any distro without systemd
this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2025
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My distro is the best because I customized it to my needs. Also because I used it for so long that I know how to do almost anything on it.
2nd one I picked up, works nicely, is for lesbians, what else could I want
What distro is that?
https://uwuntuos.site/ obvi?
But seriously though, Arch all the way, because it teaches me about Linux and computers, because I can customize all the packages at OS install (without the need for lengthy compiling like Gentoo) and because my Steam games work flawlessly on it.
FYI, Gentoo has official binhost now, so emerge does not have to compile the package for you any more. But you still can, if you want. Like if you want to choose different useflags, use saved configs, apply patches, etc.
Void made Linux fun again for me. It gets so much right with the rolling release model.
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I use Arch since approximately 2006 or so. I like its stability (yes!), performance, rapid updates and technical simplicity. It never stands in my way and it's fairly simple to understand, administer and modify. It's probably the most convenient OS I've ever used - sure it takes time/effort to set it up but once you're past that it's smooth sailing. It also doesn't change dramatically over the years (it doesn't need to) so it's easy to keep up with its development. Plus, I have a custom setup script for it that installs and sets up all of the basics, so if I ever need to reinstall, I'm not starting from zero.
I am eyeing NixOS as "the next step" but didn't yet experiment with it too much. Arch is just too comfy to use and the advantages that NixOS brings aren't yet significant enough for me to make any kind of switch to it, but I consider NIxOS (as well as its related technologies like the Nix package manager) to be the most interesting and most advanced things in the Linux world currently.
If you're reading this as a newbie Linux user: probably don't use any of the two mentioned above (yet). They're not considered entry-level stuff, unless you're interested in learning low-level (as in: highly technical) Linux stuff from the start already. NixOS/Nix in particular is fairly complex and can be a challenge even for veteran Linux admins/users to fully understand and utilize well. Start your journey with more common desktop distros like Mint, Fedora, Kubuntu.
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I've been running Ubuntu Studio for almost a decade, but I'm pretty fed up with it. Maybe I'll switch to Arch. I dunno. Having a turnkey media production distribution was handy. It did audio well. But with pipewire, that seems redundant now.
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Any Arch-based distribution gives you a ton of control to do whatever you want with it as long as you know what you're doing. Having used Linux myself for 5 years, nothing beats Arch-based for me. Sure, I started with Manjaro (a big mistake for a beginner in my opinion), though I used around four or five distros (including the now defunct Arco Linux while editing for CoculesNation on YouTube), and stuck to CachyOS (same with my producer, actually).
Replying to myself 7 months later.
I'm no longer using CachyOS due to systemd, and the potential that they would end up doing digital ID. Instead, I switched to Artix (and so had my producer) with OpenRC as the init system. The two of us made this decision based upon wanting to control our machines, and not letting IBM do that (through Wayland, systemd, and other things they want to shove down our throats unwillingly).
Really? I guess everyone was 15 at some point and hadn't heard that distro wars are useless 🤣
There is no best. Period.