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Struggles Installing Linux Distros

2026-03-18T12:00:00+02:00 — Estimated read time: 3 minutes
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So to set the scene, I have been using linux since ~2016, and daily driving since ~2019. My path was roughly Ubuntu -> Kubuntu -> Arch, and that is where I have stayed. I used Gentoo a while, but my arch experience made me update every other day, and having to wait for a web-browser to compile for half a hour again took its toll, so back to arch I went.

A couple of years went by, life was great, I meet my current partner. She is currently studying, and needed a new computer for studying. Luckily I had just picked up a old laptop from work that I had just installed linux on. While I felt arch was probably a bit heavy, I didn't feel like installing windows on it again, so I ended up installing fedora on it. A bit of struggling later and she had her very own laptop.

A couple more years goes by and my poor main computer is starting to get old. However, I had mostly reached the end of upgradability for it (LGA 1711 & DDR4), so it was time for a refresh to a new motherboard and all new components. But after all this time, I had a complete set of old components for another computer. Perhaps I should rebuild them again so my partner can have her very own gaming computer...

A bit of more struggling with screws lost to time, it was done. Now just to install a distro on it, and of course it should be fedora! I flash the USB, install it, and it runs like shit... Nvidida drivers are a bit of pain, but I have dealt with this on arch! This is a old GTX 1080, so it needs some older drivers (or well first of all get rid of nouveau drivers).

But uh, I accidentally installed a prerelease version of fedora instead. And rollbacking was basically impossible. After a lot of fighting with the terminal, I gave up. I installed arch, because I know how to deal with arch. I know what to whisper to pacman when you are met with a TTY on boot, I know how to kick pipewire in the ribs to fix audio, I know how to juggle DE/WMs with greeters for what I need from them.

But where does that leave us? I don't know. I'm not going to say fedora is bad, I think however we need to put greater emphesis on what family of distro people choose. The difference between distros is hugely overblown, but which package and process manager they use is very important. If you choose a Debian, Redhat, Arch, SUSE, etc family, you are going to learn quite different ways of solving problems. If you stick to a family for long enough (almost 10 years for me), you are probably going to get stuck with it. Nothing terrible in itself, but good to be aware about.

#linux
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