Published at LXer:

I still see people installing new Linux distributions, one after the other, on their "production" laptops and desktops. I don't. Sure, I fire up live images via USB or old-timey CD/DVD fairly regularly. But I almost never do full, bare-metal installs on hardware I'm actually using.

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No pain no gain. How else are you gonna learn anything ?

I run Slackware. Why would I install something else?

OK, I admit a recent and ongoing affair with FreeBSD, but that is just extra spice!

Many distro-hoppers are still looking for the next install to be the perfect distro out of the box, with everything exactly as they want it, no need to configure, no need to install, no need to maintain.

If they survive their fantasy they may eventually pick a favorite and grow from there.

But the perfect distro only magically appears slowly, after you have installed, used, tweaked and become familiar with it. After a few initial hops, further distro hopping is largely an impediment to reaching that blissful state.

I see it more as a quest for the blissful state Of course, Slackware is the current nirvana.

I think it's an odd article given that it's obvious why most non distro-hoppers don't distro-hop. Same goes for any other thing that people don't replace often "if it ain't broke don't fix it".
Personally I like virtual machines as a way of seeing what new distros have to offer though that strategy does fall down when thinking about hardware support.
At some point I may move distribution but, as the writer redundantly points out, that would mean getting everything I have working in another distribution -- again though VirtualBox does help a little in this regard when it comes to software at least.

To use a distro that is better fitted to a specific task, simple as that, and to find a distro that is better fitted (or not find one and keep Slackware for that task) you will at one point have to run an evaluation system. Of course this usually does not apply to your everyday desktop system.

Anyways, unless I want to test driver support for specific hardware, sometimes only possible on bare metal, I see no reason at all not to use a VM or a container system like LXC for testing.