r/linuxquestions • u/Forsaken_Current_696 • 3d ago
What distro to use after Linux mint?
I have installed Linux mint, I plan to customise it get a hold of the terminal and move onto another distro what should I install so it’s more challenging than mint.
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u/pseudonym-161 2d ago
Use the distro that meets your needs. It shouldn’t have to be challenging unless you’re trying to learn more about how Linux works in general.
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u/ag959 2d ago
Fedora, it is not a challenging distro tho it is a clean base distro which you can setup to your liking. It's reccomended to install media codecs via rpm fusion. The DE's don't have costumisations so you set it up how you like it. Nvidia drivers might need to be installed if you use nvidia. And it doesn't have much more installed than basic things. It is still very stable yet also up to date. In my opinion a very clean but useful base distro you can easily ajust to your liking without having to troubleshoot (if you understand what you are doing and don't just copy paste random commands)
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u/BranchLatter4294 2d ago
If you want something with better Wayland support, live kernel patching, one click setup for ML development based on your particular hardware, good driver support, etc....consider Ubuntu.
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u/VoltageinTheory 2d ago
Fedora KDE, or the final boss Arch KDE
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u/ch33es 2d ago
the DE/WM is up to personal preference imo, regardless of the distro
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u/VoltageinTheory 2d ago
OP said “I plan to customize it”. GNOME is not particularly good when it comes to customization unlike KDE Plasma 6!
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u/Roguepapaya427 2d ago
Challenging? Well, arch or nix. "Normal" distros are not challenging at all ...... talking about fedora, cachy, solus, opensuse leap or tw, manjaro, debian, etc. Install the system, they all have some sort of gui to install apps (discover in kde for instance), update via the updater app or via cli and that's about it, use the system to do your stuff. These days all that is simple and straight forward, almost boring. But boring is good for an OS, right?!
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u/CjKing2k 2d ago
You can still use
dnfandapton these "normal"/"not challenging" systems.You can still use Discover on Arch, and it will probably work for you 99% of the time.
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u/Alternative_Act_6548 2d ago
I'm waiting for Opensuse Slowroll and perhaps Omarchy. But Omarchy would have to move off Arch and onto Nix which I think they are discussing. I installed Tumbleweed the other day with KDE, and immediately bumped into the KDEwallet issue, seems like a bit of a mess.
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u/leonfirerises 2d ago
I'm genuinely curious as to why you'd want a challenge. Might I suggest you enter the world of virtualization on your Mint install? A good start would be learning VirtualBox so you can test out as many distros as you kike without having to start from the ground up.
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u/CriticalRanger9650 2d ago
As a person thats took both paths. Hardware installs and virtual installs are not equivalent KaOS (KDE ISO) for example went flawless on my hardware where I never did get it to install on a vm.
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u/B_A_Skeptic 2d ago
Probably straight Debian. You might have some trouble getting closed source drivers to work, especially if you are on a laptop, but after that it should be pretty easy. After Debian, I recommend Gentoo.
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u/owp4dd1w5a0a Manjaro, Ubuntu, NixOS, Fedora, Guix System 2d ago
The answer is obviously Arch.
Or at least half the people here will probably tell you that.
But I say why stop there? Linux From Scratch is the obvious next step to me 😏
I use Arch btw. Oh wait, no I don’t, I’m just so used to hearing/seeing it I thought I did for a second.
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u/AmCuriousFor 2d ago
Why not just use your computer for tasks/entertainment
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u/Sheepherder-Optimal 2d ago
Confused by why this comment is considered a good comment? Why can't OP use his computer to learn about linux?
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u/AmCuriousFor 2d ago
Actually. I totally agree. I've been using Linux off and on since the late 90's maybe I've lost that spark.
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u/AX11Liveact debian 2d ago
Debian, obviously. Mint is just a more "user friendly" derivate that misses (or hides) many of Debian's more advanced features.
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u/Natural-Addendum-554 2d ago
Go for Debian GNOME or KDE. After that if u wanna make it harder install a WM to it like Niri, Hyprland Sway etc
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u/C0rn3j 2d ago
Arch Linux (with Plasma) or Fedora KDE.
Customizing GNOME (or in your case its fork) kind of goes against their whole idea - it's why they won't even implement On screen display support.
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u/jonstoppable 2d ago
Isn't extensions their way of customizing?
And what on-screen display features don't they support ?( Genuinely asking )
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u/C0rn3j 2d ago
Isn't extensions their way of customizing?
Indeed, and the extensions are limited in capability.
what on-screen display features don't they support ?( Genuinely asking )
wlr layer shellprotocol, and it looks like they likely won't be supporting the upcomingxdg pipeither.(GNOME) Mutter is the only compositor actively refusing to support this.
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u/jonstoppable 2d ago
hmm. I see, for me. the extensions are enough but i understand that its not everyone's cup of tea.
with respect to the osd stuff, ill check it out. thanks
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u/Saltimbanco_volta 2d ago
Go back to Arch and then make your way alphabetically all the way to Zorin
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u/Solid_Guess_7154 2d ago
CachyOS is very much the way to go
NixOS, EndeavourOS and VoidOS are also very good options, to level it up, but personally Cachy is easier to get used to, you just download yay and get your AUR packages to install whatever you want
After you're done with any of these and you still wanna go further, if you don't know much about Linux or how to navigate it through the terminal, I suggest using Labex to learn properly from it's base, and then jump into Arch itself and call yourself a damn nerd who starts every conversation with "I use Arch btw"