Plasma edition and use extensions to enable window tiling within a DE.