If not solus, what distro would you be using

amaanat2017

Clear linux

WetGeek

v3l0ct I actually like XFCE

I used KDE on openSUSE for years, but then changed to Xfce, and was pleased that it performed so much better, and had all the features I wanted or needed. If Budgie weren't available on a distro I was trying out, I'd gladly settle for Xfce.

Brucehankins

WetGeek have you tried LXQt? It's performance is comparable to XFCE, but it looks ever so slightly more modern and can be themed to a greater extent. I was really impressed with Lubuntu and kept it around on a second drive for a while.

Junglist

I'd most likely use Pop OS, even though I prefer rolling release model, because there is no other rolling release distro that's as stable as Solus.

WetGeek

Brucehankins have you tried LXQt

Yep. I can't remember what distro it was on (I've tried so many). I went through a phase where I was very interested in lightweight distros and DEs, not because my hardware was short on resources, but I just found lightweight software to be faster and more fun to use.

When I found Solus, though, I pretty much stopped looking at any other distros. And despite my brief infatuation with Plasma, I still tend to compare all other DEs with Budgie. I've never gotten used to the name, though.

elfprince

Brucehankins Yes, I remember using Lubuntu while I was searching for a suitable rolling distro before I found Solus. It is nice and light, plus fast 😀

[deleted]

DraugerOS 7.5.1

pastorczo13

POP OS or Manjaro Budgie

meinherz

Unfortunately, I was forced to abandon Solus. With all due respect to the distribution, I can't accept the fact that /usr/bin/ping has a suid, this is fundamental for pwsh, which loses some features, and therefore for me. At the moment I use ArcoLinux, which works amazingly.

WetGeek

meinherz

I feel really happy I don't have a problem like this with Solus! 🤣

algent

meinherz I think maybe ArcoLinux (which uses Arch Linus repository) have the ping from iputils by default, while Solus by default uses ping from inetutils.
Solus offer both packages but the ping of iputils package is renamed on Solus as iputils-ping to avoid the conflict with the ping from inetutils. Normally you have to use an alias like alias ping='iputils-ping'.

meinherz

WetGeek
I don't consider myself unhappy either. If there were unsolvable problems with Arco, I would change it without regret.

judd

any form of BSD

jrsilvey

The first version of Linux I ran was Ubuntu MATE. I enjoyed the Community but eventually borked my system. After that I ran Zorin OS and enjoyed it very much until I borked my system. I tried running Parrot OS but it was only a short time before.. I borked my system.

I was stuck on Fedora Gnome for a long while. I loved the experience of Gnome 3 and the intuitive design. However Fedora 28 had many simple tasks (like adding a VPN through a .opvn file) that had issues. It took me a month to figure out how to get VPNs running right. Whenever I got things working something would break.

Then I found Solus 3. I loved Budgie immediately. I loved the ease of use. I loved everything.

I couldn't install Solus on my desktop until Solus 3.999 fixed some of the UEFI issues. Once that ISO came out IIRC I migrated every device I owned away from Windows for good. My current desktop has been running stable and secure with only two small issues since March 2019.

I honestly couldn't imagine running anything but a Solus Operating System. I know for certain I would never run a Debian/Ubuntu-based distro again.. I borked them all.

If I were FORCED to choose..

Manjaro Budgie.

However I do not feel safe, secure, or at ease unless I am running Solus. Solus KDE is the only version of KDE I have tried that I felt was usable. Solus Gnome surpasses Fedora Gnome IMO in implementation. Even Solus MATE is superior to Ubuntu MATE IMO.

The only desktop environment where any other distro competes is Manjaro Budgie. I enjoy some of the python-based applets. What I like in this applets though is greatly outweighed by my distrust of the AUR (you might as well be using Windows and getting .exe files from download.com OMG!). There are many programs, such as Vivaldi, that I am only able to download through the AUR and that tarnished my overall experience because I never feel at ease using community based repos.

If Solus disappeared tomorrow I would look for another distro with Budgie. But my real preference is to have Solus installed across my devices because everything just works.

Scotty-Trees

What do you do when a hypothetical question ends up becoming a reality? You post about it of course! So there I was, just a small time Linux enthusiast, the year was 2019 in the month of an unusually brisk November when I posted the following in this thread:

I shudder to think what other distro I'd be using if not Solus 😛

But if I had to, I'd probably be using Fedora or KDE Neon or attempt my hand at Arch. For the record though, none of these distros offer the same stability that Solus has, so thankfully I can compute in peace.

Now fast forward to almost two years later, I went from Solus Gnome to briefly dabble in Solus KDE then landed back into Solus Budgie (used Budgie since 3.9999--inside joke--) while dual booting with PopOS as well. Side note, my hats off to the PopOS team btw, if you don't mind static releases in a Ubuntu-base (without all the Canonical baggage, FYI), they put out one of the most polished distros, especially great for Nvidia users & gamers (an MX150 user myself).

Get to the point man, where is this going?! Well I'm glad you asked! It's both humbling and bittersweet to admit that I have done the unthinkable and nuked my Acer laptop of any trace of Solus or PopOS from my SSD. Ok dude, but you still haven't answered the question (hovers mouse over the close tab button). Now I know what you're thinking and right you are my dear reader, so for ever so patiently waiting this long for what is arguably an anti-climatic build up, I'd like to confess that I have gone and installed EndeavourOS (a near vanilla Arch-based distro, no no no it's not like Manjaro). I'll keep the semantics brief but setup was a bit tricky at first, but the EndeavourOS wiki was helpful enough to get my system operating optimally. Their forum support is also top notch, much like this lovely community is as well.

Now, we all have our own unique reasons for using X,Y,Z distro, whether that be Solus or something else it's all up to us as users to decide what works best for our workflow. I know no one really cares if I use Solus or not (just as long as it's Linux!), but I will admit that it does feel bittersweet to take a journey in a different path than what I've been doing for the last couple years. As any user in the Solus IRC knows, I'm curious of and follow many other distros as well, and I've had my sights on trying an Arch-based distro for a while now. I'm a Linux enthusiast at heart so this is by no means like any kind of goodbye (the distro hopping bug has got me!). I'm just excited and relieved to update y'all as I tread into new territory. It's like I'm just on a different train going down a slightly different track, but in the same direction. I may be overthinking all of this more than I need to, but hey if you've made it this far reading my post, I greatly appreciate it!

So, before I rant anymore than I probably already have for this thread, I would like to leave y'all with a quick screenshot of my current setup, with the waves-of-blue wallpaper as paying a little homage towards the lovely distro that is Solus.

I'd also like to shout-out and thank @Harvey for giving me the courage and the idea to post this here! 😆

Lucien_Lachance

Scotty-Trees is it as prone to breakage as manjaro?

brent

Scotty-Trees You'll be back😉

Solarmass

Scotty-Trees I'd like to confess that I have gone and installed EndeavourOS

Harvey

Scotty-Trees I'd also like to shout-out and thank @Harvey for giving me the courage and the idea to post this here! 😆

All part of the distrohoppers awareness campaign. People think its just harmless fun... Then you end up on EndeavourOS. You think that is your low, but you'll wind up trawling distrowatch at 2am for your next fix and installing Hannah Montana Linux.

Scotty-Trees

Lucien_Lachance Ideally, I think it would all depend on your hardware (old v new for example), in how much breakage you might expect. EndeavourOS is like Arch, but with a GUI installer and one extra repo that includes a few EndeavourOS goodies and that's it. So if there's a problem in Arch, everyone will know it and catch it and fix it, usually within a day or so. Manjaro on the other hand has a whole separate repo that's all their own that essentially holds back packages from the Arch repos for testing purposes before they get released. Holding back packages on a system that is designed to have the latest updates is partially why Manjaro is for some users prone to breakage. EndeavourOS is not like that since it follows Arch.

I've been on EndeavourOS about 2 weeks now, updates come out daily, you can choose to install them every day or wait a week or two if you like, but so far in my experience I haven't had any issues that would break my system. There was an issue on Arch with an os-prober package, that gave users who dual boot some issues, but they fixed that within a day or two. I'm not currently doing a dual boot, so I was able to avoid that. I guess you can expect anything to break, but I chose EndeavourOS over Manjaro in large part to it being more stable, therefore less of a headache for me! Hope that helps a little bit.

@brent there's no plan man, I'm just tinkering and learning where ever the wind takes me for now!
Solarmass Golden Girls is such a classic show too!

[deleted]

Lucien_Lachance No, it's just an "Arch with an installer" kind of deal. Everything else is Arch upstream.

[deleted] Well it's a bad idea in general to use anything Arch-based if one's terrified of the command line.

brent

Scotty-Trees sometimes where the wind blows is the best plan. I've been around since 3.999999 as well (or was there a 3.7 or 3.8 I kinda remember?) and I know you have helped a lot of people graciously who had a lot of problems. Talk to you later.

tomscharbach

Harvey All part of the distrohoppers awareness campaign. People think its just harmless fun...

Ah, distro hop in Gnome Boxes to your heart's content, but if the urge to make a bare metal install becomes overwhelming, take two aspirin and call your Distrohoppers Anonymous sponsor in the morning ...

I've not done a lot of distro hopping over the years. I used Ubuntu 2006 to 2017, tried this and that for a few months, and then settled in on Solus.

I take a look at different distros from time to time in Gnome Boxes, but the thrill is gone rather quickly as I run into issues and read the community forums (the best way I know to understand a distro's structural/systemic weaknesses). I'm not tempted to distro hop for two reasons: (a) Solus Budgie is a near-perfect DE for me, and (b) I had 11 years using Ubuntu to bring me to the conclusion that the Debian/Ubuntu derivative path was a dead end in my case, and that cuts out a lot of distros that might otherwise catch my eye.

I'm chiming in just to thank Scotty-Trees for his contributions to this community, and to wish him well.

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