Hey fellow Linux enthusiasts! I'm curious to know if any of you use a less popular, obscure or exotic Linux distribution. What motivated you to choose that distribution over the more mainstream ones? I'd love to hear about your experiences and any unique features or benefits that drew you to your chosen distribution.
I use Ubuntu, which is apparently the least popular distro around.
I use Manjaro and based on the downvotes I received when mentioning it around here, I can assure that you are excused and you can give me this crown.
Lol same. When I installed Manjaro it was a popular choice, but in the past couple years sentiment has really turned against it. I haven't experienced any of the problems people claim it has, so I can't be arsed to distro hop again.
Exactly where I'm at. I've had no issues with it, I have my home computer all set up and customized over the last 3 years, I'm not doing that again just to say that I'm on a different distro unless something goes very wrong.
I understand the criticisms of manjaro, and don't recommend it to people, but it seems to be the only distro to work with my hardware/software without issue. So for now, here I am.
Manjaro is great. I keep on coming back to it time to time.
Fantastic distro.
None of the criticisms people have against it affect me.
I use Ubuntu, it's the default for ROS. I tried debian but the instructions didn't work instantly so I just as quickly gave up and went back to Ubuntu since I was busy. Lol.
In fairness, I've been using it since 2004. So I was using a less popular linux. It's not my fault the world has changed. So I think it counts and is completely relevant to the spirit of the question. /s
why not use rhino linux instead? ubuntu but rolling release
Not OP, but as someone using Ubuntu LTS releases on several systems, I can answer my reason: Having the latest & greatest release of all software available is neat, but sometimes the stability of knowing "nothing on my system changes in any significant way until I ask it to upgrade to the next LTS" is just more valuable.
My primary example is my work laptop: I use a fairly fixed set of tools and for the few places where I need up-to-date ones I can install them manually (they are often proprietary and/or not-quite established tools that aren't available in most distros anyway).
A similar situation exists on my primary homelab server: it's running Debian because all the "services" are running in docker containers anyway, so the primary job of the OS is to do its job and stay out of my way. Upgrading various system components at essentially random times runs counter to that goal.
Yeah, I use Ubuntu LTS on my server because updates make me nervous. I can't just update it all willy-nilly. If something goes wrong during an update, I must stop what I'm doing and get it up ASAP.
A few months ago I accidentally deleted grub the morning before I went to an all day concert, and I had lots of unhappy people that were using services that I host. Luckily that was an easy fix.
My laptop, though? I use Opensuse Tumbleweed. I'm fine with the rolling release for my laptop. Just not my server.
Also not OP, but I learned about the pain of Nvidia drivers the hard way. No way in hell am I letting my system auto update on a work day