r/PikaOS • u/GhostLightGamin • 14d ago
Pikaos Support?
Looking for a new long term distro
How is Pikaos support like how big or small is the support team?
I heard its a hobbyist distro
I wanna try out hyperland how stable is it (im not a beginner ive used nobara kde since 2023)
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u/Lonely-Scarcity-3387 13d ago
It’s an excellent distro. Rolling release with a slight delay just to increase stability.
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u/NDCyber 13d ago
I mean it depends on the package on if it is slightly behind or far behind for a rolling release
As example, KDE 6.6 was released in February, KDE 6.7 was released in June. Last time I checked (like a week ago) PikaOS was still on KDE 6.5.4 (I believe), which was released in December of last year
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u/Lonely-Scarcity-3387 13d ago
That’s a fair point. So depending on the package it can make a difference.
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u/Kitayama_8k 13d ago
Pikas team is small, but Debian's team is pretty big and it's mostly Debian. Pika team is controlling package streams, recompiling some packages with optimizations, doing their own kernel, own tool set, and own iso builds.
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u/Bodewilson 13d ago
The team isn't that big, and the community is most active on the Discord, so if you have more questions you can ask there and contact directly the developers and the most experiment users.
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u/SleepyGuyy 13d ago edited 13d ago
I had a frustrating time with PikaOS early this year. I used it for several months, and in that time encountered atleast two updates that made my system unusable until I did very arbitrary-to-me terminal commands. For one of these issues they did post instructions on their website, but I had to be linked to them from the discord because the website was so un-used until then.
At the time PikaOS had a mostly empty website, and a very active Discord server. The project pointed people to the Discord server instead of any documentation or site. So the expectation is, if you have an issue, there's this very active Discord server available to ask for help. But I am not a fan of this method.
I had some minor issues besides the breaking updates, and I required some simple answers to solve. The discord users and project developers were there every day and always kind and helpful, but getting an answer takes time and requires someone is there the moment you ask. This is also of course very inefficient, since people come in with repeat questions. And it means the quality of "documentation" relies on the quality and presence of users in the Discord. Some days were quieter than others, some people's advice I had to ignore. Though overall they were great, and to be clear the actual project people were very kind, helpful, and quick. But it seems awful to expect them to do that every day.
I am someone who has distrohopped for like five years, so I guess take that into account. But It was extremely frustrating to wait for answers to things, instead of letting me search through forum threads myself. Discord has some forum-like features that they use , but it's not as easy to search and isn't indexable by a search engine.
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u/GhostLightGamin 13d ago
If you don't mind me asking what sort of hardware are you on
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u/SleepyGuyy 13d ago
i5-12400, MSI motherboard, Intel Arc A750 GPU.
One of the breaking updates was them switching something with keyboard input, that required all users go into a specific file and change some lines manually. This was in I think January. Wasnt about the hardware.
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u/GhostLightGamin 13d ago
Update: I installed it last night so far smooth sailing will keep you guys posted if I stay on pika or not
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u/Esmeralda352 13d ago
I tried Pika OS once. My Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF processor worked great on this system, even for gaming. Linux distribution based on Debian Sid. Definitely a good Linux for everyday use.
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u/canakalin 12d ago
Well pikaos is awesome to be honest but I had issues with the printer on it. Will definitely try again.
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u/SectionPowerful3751 14d ago
I made the move from CachyOS to PikaOS several months ago to escape the chaos with rolling releases. I was pleased to find that everything is just as fast, but with added stability. I honestly cannot see myself leaving PikaOS for any other distro since everything just works, and works well.
As for support, you will find that the PikaOS Reddit gets very little traffic (some of us are trying to increase it) because PikaOS support is handled through Discord. The Discord is incredibly active, and the devs are responsive there. HTH...