Hey fellow Linux enthusiasts! I’m curious to know if any of you use a less popular, obscure or exotic Linux distribution. What motivated you to choose that distribution over the more mainstream ones? I’d love to hear about your experiences and any unique features or benefits that drew you to your chosen distribution.
Manjaro.
I wanted a rolling distro that had up to date software because I got tired of Ubuntu's 6 month upgrade cycle. But I also didn't want to deal with source packages because I value my time.
Don't get me wrong, I still use Xubuntu, CentOS and RHEL at work, but for my home system I want something that does not give me any major problems so I can unwind after work.
I know about the issues with the site certificates and sometimes the package certificates. He who never messed up big time can cast the first stone.
Manjaro has been on my games machine for nearly 3 years and it has been a smooth experience.
Manjaro is pretty good, but how is it a less popular distro?
It gets a lot of hate round here, because it can be finicky. So in that sense it's unpopular. I also tried to install it once but quickly got fed up.
The intention of this post was probably to find new distros that not many people have heard of.
Manjaro is one of the most popular (well known) distros especially for gaming. Not complaining though; some people think that your device will self destruct if you install Manjaro, so I don't mind people showing their good experiences with it.
It seems to be less popular around here, at least.
I first tried Centos because I knew it. Was horrible as a workstation.
I tried installing Mint but for reason the installer just did not work. A coworker (who was in Arch at the time) suggested I try Manjaro and have loved it even since.