Slackware back in '05 to '09 stopped for a whIle and i just got back Into it. Currently distro hopping the BSDs and fiddling with gentoo, and Guix, trying to set up A reproducible system that doesnt use systemd and offers good wine and vm support with an Openbsd firewall/router and nas setup.
Whoa, I used Slackware for basically that same time frame (IBM --- not Lenovo --- ThinkPad 600e, which was pretty ancient even at the time). Good stuff!
Ubuntu actually. I hated Ubuntu for a long time, until there was a game which only ran on Ubuntu. And now, after installing it, I'm actually pretty impressed and like it a lot. Yaru is a very good-looking theme, and the customizations Ubuntu made to stock GNOME are actually pretty logical (like adding windows buttons). It has among the best documentation and package support in the whole Linux universe. I'm a guy who likes to tinker, but for whom it is more important that the PC runs well, and I haven't encountered a single problem with Ubuntu yet - no kernel panic, no weird Bluetooth stuff, no apps which don't run for some reason,...
Everything just works. And that makes me happy. So Ubuntu it is.
My first try at linux was ubuntu 8 on a 2008 or 09 Lenovo idea pad. I left linux shortly after for windows based products for a little while for mostly pc gaming. After learning more about the current state of linux in 2022 i return to Ubuntu long term release and I'm very impressed with how well it works.
I have been tinkering with different things like large language models and a few other tools which has caused me issues with graphics drivers recently but overall it works well every time
Started on the 'buntu in 2005 or 2006. Distro hopped for a decade until I found Solus. That had some dark times a few years ago but seems to be back now but I moved to Debian anyway. Feels right.
