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ZDNET's key takeaways
- Distro hopping is a phenomenon found only in Linux.
- There are several reasons why you might find yourself hopping.
- The important thing is to find a distro that best suits you.
Back in my early days of using Linux, I hopped from one distribution to another. For me, it was about curiosity and learning as much as I could about Linux. I had no idea what the landscape had to offer and figured I'd better try as many options as I could before I settled into one particular distribution.
Little did I know that I'd continue to distro hop for years. It wasn't until I purchased my first desktop PC from System76 that I wound up sticking with one particular distribution for nearly a decade (with the exception of a brief dalliance with Ubuntu Budgie after a hardware failure).
For someone who had jumped between more distributions than I could count, that's an amazing feat and should illustrate how good Pop!_OS is. And given what System76 has done with COSMIC desktop, I cannot imagine that I'll be doing any hopping around for a very long time.
But what are the primary causes of hopping from one Linux distribution to another? It's not like MacOS or Windows users can do this…so why Linux?
Because we can.
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That's the easy answer, and it's apropos to many users. But for some, there have to be more concrete reasons for taking the time to install an OS, use it, decide you want to use a different flavor, install it, use it, wash, rinse, repeat.
Let me offer you some of the reasons that have caused me to distro hop over the years.
1. Boredom
Yes, I've grown bored with a Linux distribution or two. I remember long ago wondering whether Ubuntu would ever offer anything different, or whether the desktop would remain unchanged indefinitely. That's not to say the Ubuntu desktop is bad, but at some point, I grew tired of it seeming stagnant. When that happened, I hopped. If I remember correctly, that hop was to elementary OS, which reset the bar for what I believed a good desktop aesthetic should be. I'd heard the buzz about elementary OS and couldn't resist. The second I logged in, I knew that I'd made the right decision.
Elementary OS was a breath of fresh air to me, and I remained with that distribution for a few years. Leaving elementary OS wasn't a product of boredom, but rather the moment when I purchased a System76 Thelio desktop that shipped with Pop!_OS. That was 2018, and I've not looked back since.
2. You want to try a different desktop environment
There have been moments over the years that I've grown bored with the desktop environment that shipped with a particular desktop, and I decided to switch. Normally, that would just be a matter of installing a new desktop environment and being done with it. There were, however, instances when a particular DE wouldn't play well with what I was currently using. Either that, or getting a certain DE was easier done by installing a completely different distribution. For example, it makes more sense to install Bodhi Linux than to try to install the Moksha desktop on a different distro.
To this, I would say that if you desire a different desktop, the first thing you should do is check and see if it can 1) be installed on your current distribution and 2) won't break your current desktop environment. Installing a different DE (rather than a complete distribution) means you can retain your user data and system settings.
3. Difficult package management
For those who are new-ish to Linux, one of the biggest turn-offs is when it's challenging to install software. For instance, with some Arch-based distributions, the only way to install apps is via the command line. Although some Arch-based distros do have GUI front ends for the pacman package manager, not all of them do.
If ease of use is key for you, and you wind up installing a distribution that doesn't simplify package management, you'll wind up distro hopping faster than you can say pacman -S libreoffice.
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If you choose a distro with a user-friendly package manager GUI, the chances of you feeling the pull to distro hop grow ever slimmer.
4. You want something easier
Speaking of which, you might find yourself wishing you'd chosen something altogether easier. You might have chosen to go with Garuda Linux because you thought it looked cool, only to find out that it's based on Arch. Oops.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Or maybe you thought Solus was right up your alley, until you realized that it was homegrown and the eopkg package management system with a semi-rolling release model wasn't exactly suited to your needs.
Some Linux distributions are simply easier than others. If that sounds like what you want, stick with a distro based on Ubuntu or even Fedora. At least that way, everything is built with user-friendliness in mind.
5. You want something more challenging
On the other hand, you might have wound up installing a distribution that isn't challenging enough. Ubuntu, Linux Mint, elementary OS, Pop!_OS… they are all really easy to use. If you want to use a distribution that's going to challenge you to learn more about Linux, then you might prefer an Arch-based distribution or an independent distro.
This is often the case: When you start with the easiest of the easy and realize you want more. When that happens, you start to climb the ladder of difficulty, one rung at a time. Eventually, you'll reach Gentoo and then realize the only higher plateau is creating a distribution from scratch.
6. You want to update
Some distributions are more up-to-date than others. For instance, any Arch-based distro is going to be more up-to-date than Debian. Fedora is another distribution that tends to get updates faster. But the fastest updates always come to rolling release distributions (such as Arch and openSUSE Tumbleweed).
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The appeal of sticking with a distribution that is slower to update (such as Debian) is that you get more stability. That's not to say that rolling release distributions are unstable; it's just that traditional releases that are slower to update are more stable.
At the same time, if you're like me, you want the most recent releases for the software you use. I not only run updates daily, but there are some packages (such as LibreOffice) that I install manually, so I know I have the most up-to-date version available.
Distro hopping can land you on a Linux distribution that's always up to date.
7. To explore what's available
Curiosity is a wonderful thing. There have been many times that I've simply hopped to a different distribution just to see what's out there. I've been known to go to Distrowatch, click the Random Distribution button (near the top left of the page), and install whatever distro I'm presented with. It's a fun way to explore what's available within the realm of Linux and will always keep you on your toes.
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