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Comment by dgritsko | Hacker News Reader

What made you switch from Pop OS? I just installed it on a couple of old PCs I had lying around for my kids to play around with/learn from.

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There was some 3D printer slicer software I needed that wouldnt run, when I finally figured out why it had to do with GLIBC being out of date. I have used Debian since like 2008, and Ubuntu since the mid 2010s so I am accustomed to doing PPA's and what not, but something in me broke and I wanted to finally try something more bleeding edge. I nearly went for Fedora but the version I wanted to try didn't even boot (I don't like to waste any time with command line incantations anymore) so I looked up EndeavourOS I don't remember how I found it, I think a friend said someone they knew used it (turns out they dont LOL) so I gave it a shot.

I had bad experiences with Arch before because of Manjaro, but in hindsight, I think the main issues I had were more to do with how Pacman can get insanely nuanced. When you update packages you have to know what you're doing, it will update all weird, its not like Debian or Ubuntu upgrades where it installs / uninstalls what you do and don't need unless you tell it to be that nuanced.

Long term stability is less important for gaming computers than having the most cutting edge (and theoretically highest performance) drivers. That's why the community leans so heavily towards arch.

Probably same reason most folks who are capable of running Linux don't stay on Ubuntu, etc.

I'm genuinely curious as to what the key differences are (especially those that would cause someone to switch), as someone who is pretty tech savvy but whose use of Linux as a daily driver is admittedly pretty weak.

I would say EndeavourOS is the "Ubuntu" to "Arch" if you will. The installer is easy, and it comes with "yay" out of the box which is a frontend to Pacman which holds your hand in just the right ways. If I want to update my OS I type "yay" into a terminal, hit enter and confirm the packages needing updating (or select which ones I want) and type my password, and that's it. In the past with Manjaro I did a system update with Pacman, and problems ensued.

not OP, but for some it might be availability of latest versions packages (say, you've heard about new major version of Bash or Vim being released today, and wondering how soon it might be available in your distro packages), and, as someone else mentioned, less update stress due to lack of "major version bumps" - just remember to subscribe to https://archlinux.org/news/ and watch out for entries requiring "manual intervention".

You usually try a few distros, until you find the one that does whenever you needed, and then you stick with it for 15 years ;)

From my own experience: 15 years ago, when (except for academia), Linux was very nisje, it was hard to use it. Random rare errors would pop up. On Windows you would know someone who knew what to do, but with Linux? So I chose Ubuntu, because it had the most support. Solution to any error could be found on askubuntu (?) forums. But if you had a friend, you would choose his system and get help from him. I once had university admins very happy to help me with something and even give me some tips.

Nowadays it really doesn't matter that much, other than extra easy (with an LLM everything is already easy) installation of drivers (POP os?)/initial programs you used on Windows (on Mate it takes 10min due to a special GUI appstore).

BUT there are reasons to switch. Like Ubuntu's pushing of very annoying snaps, making it very hard to get Firefox without a snap. Snaps are annoying, because they don't have a cleaning mechanism and old versions just clog your hard drive. They take forever to launch and it's just not a good idea for a browser. Don't mind snaps for other things. There is also Desktop Environment support and support for hidpi monitors and such.

Other than that, there is a little of philosophy. Like super FOSS and idealistic like Debian (i guess? Pls correct me if I'm wrong). Or more business aligned, like Redhat/Fedora. Or elitist that like to waste their users time and make them read manuals for fdisk like Arch, where you have to format your hard drive without GParted or any other GUI.

I'm no pro, but that's a little that came to mind if you wanted to know what mattered in the past.

Folks capable of running linux pick the best distro for the job at hand. They are tools, there is no progression like you're implying.

My homeserver is Ubuntu, my gaming PC is Arch.

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