I know, this is a variant on the ubiquitous "What is the best distro for a newbie?" question. :-)

I am happy with my current distro, Linux Mint 17.3 KDE, but have to balance its stability against the fact that it is more difficult to keep bang up to date with some software e.g. e2fsprogs and new kernels. It is however my working o/s and I crave stability for my work machine.

What I would like to do is also install a separate distro which I can keep right up to date for playing about with and learning on. I don't want it to fall over every 10 minutes though.

So, what would you kind people suggest as a suitable rolling distro which is well packaged, fairly stable, and will allow me, for example, to upgrade to the latest kernel without too many worries?

Hi.

Jessie or sid would be perfect but keep in mind to backup your personal data more than usual, have fun!

Great, thanks Jamison! I'll give Jessie a whirl to begin with. One of the bonuses is that I'll be able to continue using apt-get which I've found very easy to use.

How does that sound ? ...

Fedora rawhide to quench your curiosity. I use their kernels (only), never had a problem with them. Currently 4.5.0-rc3, but (obviously) e2fsprogs may be behind the curve.

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I like apt. Keep in mind a netinst plus even Debian with a full blown KDE (recommended I'm on KDE 5.0 now with sid from a netinst) maybe missing stuff you will have to figure to install... e.g: NTFS drive supports, proprietary drivers, &c,,, but no worries as Debian (especially jess and sid) have the largest repos.

For additionnal learning you could give a shot to AlienBob's live Slackware current.

Then choose to install it if it fits your needs.

Often people say that learning with a distribution will teach you this Linux distribution, learning with Slackware will teach you Linux. ;-)

Try Arch, it is pretty up to date, is a distro for tinkerers with excellent documentation, so optimal for learning, and if you don't go for the Testing repositories is pretty stable.

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I would say Manjaro - Arch without the pain. You can go as bleeding edge as your heart desires...

Void Linux\monolithic-kernel looks interesting, not loving the big ® but it is only 2016...

do a split install -- wished I'd a started doing all of my installs like that,

/
/home

saves personal info more then not, when you want to try another more different linux, or got a re-install the one that got screwed up by no fault of the user by no means whatsoever. Linux just does that LOL

1 members found this post helpful.

I usually use / then have a separate partition (other than home) for my files so if only 1 OS, 3 partitions /, swap and whatever...

I always have at least 2 (free) operating systems installed (one brakes, &c,,, no worries fix it from the other) plus a tablet or phone to google with if in trouble.

Hardly newbie friendly, but ARCH is THE rolling release distro, if that is what you are into. For even more newbie unfriendly would be gentoo. I recommend ARCH for learning, stability, and cutting edge.

LOL Yeah I used my phone to google many times when mine went down lol damn little buttons lol