I will say that after years and years of regularly switching workstation and laptop distros for a variety of reasons, after finally getting Fedora a shake, I’m done. I’ve installed it on both my primary laptop and desktops and can’t imagine switching again.
But I am still sticking with Debian as my primary server base.
Debian is about as perfect as you can get for a headless server.
You have me curious again after hearing you’ve tried everything. Maybe I’ll give it a whirl. It’s not like I can’t switch to Arch later. It’ll be just as much of a pain in the ass later as it will sooner, and I just might find a new favorite OS. LOL. Plus, I do dig Gnome, and I think it’s probably a better DE for a HTPC than KDE.
TBF I’ve never configured an Arch system from scratch, so maybe it’s me that’s missing out.
The thing about Fedora that got me to stop switching, was that it just felt more adult then the various and fashionable Ubuntu based distros, or any other well regarded distro I used over the years. The right mix of stability and new features/support, pretty much out of the box.
Also, after tweaking Gnome a little bit for a more Windows 10 dock/bar style launcher/menu, it’s been perfect for me. Think I’ve been rolling with it since 38 now.
Do whatever works best for you.
I will say that after years and years of regularly switching workstation and laptop distros for a variety of reasons, after finally getting Fedora a shake, I’m done. I’ve installed it on both my primary laptop and desktops and can’t imagine switching again.
But I am still sticking with Debian as my primary server base.
Debian is about as perfect as you can get for a headless server.
You have me curious again after hearing you’ve tried everything. Maybe I’ll give it a whirl. It’s not like I can’t switch to Arch later. It’ll be just as much of a pain in the ass later as it will sooner, and I just might find a new favorite OS. LOL. Plus, I do dig Gnome, and I think it’s probably a better DE for a HTPC than KDE.
TBF I’ve never configured an Arch system from scratch, so maybe it’s me that’s missing out.
The thing about Fedora that got me to stop switching, was that it just felt more adult then the various and fashionable Ubuntu based distros, or any other well regarded distro I used over the years. The right mix of stability and new features/support, pretty much out of the box.
Also, after tweaking Gnome a little bit for a more Windows 10 dock/bar style launcher/menu, it’s been perfect for me. Think I’ve been rolling with it since 38 now.
Anyways, best of luck with your new box.
Thanks for all of the feedback. I have about a week to decide before all the parts get here.