The struggle

I remember a time in my life where I was changing my distro literally on a weekly and sometimes on a daily basis.
Oh boy, the though alone makes my head spin!
Of course, I did not run any distro under the sun… but, I’ve run a fair number.
From Debian based distros over RHEL to Arch all the way to Gentoo and Slackware. Don’t get me wrong, I have learned a fair number of things from each of them (To a certain extent).
There was always this feeling of “I can do X or Y better on another distro”. This in and of itself is a paradox. Sure, some distro might be better for doing development, another is maybe better at multimedia stuff… you get the idea.
“The struggle” - Isn’t that a little over dramatic you might ask?
No, it is not.
Anyone in this position would agree with me that finding and settling on a Linux distro is no easy task.

The gras always seems to be greener on the other side…

Settling down

I have always been a Debian and Arch guy (and BSD, but this about Linux). Always.
They both work for me - which might not be the case for you the reader.
Let me tell you something about reinstalling/installing distro’s all the time:
It wears on you!
The enlightenment came some time ago. In the frenzy of changing from one distro to the other I realized something, something important.
No matter how many times you change to something else, you will most likely always come back to your first choice.
If you like drinking tea it would seems illogical to force yourself to drink something else just because it is there - point blank.
This realization overwhelmed me at first.

“Why did I change from Debian to something else when I know that it is all I need?”

This is by definition the problem with having too much choices!

Finding Zen

I dropped every other distro immediately and only concerned myself with Debian and Arch on the Linux side. No more searching, no more thinking, just doing work and having fun on my computer.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve contemplated on what distro to run next…

And now?

I’m at peace. - at last!

I only run two Linux distro’s and that’s it - the end.

Remember on thing:
If your current distro works for you, why change?
If your car brings you from point A to B without issues, why change cars?
It would make no sense at all to shill out money if the car you have does the job - this would be highly unlikely.

A distro is like a car. You have it to use it. It takes you places. It is not just a label that makes you “leet” or “cool” or whatever is new and fancy.
This is why people (like me) love coding in C. Yes, the language is old nowadays, yes there are shortcomings… but: it works!

Be aware of FOMO: The Fear Of Missing Out

Just because something is new and shiny does not mean one needs to have/use it asap.
(New things are cool, I get that, but sometimes one does not need to chase every new thing)

Mastering your distro of choice is much more important than trying every flavor under the sun. A master knows it’s tool - this is a fact.

Conclusion

If you find yourself in this very situation, take a step back and think about the following:

• Does it make sense to change?
• Is there something you cannot do with your distro?
• Would reinstalling and configuring make sense?
• Do you even have the time to endulge in something new?
• Is it FOMO?

Remember: Computing should be fun - not a chore!

There is a quite good video on this very topic from Luke Smith which I highly recommend to watch:
How to choose a Linux distro: Stop Thinking!

That’s it from myself for now.

As always…

Stay Open!