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[Poll] What OS are you running on your daily driver?
Hey folks,
I’ve been wondering lately — what OS are most of you actually using on your daily driver computers or laptops? Thought it’d be fun to run a quick poll and see how things stack up around here.
Personally, I’m running Fedora 43 Workstation on a $878 laptop and it’s honestly buttery smooth. I paired it with auto-cpufreq and the difference in battery life, fan noise, and overall snappiness is really noticeable. Best part is the out-of-the-box experience — just open the lid and it’s ready, no need to shut down, everything just works fast and effortless.
What’s your main OS these days? Windows? macOS? Some Linux distro? Drop your setup below!
What’s your main OS these days?
- Choose your daily os.190 votes
- Windows (7/8/8.1/10/11 or LTSC?)41.05%
- Linux (Which distro do you use?)42.63%
- macOS13.16%
- BSD2.11%
- Others1.05%
Comments
I use Windows and Mac every day. Windows at my desk and Mac while I am on the couch watching TV.
Ah shit, I selected "Others" when I meant to select Linux (Gentoo, *buntu).
I dualboot Windows 10 LTSC and Debian Testing on my main rig, though mostly use Windows.
Debian 13 with sway. Boot to cli and type "sway".
Chimera Linux.
I don't know why—regardless of which version of Windows I'm running—the fan always suddenly spins up furiously, whether the system is under load or idling (even after I've disabled automatic updates). It spins for a while, then stops again, and it's driving me absolutely mad. macOS is great (with the exception of version 26.4—I certainly won't be upgrading my MacBook M1 to that release).
Gentoo is the only Linux distribution I haven't tried. I feel that manually installing Arch Linux is my limit; Gentoo seems more suitable for advanced users who understand how to customize their systems from the beginning. (Perhaps my understanding is too one-sided.)
I tried Ubuntu—or various derivatives of it—back when I was roughly in 7th grade; using XFCE on an old computer worked really well.
It's actually not much different. I find that Gentoo causes fewer random breakages when performing upgrades than Arch does (but obviously far more than e.g. Debian). The initial installation can be a bit much, but it's a great learning experience.
The Gentoo installation handbook walks you through everything and allows you to deviate as much (or as little) as you want.
Prior to this, I seem to recall seeing somewhere that the Gentoo Wiki once suffered a data loss incident due to a technical failure—though I’m not entirely sure if that’s just a faulty memory.
The Arch Wiki is an excellent resource; even users of non-Arch variants and distributions can find a wealth of comprehensive and up-to-date reference material there.
Debian 13 with Gnome on desktop
MacOS on laptop
XFCE's performance on older computers has left me deeply impressed. Windows users can pick it up quickly, though I'm not sure how smooth the transition to Wayland will be.
Is Sway the successor to i3? Hyprland on Wayland is also a great option—it looks incredibly cool—but I'm not a "hacker," so I felt a bit overwhelmed when I first tried it out.
Sway is like i3, but for wayland instead of x11. I simplified things by not installing a desktop environment. I just use the window manager (sway).
Are there any implications to not installing a desktop environment and using only a window manager—aside from having to manually type
swayinto the console at boot?Yes arch wiki is one of the best linux resources. I use fedora but I often find solutions there when troubleshooting issues. Although some instructions are arch specific but most are applicable across distributions.
windows, application for work only support windows.
It doesn't have various built-in things, like system menus and configuration, notifications, default applications and utilities. Anything you need, you have to piece together by yourself. There's more command line configuration. But less bloat.
Gentoo users don’t measure time in seconds, minutes, or hours - they measure it in “emerges.”
windows 11 ltsc 2024
Arch Linux with Hyprland and my own rice, personalized to my daily use. Still love it:D.
Void Linux + Labwc
I tried gentoo once several years ago. Back then I was really annoyed because of waiting times whenever I updated vor installed something new. Running Debian + XFCE on all Desktops/Laptops.
MacOS on 14 inch M4 Pro
Desktop:
- ArchLinux as main daily driver OS and programming.
- Bazzite and CachyOS for games.
Vps/Servers:
- Debian (Main)
- FreeBSD (I'm currently using it on one of my VPS servers, solely as a proxy with Caddy and Netbird to access my local network and the Netbird network. I'm currently looking into what other tasks it might be useful for.)
Damn, there are a few people using Debian as their daily driver OS. Before I switched to Mac, I used Gnome Debian for a bit and then mainly used Fedora Gnome and Fedora with dwm.
debian/rocky/ubuntu linux 99% of my time, and dual booting windows 1% of my time so almost never only when i want to play a game of age of empires. When windows team even knew how to crash windows notepad was for me the final straw, how can they call themself professional programmers?
Linux Mint on desktop
MacOS on laptop