Fedora KDE for anything I need a GUI for, Debian for anything headless.
I've used damn near everything else in 30 years of Linux, but I'm pretty sure my tombstone will run Debian.
this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2026
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My work PC and gaming PC are Kubuntu, my media server is Debian, and my Home Assistant server is macOS, because it's an M1 mini. So yeah, kinda. I thought about putting the server on Kubuntu, but in the end figured I'd go for as stable as possible.
Laptop arch
Web servers Debian or fedora.
Looking into slackware for self hosting
I used to with LMDE (client) and Debian (server), but Cinnamon was a little bit too stuttery on the rickety old hardware I have (i5-5200U NUC and i5-5250U MBA), so now the NUC runs CachyOS with Xfce and the MBA runs Win10 LTSC because sometimes Windows is needed for my studies or certain voxel game leaks.
Yep. Debian. I like apt, and I like shit that just....works. Very form after function. So what if a bunch of packages are on "old" versions. They work. The kernel works. KDE Plasma works. I can do everything I want to do without having to constantly be on the bleeding edge. If you prefer newer things, great. I prefer older, proven things. That's also why I drive Toyota cars and Honda motorcycles.
My Proxmox cluster runs...uh...Proxmox, which is based on Debian. NAS runs OMV which runs on top of Debian. Laptops all run Linux Mint Debian Edition, and so does my 5800X3D/7900XTX gaming PC. The only non-Debian machines in my house are my wife's iMac and Macbook Pro, and the Home Assistant mini PC.
ZorinOS for the desktop and PopOS on the laptop which also serves as a Plex server.
Welcome to Lemmy π«Ά
laptop & desktop: both fedora silverblue
home server: fedora server
I do, but it's more out of laziness than anything else. I hate having to remember sixteen different ways of doing things, so I tend to configure all my stuff as identical as reasonably possible. Is this the best way of doing things? Probably not. But it keeps my blood pressure down.
I used to use a variety. Iβd use Arch on my desktop/gaming machine, Fedora on my laptop, and Debian on my server. But I got the NixOS bug a few years back and now I use that everywhere. Itβs great to have every change and configuration documented and available for easy review or modification, and built in generation rollbacks are a lifesaver.
Thinking of building an HTPC from some spare parts, and I think thatβll be the machine to buck the trend. Bazzite will be everything I need out of the box for that purpose without any effort for maintenance. Itβs not getting customized or doing anything but games and media
I've converted everything to NixOS (Desktop, laptop, nas and 3d printer, rpi with home assistant) only my router is still pfSense (and thus BSD). It just makes configuration and updating so much easier from one central configuration. And I don't have to remember what and how I installed something. It's just there in my flake.
I haven't looked at Nix in detail but you got me interested for 3d printers in particular, already have my klipper config in git if an SD card fails on me, going to have to look at doing that for the os too.
I love it for using klipper. But when I started doing it the klipper pkgs did give me some troubles. You can work around them, but know you might find some issues on the way. Maybe it's better now, I haven't really updated that part of my config much recently.
Do know that not all arm devices are equally supported. rpi 3 and 4 are, the rest is community based (see: https://nixos.wiki/wiki/NixOS_on_ARM). Personally I run klipper on a x86_64 thin client for this reason and because raspberry pi's were scarce and expensive back then.
How quick could you pick it up? And how does it handle one config for different devices (due to different hardware(fstab/cryptsetup differences), propietary/non-mainlined drivers?
I have been thinking about switching because I'd love a reproduciable system but fear it would take some of that flexibility I rely on (I've had some issues with ftstab/cryptsetup and initramfs customizations on the fedora atomic base of bazzite on my steamdeck).
I have to be honest and say it was a journey. Nix in itself isn't really difficult I find. But everything together and finding the right documentation and figure out how NixOS comes together can be a bit daunting.
But a simple straight forward config is pretty doable. My advice is to start small and build up. You can reuse your old dotfiles and include them in the configuration directly, so you don't have to convert everything to nix (right away). Also don't scare away from using flakes, they are the way to go in my opinion.
You can define multiple hosts/systems in one configuration with each their own nixosSystem call. So you can define hardware/fs/network etc per system.
Also I like to add that the vimjoyer video's on nix helped me with understanding some of the concepts, They are usually short and straight to the point.
No, and that's the beauty of Linux.
Desktop gaming PC: Fedora KDE (might try Bazzite if I stop dual booting Windows, but I already got Nvidia set up and that's the hard part)
Old laptop: Zorin OS
Old as dirt laptop: antiX
Wife's Surface: Pop!_OS 22.04. Maybe change it eventually to something lighter.
I will likely go with Ubuntu Server or Debian when I set up my home server. Ubuntu seems like it has better Docker support.
Almost everything is Debian - my servers, my desktop and laptops, my family member's computers, the living room media player. Only exceptions are my router (OpenWRT) and my Steam Deck (SteamOS).
Yes, Debian. It's called the universal operating system for a reason.
Same, literaly only have bazzite and android on one device each with everything else being Debian.
Although I have been thinking about switching to Nix for a more robust backup/restore setup.
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Servers are all Debian. Family member's laptops are all Debian. I used Debian on my laptops for 20 years, but when Steam Deck switched to Arch, I switched my laptop to Arch to force me to learn it. I have a file with notes of differences between Debian and Arch. Next time I buy a new laptop, I will probably go back to Debian.
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Arch on user PCs and Debian on anything else. This is with the exception that our big server is on Proxmox and the NAS (as well as off-site backup) are on unRaid.
Tbh I still consider Proxmox as Debian, so you're pretty much there ;).
I actually agree, I just broke it out for this discussion.
All my servers are Debian. All my personal machines are Fedora KDE.
Yes. Everything is NixOS. Because it's perfect for everything.
What is the learning/on-boarding curve for this?
I ask because my home folder has a giant just file I use to script everything. I feel like Iβm 80% there to just migrating.
It's a very steep curve to start, with some additional minor steep parts along the way, but it's not a long curve. Once you got the core concepts and the basic language constructs, you've learned most of what you'll ever need.
Two nice resources: search.nixos.org is super handy, and you can search GitHub with language:nix and a search term to get tons of examples from other people.
Oh, and nix and just is actually a pretty common combo!
And it's very handy for this, I have the same config for all my devices (desktop, laptop and server). Enabling and disabling different modules depending on the host it's deployed to.
Yep, exactly.
To be fair, if you use Debian, Arch, Fedora,... long enough, you also know how to tweak your machine for every purpose. In Nix, it's just somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy, because you have to know how to tweak your system to achieve.... anything, and then it's the same tweaking mechanics for every other purpose as well.
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It causes issues, like bazzite has the same profile name, IDK if I missed the option to change it. Cant use the virtual mouse swap across computers because they require different names and it has an error related to that.
i have slackware 15 on all, it's great how i can just copy over binaries and they just run because all the linked libraries are the same version
Awesome. I've been meaning to try out slackware forever. Would love to use it as my servers
No. Debian on the server. CachyOS on the laptop OPNsense / FreeBSD on the router-firewall appliance.
I don't really feel like I need a single OS across everything. The lack of that has never been an issue.
I love how this post doesn't even pretend that anyone may use anything but Linux. Classic Lemmy.
Whoa, thatβs completely untrue buddy.
Some people here use BSD-based systems.
Self-hosting on Windows Server is a pain I don't need in my life.
i do use freebsd :) and occasionally win7/10..
usage goes like freebsd >>> linux > m$win
I don't see anyone here saying "actually I use BSD" so it seems to have been a safe assumption
I mix, my server and laptop are nixos but I use an arch variant on my desktop. Mostly I do this because of various pain points with nixos and gaming.
Any pain points in specific you could point out?
All normal PCs run CachyOS, includes gaming PCs, laptops and media PCs. All servers run some form of Debian (includes Proxmox) or a dedicated distro for their use (TRUE WAS, technically also Debian based).
I didn't use to, but I do now. Debian on everything (except the Proxmox servers, but Proxmox is basically Debian too)
yes. Everything is Fedora Silverblue, except servers they are ubuntu on proxmox.
My hobby is gaming, linux is just a means to do that hobby, not a hobby itself.
Your comment intrigues me... I need to switch, but I'm like you...gaming is my hobby, not OSes. You make it sound like it's plug and play as far as gaming goes?
For me it depends on computer capability. 3 generations of laptop... Current: PopOS Older: MiniOS Oldest (32bit): AntiX
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Ubuntu for the main pc and Arch for the filthy weird frankenstein laptop from 2008. Just as god intended.
I'm all some Debian dereritive, whether it's Q4OS or just Debian,
The machines I use regularly are all some form of ArchLinux (currently mostly CachyOS). Machines I use rarely I stick to LTS distros with few updates. Machines I don't maintain myself I try to stick to immutable distros that just update themselves every once in a while (less chance of breakage).
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