For me it was:
Windows (for many years) -> Ubuntu (for a year) -> Arch Linux (for half a year) -> Void Linux (literally 2 days) -> Artix Linux with runit (a month) -> Gentoo Linux (another month) -> Debian (finally, I don’t plan on changing it).
Also, when trying to switch from Gentoo to Debian, I fucked up all my data with no backup.
What was your journey?
EDIT: Added Windows
For one, I’m a sucker for bleeding edge, so the constant updates, including kernels, are a godsent. Then there’s my overall experience when compared to other bases. For example, I love PopOS, but even in my S76 Gazelle, it would break regularly (it could have something to do with all the tinkering I constantly do, but who knows), whereas with Fedora, since F37, I’ve barely had to tweak anything other than the DE and have yet to see it fail.
I also tried Arch (Endeavour actually), but I find managing it unnecessarily convoluted for my taste.
I’m sure my love for Fedora comes from my personal experience based on my use cases and the hardware I use. It’s not without it’s kinks though, I used to hate how slow DNF is when compared to APT, but DNF5 has been working flawlessly and fast for a couple of months now. And be aware, in terms of performance for some intensive graphical stuff, I feel Fedora falls a bit behind any Ubuntu/Devian based distro, but not noticeably enough for me to go back.
I get it, I actually use the exact same distros you mention: Pop!_OS, Endeavour and Fedora.
Had the same experience with Pop!_OS: those few things that did not “just work” but needed tinkering caused quite some issues. And yeah, somewhat more bleeding edge than Ubuntu LTS is nice: to use neovim on the 22.04 base, I’d need to use distrobox or build vim from source, but on Fedora and Arch, it “just works”.
I liked Endeavour, though I haven’t really used it with a DE, I went with Sway. So hard to compare, but the manual sysadmin intervention everyone keeps talking about has been minimal. AUR is amazing, pacman is fast and sane.
I went to Fedora because it is bleeding edge enough, but seems better tested and more stable than Arch. Also wanted to see how BTRFS is setup on there and test the rollbacks. The codec stuff has been terrible though. Even after enabling RPMFusion and installing a bunch of them, the Fedora source Firefox still refuses to do video calls in MS Teams. I’m using Flatpak browsers now but downloading flatpak updates is way slower than even the worst package manager for “native” binaries. Feels a bit odd to have to use a Flatpak for the browser.
If I had to install a new pc today, I’d go EndeavourOS with KDE (which I’m using on Fedora now), BTRFS and systemd-boot. I got to know systemd-boot in Pop!_OS and have tried a different boot manager (rEFInd), but systemd-boot is amazing.
At the end of the day, it’ll be a matter of taste and how much anyone’s willing to “play around”. For example, my 9 years old son started with Zorin when he was 6, and has never looked back,whereas my 11 years old daughter started with Zorin at 8, saw me on PopOS and a couple of months later moved to that. Then we gave her an old HP X360 for school when she needs a laptop, and she went with Nobara, and my wife finally dropped Windows about a month or 2 ago, and chose Fedora because that’s what I use and she figures I can resolve anything quickly for her since that’s also what I use.
Yes, My house is now spyware free on all PCs and Laptops 🥰
That’s amazing!
When your kids tell you “why do people use Windows? I can’t understand why it always popping stuff up”, you know you’re doing a good job as a parent.