Arch is definitely not "an experimental distro". It doesn't just break, and all the software in their repos is considered stable.

If you have been using Arch for any meaningful amount of time, the massive output from OPs upgrade should be glaring.

You just gave me words for something that was previously just vague internal grumbling and emotions.

Manjaro knows how to aesthetically please me with their color choices and background art. I've got a negative impression from various podcasts and forum posts but I'm realizing I need to look into that more because I can't recall specifics besides something about a past issue with package distribution.

Manjaro is significantly worse with updates breaking.

I used for a little while in 2018 and again in 2019, both times ended because it once became stuck in a boot loop after updates, and another time couldn’t boot after updates.

the initial state should match the final as closely as possible, in this case by installing the new optional dependencies automatically

Sometimes. Some of us out there have use cases where we really, really don't want our systems making choices for us and would rather read the notes every time. One could equally well argue that an OS whose entire purpose is letting the user make the choice suddenly doing something automatically without asking for input is the break in state that users would find astonishing.

I'd say you want Linux from Scratch then, but even then the Linux kernel maintainers are making choices for you.

But Linus is very firm in that they never break userspace, so you should never see an issue like this when updating the kernel.

I second Debian Testing. The only issues I have are updates slow down during package freezes and sometimes, a package you are using becomes a victim of a package transition. Both are symptoms of Testing being exactly what it says, so I can't blame them, but still a valid annoyance.

The worst example was FreeCAD had a dependency being transitioned, so FreeCAD disappeared from Testing for a while, meaning my system wouldn't update if I wanted to keep FreeCAD. In the end, I just gave up and used the Flatpak. (I probably could have installed from Unstable, but whatever.)

Truth be told, I kind of wish there was a project to keep some new packages flowing to Testing users during freezes. I get why Debian themselves doesn't do it - it would be a nightmare to maintain - but an outside community project would be amazing. It wouldn't exactly be easy, but such a project wouldn't need to necessarily do every package (just desired ones), and they would only need to maintain them a couple months until new versions start flowing into Testing again. I think the biggest difficulty is not going too far ahead of what will end up in Testing post-freeze.

debian testing is for testing purposes only. you should never daily drive debian testing (unless you know what you're doing)

also, we're about to get a new debian release (trixie), this is literally the worst time you could choose to daily drive debian testing

I don't mind trading upfront effort for stability. I enjoyed setting up Arch and I'm still benefiting from insights gained from choosing my setup packages there.

Having nearly latest versions of packages is important to me because I can get into a flow after the initial excitement of a new feature being released but if I have to wait long to get my hands on it that won't happen. In this case, a smaller loss of my excitement to watch a video happened in the time it took me to figure out what was up with VLC.

Opensuse Tumbleweed has made my list to try out.

Thanks for CachyOS. This is my first time hearing of it so I've got some reading to do.

CachyOS and Endeavour OS are the two common Arch derivatives - basically “Arch in easy mode”. They’re both very good.

Manjaro is another but it brings its own set of problems that I never have the time or patience to deal with.

I’m using CachyOS now since October. I’m enjoying it and haven’t come across any issues yet that weren’t easily fixed.

This is the first time in 5 years I haven’t been on opensuse.

I like having Timeshift in place for if I can't figure out what went wrong.

In this case, I didn't use VLC until days after I had updated so my mind didn't go to an issue from updating right away. I make a high amount of accidental inputs while using laptops and I don't always notice so a lot of my issues end up being unintentional configuration changes from weeks or months ago.

My first experience with Linux was Ubuntu back in 2007! I thought it was interesting but didn't become a Linux user until 12 years later when I realized gaming was possible without dual booting.

Something I experience a lot is getting excited for new features. It gives me an energy I can use to start a project I wouldn't have done otherwise. I need to be able to start soon after hearing about the new feature or I risk losing the excitement and missing out on the energy it would have provided.