What's a really good distro for a desktop pc?

Stability is key, as such I want a static release. I don't care how old it is as long as it keeps working (Time is limited, as such I don't like fixing unexpected problems).

A little history. I i've used linux for about 5? years now but mainly PCLinuxOS distro. I have used the command line a little bit, and installed dozens of test systems (even Slackware, 3 times no less), so I can figure it out if I have a good manual.

That's Debian then.

Otherwise, check the options at https://distrowatch.com/search.php?category=Desktop&rolling=Fixed&status=Active

1 members found this post helpful.

You really ought to try a few.

I might suggest Opensuse leap also.

1 members found this post helpful.

I've never tried Opensuse, as I heard somewhere that they made a deal with M$ about copy rights or something to that effect.

What jefro said. Noone but you can decide.
I recommend Gentoo of course. Rock solid, rolling - no dist-upgrades. Once installed will run forever, installation in my desktop is over 12 years old, two motherboard upgrades, a few hard drive upgrades.

You may want to take a look at this thread: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ro-4175623119/

Debian is about as stable is they come. I have also had very positive experiences with Mageia and Slackware, but the current Slackware release (v. 14.2) is rather long in the tooth, so, unless you want to run Slackware --Current (which is a testing version), you might not find that it meets your specifications.

I've used OpenSUSE and experienced no problems with it; something about it just wasn't a good fit for me.

1 members found this post helpful.

i have been running OpenSUSE for a few years now and have not had any issues

it is very stable and updates are well tested

Well, if you don't need new software, then Slackware 14.2 is the obvious choice. It's receiving bugfix and security updates for four years by now and Slackware's stable long term support is longer than Debian or Ubuntu LTS, or even RHEL, as far as I can see. You will also get 4.4.x kernel, which should be rock solid by now, given it has over 200 releases. Though you probably would need to build the source from kernel.org yourself, since Slackware stable kernel is only upgraded for security, as far as I know.

I always suggest MX Linux, Debian based, mid weight distro, good own forum, should you need it.

https://mxlinux.org/

1 members found this post helpful.

YUP. That and LMDE4

Good luck

https://www.linuxliteos.com/manual

https://www.linuxliteos.com/

I like the developer as well as the manual. Forum was pretty good to me also.

MX Linux also recommended is a good choice, with good polite forum support also.

What about PCLinuxOS do you find fault with?

Any major distro should be reliable if you're not diddling with things you don't understand. If both are what you want, I suggest one distro for reliability, and an additional one or more to diddle with - multiboot - or an additional PC, so you can have your reliability while at play.

I have many installations of several top distros on multiple PCs, but since my move of primary from OS/2 to Linux, openSUSE has been my only primary.

Apologies for the late reply, I have been busy. PCLinuxOS is good, has a great team and one of the best communities. An update to xfce has rendered my main pc useless, so it has come to my attention since this is the main pc that everyone uses it needs to be super stable; because it is relied upon for doing most of the pc work by my family. That is also why I want stability and static. People tend to get annoyed when things change, and things are out of place, even if it is better.

Thank you for the suggestions, i'll look through them.
Spiff

OpenSuse has a very slow package manager (zypper) and I've had hardware compability issues.
I recommend arch/ manjaro if you don't want to go through the install process, it's more stable than you think. Just do backups regularly with timeshift. Mainly for software availabilty

Debian. It works great. And on Stable updates do not break things.
Been using it for almost 20 years with few to no problems.