Do you Distro-Hop?

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rossi46

Do you Distro-Hop?

Post by rossi46 »

There was a time when I installed any and all Linux distors that I could find - just for the fun of it.

I got my fingers burned as a n00b with Arch and I quite liked PCLinuxOS (I stayed with that for ages) and I tried everything in between from Debian to OpenSuse.

Some weeks I installed a new distro every night. Then I discovered mint on a Linux Format magazine CD. I've been hooked since.

Have you been a distro-glutton?
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all41
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Re: Do you Distro-Hop?

Post by all41 »

Hi rossi46
new distro every night

Sort of btdt--but really wasn't comfortable until I started using Mint distros. I think Maya was my first realization that I could exclusively use an alternative OS.
Petra was my wean. I have never looked back for my own systems. If win is in my face it is because I'm repairing someone else's computer--and now I have
several of those people dual booting Mint--and liking it.
Everything in life was difficult before it became easy.
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Dutchmaster
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Re: Do you Distro-Hop?

Post by Dutchmaster »

Absolutely! That's how I learned Linux. I started in 1992 with the old Lindows, which later became Linspire. Since then I've tried a zillion distros. I landed with Mint when Cinnamon came out and have been happy since.

Maybe I'm getting old or maybe have seen and dabbled too much, but distro hopping just doesn't jazz me like it used to.
Habitual

Re: Do you Distro-Hop?

Post by Habitual »

I hopped for a few years. An OS junkie.
I had LM10 (Julia?) a couple of years ago, then I went to OpenSUSE for 2 years, Then Slackware for 2 years.

Skype 4.3 killed that and now I'm back to

Code: Select all

System:    Host: my-kungfu Kernel: 3.13.0-24-generic x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: Xfce 4.11.6 
           Distro: Linux Mint 17 Qiana
So, IBM and rightly so.
deleted

Re: Do you Distro-Hop?

Post by deleted »

Yes.
It helps
1) use something like vmplayer (or virtual box) to quite the distro-hop tremors
2) have swap, /, /home partitions and when you hop, don't reformat /home. (it takes about 15 minutes from boot to installed distro)
-Hinto
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jimallyn
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Re: Do you Distro-Hop?

Post by jimallyn »

Not much of a distro-hopper. I just want something that works and I don't have to mess with it. I have used Xandros ever since 2002, but a friend gave me a much newer computer than what I had, so I decided I'd better install a more modern OS on it. Currently using Mint 17 Cinnamon, and so far I haven't had to mess with it. I just bought a large hard drive for this computer, and I left a couple hundred gigs available in case I decide to try some other distros.
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RacerBG

Re: Do you Distro-Hop?

Post by RacerBG »

Distro hopping with my laptop, with my PC Mint XFCE stay like a solid rock and it will never move from there.
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Re: Do you Distro-Hop?

Post by MissileCop »

I used to distro-hop for a bit, right up until I found Linux Mint Daryna. I have other distros on my desktop for educational purposes, but Linux Mint has been my primary distro since 2008.
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Re: Do you Distro-Hop?

Post by xfrank »

a little. But I have no much time to experiment. And Linux for me is first a useful OS, not a toy, so when I find a good distro, I stay with it. At the moment, I have LMDE as my primary OS, and then Manjaro. In another PC I have in use Peppermint 3. PcLinuxOS is not bad, I tried it. I did try some other distros, of course.
Active Distros in my computers: LM21.1 (Mate,Xfce); MXLinux (Xfce)
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Pierre
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Re: Do you Distro-Hop?

Post by Pierre »

used to hop quite a bit 8)

but as the ISOs went up in size & my 'net connection got worse - now am more selective about any downloads.
- but my ISO collection is still growing. ..

& then the VM technique was discovered.
- don't burn so many discs any-more.
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Re: Do you Distro-Hop?

Post by kyphi »

Same here - tried them all until one day it sunk in that it was only the veneer that changed and underneath it was all Linux.

Every month I get a DVD with 2 distros with my Linux magazine subscription. So I fired up Ubuntu 14.04 and found that Unity still did not appeal to me.
What did grab my attention though was on the flip-side. It was Deepin 2014 which had taken the best of Macintosh, the best of Gnome 3 and a few other bits from somewhere else and turned it into something that the Chinese (who made it) can be proud of. Based on Ubuntu 14.04. So that is what Mark Shuttleworth has been up to.

None of these get installed. Linux Mint 17 has conquered them all.
Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon
deleted

Re: Do you Distro-Hop?

Post by deleted »

It is all Linux (except BSD/Solaris ;)).
There's a lot of "just veneer", too.
But there are big differences on where you get your new packages after you install the shiny new linux.
I used to say that when you pick a distro, you pick a repo. And now I say when you pick a distro, you pick a repo, _and_ a community.
"We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately." - Ben Franklin

-Hinto
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xenopeek
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Re: Do you Distro-Hop?

Post by xenopeek »

I'm not much of a distro hopper, but I do keep an interest in general Linux/BSD distros through DistroWatch Weekly and the Linux Action Show (those two get me through Mondays :wink:). Over the years that I ran Ubuntu and later Linux Mint I used VirtualBox a lot to give new ISO releases a look for distros that caught my interest. Since I've moved to Arch Linux earlier this year I've being doing that less and less. With Arch Linux making it so easy to try new applications not in the official repositories yet, I've mostly been trying out new applications instead of new ISO releases.

Most distros are similar underneath as others noted already, differing only in what package manager is used and what desktop environment and applications are installed by default. Once you get to that level of understanding, you lock in the distro that works best for your needs and the rest becomes a bit boring.

I'm only keeping up with Linux Mint ISO releases now :wink:
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Nilla Wafer

Re: Do you Distro-Hop?

Post by Nilla Wafer »

I am far too scared to distro hop! I tried a little with a trusted geek looking over my shoulder, just to learn about burning isos to a disk, making bootable USB drives, HDD partitioning, and customizing stuff. I wanted to learn enough to share Linux with my family and friends. I hope the stuff I learned doesn't change very soon though. It seems like a lot of things in Linux are changing so fast!

But I don't distrohop at all. I love my Mint Xfce, it keeps this old computer running as good as new, and now my parents are using it because it's so simple to use and fast on their computers too! But I was never comfortable with trying out new distros, even with a nice geek nearby to pick up the pieces if I messed up.

~nilla
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Pierre
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Re: Do you Distro-Hop?

Post by Pierre »

"I used VirtualBox a lot to give new ISO releases a look for distros that caught my interest".
- that's the secret :)

- test those ISOs without risking anything, but you will need some extra memory, to achieve that.
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scryan

Re: Do you Distro-Hop?

Post by scryan »

Linux is easy to install, and external drives and seperate /home partitions make it easy to jump around with out having to completely start from scratch.

I'd say if you haven't, you should... If nothing else you will probably learn something going through all the installs, but really the product if free and there is no actual waste by throwing it away and moving on...why NOT cycle through as many as you can until one fits right?
If you have't tried other distros do it. Especially if you have an external HD or a spare usb drive that is at least 8 gig though more hopefully 16+ that you can install onto for testing....
All distros and DE/WM work a little different, depending on what exactly is important to you things will be better or worse. Linux is so modular it really is taking it to its full advantage to try out a large variety of different configurations to see what you like.

I think ultimately you settle on something though, I run a reasonably spartan setup on my laptop (no DE, just WM and a couple applets, no desktop...keybindings for applications, no launchers) and have moved it over to my media pc too. If we keep using the outdated XP laptop at work i will probably move it to the same setup too. I think you hop around till you dial in what you like, then stick with it.
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Re: Do you Distro-Hop?

Post by Derek_S »

rossi46 wrote:There was a time when I installed any and all Linux distros that I could find - just for the fun of it.
Have you been a distro-glutton?
Indeed. In the beginning, which was only about a year and a half ago, I was like a kid in a candy store. Some of the better known distros I tried were Fedora, Ubuntu, Mageia, openSUSE, Zorin, and of course, Linux Mint. Some of the lesser knowns were Peppermint, Vector Linux, and ZevenOS. I also dabbled with Puppy Linux, Linux Lite, and Tails installed on USB flash drive with persistence.

My exposure to both Fedora and Ubuntu was very brief, because I just didn't care for either desktop. Mageia didn't impress me very much either. I liked openSUSE with the KDE desktop, very stable and good to look at, but felt it was geared more towards software development and was a bit too technical in some respects. At least for a noob like me. :mrgreen: Then I tried Zorin, and actually stuck with it for several months. I still have a place in my heart for Zorin, and I must admit that sometimes I find myself recommending it to people who are making the transition from Windows XP to Linux.

After Zorin came Linux Mint 16 with the Cinnamon desktop, and I knew that I had found the one and only. And I was literally counting the days leading up to the release of Linux Mint 17.
"When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself." - Tecumseh
OrangeShark

Re: Do you Distro-Hop?

Post by OrangeShark »

I have jumped around quite a bit. I originally started with Ubuntu, then to Linux Mint and eventually spread out to a bunch of different distros. It was great, there are a lot of great distros with their own pros and cons and everyone should try them out to find whichever suits them. For now, Linux Mint is suiting me fine. :D
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Re: Do you Distro-Hop?

Post by deleted »

Fuzzy Penquin

Re: Do you Distro-Hop?

Post by Fuzzy Penquin »

Yup, I distro hop via VirtualBox. I like exploring the other distros and DE out there. I still like Mint Cinnamon the best, but I do enjoy playing with others too.
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