Hej lemmings! (Hoping this is relevant enough for the selfhosted commjnity)

Quick question for you all: do you stick with the same distro across your PC, laptop, and server, or do you pick different ones based on the device and what you’re doing?

For me, I’ve been mixing and matching depending on the use case, but I’m starting to think it’d be nice to just have one distro (or at least one family like Fedora or Debian) running everywhere. That way I wouldn’t get confused about default settings or constantly have to look up flags for different package managers.

Right now my setup is:

  • Gaming rig: CachyOS
  • Laptop: AuroraOS
  • NAS: Unraid
  • Various project servers: DietPi, Debian, Alpine etc…

I feel like NixOS might be the only distro that could realistically handle all these use cases, but I’m a bit scared of the learning curve and the maintenance work it’d take to migrate everything over.

Am I the only one who feels like having “one distro to rule them all” would be nice? How do you guys handle your setups? All ears! 😊

  • coltn@lemmy.mlEnglish
    6·
    1 day ago

    arch on my two laptops, and desktop. proxmox on my server as the hypervisor, and debian on the vm/lxc. my routers are running openwrt.

    one of my laptops i use for testing, and i do switch distro’s… i’ve tried alpine, gentoo and i’d like to try openbsd. but arch is comfy

  • Bakkoda@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    1 day ago

    1 Fedora (laptop) 1 bazzite (old gaming desktop) N+1 Debian on everything else than can

  • redlemace@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    2 days ago

    Every now and then I try something else (usually live usb from ventoy) just to see how others evolve. I like endevour, but I always en up with debian minimal install. Only on mylaptop I add xfce4. It’s just rock solid. For my wife’s laptop it’s elementary, only because of the looks just to make her move from windows to linux painlessly

  • Communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyzEnglish
    2·
    1 day ago

    Yes, because nixos and distributed git-based dotfiles, would be so much work to have a second setup for no real gain, I do investigate other distros regularly though

  • dieTasse@feddit.orgEnglish
    3·
    2 days ago

    Fedora just works for me in every case except NAS where I have TrueNAS, so Fedora it is and I installed it even to couple of people and they also like it.

  • Kalcifer@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    2·
    1 day ago

    My main server runs Ubuntu Server (I’m thinking about switching it to Debian), and my laptop and desktop both run Arch Linux. Generally, I pick whatever I think is best for the given usecase — things like stability, package availability, documentation, security, etc. are considered.

  • arcine@jlai.luEnglish
    4·
    2 days ago

    I use NixOS on everything ! This way, I can re-use parts of my configuration as a base, and customise only the few things that need to change from one machine to the other.

    The only exception is my Steam Deck. I trust Valve on that one, and my usage of it is so different from other computers as to make 95% of my config entirely irrelevant anyway.

  • BigDaddySlim@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    2 days ago

    Yes and no, my main system is EndeavourOS as well as one laptop that stays docked in the bedroom as a media PC. My HTPC is running Mint with KDE, my Steam Deck is stock SteamOS, my MacBook Pro is running Asahi Linux, server running TrueNAS and Raspberry Pi’s running stock Raspberry Pi OS. Mainly I just like KDE, and have a preference for Arch based systems.

    I prefer EndeavourOS and haven’t had issues with it for a couple years now, but Mint on the HTPC was a reason to try Mint and I just left it alone except for swapping Cinnamon for KDE. Asahi is the only option for M1 MacBooks so no choice there. Pi OS I never really use the system as a computer, I just have one running PiHole and another running a digital calander for the wife and I, so I only interact with them through ssh or web portals. My Steam Deck works perfectly fine as is and I mainly just use the Steam launcher anyway so no point changing it. The TrueNAS system I mainly use through a web portal or SMB so it’s fine.

  • SpacePirate@feddit.nuEnglish
    2·
    2 days ago

    I use the following

    Debian for Laptop Bazzite for Gaming PC HatvesterHCI for Hypervisor Truenas Scale for NAS (VM with disk pass thru) Rocky Linux for Servers (I have created Hardened Images) I use OS-build to create the Rocky Images

  • eksb@programming.devEnglish
    45·
    3 days ago

    Servers are all Debian. Family member’s laptops are all Debian. I used Debian on my laptops for 20 years, but when Steam Deck switched to Arch, I switched my laptop to Arch to force me to learn it. I have a file with notes of differences between Debian and Arch. Next time I buy a new laptop, I will probably go back to Debian.

    • chunkystyles@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      I would use Debian for servers, except that the version of Podman (at least on Debian 12) was old enough that it couldn’t do quadlets. So I went with Fedora.

    • Rioting Pacifist@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      3 days ago

      Same but a ubuntu-derivative instead of Arch.

      I don’t want to think about my server, but I do sometimes want the latest and greatest app on my laptop.

    • Tanoh@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      Servers are debian, desktop debian. Why swap when you found the best already? 😁

      I guess technically steam deck is not on debian, but I didn’t choose it so it doesn’t really count.