I wanted to headline this the good thing about Arch LInux, but that would have been unfair – there are other rolling release distributions, like openSUSE Tumbleweed or others (children like Manjaro, Endeavour, and the likes).
So the good thing about these rolling release distributions is that you’ll always get the latest and greatest software, automatically. You read about it, like I just did with the new Firefox 102 (which is also the new ESR release), and as soon as you log in and update, bam, you’ll have it.
Don’t get me wrong: Debian stable is still my main Linux distribution of choice, I’m using it since almost 20 years now, and that won’t change that fast. But nice and stable is one thing, curiosity or the wish to just see what’s out there is another – and for that, these rolling release distros are a godsend.
They say that Arch is difficult to install – well for me it wasn’t, but then again I’m used to using a (system) terminal window, so I’ve set up my triple boot system starting with Arch (and I wouldn’t even have known about the Windows EFI partition being too small without first reading the wonderful Arch installation Wiki). But if you don’t even need dual or triple boot systems, Arch now has an installer which is pretty helpful already, and if that’s still too much, well, there are the other ones I’ve mentioned above.
For me, running Linux isn’t only all about choice, but it’s even about daily or hourly choice – I can switch back and forth at will, as often as I like. And unlike with commercial systems, my system is *mine* – and only *I* decide if and when a machine gets too old, and should be retired (or find another home with less demanding jobs). Want to try making music using the latest pipewire and wireplumber setup? Switch to Arch. Want your well known stable workhorse? Go back to Debian. That easy.
As always, thanks for reading.