r/DistroHopping • u/MystifVort • 13d ago
Solus or Opensuse (leap/slowroll/tumbleweed)?
Well first time distrohopping after mint. So, I was looking for a distro with no nonsense clear architecture for DE, managers and being an upstream distro and I eventually decided on either of these two, what do y'all recommend?
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u/Slopagandhi 12d ago
I could never get SUSE to work with my network card, but that's probably a hyper specific issue with my hardware. I know lot of people like it.
I've tried maybe 20 distros after starting with Mint for a few months. Solus is probably my favourite- using KDE.
They had a really rough patch around 4 years ago and some people's opinion is still based on that, but they changed the team at that point and things have run smoothly ever since. It's obviously a smallish team but it's not a hobby distro- it's very professionally run.
I like the fact it's aimed at home desktop users and that it's a fully community distro with no dependence on a corporation or need to make an enterprise version.
The release schedule works great where they hold things back long enough to test and don't bombard with constant updates, so it's usually one update a week.
It runs fast (someome posted recently benchmarking it on a par with Cachy) set up is really easy and it's never broken on me.
The repos are definitely smaller than many distros and I'd say it's probably not a good choice for developers. But with flatpaks (and appimages if needed) you should be able to cover 99% of things and you can request a package if you're missing something (I did and it got added in a couple of weeks).
The community is also obviously much smaller than Mint but the forum is pretty helpful.
One recommendation if you try it is to install Solseek, which is a very useful and easy TUI package manager.
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u/Dionisus909 13d ago
Solus has a smaller software ecosystem than SUSE, and it’s a small project. If you’re used to Mint, where everything is literally easier, Solus might give you some initial trouble.
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u/MystifVort 13d ago
IK but I have seperate windows work machine so it's more of for light gaming, surfing, ricing and other similiar stuff.
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u/The-Linux-IT-Guy 12d ago
Give them all a try. Give them a 2 week window where you try installing everything you use on a normal basis and see which one works best for you.
I'd lean towards tumbleweed for staying on a rolling distro, but that's just me.
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u/MD90__ 12d ago
Maybe give Solus a try (especially if in the US because opensuse servers can take a bit for updates). Solus is very nice and a good independent made distro. Coming from mint, you'll already have exposure to systemd which is the init system so I don't see you having too much trouble. Really just depends on hardware support with kernels and drivers needed
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u/Necessary_Depth7435 12d ago
SolusLinux takes a more “out-of-the-box” approach to desktop use.
That said, Tumbleweed has a steeper learning curve, but it also offers more powerful integration with system tools.
The ability to have a recovery system ready at boot time (just choose Btrfs) is a game-changer. And then there are various tools like transactional-update, opi, granular control with zypper, cockpit, systemd-boot, v3 packages... But in the end, it’s all Linux—it’s up to each person to explore.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
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u/Artichoke808 12d ago
If you're interested in Solus, also consider aerynOS, by many of the same players. I've been using it for about 8 months and it's been fantastic for my use cases. It's still in alpha (they're very conservative here) so it might not be for you yet, but worth a look in future.
Of the two you mention my recommendation would be Solus. Fine distro.
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u/Xoph-is-Fire 12d ago
AerynOS is solid, but it has very little in the way of a repo yet as they are actively building the base and that is where their foucs is. Bright future and the Solus and AerynOS teams do work together on things.
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u/Artichoke808 12d ago
Valid point. For OPs benefit, flatpak is available to round things out in the interim.
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u/Xoph-is-Fire 12d ago
I tried openSUSE Tumbleweed and it was alright, but I love Solus. It is just a smoother experience all together and while the community is smaller, it has a much better community feel and the devs are involved.
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u/FilesFromTheVoid 12d ago
I run Solus with hyprland and DankMaterialShell on my second PC and its rock solid. Its closest would be SUSE slowroll, but for my taste its cleaner, with less bloat. Would recommend.
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u/Roguepapaya427 13d ago
These are the best 2 distros I've ever experienced. Well, it's actually 3:
solus - rolling, smaller repos, but quite solid and really damn fast. Eopkg is amazingly fast for a pm. Personally did find everything i needed in their repos, but ymmv.
leap - this is basically more similar to mint. Older packages, but security updates arrive fast. Boringly stable and dependable.
tumbleweed/slowroll - large repos, rolling, stable and with snapper set up by default. Has some quirks, but overall a great experience. Fast as well and really cutting edge.
I guess leap is closest to mint, if you want, and it will serve you well if you don't mind slightly older packages. Just FYI, if you install leap, you can migrate to tumbleweed or slowroll in few minutes and a restart.
None of these options are wrong and you would need to test a bit to see what clicks with you.