I’ve been using Linux as my main OS for a couple of years now, first on a slightly older Dell Inspiron 15. Last year I upgraded to an Inspiron 15 7510 with i7-11800H and RTX3050. Since purchasing this laptop I’ve used Manjaro, Debian 11, Pop OS, Void Linux, Fedora Silverblue (37 & 38) and now Debian 12. I need to reinstall soon since I’ve stuffed up my NVIDIA drivers trying to install CUDA and didn’t realise that they changed the default swap size to 1GB.

I use this laptop for everything - development in C/C++, dart/flutter, nodejs and sometimes PHP. I occasionally play games on it through Proton and sometimes need to re-encode videos using Handbrake. I need some amount of reliability since I also use this for University.

I’ve previously been against trying Arch due to instability issues such as the recent GRUB thing. But I have been reading about BTRFS and snapshots which make me think I can have an up to date system and reliability (by rebooting into a snapshot). What’s everyone’s perspective on this, is there anything major I should keep an eye on?

Should also note I use GNOME, vscode, Firefox and will need MATLAB to be installed, if there is anything to do with those that is problematic on Arch?

Edit: I went with Arch thanks everyone for the advice

  • dino@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    2·
    10 months ago

    Huh? The debian wiki is horrendous compared to Arch. You are better off reading the manuals and trying to get a grip on it yourself.

    • superkret@feddit.de
      3·
      10 months ago

      yes I know. (Besides, Debian’s official documentation isn’t the wiki, but the Debian handbook).
      The point is, on Debian you don’t need the wiki. Things that are a long manual process on Arch (best example: Nextcloud) are already preconfigured or there’s a ready made solution available.

      • dino@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        Kind of weird example. When most new software is not even available on debian or heavily outdated due to point release model.

        • superkret@feddit.de
          1·
          10 months ago

          I’m talking about third party software, not what’s in the repository.
          It’s usually available as .deb or .rpm and nothing else.
          On Arch someone may or may not have converted it and put it in the AUR, and it may or may not be maintained.

          Besides, I run Sid, which isn’t point release nor outdated.