Maybe what I’m looking for is the holy grail, but what do you guys suggest as a Distro with a good balance between stability and up-to-date packages?

  • mFat
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    142 years ago

    Fedora. Switched after years of Ubuntu and never looked back.

  • @[email protected]
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    32 years ago

    Could always install endeavouros and or arch if you prefer more work with btrfs and snapshots. Arch is mostly stable despite the laughter erupting from this post. Even if it does fall down you have the snapshots to fallback to in order to bail you out. Arch is like riding and steering a rocket but having btrfs is like having extra lives so crashing doesn’t really kill you forever. Depends on what you want.

    The good news is if you try arch long enough and spend hours tinkering with cutting edge software you too can come to the point where you are exhausted and just want a machine that does what the hell you want without screwing around with it. Or you can change your avatar to some sort of anime character and bask in the superiority of not only using arch but enjoying it like some sort of digital masochist.

  • ManeraKai
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    22 years ago

    Kubuntu (Ubuntu but KDE), both great KDE UI and stable kernel. I use Kubuntu LTS.

  • @[email protected]
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    202 years ago

    NixOS would fit the bill if you’re not afraid of something different. With Nix it’s trivial to cherry pick from unstable channel if you still want a stable base.

    • @[email protected]
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      32 years ago

      It gets close, but NixOS doesn’t have LTS releases yet, so you’ll still be updating at least every six months. Combining the Nix package manager with a Debian stable or Ubuntu LTS might be an option, that gives you a stable base and a few up to date packages on top. However integrating the Nix packages with Debian can get tricky when it comes to core packages such as window manager or DE.

      • Justin
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        2 years ago

        tbf neither does Fedora.

        But yeah, I would recommend either Debian or NixOS, depending on how stable you want it.

      • @[email protected]
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        22 years ago

        Is this not solved by using the “unstable” nixpkgs channel or is that something different?

        I’m a NixOS newbie and still learning a lot about it haha

        • dblsaiko
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          32 years ago

          The stable branches promise no breaking changes (in configuration options etc.). Unstable is a rolling release with everything that entails (personally I use it on desktops and stable on servers).

        • @[email protected]
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          22 years ago

          The NixOS unstable channel allows you to get the new packages, but what OP wants is also a stable system and NixOS doesn’t really offer. NixOS has new releases every six months and only provides security updates for one month after a new release is out. So you’ll be updating pretty frequently and things do break in those updates pretty frequently.

          Ubuntu LTS in contrast promises security updates for up to 10 years and they have LTS releases every 2 years. So you can basically install it once and forget about it. The downside is that Ubuntu has no way to install new software on the old system by itself, which is why a mix of Ubuntu LTS and Nix might be worth a consideration in some situations, that gives you both a stable base and bleeding edge software.

  • @[email protected]
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    262 years ago

    What is your definition of stability? I have used Arch for about ten years without any major breakage, but sometimes you do have to do some manual tinkering if a package stops working. So it’s stable enough for me, but maybe not for others. Since it is a rolling release, packages are generally being updated quite rapidly.

    I think that any modern rolling release distro would fit the bill though.

    • Meow.tar.gz
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      62 years ago

      This here! I actually have had really good luck using Arch. I’ve been running it for only a month now and I make certain to patch/update once a week. Thus far it has not left me stranded. I think Arch is underrated as an OS.

      • @[email protected]
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        162 years ago

        I think Arch is underrated as an OS.

        I don’t think Arch is anywhere near “underrated”. The “I use Arch, btw” meme didn’t come out of nowhere. A lot of distros are based on Arch too. Even SteamOS (so the Steam Deck is essentially powered by Arch).

        In that regard: yes, Arch is awesome. I use it, btw.

        • Meow.tar.gz
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          12 years ago

          Arch powers pretty much everything except my server which is Proxmox. Yep, Arch is awesome!

      • @[email protected]
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        02 years ago

        You will only notice the downside of a rolling release distribution when using it for years. Large breaking changes might unexpectedly be applied to your system, instead of at fixed points in time like with other distributions.

  • @[email protected]
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    92 years ago

    Depending on your definitions of up to date and stable:

    Any of the releases every 6 months distros are more stable and reasonably up to date - something like Fedora even keeps the kernel updated during those months

    OpenSUSE Tumbleweed is rolling release with something called “openQA” that is run on the distro before releasing the snapshot to help stability. It also uses BTRFS with something called “snapper” by default, so if something breaks, you can pick the previous version from the bootloader

    • Lemmy.ml
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      112 years ago

      +1 for Tumbleweed, it works so incredibly well. In the very rare case where an update doesn’t work out for you, you can easily roll back to a previous btrfs snapshot.

      Fedora is quite nice, too, but I’ve come to prefer rolling distros over a release based one.

      Kalpa / Aeon might be interesting, too, if your use case fits an immutable distro.

    • @[email protected]
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      82 years ago

      This or Fedora which per release cycle aims for binary compatibility but happily updates packages if compatibility stays fine.

    • @[email protected]
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      42 years ago

      After many years on Ubuntu I switched to a Tumbleweed and couldn’t be happier. Apparently a rolling distro can be more reliable than a traditional point-release one.

  • IAmHeroForFun
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    -22 years ago

    Manjaro OS is stable and gives upto date packages seems this should meet your requirements.

    • @[email protected]
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      12 years ago

      Manjaro’s delayed package system can actually make things less stable if you use AUR. I’d recommend EndeavourOS for that experience, it’s very similar to Manjaro but in my experience hasn’t broken as much

    • @[email protected]
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      52 years ago

      I started using nixos this week and love it; it’s like everything I love about containers made into an OS.

  • @[email protected]
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    22 years ago

    Gentoo, obviously.

    I use it since it works. But it also has up to date packages. Number of times I tried moving away from it and it is just not possible.

    I use Mint on side-desktop (one with graphic card I use for gaming and deep learning) and while it is easy to use it also has old software, python is stuck on 3.7 or 3.8 so it is becoming unusable even.

    Will gentoo give you some problems? Probably, but those are always solvable and you will spend less time on other stuff.

  • @[email protected]
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    12 years ago

    VanillaOS is pretty much what you’re asking for. The only real downside right now is that Orchid probably won’t have KDE support out of the gate

  • @[email protected]
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    202 years ago

    The holy grail, stable and up-to-date, it exists, it’s called Debian with Flatpaks.

    Install Debian. Avoid doing any changes to your package selection, try to get things from flatpaks.

    • @[email protected]
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      72 years ago

      This is my preferred way off doing things, but trying to glue VSCode + Android Studio + the Flutter SDK + Docker + … together via Flatpack was an exercise in pain and sadness last time I tried it.

      Getting all my normal boring desktop apps via Flatpack is awesome, but for a developer it just doesn’t seem practical right now

      • @[email protected]
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        22 years ago

        If you’re a developer and want a stable distro you’ll need a way to have up to date dev environments. I would use Nix or containers.

    • @[email protected]
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      -22 years ago

      Problem with debian is it’s stable in the sense of unchanging, not necessarily a lack of bugs.

      He’s saying he wants up to date packages and stability, which seems to mean he was current software without bugs. That’s not debian stable.