I wouldn’t really call myself a distro hopper, but in the last few months I’ve had to do some fresh installs on a couple of machines and VMs for work

If these aren’t included by default, I’ll make sure to get em:

GUI:

  • Firefox & Chromium
  • Gimp & Krita
  • VSCode/VSCodium
  • Okular
  • Libre office

CLI*:

  • git
  • wget&curl
  • neovim
  • zsh/ohmyzsh + plugins
  • glow
  • neofetch
  • figlet/toilet
  • zellij
  • python
  • nodejs/npm/nvm + nodemon globally
  • ranger/rifle

Also, how do you go about migrating your old config and rc files? Start fresh or just copy em over and make adjustments where necessary?

  • TCB13@lemmy.worldEnglish
    337·
    5 months ago

    Step 1: install Debian 12 today, Step 2: upgrade to Debian 13 when available, then Debian 14, Debian 15 and so on… that’s the only hopping one should.

    • Empricorn@feddit.nlEnglish
      91·
      5 months ago

      Gatekeeping Linux!? I certainly wasn’t expecting that… I think the state of Linux is needlessly fragmented, but even I won’t say a single distro will work best for every single person, business, school, government, or organization.

  • Dehydrated@lemmy.world
    17·
    5 months ago

    I always need

    • LibreWolf (privacy-focused Firefox fork)
    • Some nice terminal emulator like Alacritty or Kitty
    • A torrent client
    • Emacs
    • Strawberry (the music player)

    CLI:

    • fish shell
    • bat
    • neovim
    • fd
    • fzf
    • zoxide
    • Some other Rust alternatives for GNU coreutils
    • GPG
    • fun stuff like neofetch, lolcat, asciiquarium, cmatrix, etc.
    • krash@lemmy.ml
      3·
      5 months ago

      Another fish and modern Unix user 🫶

      PS. Try out lsd if you haven’t already - a nice ls/eza/exa replacement.

  • a_fancy_kiwi@lemmy.world
    172·
    5 months ago
    • fish
    • tmux
    • sshfs
    • htop
    • nmap
    • distrobox (haven’t tried this yet but looks amazing)
    • zfs (and any utilities that go with that)
    • sanoid
    • syncoid
    • tailscale
    • snapper (if using btrfs)

    As far as config files go, I haven’t gotten around to automating those so I usually search my nas for old ones and copy/paste what I need

  • flashgnash
    12·
    5 months ago

    First I install home-manager, then home-manager installs and configures everything else I’ve added to my config over time

      • flashgnash
        3·
        5 months ago

        I’ve not had any but I’m using NixOS, have yet to try it on other distros. (though it supports other distros)

      • gudu@programming.dev
        2·
        5 months ago

        Using it on Nixos, Debian (wsl) and was using it (in the transition to nixos) on arch. Works flawless!

  • stormio@lemmy.caEnglish
    10·
    5 months ago

    Recently, I’ve been changing distros about once a year. These are the things I install every time:

    • hdparm - I use this to disable APM on my HDD which makes annoying sounds when it’s enabled. (Yes, my computer is old and still uses an HDD as the system drive.)
    • KeePassXC - My preferred password manager.
    • VeraCrypt - My external drives are encrypted with this.
    • Joplin - I store my setup notes in here.
    • Lutris/Steam/Wine - I’m a gamer.

    As for the config files, I always start fresh.

      • stormio@lemmy.caEnglish
        4·
        5 months ago

        APM is Advanced Power Management. I’m having trouble finding an official explanation for it, but it basically allows the hard drive to park the head when the OS thinks it’s idle. My hard drive makes a loud “click” every time that happens. APM is too aggressive, so my hard drive is constantly clicking unless I disable APM.

        • Xirup@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          3·
          5 months ago

          That’s sound pretty useful, I actually have an HDD that’s very noisy and this can come handy, thanks!

    • fonetek@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      5 months ago

      Man, do yourself a favor and get an SSD. You can get a 512 GB for as cheap as $30 and a 1 TB for as cheap as $60 on Amazon. The speed difference is night and day. That’s probably the single best upgrade you can do to an old machine.

  • Johanno@feddit.de
    9·
    5 months ago

    Usually I install:

    • Steam
    • flatpak
    • discord
    • gimp
    • vlc
    • lutris
    • protonupQ
    • protontricks

    The rest I install once I need it. Plasma delivers also many of my programs.

  • SmokeInFog@midwest.socialEnglish
    8·
    5 months ago

    Also, how do you go about migrating your old config and rc files? Start fresh or just copy em over and make adjustments where necessary?

    I keep all of my important configs and dot files in a git repo. When setting up a new system I clone that repo and then symlink to them in the appropriate places

    • whats_all_this_then@lemmy.world
      4·
      5 months ago

      I have an init.sh file I run from my dotfiles. Pipe my sudo password to it and leave it alone for about an hour. Gets things 95% of the way to how I like them.

      I should migrate to ansible like u/djehuti@programming.dev but time :(

  • Karna@lemmy.ml
    8·
    5 months ago

    • Nvidia proprietary driver

    • Docker Engine (Portainer, AdGuardHome, LibReddit, Nitter, Invidious)

    • Install and tweak Firefox setup

    • Steam Client

    • Gnome extensions

    • Gnome Shell Theme and Icon themes

    • Nextcloud Client

  • ouch@lemmy.world
    8·
    5 months ago

    Use Ansible for package installations and configuration, and a git repository & GNU stow for dotfiles.

  • 0xCAFe@feddit.deEnglish
    7·
    5 months ago
    • Firefox (often preinstalled)
    • Thunderbird
    • Code
    • FreeTube & Stremio
    • Apostrophe
    • KeePass
    • Nextcloud
    • Syncthing
    • yt-dlp
  • SuperSpruce@lemmy.zip
    6·
    5 months ago

    I also don’t consider myself a distrohopper (I’ve only installed Ubuntu based distros), but I did recently install Ubuntu and KDE Neon on separate computers.

    It really depends on what I’m using the computer for, but I’ll list my most commonly used applications by importance tiers:

    A Tier (cannot live without these):

    • Firefox
    • Neofetch (obviously)
    • A GUI file manager (doesn’t really matter which one)
    • A usable Desktop Environment

    B Tier (extremely useful but nonessential):

    • LibreOffice
    • Xournal++ (for taking notes, and editing PDFs)
    • Baobab (for recording disk usage)
    • Steam
    • VLC (video player)
    • Clementine (music player)
    • htop (CLI system monitor)
    • GUI “appstore”

    C Tier (very useful, but quite niche):

    • VSCode
    • Vivaldi
    • Retroarch
    • Krita
    • Kdenlive
    • OBS Studio
    • Wine
    • GUI system monitor
    • Standalone PDF viewer