You described EndeavourOS if you ask me. It’s Arch but preconfigured, so ready to use after install while being as configurable as Arch if you want to go further. Has AUR so you won’t have problems finding a program.

I’d say mint or debian, and NixOS is neat if you’re willing to spend weeks on it. It allows you to make reproducible and declarative systems as well as declaring sets of packages for the current thing you have to do

What distro do you use at work? Using that at home would benefit you professionally as well. I’d start there unless it’s redhat.

LMDE

You want Xerolinux. Ships with little, already configured and with beautiful looks, arch based.

Hi OP, I would like to state that my personal distro of choice is Arch, but I have used a wide selection of the more popular and some niche distros.

First of: Just remember that as long as your distro works for your workflow and requirements, you’re doing fine. Don’t fall for some guilt of “This one is way better because of [subjective opinion for their needs].”

If you want to experiment with distros, just remember to backup your files. One is none, two is one.

Do you have newer hardware such as a brand new NVIDIA or AMD graphics card, or perhaps a new CPU chipset from Intel that came out this year? Then a rolling distro is probably best for you. There’s many tempting options, but my personal “sane default” is of course Arch. There is an installer once you load the ISO on a flash drive. Just ensure you have an internet connection. There will be a learning curve.

If you want to have something to guide you along, then Endevour OS is good. While 99% of your questions can be found on /r/archlinux and Arch’s forums, they (rightfully) expect you to use Arch for Arch-based questions. It’s kind of like asking a question for Ford Mustangs when you drive an F-150. While there’s a lot of overlap, it’s not 1:1.

But if you have something like a laptop from the last few years or more, or just need to focus on your tasks such as your programing and web browsing, and don’t need the latest and greatest, then something more stable is probably best. My top two “I just need it to stay there and remain the same without any worry” distros are:

• Fedora Linux

• Debian Linux

Fedora is going to offer a nice mix of stable yet forward thinking, with major updates rolling out about every 13 months, and it’s a pretty smooth experience upgrading.

Debian is the grand daddy of modern distros, and it is considered the gold standard. They recently made it so 99% of firmware support needed is now included for easier installation. The only thing that you’ll really get update wise is security fixes and any backports you enable.

Keep in mind, Arch/Endeavor itself will not implode if you don’t update daily/weekly, it’s just intended to be refreshed often so when anything big is planned, it’s done in smaller chunks. If you install Arch and then go to a remote island for a few months, you’ll most likely be fine once you get back, but there might be some hiccups.

So if you want more triple A gaming, I think something along Arch/Endevor is “better”, but if you don’t care about the latest and greatest, then I’d say Fedora is a solid foundation.

Sorry for the small novel, but I wanted to state that there is no explicitly wrong option, all that matters is what you consider important. The defaults, the packages, and your workflow. Anything else is secondary.

Given your background it should come to no surprise that it doesn’t really matter much.

That said, I recommend Arch with some caveats, mainly with regards to the “very little effort to start using” requirement. If you know how to follow instructions, it should only be about 30-45 minutes to install it. It will on the other hand fit your other requirements of good defaults and not shipping with loads of applications. When you install an app you will get that app and nothing else, and the defaults will either be exactly what the upstream defaults would be if you built it yourself or something very close to that. You also have everything available through the AUR, and after using it for years I’ve yet to run into an update not going smoothly.

Arch is best for you. As you have experience with Linux, you won’t have issues configuring it according to your needs. Arch wiki is a gold mine.

I have to agree with most people, arch is probably the way to go.

But given the subject I’m gonna piggy back on you and ask about KDE Neon. This is what got me back into desktop Linux after installing it on an old crappy tablet.

Now i currently run it on a couple older but upgraded AIOs and even my server that primarily does VMs.

If i understand it’s a little more bleeding edge than people would normally like but I’m curious the community thoughts on it as i don’t hear much. Am I missing out not running arch or mint?

I began with slackware linux late 1990s and have moved to FreeBSD about 10 years ago. Just recently installed Linux again and found pop! os to be quite usable. I think it’s worth to check out.

I thought you were describing Debian (FOSS only, stable and conservative, boring in the good way). It does take longer to get the updates because they build everything themselves, but that’s part of the stability deal.

I’m no expert though; I’m mostly reading to get suggestions for when I make switch properly myself.

Once again I am gonna shill Garuda Linux. Use the KDE light version without all of their theming. Personal preference of course, but I absolutely cannot stand their theme.

Manjaro, a stable descendant of Arch Linux. It has stable updates every week (more or less). You can select your favorite DE, kernel version, it is updated for optimal gaming performance, easy to install like Ubuntu. If you miss any app in the Manjaro repos you can always download it from **AUR **(Arch Community Repo), **Flatpak **or **Snap **by activating it easily from their app store.

Yes, it is similar to Endeavor OS, but I think Endeavor is more like an easier version of Arch, but just as edgy with updates and the instability that comes with it.

You should listen to the advice from Distro Chooser. Arch fits the bill. You’ll just have to take care not to convolute the system too much with workarounds & all sorts of packages and it will take care of you.