Ah ok, I didn’t realise someone would run a wm or compositor and not bother with gtk or qt. I hadn’t come across that before. Guessing there is no real way to get numbers who use that setup?

I was just speaking from experience and asking how the data accounts for non de setups. I have never liked qt, and always preferred gtk, having been from openbox to hyprland and now sway. I currently use gtk, and all my apps are based on gtk and they don’t draw their own decorations for me. I find gtk integrates really well with my setup and every time I have tried qt I have found it a mess and it never feels cohesive.

My point though is not to say gtk is better than qt, as it’s not, and vice versa, but just to try to highlight the fact that just because KDE is the most popular de, doesn’t mean qt is the most used toolkit compared to gtk. I bet they are fairly evenly split.

How does this account for not using a de? From what I can see, 41% use KDE, almost all the rest are gtk based? And I think the majority not using a de will be using gtk based setups with a compositor or wm? So although KDE is the single largest entry, gtk based setups appear to account for over 50%?

I don’t think there is a problem with it. It’s a piece of software that people can choose to use if it fits their specific use case. It has a long list of features and abilities, and lots of people find it sufficient for what they want.

There are also a lot of people that don’t find it suitable for what they want and they can choose to not use systemd and use some other options.

I personally don’t use systemd. I have used it for a while, originally I used sys v for a long time, then arch adopted systemd, I tried to get used to it and understand it but never felt comfortable with it, so I moved to void Linux which uses runit plus other items to replace systemd, and I feel a lot more comfortable and happy with this.

You do your research and testing and find what fits your use case.

I’ve setup dufs to provide WebDAV file server, and then OpenOffice connected directly to it.

If I didn’t get the down votes, id feel left out as almost every comment has at least 1.

Thanks for the info on the installer 👍

That’s so clever yet so simple, keep all the scripts in folder that’s in PATH. I will deffo use that idea instead of a dedicated folder called scripts in my home folder.

Every machine I own has a scripts folder in the users home. It contains anything and everything, from starting and stopping services to changing settings, updating my boot order, literally anything I don’t use often enough to alias, but know I will use at some point.

I’ve been using Linux 20+ years as my main os. Most of that time I’ve been an arch user. I moved to void Linux 2 weeks ago. I’m very much a start from scratch and build to my liking sort of person, so I just extracted the rootfs base system to a fresh partition, configured everything through a chroot, and booted the new system. Took me 2 days to get to a point I was happy with. I really like void Linux. It boots faster, the init system is much simpler and I feel I understand it better than systemd already. The package manager is really good, and easy to use. I have no complaints.

For yourself, void Linux offers an xfce ready made live version, so everything is already configured and you can test it out in a live setup first with no permanent install. I didn’t test the installer as did a manual install, however it is not a gui installer.

That’s why after almost 20 years on arch Linux I just moved to void Linux, mostly for the idea of a proper init, and nice simple and much faster booting.

I’ve heard of nobara, rocky and slackware, never used any of them, never even heard of the other ones you have mentioned.

I started using Linux around 2006, did lots of hopping from the first attempt and eventually landed on arch Linux which ran on my main pc laptop until march 2026 when I decided to switch to void Linux. I also have a 2nd laptop which is more just for family and retro gaming, which is Debian. I also have a raspberry pi4 with Debian based raspberry pi os, as well as a mini pc server running Debian.

As you can tell, I don’t like derivatives. I am really fussy with my setup and prefer to build my own system from scratch to some extent, even if I end up with something more similar to one of the derivatives.

Nobody can really give you advice what to use though, it’s a very personal thing. All the distros offer different features and solutions for different use cases and problems. For people to recommend a distro, you would have to outline everything you want and expect from the distro, what you like and don’t like etc.

cool, i use sway / wayland. really happy with how it all runs, although only been on it a couple of weeks after over a decade on arch.

i should have been clearer, there is no distro major release. packages have major release sure, but no large distro upgrade.

Good read. Although I recently moved to void Linux as I prefer rolling release instead of a major upgrade every few years.

The more bare bones, simple and customisable, the better. I will compromise if the only option is an all in one, but it’s never my first choice as nothing is ever perfect.

Don’t believe the hype about everything ai does being slop. Ai is a powerful tool that if used carefully, can have an impact on any task. Just don’t expect it to be truly clever or understand the true complexity and full breadth of your requirement, and definitely don’t trust what it produces as being correct without verifying. The term ai slop really just means human laziness.

I have 4 startech usb3 to SATA cables connected to a powered atolla usb3 hub, running on Debian. Had no problems at all with them over the last 12 months. My setup is is using lvm and raid1 with 2tb ssd’s.

The UK is nowhere near perfect. It still can be scary for minorities. Police brutality does exist. But incidence per capita is considerably lower and the incidents that do occur are considerably less deadly compared to the us. The UK is more tolerant to minorities, but still has a lot of work to do. I’ve lived in the UK my whole life and have seen it gradually improve over the last 40 years, but I’m looking forward to seeing it go further. There are guns here, but not like the us. Police don’t carry guns generally and the vast majority of the population aren’t allowed to own a gun. Only highly specialised police units get guns and they get wheeled out as a last resort.

My exact concern too. Don’t see it as an imminent problem, but would like some sort of succession plan or even to develop some sort of framework to ensure the kernel endures after Linus stops being involved.

Appreciate hearing about your experience 👍 I dont use any of those tools, but self host a complex setup, and is always good to hear how people operate and resolve issues, even if it is luck that saves the day 👍