I use Bazzite so that it matches with my Steam Deck since SteamOS still isn’t an actual distro to play with yet…

I use Debian on my server and Arch on my gaming PC and laptop. Both distros offer minimal installs so I can just add the packages I need and avoid the ones I don’t. Debian offers a nice stable base for running my services with minimal downtime and Arch has the most up to date packages for all the cutting edge features I want on desktop.

What distro do you use

I daily drive secureblue.

and why?

Long story short; I love me some security. Unfortunately, My device is far from ideal for running Qubes OS. From within the remaining options, secureblue comes out on top for me.

Fedora with GNOME.

I’ve been using it for over than 10 years in my main computer.

It simply works, it’s nice, fresh packages, stable, GNOME is productivity champion (at least I know all the shortcuts, and how to tweak it to my daily use). I also know how to build and manipulate RPM packages, so it’s pretty convenient.

Tuxedo OS. Before that, I was very happy with Fedora, and then I got a tuxedo laptop and tried their distro. Now, I keep using that because I started to enjoy KDE, and I really like their hardware support and how they test and maintain the distro.

Mint, because it seems like the easiest OS for someone who doesn’t know wtf a flatpak is

The other hard drive has Windows, because Fusion360 doesn’t work on Linux. Hey Autodesk, can you hear me? Make it happen please

For devices I need to be productive on, I have LMDE 6. It is rock solid being based on stable Debian, but with the niceties you expect from Mint.

For my gaming PC, I’ve got Bazzite on it and so far so good. Just used it for entertainment and gaming but if I were doing coding or app development I’d either have to adjust how I do that to suit an atomic distro, or I’d just use LMDE as I feel I have easier control of what I’m doing on there

Debian and Linux Mint.

Debian for mission critical stuff like servers or things I don’t want to futz with, like HTPCs, work machines, etc.

Mint for my gaming desktop because it’s a bit newer on kernels and such.

openSUSE Tumbleweed. I’ve tried switching to Aurora and Bazzite, but ended up using openSUSE again and now I love it even more.

EDIT: Typos.

EDIT 2: I also love tinkering with Void and Alpine on VMs.

from the comments, there’s a split between

• linux as a tool: debian, mint, fedora, opensuse, etc.
• linux as a toy: arch, gentoo, nixos, etc.

i wish this split was made more explicit, because more often than not someone comes looking for recommendations for linux as a tool, but someone else responds expecting they want linux as a toy. then the person will try out linux and will leave because it’s not what they want, not knowing that there is a kind of linux that is what they want

Debian Testing. It isn’t “recommended” but it works fine.

Obviously if you want AUR you need an Arch variant, in which case just pick Arch.

Edit: I needed the why, it’s up to date enough for me and I know apt well.

Fedora Kinoite. I like KDE, atomic distros and the fact that Fedora is the only (at least that I know of) distro that has proper SELinux implementation.

I also play games on this system, so having newer kernel and Mesa versions help.

NixOS & OpenWRT are my two. NixOS’s Nix language as declarative config is such a great tool for setting up & maintaining a machines for the long-term that despite the initial learning curve has paid off in the long run (Guix or a Nix successor should also be in the same category). OpenWRT is the purpose-built tool it is for having an OS for a router with low overhead & a UI that can be easier to understand the config when networking isn’t something you do on the regular.

Bazzite, I want my PC to just work and not require me to maintain it, on top of that I need it to be game-ready and have good color management for work related stuff.

Plain old Fedora.

I know the hurdles, i know what to expect, and I’ve never been surprised by it.

Immutable sounds nice, AUR sounds nice, NixOS sounds nice, but i am utterly confident in my current choice’s reliability and comfortable with its idiosyncracies. Everything i want to do works very well.

If i had less time/energy or had to switch, Kubuntu would be my second choice. Less frequent updates and fewer creature comforts, but also very reliable.