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> For a good period of my life I don't think I had same Linux install on my personal machines for longer than three months. ...this seems like the obvious prob

> For a good period of my life I don't think I had same Linux install on my personal machines for longer than three months. ...this seems like the obvious problem? Both of my NixOS installs are ~4 and 1/2 years old now. If you're using distros that break more frequently than Windows does, I can see how you'd get tuckered out.

rietta 1mo ago
That does seem strange. So he has been experimenting seeking something. I have kept the same LTS installations sometimes until the bitter end of the support cycle.
ocd 1mo ago
I think Windows and macOS have both changed more radically than my 10 year old Gentoo installation has in that period of time, heh.
newsoftheday 1mo ago
I agree, Kubuntu here last 4 years, Ubuntu before that starting 2006.
- prmoustache 1mo ago
  While I used to.distrohop a bit at the beginning of the century, my current Fedora 44 install dates back from Fedora 25 or 26 which I believe was released somewhere around 2017. It has moved from one laptop to another as I couldn't be bothered to reinstall. I don't define myself as a linux user either. Using some kind of Linux or BSD has simply been the pragmatic choice for around 3 decades compared to what always looked like opaque and user hostile proprietary operating systems.
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saghm 1mo ago
Yeah, I distro-hopped for a few years during the tail end of my college days and the first year or two after, but at this point I've been running the same Arch installation for close to a decade (literally migrating it to new hardware by setting up the same partition structure and rsyncing everything over). It hasn't felt like work to use Linux pretty much since I stopped reinstalling, while Windows and MacOS feel like they get harder to use every time I have to.
kombine 1mo ago
Yeah, weird. I've run Fedora and OpenSUSE Tumbleweed (rolling distro) for two and a half years each.
Jnr 1mo ago
I have been on the same Arch installation for 10+ years and the previous install on a different device was also ~8 years old. Could have just transferred files over and be done about it but I wanted to refresh my knowledge. :)
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lstodd 1mo ago
Yup. I think my xubuntu install dates back to early 2010s. I upgrade to 04s, it works.
mothzilla 1mo ago
The dance trying different distros and DEs is fun (and important) for a while. Eventually you learn to fix the problems yourself exactly to avoid having to reinstall. Eventuakky distro lines get blurred as it's the same software under it and jumping between them more easily. Once you find a distro with the right mix for your tastes you stick to it. My main server has some files as old as 1999, migrated hardware, filesystems, even migrated from 32bit to 64bit without having to reinstall. But I've spent 3 years doing the same dance before it. It might be that OP never wanted to actually do the next step, which is OK. Hopefully MacOS works for them and they can keep affording their machines.

rietta 1mo ago

That does seem strange. So he has been experimenting seeking something. I have kept the same LTS installations sometimes until the bitter end of the support cycle.

ocd 1mo ago

I think Windows and macOS have both changed more radically than my 10 year old Gentoo installation has in that period of time, heh.

newsoftheday 1mo ago

I agree, Kubuntu here last 4 years, Ubuntu before that starting 2006.

prmoustache 1mo ago
While I used to.distrohop a bit at the beginning of the century, my current Fedora 44 install dates back from Fedora 25 or 26 which I believe was released somewhere around 2017. It has moved from one laptop to another as I couldn't be bothered to reinstall. I don't define myself as a linux user either. Using some kind of Linux or BSD has simply been the pragmatic choice for around 3 decades compared to what always looked like opaque and user hostile proprietary operating systems.

deleted 1mo ago

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saghm 1mo ago

Yeah, I distro-hopped for a few years during the tail end of my college days and the first year or two after, but at this point I've been running the same Arch installation for close to a decade (literally migrating it to new hardware by setting up the same partition structure and rsyncing everything over). It hasn't felt like work to use Linux pretty much since I stopped reinstalling, while Windows and MacOS feel like they get harder to use every time I have to.

kombine 1mo ago

Yeah, weird. I've run Fedora and OpenSUSE Tumbleweed (rolling distro) for two and a half years each.

Jnr 1mo ago

I have been on the same Arch installation for 10+ years and the previous install on a different device was also ~8 years old. Could have just transferred files over and be done about it but I wanted to refresh my knowledge. :)

deleted 1mo ago

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lstodd 1mo ago

Yup. I think my xubuntu install dates back to early 2010s. I upgrade to 04s, it works.

mothzilla 1mo ago

The dance trying different distros and DEs is fun (and important) for a while. Eventually you learn to fix the problems yourself exactly to avoid having to reinstall. Eventuakky distro lines get blurred as it's the same software under it and jumping between them more easily. Once you find a distro with the right mix for your tastes you stick to it. My main server has some files as old as 1999, migrated hardware, filesystems, even migrated from 32bit to 64bit without having to reinstall. But I've spent 3 years doing the same dance before it. It might be that OP never wanted to actually do the next step, which is OK. Hopefully MacOS works for them and they can keep affording their machines.