Ask HN: Why do you use the Linux distro that you use?

Manjaro + KDE. Rolling releases keep KDE and everything else up to date.

We'll see how much longer I use this setup. I've gravitated towards it lately because I have it installed on my desktop, which despite being 5 years old is still faster than my 16" MBP.

If a compelling iMac or xMac gets released in the next year or two then my desktop may end up going back to live in the closet.

Fedora (KDE Spin): Good compromise between reliability and bleeding edge, decent compatibility with my laptop (ThinkPad Carbon X1), the best KDE experience out of the box, some sysadmin skills directly transferable to RHEL

Works well out of the box, has all of the proprietary codecs and drivers that are required, and I prefer that particular desktop layout.

Mint MATE.

Otherwise: Debian Testing with MATE Desktop

I use Debian, not because of the quality of the software but because of the bug tracking system and the mailing lists and because I know how to find the source for any package and rebuild it if I have to. Perhaps some other distributions have bug tracking systems and so on that are just as good, but it would be a lot of work for me to learn how to use them, so I stick with Debian where possible.

Well, I use WSL so the distros don't matter much (not like I have a desktop environment), but I like Ubuntu because as the biggest Linux distro, almost everything has been entered into the Ubuntu or Debian repos and/or is available as a .deb.

Mint Mate

Mint packages are not as out of date as ubuntu has been, Mate offers me a better desktop UI than gnome and lighter weight than Cinnamon. Still has awesome community support.

Pop OS:

- Well integrated with my System 76 laptop.

- Never a problem with drivers, wifi, bluetooth, etc. It all just works.

- Good looking, out of the "box".

- Good availability of packages.

- Never had a problem with package upgrades.

- Excellent support from System 76 (although that's not a property of the distro).

I used to use Arch because of AUR and pacman, rolling distro, and the cool factor but then I switched to Mac OS because of stability, features, and the Apple ecosystem (there is absolutely nothing like it)

Using Ubuntu because it was the easiest to setup back in the days. Canonical even used to send boxes of free CDs if you promised that you'll distribute them.

Lubuntu: lightweight, well suited for older laptops.

I'm using Ubuntu for the sane default settings, community, available tools, regular OS updates, ease of use.

Slackware: reliability & simplicity