Hello, fellow internet users. I am currently using Debian but would like a distro to try the new Gnome on. I have been using Debian for a while and I love the stability, but would like newer packages. I also, for no rational reason, would like to be able to use the default package manager exclusively. I used Fedora before and liked it more than Debian (apart from that it felt vaguely Windowsey) but I would like to distance myself from the whole red hat thing. What distro do you think I should get?
It sounds like you want a rolling release distribution. Which means the software repository will have versions close to upstream, or the latest versions shortly after they hit. There’s plenty of those.
The best entry level rolling release distribution is, in my opinion, EndeavourOS. It is based on Arch Linux, but provides a fully working desktop out of the box. It grants you a package manager with a rolling release repository.
Next up would be Arch Linux. Similar to above, but it comes with a minimal system and you have to explicitly install most applications that aren’t required to boot and start a terminal-only session, including your desktop environment.
Next up would be either gentoo or nixos. But I feel like the other two will cover your bases so I won’t talk about those unless you want me to.
Agreed.
EndeavourOS is so nice. It puts paid to the whole “BTW, I run Arch” meme, because it’s silly easy.