Linux

i switched to nixos after using arch for like 12 years.

I like having my stable daily driver (currently PopOS) and a separate drive or partition for a rotating distro that may pose more of a learning curve (NixOS right now). So it doesn't really feel like hopping, more like a stable and a sandbox.

I've also hopped distros on a scale of several years at a time. Loved Arch before I was living on an awful internet connection; did Ubuntu until they messed with snaps; loved Tumbleweed for a few years, but the volume of updates was getting a bit much; nearly learnt Nix but a trial run of Home Manager went up in flames, then I realised multiple layered package versions wasn't worth the 'stability'; now Mint's been doing the job nicely, but I'm tempted to try KDE's new distro someday.

Variety is the spice of life. I've used Slackware, Arch, Gentoo, Fedora, Nix, been on Debian the last few years. Been looking at setting up my own UBlue image. I really like the immutable thing. Do whatever makes you happy..

I hopped more for different desktop experiences than distro. now I've settled into arch for the last 12+ years

Distrohopping is just a symptom of FOMO (Fear of missing OpenSUSE)

no see a doctor

I started using Linux 2 years back.

Here's the cause and it's normal.

I remember going through a lot of hopping the first 3 or 4 years but have been settled on Arch since then.

Who cares if it's normal or not. You do you

Pretty normal if you've never used debian.

Debian is the cure to distro hopping

Are you even a real Linux user when you don't switch distros every day?

Personally I'm usually content for a long time. Although my ideal distro still doesn't exist and probably never will with the way the meta is currently going.

But you do you. You know how hard/easy it is to reinstall so as long as you're having fun just experiment away.

Distro hopping is fairly normal if you're still relatively new to Linux, I guess you do it less as time goes on, because you'll have a better idea of whether or not a specific distro is appealing to you or not. To be able to even judge that you have to try out some distros for yourself, of course, so you need to do some distro hopping in order to tell what "direction" of distro is best for you. Sure you can read about it or watch videos but it's never the same as actually running it for yourself.

I've been using Linux for 25 years. I started with SuSe, switched to RedHat after a couple months, and after a few more months switched to Gentoo... for 10 years, then did Arch for the remainder.

Frankly, I think that distro hopping is a bad idea because it means you don't get enough time really understanding how to fix things. As a long time Arch user, it would never occur to me to throw out 10+years of tooling and scripts, muscle memory and shorthand to fix a driver issue. I would read the wiki top to bottom and then go spelunking through other sources until I find the solution (then update the wiki) before I'd switch to something foreign with its own set of problems and unknowns.

My advice is to find a distro that makes sense to you, and that has a deployment pattern you like and commit to it for a few years. Don't switch unless you find something that fulfills those two requirements even better, and even then do so cautiously. Your experience and understanding is hard-won.

It’s normal if you feel like it, don’t care about others opinions too much ;)

My opinion : far too many distros are « pet distros », a few are actually usable for servers, for desktop as a daily driver and do actual stuff instead of figuring out how to make things work/look pretty.

TLDR: Is it normal to distro hop after being using a distro perfectly for so long?

I have used the same distribution (Debian) for over 20 years when I decided to change distributions and switch to NixOS. Debian was - and still is - a very fine distribution. I just needed something radically different.

So, to answer your question: yes, it is perfectly normal. Two years isn't even long.

Yes, normal. It is good for you and it is good for Linux.

Distros try different things, and it is good to be exposed to many of those. It helps to discover the most functional ideas and cross pollinate.

Wait until you try non-linux FOSS OSes...

Easier to distro hope if your data is safe elsewhere.

I distro hopped last year. Proud user of Debian for 15+ years, switched for Void.

Amazing little distro, simple just how I like it.

back when i started with Linux, i would distro hop in the beginning since i was trying out different ones, making mistakes, but taking that knowledge with me onto the next one. Then i discovered Manjaro, then EndeavourOS and have been on it for years now

Have thought about reinstalling EOS once i rebuild my computer, but see how that goes -

Not normal, you are a weirdo.

I use W11 bloat edition, BTW

Every Linux user has to go through a period of compulsive distro hopping. Don't worry, eventually you'll grow tired of it and just settle on one workhorse distro.

I think this is part of tge beauty of linux, you hop till you're happy 😀

I distro-hopped so many times I got so sick of change that I've stuck with Debian for 4 years, the longest ever. It's a peaceful life.

Almost a year? I've been on the same one for about 15.

Oh yeh, totally normal. I switch distros roughly once a year and if I have more than one device on the go then I almost always have different distros on each of them. I think I was with Linux Mint the longest, but even then I switched DE at least 3 times.

Yeah, it's normal. There are so many flavours of Linux out there, why wouldn't you want to try some of them?

It's perfectly normal, especially when you're still so green. I've distro hopped lots for my first 4 years, started with Ubuntu, and tried a bunch of stuff until settling for Arch back in 2008. Since then I've tried one or another distro for some amount of time or specific purpose, e.g. servers running Debian, work machines running Ubuntu, and there was a 2 year gap where I used Gentoo as my main system (but despite things that I loved there, I just didn't had the patience). Just the other day I was talking about Bazzite with someone here on Lemmy, and they made such a good defense for it that I might install it on a VM for testing, I've also been wanting to give NixOS a serious try any day. All of which is to say, yes man, trying different stuff is normal, even if you're perfectly happy with what you have you won't know if there's anything better for you unless you try it, I used to think I was happy on Windows.

NB: setup a NAS with either nfs or smb/cifs or fish/sshfs for your home folder.

That way wherever or whatever distro you boot on your home network you can mount your home folder and relogin with all your data and configs in place. Replicate if you want local copies with rsync to avoid duplication and drift.