I like some of them. The first two I’ve used recently. #3 I scratched off my list because for me it broke beyond repair multiple times; I even gave it another chance; clearly there’s something in either my hardware or my preferences that “brings this on” because a lot of people DO like Manjaro Linux. 4. Mandrake and Mandriva were among my favorites at one time; I did not like the way the corporate bean counters treated these people; I believe the mistreated ones were the individuals who satarted Mageia. I liked it, but it was hard for them to sustain their quality; that’s why that one also departed from my usage. Still, all of these distributions have had STRONG followers for a long time!
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It was a very long time ago when I tried Manjaro so it probably has changed, but it lacked some of the software I required. I have found that often true of newer OS offerings or those that cater more to business like Red Hat/Fedora.
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If my favourite distro Endeavorous disappeared, I might switch to the distro I’m currently trying out on my second drive: Omarchy, a keyboard-focussed distro and it’s amazing!
Yeah, my first “proper” distro was Mandrake (1991), I also tried Manjaro and Mageia. I really liked Mageia but found the forums a bit hostile (I even contributed a three figure sum in pounds sterling to Mageia I liked it so much). After that, Scientific Linux and then a host of new distros as they started to pop up in the late '90’s and early naughties. But I love Arch-based distros the most. My least favourite ever was Ubuntu but I very recently installed Ubuntu Studio, for the music apps, for a while. It’s been wiped now – replaced by Omarchy. 
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Nice. It’s more fun scenario than that. If your fav distro is EndeavorOS that means the root distro Arch would have never existed. As such Omarchy wouldn’t be an option either. 
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Well, I suppose it depends on the meaning of “distro”. I’m probably wrong but I see layers: Linux, then Arch/Debian/Fedora/ etc. and then a higher level of meaning, where distros based on that second layer emerge such as, the case of arch, CachyOS, Omarchy, Manjaro etc. But I agree, if someone took away arch I would need psychological help for fear of my life. Thank god this is only hypothetical! 
(It is, isn’t it?)
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Probably red hat , Fedora . Quite simple and stable just like debia , (although I use arch BTW)
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I’m a die-hard Arch user through and through.
If Arch didn’t exist, I’d use NixOS or Void.
After that, the order would probably be Fedora, then Debian.
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I love nix as well. Very stable , But Sometimes Gentoo is more overwhelming , If i have enough time to setup.
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I was going to say FreeBSD, too. That would bring native ZFS and PF.
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By native PF, do you mean Packet Filtering?
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Yes, and the PF is the heart of pfSense.
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Since you seem to have more experience on large-scale implementations, as compared to my own limited desktop implementation (my homebuilt custom iptables ruleset), would you be willing to venture a suggestion regarding a Linux-based packet-filtering firewall (FOSS) that you consider would be on par with pfSense? Presumably, those would be nftables-based at this point.
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No, I do not yet have an exit plan for pfSense. If pfSense did disappear tomorrow, I would probably begin reviewing FreeBSD with PF, OpenWrt, or IPFire.
Not being a telecom guy, I suppose I have come a long way with firewalls/routers. I started all of this when dial-up modems meant that a single home computer had access to the Internet, and all the other computers in the homelab were connected via Ethernet.
My first hardware router was some basic Netgear contraption. Then I built a m0n0wall box using old hardware, and that gave me a taste of what these things could really do. When the m0n0wall project ended, I used DD-WRT for a few years. The TechNet Plus subscription allowed me access to something interesting.
I did not become serious with edge firewalls until I used TMG (Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway) where I implemented full egress filtering blocking all traffic that was not Tor.
Microsoft ended the TechNet Plus subscriptions which killed my desire for TMG and every other Microsoft product or service. My first Microsoft victim was my beloved TMG which I replaced with pfSense. I rewrote the custom TMG rules in pfSense, and the whole migration cost only a few hours of home downtime. That began the long journey of replacing all other Microsoft products with Linux, and here I am better for my travels. 
Currently, I use pfSense for all router/firewall usage except for an OpenWrt ephemeral wireless access point that I occasionally power on to update phones.
Behind pfSense, I also use Netfilter (iptables) for some host-based firewalling.
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But pfSense isn’t Linux based. I get heat all the time for using it over opnsense. 
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@hydn, agreed, but I was replying to @ericmarceau about what I would do if I lost pfSense.
Then I went on this long-winded tangent about my history with routers/firewalls.
Sorry, I do not get out much.
You are right that I did not mention OPNsense. Perhaps I have read too much of the Netgate talk, but I doubt OPNsense would survive without the work put into pfSense.
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Haha. I know the feeling. Interesting stuff. Would love you hear and see more about your pfSense config/setup sometime.
Did you also already visit the topic with my shared config. Any notable similarities or differences?
Edit: sorry was on mobile, this one:
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