I started using Linux at university, and my first distro at home was SuSE in 1997, because my father got the CDs at work. Then I ran RedHat for a while, because that’s what my friends were running, then Mandrake, then Knoppix, then Debian. Loved Debian and AfterStep.
About 10 years ago I moved to Ubuntu because I had a hardware issue that was solved in Ubuntu but was a pain to fix in Debian. I liked that as well.
But this year I bought a second-hand ThinkPad T490, and it was randomly locking up (mouse still moves but nothing else responds). Googling and trying to troubleshoot by looking through logs wasn’t working, and I’m pretty sure it’s not a pure hardware issue, because I’ve got it as a dual boot system because my girlfriend’s son uses windows on it, and hasn’t had any issues.
So yesterday, I decided to back up my home directory and install Debian Forky. It feels like coming home. And so far, no lock-ups…
Same. That snap-by-default issue (last year?) pushed me from kubuntu to pure Debian and I haven’t looked back. Technically you can just remove snaps from Ubuntu to get around it, but it’s an incorrect assumption that users want that forced down their throats when upgrading in place. Left a bad taste - Debian is my goto stable OS now.