Step 1: install Debian 12 today, Step 2: upgrade to Debian 13 when available, then Debian 14, Debian 15 and so on… that’s the only hopping one should.

• fish
• tmux
• sshfs
• htop
• nmap
• distrobox (haven’t tried this yet but looks amazing)
• zfs (and any utilities that go with that)
• sanoid
• syncoid
• tailscale
• snapper (if using btrfs)

As far as config files go, I haven’t gotten around to automating those so I usually search my nas for old ones and copy/paste what I need

I always need

• LibreWolf (privacy-focused Firefox fork)
• Some nice terminal emulator like Alacritty or Kitty
• A torrent client
• Emacs
• Strawberry (the music player)

CLI:

• fish shell
• bat
• neovim
• fd
• fzf
• zoxide
• Some other Rust alternatives for GNU coreutils
• GPG
• fun stuff like neofetch, lolcat, asciiquarium, cmatrix, etc.

First I install home-manager, then home-manager installs and configures everything else I’ve added to my config over time

Extreme Tux Racer, just can’t live without it

Usually I install:

• Steam
• flatpak
• discord
• gimp
• vlc
• lutris
• protonupQ
• protontricks

The rest I install once I need it. Plasma delivers also many of my programs.

Use Ansible for package installations and configuration, and a git repository & GNU stow for dotfiles.

Recently, I’ve been changing distros about once a year. These are the things I install every time:

• hdparm - I use this to disable APM on my HDD which makes annoying sounds when it’s enabled. (Yes, my computer is old and still uses an HDD as the system drive.)
• KeePassXC - My preferred password manager.
• VeraCrypt - My external drives are encrypted with this.
• Joplin - I store my setup notes in here.
• Lutris/Steam/Wine - I’m a gamer.

As for the config files, I always start fresh.

Also, how do you go about migrating your old config and rc files? Start fresh or just copy em over and make adjustments where necessary?

I keep all of my important configs and dot files in a git repo. When setting up a new system I clone that repo and then symlink to them in the appropriate places

• Nvidia proprietary driver

• Docker Engine (Portainer, AdGuardHome, LibReddit, Nitter, Invidious)

• Install and tweak Firefox setup

• Steam Client

• Gnome extensions

• Gnome Shell Theme and Icon themes

• Nextcloud Client

Oh, this is a flipping great question. So much fun as I’ve just settled on one distro. M$ won’t allow me to transfer my transferrable Windows license and I refuse o pay yetagain for Windows so Linux is my sole OS from now on. I have had so many weird issues or configuration woes with a ton of OSs ive been trying. So I tell ya, I sure have installed my fair share of them in the last month or so.

GUI:

• Steam (Gotta get my game on)
• ProtonPlus
• Lutris
• Heroic
• Winetricks
• Protontricks
• VLC
• Brave
• Bitwarden(Probably the second most important software in my life)
• Authy
• Krusader (No idea why but Ill use this before the built in file manager sometimes)
• Plex htpc
• Kate - Notepadqq (havent decided which one i like best yet)
• PolyMC
• LibreOffice
• Flatpack (I always prefer the native package but flatpack has almost anything the repositories lack)-
• Appimagelauncher (Just for ease of use, appimages are a always third fiddle but are a great backup as flatpacks can be - limited in available software compared)
• Gimp (Almost exclusively because the name makes me giggle)
• OBS Studio

CLI:

• MC (100% always the first this I ever install no matter what)
• HTOP (Not standard in all as many distros as i would think)
• Openssh
• Cifs-utils
• Starship
• Zsh
• Neofetch
• Tmux (Cant live without it)

Of course there are tons of other small things I add but those are the ones I will have installed likely before I go to reboot for the first time. The rest of what I interact with is generally running on my server so it’s all web based stuff for the most part. I use VNC often to interact with virtual machines, do tech support for my son so i don’t have to get up (disabled). I haven’t really found a Linux VNC client i genuinely like. I used to use TightVNC with Windows and it’s about the only thing I miss. I do have a Guacamole docker running on my network but unless you have a physical KB/M it’s less than preferable to use. I’ll find something I like eventually I’m sure. 👍-----

Nothing. I just install what I need when I need it.

Basically testing different Fedora Variants, so:

• fish
• bat, eza
• waydroid, distrobox, qemu-kvm, virt-manager
• flatpak

Some own CLI tools

• copr-command
• kde sysinfo cli
• braveinstall

Hardening the kernel:

 rpm-ostree kargs --append="init_on_alloc=1" --append="init_on_free=1" --append="slab_nomerge" --append="page_alloc.shuffle=1" --append="randomize_kstack_offset=on" --append="vsyscall=none" --append="debugfs=off" --append="lockdown=confidentiality" --append="random.trust_cpu=off" --append="random.trust_bootloader=off" --append="intel_iommu=on" --append="amd_iommu=on" --append="iommu.passthrough=0" --append="iommu.strict=1" --append="mitigations=auto,nosmt"
--append="module.sig_enforce=1"

yeah I basically distrohop between Fedora atomic images

I don’t distro hop, but I keep my most commonly used programs as appimages in my home, as well as some locally compiled programs that I install in ~/.local/bin and ~/.local/lib.

Those include essentials like:

• i3wm
• polybar
• rofi
• handlr (regex one)

And for the programs, those include:

• brave
• ferdium
• freetube
• gimp
• librewolf
• libreoffice

That way I can drop my home onto any distro and everything will work at once. No need to manually install programs.

I also have wrapper scripts on my PATH that force applications that don’t comply with the xdg base dir spec to use a fakehome in ~/.local, like steam and the web browsers.

Strawberry, qBittorrent, neovim