I'm thinking about a Linux laptop with FOSS software for my business actually, Lemmy's relentless horde of pro-Linux propaganda has won me over

(OK I've always liked FOSS I've just never taken the jump)

I had to step away from it because packages are just too old.

That's how I feel about arch, it's not "stable" but the few issues I've had they typically have it fixed with an update within hours.

I do have to clarify when I switched to arch from windows my entire computer was brand new and practically no other distro booted or if it installed it dumped me to a black screen.

After running my server on archlinux with the stable kernel for 7 years I did install Debian on my new server. Zfs just required an older lts kernel than I could get on arch without a ton of hassle. I didn't need it on my Mac mini with an external hard drive plugged in. From my experience it's not very different to maintain compared to arch but it's nice having built in automation instead of writing my own.

Man it's weird using a system of what I can guess is a bunch of bash scripts on Debian to set things up compared to just using the tools built into and written for systemd.

Have you tried Debian?

You can choose KDE as desktop environment during Debian installation, or replace whatever DE you installed at any time.

I think you're looking for Debian. If you want newer packages, run testing instead of stable.

MX ?

Yeah, I had to bail. FreeBSD was awesome for stable yet bleeding-edge packages, a perfect blend of downloading binaries and compiling from source (when needed) with everything in sync.

These days I’m using Alpine Linux almost exclusively, but I miss the convenience of FreeBSD and wish it wasn’t being left behind by the Kool Kidz™.

Busta!

Me, because I cannot understand how people can miss the facetiousness of this meme template with such confidence

Ah, I see you've met the product owner.

debian nightly release

Today I learned there’s a Debian edition of mint.

https://linuxmint.com/download_lmde.php

1. No better time than the present
2. Yes there are ways of acquiring the latest packages even on Debian stable. Usually I end up compiling that stuff myself
3. If you're at all unsure if you want to deal with Debian not pushing the latest and greatest updates you do have options such as running Debian Testing or MX Linux (which itself is based on Debian Testing)