people moving from more expensive states wanting to own a home

use linux/bsd

the thing it offers is no systemd, and the mx-linux gui tools to configure your system. Also the advanced hardware support (AHS) is a neat feature. They basically take Debian and make it slightly more user friendly. It’s just less well known than something like ubuntu or mint.

No it’s not widely used. But I think it has a small loyal community. Some people really love it. I’ve only tried it a couple of times, and only on virtual machines. I liked doing admin via text files, and I like that using the “kitchen sink” option you basically have a tool for every task after install. It’s linux but sort unixy or bsd-like in how it approaches some things. That works for some and not so much for others. I might try it out again, but most likely I will stick to Debian.

If you want more software it’s up to you how to do it. With 3rd party tools like sbopkg it’s easier than before, and with tools like flatpak install other software is even easier.

There is also slackware current, and all the other repos, like the work alienbob does to provide plasma desktop etc.

I like it, for the most part. Obviously you need to check to see if your hardware is supported, but it’s a good OS. It’s stable, has neat features like boot environments, and it with pkg and the ports tree you can have newer versions of software. Also, they don’t make changes to the OS for the sake of it, or because one person or group wants it. They make change with a clear plan in my mind. Sometimes that means features land later in FreeBSD, but they’re implemented more thoughtfully imo.

OpenBSD and NetBSD are also cool projects in their own right.

since you’re used to debian, maybe try something that isn’t debian based.

PCLinuxOS

Mageia

Slackware

OpenSuse

Free/open/netbsd

btrfs and snapshots is one solution

Also, it looks like you were able to solve the problem, even if you aren’t 100% sure why. Maybe the difference in package versions lead to some problem with the bootloader, causing it to go to emergency mode, and updating it fixed the problem?

Another is using a more stable distro…

I heard about this a little while back. I think it’s interesting, and it’s nice to see someone try something slightly different. The creator is obviously opinionated about how their distro should work. At least it’s not just another debian/ubuntu based distro.

vlc

for just music/audio musicolet is a good one

yast can be ugly, but effective. And aesthetics are definitely subjective. Agree about zypper though.

I actually kind of like that.

I remember using Icewm and it had a theme that mimicked XP lol.

it’s good for first timers, or for people who are just less interested in the command line and configuring everything

use linux mint, xubuntu, or maybe pclinuxos

Debian sid. Used to use stable only.

I thought they were anti-ML?