I've tried out three Linux distros so far: Mint, Arch, and EndeavorOS. Mint was decent but I found Cinnamon a bit limiting as my main desktop environment. Arch was my best installation yet, but I ended up breaking update compatibility because I wasn't updating frequently. I thought EndeavorOS would be better, but it turned out to be a worse experience than just plain Arch and faced similar issues.
I'm not really a power user and I need a distro that will work reliably without breaking when I don't use it for a month at a time. I primarily use my PC for CD archival and light gaming, so I want something that stays reasonably up-to-date without too much hassle or constant reinstalls. I'm currently considering Fedora Kinoite or OpenSUSE Leap but I'm uncertain if they will allow easy recovery from broken updates. Also, I use an Nvidia GPU, so low-friction installation for that would be great.
My specs are:
- Ryzen 5 4500
- 16GB DDR4
- RTX 3050
Thanks for any suggestions!
6 Answers
You should really check out Kubuntu. It's based on Ubuntu but comes with KDE right out of the box. It's user-friendly yet powerful, which makes it a great choice for long-term use. Plus, the community support is extensive, so you'll find answers to most of your questions pretty easily.
If ease of installation is key, you might want to give Manjaro a shot. It's a more stable version of Arch, and I've had a pretty smooth experience with it over the last few years. Minimal issues and they have a great GUI package manager. Just a heads up, though: what do you mean by broken update compatibility?
Fedora Kinoite sounds like it could be a perfect fit for you! It's immutable, which means the core system is read-only and won't break that easily. Updates are atomic, so if something goes wrong, you can roll back to the last stat. And for the NVIDIA driver, you just need to layer it on using the rpm-ostree install command.
If you need something reliable, I'd say Debian is your best bet. It doesn't force you to update if you don't want to, and it’s a proven distro for stability. You might want to consider whether to go with vanilla Debian Stable or try a user-friendly fork like MX Linux. It's worth looking into!
OpenSUSE might fit your needs well too. It comes with btrfs by default, which allows you to take snapshots before and after updates, giving you a backup to roll back to if something goes wrong. Plus, they have a setup called Aeon which is like a set-and-forget snapshot system. Just keep in mind it’s still in RC phase.
Honestly, I think Fedora is a solid choice. It keeps the last three kernels, so if an update messes things up, you can revert back to a known good version without too much hassle. Plus, they have KDE available as well if you’d prefer that over Gnome. What specifically did you find limiting about Mint?
That makes sense, I've heard good things about both. What do you think about MX Linux for light gaming?