Distros worthy of your time

DISCLAIMER : THESE REVIEWS ARE BIASED AS FUCK

I won’t be covering any small amateur distros as they’re usually just Debian with a customized desktop enviroment.
I will only be covering distros that are most importantly independent. No Noobuntus or Linux Mints here.
Take a popular distro and customize it to your liking instead of dabbling with the niche ones.

Debian

Ubuntu’s daddy. Stable, excellent for servers. Packages are probably a bit too old for a desktop though. Uses apt as it’s package manager. Has a GUI setup that’s really easy to go through. It’s also popular, with a lot of distros using it as a base (for example, Tails or Ubuntu). If systemd pisses you off, there’s Devuan, but from what I heard it’s a bit experimental.

• Stable packages are perfect for a server
• Seperates free and non-free packages (NOTE: apparently with the release of Bookworm they changed the defaults, I think? IDK, too lazy to check)
• Easy to install with a full GUI setup

• Stable packages are kinda eh for a desktop
• systemd (unless you install Devuan)

Arch Linux

The most popular l33t h4x0r rolling release distro. Every tinkerer’s wet dream. Back in my day you had to install it manually, but nowadays they made a script that supposedly does it all for you (you can still do it the cool way though). IDK, I stopped using Arch before they implemented it and I’m too lazy to check how that works. I dabbled with Arch again to check out archinstall and it fucked up when I wanted an encrypted dualboot installation, so it’s meh I guess. Uses pacman as it’s package manager. It’s bleeding edge, so updates might fuck up your system pretty badly. Personally I only experienced a fuck up once. If systemd pisses you off, Artix exists.

• Customizable
• l33t status
• Up to date packages help with playing the latest vidya

• Breaks a lot, apparently
• Free and non-free packages aren’t seperated (from the last time I checked)
• systemd (unless you install Artix)

Gentoo

Ooh boy, my favorite! Gentoo unlike other distros is a source-based distro, that means you compile everything yourself, even the kernel. It’s known for being one of the hardest distros to install. It uses Portage as it’s package manager. Due to it being a source-based distro, it takes a lot of time to compile everything you need (Firefox compiles in 5-6 hours on my laptop). If you’re willing to sink a little bit of your time, Gentoo is the best distro you could ever install. Uses OpenRC by default.

• Very customizable, more than Arch
• Compiled programs are optimized for your use case (USE flags)
• Seperates free and non-free packages (ACCEPT_LICENSE setting)
• OpenRC
• You earn proper bragging rights for installing it

• Installation might take a long time depending on your system

Void Linux

A minimal distribution that uses runit as it’s init system. It’s package manager is called XBPS. It’s a stable rolling release distro, unlike Arch. It also officialy supports musl as a replacement for glibc. It’s community is a bit tiny though, and some packages are a bit old. Also has a handy setup wizard that installs the base system for you. Other than the packages being slightly out of date, it’s alright I guess.

• Minimal, uses runit and has musl support
• Stable packages won’t fuck up a system update (hopefully)
• Seperates free and non-free packages

• Some packages are out of date
• Tiny community might make it hard to find help

Summary

Use whatever you want that suits you. In my opinion you should just use Debian for servers and Arch (or Artix) for desktops. Use Gentoo if you’re autistic like me.