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! 😊

  • M137@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    1 hour ago

    Oooh, look at mr. Rich guy here with multiple devices.

    /s… (not really, cries in only computer being a dying laptop from 2011 with no way to get even just another dying 2011 laptop when this one dies.)

  • StellarExtract@lemmy.zipEnglish
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    1 hour ago

    NixOS home server, gaming PC will soon move to Bazzite from Windows 10 (whenever I’m done working on my home server). I’m trying Bazzite for that machine because I use it more like a game console hooked up to the TV and don’t need the same level of tweaking and customization.

  • K3CAN@lemmy.radioEnglish
    0·
    1 hour ago

    Debian on my servers. No drama, it just works.

    Fedora on my laptop and desktop. Still solid, but quicker updates.

  • SavvyWolf@pawb.socialEnglish
    0·
    2 hours ago

    My main desktop is Mint - I feel like most of the random pieces of software I find myself wanting to run are built for Ubuntu or at the very least a lfh distro.

    My server and random devices run NixOS, and I’m acrually considering combining all the config into a monorepo…

    My Raspberry PI I think runs Raspbian though. I should see if I can nixify it.

  • eco@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    3 hours ago

    Jup, Debian stable on my three servers an on my laptop. I think its just way easier to run the same system everywhere. Also, Debian is a great distribution.

  • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    4 hours ago

    Fedora KDE for anything I need a GUI for, Debian for anything headless.

    I’ve used damn near everything else in 30 years of Linux, but I’m pretty sure my tombstone will run Debian.

  • JustARegularNerd@aussie.zoneEnglish
    0·
    6 hours ago

    I used to with LMDE (client) and Debian (server), but Cinnamon was a little bit too stuttery on the rickety old hardware I have (i5-5200U NUC and i5-5250U MBA), so now the NUC runs CachyOS with Xfce and the MBA runs Win10 LTSC because sometimes Windows is needed for my studies or certain voxel game leaks.

  • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    7 hours ago

    I do, but it’s more out of laziness than anything else. I hate having to remember sixteen different ways of doing things, so I tend to configure all my stuff as identical as reasonably possible. Is this the best way of doing things? Probably not. But it keeps my blood pressure down.

  • NewOldGuard@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    7 hours ago

    I used to use a variety. I’d use Arch on my desktop/gaming machine, Fedora on my laptop, and Debian on my server. But I got the NixOS bug a few years back and now I use that everywhere. It’s great to have every change and configuration documented and available for easy review or modification, and built in generation rollbacks are a lifesaver.

    Thinking of building an HTPC from some spare parts, and I think that’ll be the machine to buck the trend. Bazzite will be everything I need out of the box for that purpose without any effort for maintenance. It’s not getting customized or doing anything but games and media

  • Lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    0·
    8 hours ago

    Yep. Debian. I like apt, and I like shit that just…works. Very form after function. So what if a bunch of packages are on “old” versions. They work. The kernel works. KDE Plasma works. I can do everything I want to do without having to constantly be on the bleeding edge. If you prefer newer things, great. I prefer older, proven things. That’s also why I drive Toyota cars and Honda motorcycles.

  • BladeFederation@piefed.socialEnglish
    0·
    8 hours ago

    No, and that’s the beauty of Linux.

    Desktop gaming PC: Fedora KDE (might try Bazzite if I stop dual booting Windows, but I already got Nvidia set up and that’s the hard part)

    Old laptop: Zorin OS

    Old as dirt laptop: antiX

    Wife’s Surface: Pop!_OS 22.04. Maybe change it eventually to something lighter.

    I will likely go with Ubuntu Server or Debian when I set up my home server. Ubuntu seems like it has better Docker support.