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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Who here uses a less popular Linux distribution? What made you choose it? (lemdro.id)

submitted 1 year ago by mfat@lemdro.id to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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Hey fellow Linux enthusiasts! I'm curious to know if any of you use a less popular, obscure or exotic Linux distribution. What motivated you to choose that distribution over the more mainstream ones? I'd love to hear about your experiences and any unique features or benefits that drew you to your chosen distribution.

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[–] paholg@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

I prefer to come at it from an immediate utility level, and I think a good place to start with that is home-manager.

You can install nix and home-manager on any Linux distribution or MacOs. It lets you, in a single place, specify what packages you want, services you want to run at the user level, and what config files you want in your home directory. For a lot of things, home-manager has built-in config options, but you can also specify arbitrary config files.

Then, you can take this one file to a new computer, and with no other config, have everything set-up the way you like it.

NixOs allows you to do this for your whole system.

It also has a bunch of other benefits, which tie-in to the jargon you bring up. But if you want to check it out, I'd worry about that later.