Two Linux users walk into a bar

I feel like most everyone* who cares about distros likes Debian. It may not be the right distro for your use case, but you're glad it's around.

* I'm sure even Debian has it's haters. But I think it's a minority.

I use it because it feels like the most Linux-ey of Linuxes (Linuxii??). I don't know how else to describe it. It's like, no bullshit, just Linux. Here's the Lego pieces, go have fun.
- As a long-time Debian user, I'd have to throw my vote behind Slackware for the title of most UNIX-y, which is I guess a bit different from most Linux-y.
  
  Debian got me through grad school, but Slack got me through undergrad on a hopelessly underpowered old ThinkPad --- Volkerding is a legend, and Slack will always be dear to my heart.
- Lineeses.
I feel like most everyone

Beware the false consensus. Not all birds are seagulls, but get a plate of chips and that's all you'll see.
- That's a new metaphor for me. I like it! And I want some chips now. Either the British or American kind.
I don't really like debian. I can respect it as a good distro that's based and all, but It doesn't fit my use case of 'just works' the same way my steamdeck does (in regards to gaming and Windows similarly). For that I've found Bazzite or Kubuntu for their usage of KDE. (also manjaro was buggy 🤷‍♀️)

I still can't decide if I want to use Arch based to be similar to my SteamDeck, or Ubuntu based because dealing with packages is confusing.

However I have semi-given up on Linux for my desktop PC because Nvidia sucks and I'll try again on my semi-anually "ooo let's try Linux again!" after Microsoft makes another dumb change. I'm gonna stick with it one day lol
- Give up on nvidia, IMO.
- Try Fedora KDE spin next time. It handles my Nvidia GPU without any trouble.
- Bazzite (fedora based) is actually more like steamOS than Arch is like steamOS, as both Bazzite and steamOS are immutable. I love Bazzite/Aurora/Bluefin because they have the option to include Nvidia drivers preconfigured out of the box. There have been some improvements in KDE for NVIDIA recently, so maybe check it out. One quick question, why is dealing with packages a pro point for Ubuntu?
Debian is independent, OG, a base of so many distros, it is objectively the most stable Linux in existence, it has its own libre kernel...what's not to love?

Ah, right.

systemd.
- Exactly, same as Arch... which is why I used Arch for like 2 weeks and then hopped to Void. Sorry, but it was the same bullshit all over again, services not running properly, slow boot time, services stalling at shutdown... I'm sorry but, with the words of Garry Oldman, I haven't got time for this Mickey Mouse bullshit!
  
  Runit on the other hand... it just works. Set it and forget it!
I feel like everybody at least has a Debian based distro they like unless they're going out of their way to be an arch tryhard, even if it's not their #1 overall.

Two individuals agree on an objective fact. Is this really a joke?

The joke was actually the followup about the windows users, the linux portion is part of the setup.
Debian is a joke, it is so far out of date it is unusable for anything except cave-painting or maybe a stone circle.

Ubuntu is way better.
- I really can't decide if this is serious or a joke
- I could have you arrested for that comment.
- As a Debian user (for two servers) and a Kubuntu user (because literally nothing else that ships with KDE supports my machine's 5G modem), I'm sorry but I'm going to have to kill you. Nothing personal, you see, but we've had a vote and well, it was quite strongly in favor for your demise due to the statements you've made.
  
  Terribly sorry about this. bang
- Low effort bait

i use debian btw

I hate myself too.
I use Debian for any of my servers. Its stability is unparalleled.

My personal computers are a playground though.

I use Arch btw.

So you probably have to go and fix it now. Good luck.

It's a joke..... Before I'm sentenced to death by downvotes.
- I've been fixing it since I installed it...
- Joke's on you, we all use btrfs with snapper.
  
  We are very aware!

Everyone knows that Windows 7 was peak Windows

You misspelled Windows 3.11 for Workgroups.

tada.wav 4eva
It peaked somewhere between 2000 and 7. Personally, I place it in XP, but opinions vary.
- Fire up React OS one of these days
- 98SE, XP, and 7 each were relatively solid for their time. They all had issues, but were far better at being an OS than what we have now or are trying to be sold to constantly upgrade to.
- I run Debian at home because "Microsoft evil", but I kinda think the Windows 10 image we use at work is alright. I work at a Forbes 500 company with a huuuge IT department, so I'm guessing they've done well at setting up group policies or something to make a de-cluttered experience for us. At least I never see any ads or Bing bullshit, and the Start menu works like I expect from ye old days. I could never make W10 work just as sleek at home, so I gave up and moved to Linux.
  
  That said, most developers here still use a local Linux VM for actual developing lol.
- 2K was my jam.
  
  The death of the DOS line of Windows (3.x, 9x, ME) lead to the decision to inject clown DNA into NT in order to appeal to the masses and that's how we ended up with XP.
  
  Vista was an attempt to eradicate the clown, but it was still there, people hated it and because Microsoft thought they had eradicated the clown, they thought people wanted more clown, and that's how we ended up with Windows 8.
  
  What about 7? The clown gene skipped a generation.
It's true. Add scrolling of non-focused windows and it's unbeatable.
Has there ever been a good version of Windows? Old versions were functional but terribly insecure and newer versions are reasonably secure but cloud connected ad platforms.

Windows 10 is probably the middle ground although the newer versions come with the same anti features Windows 11 has
- Good question. I will say W7 because W10 necessitated an SSD to stay performant, so bloat and bullshit got rolled into W10
I think Windows 10 has nailed it UI/UX-wise.

Too bad they enshittified it into oblivion.
- Except for the start menu and right click menu, yeah, I'd agree. Luckily, you can bring both back if you wanted to.
Vista*
8.1 but go off
- Thats the version I've seen people experience the most issues with relative to the time they've used it.
- 🤮

The one asks how to do something. The other gives 13 steps of instructions. The 14th step is "???? I don't know. This is where I got stuck too in the same way as OP."

The two started updating before you could read the end of the comic strip

Debian. Vista. And somewhere around Snow Leopard, though I stopped getting upgrades around that time so fuck you apple.

These are the selections of the peak power user, and they shall not be questioned, as the punishment is using Windows 8 for a month, followed by death, which will be merciful after that month.

What?

Vista was ass until the very end.

Windows 8.1 is the last best windows OS
- You're gonna get downvoted because of 8.1.
  
  But yes, I do agree, 8.1 was great, a lot better than 10. The problem with it was the start menu (easily fixable) and the fact that MS didn't invest money or time in it after 10 came out, so a lot of bugs went unfixed.
- Exactly like XP, Vista was horrible until a couple of service packs. Then it was better than XP SP2 and release Windows 7.
I always think that Vista was alright, it just took a bullet for every version of Windows that followed. It introduced overdue changes to many long-standing Windows conventions, changes that still stand now. If Windows 7 had been the next one after XP then everyone would have hated that instead.
- Another issue was that Vista had very steep system requirements, which Microsoft deliberately understated. As a result it ran like shit on a ton of machines despite them technically meeting the requirements.

If we weren’t a bunch dickheads who love fiddling with things, and instead just wanted a sensible OS that worked, we’d all be using Debian on everything.

you just offended the entire anti-system d club.

Your use of Liberation Serif will not go unnoticed.

"The Bartender yells at them to use the door like a normal person, and get out."

I was looking for the bonus panel on the website and I realized this isn't a real smbc comic when I looked again!

It references https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/a-bar-joke but it uses totally different panels. Someone was very dedicated to make this.

Hate to burst your bubble, but it's this one https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2013-09-06
- Hmm I guess searching for smbc comics isn't as easy as xkcd. Thanks for finding it!

One can like multiple distros. e.g. i run Debian on my media center because i have no need for bleeding edge software and want just a stable system that changes as rarely as possible and only receives security patches. Its a perfect OS for shit that just needs to be setup once and then runs in that configuration forever.

If you try that with e.g. Arch, it is very possible that after a week you have suddenly a different theme installed for your frontend and your plugins stopped working.

For my webservers i tend more to ubuntu because of newer packages as Debian but being still relative stable in terms of versions. (but looking into others. i'm just an lazy fuck right now)

And on my desktop system i run EndeavourOS (Arch) because i like to have the newest shit for gaming and i like some of the design decisions the dev made like the early merge of /bin.

And on some of my ancient android phones i got Alpine to run very nicely in a chroot. Primarily because it is very very lightweight / compact and uses OpenRC as init system because Systemd gets very pissy when its not running as PID 1 / detecting it is in a chroot and then refuses to start services (there are hackarounds, but why bother?)

And then there is of course things like Raspian, etc.

Use the right tool for the job.

no. you can only like one.
I use EndeavourOS, and I love the way the system runs, I enjoy pacman and AUR, but I also get annoyed having to do the sudo pacman -Syu dance every couple of days. I want an Arch-like distro that is stable. Does such a thing exist?
- It really does feel like a lot sometimes with the updates. I'm also thinking about looking for something that is also quite close to the edge / rolling but maybe a bit slower.
  
  I was on Manjaro before for a couple of years. They clone the arch repos but then hold back the updates usually a week or so for testing. And it feels in general a bit more "stable" in that concern. But unfortunately over the years i noticed some problems with it like holding back important security updates for way too long for my taste or rewrites of some arch-tools which then not worked in a expected way.
  
  And Endeavour felt right from the first second on noticeable more mature and professional with settings and tools that made sense.
  
  The one big distro family i never looked into is Fedora. As far i see they have some kind of semi-rolling release which could fit the bill quite nicely. Major releases which then kept fairly up-to-date but not so fast and overwhelming as with Arch.
  
  Maybe i will check it out. But yeah, i would probably miss the AUR. It is just so damn convenient.
- There are more rolling release distributions like tumbleweed.
  
  I use endeavour because I like Arch but don't need to be bothered installing it the arch way more than once.

The meme equates 'popular' with 'better'. There's a very good reason we didn't try to make an ubuntu back in 2002, and that reason - weak/bad validation of deployed package payload - is still true today.

If you care about build/release, precise validation is important to you. It's one of the holy trinity of build/release.

Well even if they disagreed neither of them wants to die so the second person just agreed regardless.

I've fixing it since I installed it...