I've been using Linux for a while now, and I've been distro hopping nearly the entire time. Now, with the changes coming to the Linux world(systemd, Wayland, etc.), I'd like to settle on one and stay there. The problem I'm facing is, I don't really like any one distro that much anymore. I tend to find something wrong with all of them: CentOS/Fedora – I don't like corporate distros, Debian has been buggy in testing and unstable since systemd, Arch isn't stable enough for servers, I hate Canonical, Gentoo is a ton of extra work compiling, Slackware doesn't have automatic dependency resolution, etc. Am I the only one feeling this way? I need something that I can use on both desktops and servers, mostly for developing and hosting web sites. I want to avoid systemd, mostly because I don't know enough about it to make an informed decision or to trust it. I'd like not not spend forever configuring and maintaining it, but I'd still like to have some control. I guess I'm looking for a bit of a reality check. Is Debian testing/Sid still buggy? Is Arch too unstable for servers? Is Gentoo as much of a nightmare to maintain as people make it out to be? Can Slackware be kept up to date easily and installed without every package possible(I know the expert install exists, but unchecking everything is a GIANT pain)? I'd just like to put the distro hopping to rest and not worry about it anymore. Thank you.

Have you thought about *BSD? There are several flavors to choose from. I really like OpenBSD for servers. It's light weight, secure, and powerful. It is easy to load "single-purpose" (web-server) servers without a lot of unwanted "stuff" (gui, games, etc) installed by default.

Personally speaking, I would migrate to FreeBSD for a workstation, but you can use OpenBSD for a desktop as well. It has most of the standard desktop options (gnome, xfce, etc). *BSD is not without it's own problems, critics, and learning curve; but server set up is pretty straight forward, and I for one have really come to appreciate it.

OpenBSD 5.6 was just released November 1st. I would HIGHLY recommend you at least give it a shot!!

HTH

I have thought about BSD, but a couple of things have held me back there too. I do game on my machine, and I know that BSD has been lagging behind Linux in terms of drivers for a long time. I'm also really not familiar with the ports system, but as I understand it, it's pretty similar to Slackware with the dependencies. The other thing is the BSD license. It's not a big deal, but I feel that it's holding BSD back from making any real progress.

I went to a single distro ages ago.

Here is what I learned. They are all a house with walls and the only thing different is the paintings on said wall. They are all pretty much the same with just enough differences to make them different (if that makes sense).

I started with Linux in 1999. Back then I loved to tinker and staying up all night to get X working was no big deal and a learning experience.Now I just want things to work, and they all work.

What I am getting at here is, pick one and learn and use it. Experience will make you captain stable better then anything that might be said here on this post. What you do with your machine determines how much you like it and how stable it is. Dive in, have some fun and it only comes down to what package manager you enjoy using. I have used about everything in my time including Gentoo. Just installed OpenSUSE and have to say, I really like zypper, it is fast, very fast. And Suse knows very much how to do KDE.

Find what you like and stick with it is all I can say.

1 members found this post helpful.

Good advice. Follow it.

I understand what you're saying, but I think my problem is coming from the fact that, at the moment, I don't really like any of them. I've been trying Gentoo, which I like the configurability of, but can't stand the amount of time wasted compiling. I previously really liked Debian, but over the past year to year and a half, I've had nothing but problems with the testing and unstable releases. I keep hoping that something has changed that I missed, or that I don't completely understand something and have been doing it wrong(which is the case with Gentoo and Slackware).

If your having problems, learn to figure out the problems and fix them. This will go a long way in your search for stability. Stability=knowledge that only you can gain.

It is a lot like Windows (please don't bash me here), you have to learn how Windows works and set it all up. In Windows, if you don't know what you are doing, you spend to much time re-installing. Linux is the same. You will probably have breaks in things, but time taken in fixing issues is well spent. You gain experience and you become more of an admin then a user. That is a win and only you can accomplish that, no one else can do that for you.

If you are jumping around and not liking anything you try, hate to say, maybe you are on the wrong OS. Linux is very much what you make it and you have the power to make Linux anything you want. If you don't like it, you aren't trying hard enough to make the OS your own. My install looks nothing like any install on this site, because it is mine and it is tailored to me. Some users might jump on my machine and hate it, that's ok, it's my creation and built for me.

Food for thought.

Hi,

you seem to have missed what to me is a very obvious candidate, Debian stable.

Evo2.

I have a different take.
All that matters is my data - the distro it runs on is just a means for me to get to my data. When the devs on a particular distro piss me off, I move on.

So no recommendation(s) from me ...

I guess I have to admit that over time I have gotten pretty lazy. When I was first learning Linux, I would spend days figuring out things and trying to learn as much as I could. Now I don't want to have to figure it out anymore. There's also been a number of changes over time from distros that I just plain don't like(Debian and systemd, ubuntu's move to unity/CLA madness, Arch dumping it's old init system, gnome 3, etc.). I guess that's why I'm attracted to Gentoo. It's old school, and the devs don't tell you what to run. I'm just having a hard time justifying the time sink, especially on servers.

Oh there have been some pretty ugly (dev) wars on gentoo as well - post Robbins departure.
So I jumped ship to Arch.

Happens all the time ...

Gentoo doesn't have to be tough.

Do all your machines run on the same architecture? Same sorta CPU?

If so, you could compile on one machine, build one kernel to support the hardware on all your machines. Make a backup of your now done system and transfer the backup to the other machines.

Better yet:

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Distcc/Cross-Compiling

There ya go. Easy .

Everything is x86_64 except for a Raspberry Pi NAS. I had thought about just using my workstation as a build server with a VM mirror for any webservers(which would just be VPS anyway) and just FTP the binaries up to the servers. I haven't tried it yet, but there's a lot floating around the internet saying how terrible managing Gentoo is. I guess I may just be buying into FUD

I,ve done it and it wasn't hard. Just the initial setup is a pain (for time taken).

The setup part goes without saying(building KDE on this machine right now). As long as I won't be taking too much valuable work time managing the servers, I really don't mind. I find Gentoo on the desktop to be fairly easy to use, it's just the compiles that take time. I've just never used it on a server before.