It took me a while to realize that the main difference between most linux distributions is the package manager(s). Aside from that, the most obvious differences are the default set of packages that are installed by default, and other configuraiton items and software decisions.

I’ve used Linux before, on my home PC, but always dual booting. This is the first time I’ve removed Windows completely. In the past, I’ve tried RedHat, Fedora, Mint, Suse, and Slackware. This time around, I tried the following distros, in the order shown:

I hardly tried MX at all, really. It seemed boring and I switched almost immediately to Pop. I really enjoyed Pop for a while, and probably would have stayed on it if I hadn’t run into serious issues which forced me to re-install several times. It seemed like every time I updated the O/S, it broke my system, forcing me to reinstall and reconfigure. I couldn’t even identify the source of the problem. The first time, I thought it was the graphical package manager that was screwing things up, so I stopped using it. The next time the machine pooched, I thought the problem =was the encryption, so I stopped encrypting my drives. Then, I thought it was my old Nvidia card (a GeForce 1070). Finally, I concluded it was UEFI, and I vowed only to use classic BIOS.

So finally, I abandoned Pop!_OS and hopped around on several distros until I finally tried Endeavour. This Arch-Based system made a great first impression with its Calamares installer, and to this day hasn’t disappointed me.

However, all that re-installing had taken its toll. Not wanting to go through that again, I embarked on a quest for the ultimate configuration management solution.

But that’s a tale for another blog post.

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