title, and to be clear I mean for my usecase specifically. Redhat is being absorbed into IBM and i'm a little worried about how that might affect the fedora project. I'm aware that they've been owned by IBM for a while but we are seeing all the typical signs of a company about to go to shit thanks to bad management. I am looking into and preparing to switch in case the fedora project is messed up as well.
I use my pc mainly for gaming (so steam is required) and stuff in my browser and I have a gtx 1650 (can't get new stuff bc i'm broke) so although I don't need the proprietary drivers necessarily, I prefer them. I use KDE with a handful of kwin scripts (like temp virtual desktops and karousel) and some cosmetic stuff like klassy, better blur, and a custom color scheme. I need all of that to remain possible. I currently use fedora kde edition, but I have been looking into immutable distros because I don't know what I'm doing and I want to have a much lower chance of breaking stuff (or at least a way to easily unbreak it). I also want something at least reasonably up-to-date, because I like to get new features quickly. I don't need to get them as fast as something like arch, but ubuntu and debian are way to slow for me.
what do y'all think would work best for me? I've looked at a few things but I haven't been able to find anything but fedora that serves my usecase the way I want it to yet.
59 Comments
frongt@lemmy.zip · 29 pts · 353d
I don't think Fedora is going anywhere for quite a while. I'd stick with it. If IBM eventually kills it, it'll be far enough in the future that whatever you choose now will no longer the best option.
just_another_person@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 353d
Fedora is its own thing, and unless IBM was RHEL to die, they have to keep kicking resources in, because the majority of non-security contributions come downstream from the Fedora community.
echindod@programming.dev · 4 pts · 352d
This assumes IBM will act rationally, which doesn’t have much recent precedence.
unknown1234_5@kbin.earth · 1 pts · 350d
i figure, I just want to be ready if something does happen.
frongt@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 350d
Then you should just keep backups of your user data separate from your OS, so that you can more easily migrate.
unknown1234_5@kbin.earth · 1 pts · 350d
i dont have anything big enough to back up to. my system has 1.5 TB.
lordnikon@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 353d
If you are worried about corporate ownership and like KDE. Debian is a good stable Distro for your needs.
hallettj@leminal.space · 5 pts · 352d
Since timely updates are an issue, specifically Debian Testing is a good stable distro.
lordnikon@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 352d
Yeah i run debian sid but i mainly do that to help with bug testing and have timeshift hourly snapahots. Stable with backports and flatpacks should be enough for a normal gamer user.
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 352d
Debian testing has way less packages
It also lags slightly behind on security updates
actionjbone@sh.itjust.works · 18 pts · 352d
Probably no need to rush into anything. It sounds like the reorg is moving a data security team into Red Hat, and isn't necessarily enshittifying anything.
A backup plan is always good, but this could wind up being a nothingburger.
curbstickle@anarchist.nexus · 15 pts · 352d
Legal, hr, finance, and accounting is now IBM, and IBM has noted job cuts as part of the cost savings in its profit forecasting.
Engineering, product, sales, and marketing are not making any changes - yet.
I would note that IBM is also now pushing its "enhanced AI" support over speaking with actual people, unless you have an upgraded support tier. Basic support tier can also no longer escalate cases.
I would agree in not needing to rush anywhere, but I would have to say this looks like the start of enshittification for sure.
actionjbone@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 352d
Yeah, I agree. The big picture is concerning, though this latest instance just happens to not be a red flag. We're not enshittified yet, but it's a short jump depending on IBM's next decisions.
Considering Red Hat's core is development, it's not necessarily a bad thing to merge things like legal, HR, finance, and accounting with IBM's own departments.
The trouble is, once the parent company starts merging some departments, shareholders often push to merge more departments.
If the right people hold sway at IBM, Red Hat won't continue that route to the point of fucking up the OS. But that's a big "if."
curbstickle@anarchist.nexus · 3 pts · 352d
Especially since they are talking about all the money they will save cutting jobs.
Based on the time frames for this, I'm going to guess by the end of 2026 the engineering team will shrink, followed by a 2027 announcement of merging departments for better management, and RedHat basically be just IBM entirely by 2028.
If I still had any servers on RH for work, I'd be planning my moves right about now (personally I started the shift after the 2023 announcement on source code availability, finalized the last three servers in June actually).
Really quite a shame to see how things have changed.
Anyway, I'd suspect there are at least a couple years left before its a mess.
actionjbone@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 352d
Yeah, I'm not panicking, but I agree with everything you said.
I want to believe that someone at IBM realizes what they lost if they fuck up Red Hat, but I'm sure we all know better than to count on it.
It's just a bummer we have to have this conversation at all. Even when a corporation tries to start out on the right foot, odds are stacked in favor of enshittifying.
unknown1234_5@kbin.earth · 3 pts · 350d
i think this sums up what I was getting at a little better than I said it
JovialSodium@lemmy.sdf.org · 11 pts · 352d
I ditched Fedora because I didn't like the way the wind was blowing. I mention because despite having a bias against Redhat, I agree with most of the sentiment in the comments. I don't think the future of Fedora is in any kind of jeopardy and if you're happy with the distro, you should keep using it.
hodgepodgin@lemmy.zip · 9 pts · 352d
Opensuse tumbleweed if you want stability, rpm packages, and bleeding edge. They also have a fantastic KDE edition.
swelter_spark@reddthat.com · 5 pts · 352d
I've been using Tumbleweed for years, and it's great.
unknown1234_5@kbin.earth · 1 pts · 350d
I'm definitely leaning that way so far, are there any major differences from fedora I need to be aware of?
hodgepodgin@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 350d
I would guess yast, merlyn, zypper, no rpm fusion (?), but you get OPI, good security defaults like apparmor and ufw (which messes with printers). I like it so far. I’ve found most packages im looking for and it hasn’t broken on me once during an upgrade. Zypper also recently got a big speed buff that I’m aware of.
nik9000@programming.dev · 8 pts · 353d
I don't think you have to change. But if you want a new hobby, try Arch. I got it just the way I like it years ago and haven't had to change anything. I picked Arch because I always ended up on their wiki anyway.
ZonenRanslite@feddit.org · 5 pts · 352d
Or try arch light aka cachyos.
unknown1234_5@kbin.earth · 1 pts · 350d
how much easier/less complex is cachy? it looks interesting but I havent tried it.
ZonenRanslite@feddit.org · 1 pts · 350d
CachyOS is like Mint but for gaming and based on Arch Linux.
unknown1234_5@kbin.earth · 1 pts · 350d
so mint on a better base and with a good de... I'll have to look at it again
swelter_spark@reddthat.com · 5 pts · 352d
The Arch wiki is useful not matter what distro you're on.
unknown1234_5@kbin.earth · 2 pts · 350d
even when I was on like tuxedo os it was helpful
unknown1234_5@kbin.earth · 2 pts · 350d
ive tried arch a couple times but I dont really get a lot of the options and its a bit more technical than I'm looking for.
data1701d@startrek.website · 7 pts · 352d
If you don’t like bog standard Debian, you might really like Debian Testing.
It allows you to get decently new packages; I’d say typical lag is one week to a couple months depending on the popularity and/or complexity of the project.
I’ve been using it on my desktop for over three years just fine. It’s been quite stable while still getting new software versions in a mostly timely fashion.
Do note though that Testing means Testing; it’s not really concerned with being a rolling release distro, but with preparing for the next release, so there’s a few quirks:
Personally, I’ve grown tired of Debian Testing and rolling release in general; while I still using Testing on my desktop, I’ve thrown Debian Stable on most things I’ve owned since then, and if I really need a newer version of software, I’ll just install the Flatpak or use a container.
illusionist@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 352d
Did you try Kalpa? (opensuse) unfortunately, I don't know in which state it is. Aeon works very well for me. I've used silverblue before and I was surprised how good it is.
unknown1234_5@kbin.earth · 1 pts · 350d
i dont think I have. ive tried leap and tumbleweed or whatever they're called before but I didn't see any reason to use it over fedora at the time.
illusionist@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 350d
I've got exactly the same experience as on fedora silverblue except that openssh, flatpack firefox, distrobox and other goodies are installed by default. If you want to stick to fedora, you can use dnf in a distrobox.
I didn't have a valod reason to switch. I hesitated for very long because additional benefit was basically 0. Make a backup of your home dir and the effort of switching is minimal.
The only difference is that I now support a European company and not an american.
unknown1234_5@kbin.earth · 1 pts · 350d
well given that I'm american I dont have an issue supporting an American company (if you're European, good job getting out from under our thumb. we have too much power) but I do want to support a more trustworthy company.
mikedd@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 352d
salacious_coaster@infosec.pub · 8 pts · 352d
Ubuntu's not "cool." Personally I don't care for GNOME or the theming in general. Also snaps are not popular. I do like the Debian base though, so I just use Debian KDE.
bastion@feddit.nl · 4 pts · 352d
snaps! hiss
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 352d
Ubuntu desktop is only gnome based. They modify it pretty heavily before shipping it.
If you don't care for the gnome workflow that is fine but if you have issues with the Ubuntu desktop it is probably caused by Ubuntu.
unknown1234_5@kbin.earth · 1 pts · 350d
true, but imo its even worse on Ubuntu. i just like KDE better
who@feddit.org · 6 pts · 352d
I did for quite a while, since it was basically Debian with some extras that I found useful. (The PPA build farm and server, for example.) Then they started forcibly replacing native packages that I used with snaps, which caused me more trouble than I was willing to tolerate, so I switched to Debian Stable.
I still have family members using Ubuntu. I'll probably migrate them to Debian eventually, but there's no hurry, since their needs are pretty basic.
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 352d
In my experience some packages are also broken such as podman
unknown1234_5@kbin.earth · 1 pts · 350d
thats definitely something I want. i really want to be able to have compatibility with as many apps as possible and podman/toolbx are awesome for that.
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 352d
It is either dead or dying
It is still pops up from time to time but isn't what it used to be
b00g13@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 351d
I do and find it stable and comfortable, but for most those two things make it boring i suppose :D
nullPointer@programming.dev · 1 pts · 352d
xubuntu is where it's at.
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 352d
Why wouldn't you use Debian Xfce4?
Drewmeister@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 352d
I've not been on linux for long, but I like my kubuntu system. Took a bit of fiddling (non standard video drivers, non standard Proton for steam, wayland was buggy on my hardware), but now it's been working a treat for both gaming and productivity.
Judging by the sentiments for Ubuntu on here, I feel like it's unfairly maligned. It seems like everyone wants Linux to be easier to adopt by the masses, but they don't like the distros that fill that niche.
psud@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 352d
Mint is pretty popular and that's not much other than reskinned Ubuntu
unknown1234_5@kbin.earth · 1 pts · 350d
i dont like ubuntu, both stock and as a base for something else. my experience with distros based on it has been pretty bad, and given the choices canonical tends to make I dont think they are heading in a direction I like.
crazyminner@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 353d
Nixos
hallettj@leminal.space · 4 pts · 352d
I think there are arguments for NixOS for a casual user despite the learning curve reputation. But there are also downsides to consider.
The pros:
configuration.nixwithout modificationThe cons:
Even if you set up flatpak (which is easy to set up tbf) you're probably going to be managing flatpaks using the CLI.
It would be easier for me to recommend NixOS if the installer set up a flake configuration with more niceties pre-installed, like nix-ld. The next best thing would be a de facto standard flake starter configuration for people to copy. But like I said, I think there is a case.
SolarBoy@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 352d
What extra safety do you get by using pinned nixpkgs revisions? And how to do it without flakes (if that's possible?) I'm currently just using the standard configuration. Occasionally had to do a rollback without issues.
hallettj@leminal.space · 1 pts · 351d
Oh yeah, I should clarify that - and I might have overstated the issue.
When you roll back, either by selecting an old entry in the boot menu, or using the
nixos-rebuildcommand you do get an exact replica of the packages from the generation you rolled back to regardless of whether you use channels or flakes. So that's good.The issue comes up in scenarios like these:
nixos-rebuild switchyou get packages from the current channel state again, the one that wasn't working, and things break again.nixos-rebuild switchIn all cases if you're using flakes you can roll back nixpkgs by using an older version of the
flake.lockfile which lets you time-travel nixpkgs independently of changes to other configuration files. With channels you can't manage the nixpkgs revision with your configuration files. You have to go through some manual steps to reset the channel to the nixpkgs commit you want. It can get more difficult if the commit you want was garbage collected from your local system in the meantime. See https://discourse.nixos.org/t/how-to-roll-back-channel-to-currently-active-version/43161In my experience upstream nixpkgs rarely break things, and reverting to an earlier nixpkgs revision is not the best answer. But every once something happens, like a failure in hydra means some package isn't in the binary cache, and it's too much for me to build locally (this happened with Electron a few weeks ago), so I can't use the latest packages until hydra catches up; or there's some configuration update I need to make for the latest packages, and I don't have time to work on that for a bit.
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 352d
I'd rather just use any distro with Ansible for configuration
hallettj@leminal.space · 2 pts · 351d
I've done that too, and it's not the same IMO. Ansible doesn't put entries in the boot loader for older system states you can boot into in case you break something. It's possible that Ansible configurations aren't idempotent. The exact versions of packages that get installed can't easily be managed with Ansible if you're also regularly updating packages. There's lots of stuff that is much easier to configure with NixOS and Home Manager. I found my Ansible configs were always out of date, which doesn't happen with NixOS where editing the config file is how you make any system changes.
entwine@programming.dev · 1 pts · 351d
KDE recently released their own immutable distro based on Arch. It's still early though, so maybe use Bazzite or Kinoite in the meantime.
OpenSUSE MicroOS is another immutable like Fedora Atomic, and you can use it as a desktop.
unknown1234_5@kbin.earth · 1 pts · 350d
yeah ive heard about KDE Linux but its too early to use rn. hadn't heard of microOS
illusionist@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 352d
Although fedora is unlikely to break bad anytime soon, it's better to support a distro with a good downstream company.
mrcleanup@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 352d
Garuda has been great for gaming, super easy and stable. I landed there after Bazzite and it has been great.
unknown1234_5@kbin.earth · 1 pts · 350d
might have to look at that