Which OS has the steep learning curve and is considered hardest?

  • Gentoo ( I have been using it for 3 years now, until I have to switch to Ubuntu for research sake. I love it’s philosophy and I kinda feel even my lifestyle changed after Gentoo. Tried it’s successors, redstar, cosmic mod didn’t liked much.)
  • Arch Linux ( when I got into Linux, everyone was like, I use arch btw. So tried it first with gnome, then kde, then i3, then i3 gaps and tui, then used openrc, then used runit. Helped me lot to install Gentoo. But Gentoo transformed me into something else)
  • Nix OS ( I was hearing about it since 2022. I wanted to try, and now I am gonna install and use it. I’m planning)

My question is, which among these is considered to be hardest and thus by mastering it, one can master linux to atleast some part? (excluding network management, ofsec, netsec, forensics, etc)

  • Hibby@lemmy.ml
    4·
    2 years ago

    You could always go down the Slackware route. It’s only hard because it’s different and doesn’t have a huge userbase.

    • Arcaneslime@lemmy.ml
      2·
      2 years ago

      How hard is it? I really want to try Slackware one day but I’m not the most adept at linux yet. Really only have experience with Fedora, Tails, Puppy, and antix so far.

      Hard to find people to ask about it, as you said because of the smaller userbase. I did look yesterday though and there are some youtube videos on slackware 15 set up, so I may be ok with those. Still kinda nervous lol.

      • Hibby@lemmy.ml
        2·
        2 years ago

        If you want to know the story of Slackware, this is a really well researched and condensed history. There are daily users that can chime in better than I can, but Slackware was my first exposure to Linux and it’s definitely not “dead” like you might see posted around the internet. Like any distro, what you get out of it depends on how how much effort you put in. It’s doable, but it will take some work on your part and some patience.

        • Arcaneslime@lemmy.ml
          3·
          2 years ago

          I actually am interested partly because of their history, the creator is of the same religion as I am and his creation was announced in like '94 on the old Hour Of Slack radio show affiliated with said religion. In fact, Slackware is a direct nod to our concept of Slack, and there’s even pics of our guru J. R. “Bob” Dobbs on the slackware site in the banners section. I know it isn’t dead because 15 came out earlier this year (or was it late last year?) so they must be active and not dead, just hard to find lol.

          Thanks for the advice, I’ll maybe try it on an old asus I use mainly for booting tails on soon. That’s the only device I have with windows for emergencies and nothing I have is powerful enough to run VMs I don’t think, but tbh that windows install barely works and I haven’t needed it in two years, so “fuck it,” right?

          • Hibby@lemmy.ml
            2·
            2 years ago

            Exactly. You are bound to learn something along the way, even if it’s not for you in the long run. All it costs is your time. As you said, fuck it. Give it a whirl.

            • Arcaneslime@lemmy.ml
              1·
              2 years ago

              I think I will soon, thanks for the pep talk lol, I legit did need it! I think that even if the process is a little tough, it’s possible that the product brings me Slack. Hell maybe I’ll like the process too, who knows, learning can bring Slack sometimes too!