We all accumulate tweaks, customizations, and maybe some cruft over time in our Linux setups. Sometimes it’s interesting to imagine wiping the slate clean and building from scratch with everything we’ve learned. If you had to rebuild your Linux system from zero today, what would you do differently this time around?
I’ll go first… soo, last year I actually did start fresh. I moved off Kali and installed Ubuntu 24.04 LTS with GNOME and kept it mostly stock. I only depend on 2 or 3 extensions now instead of the 8 - 10 I had installed before.
Over time I realized the same principle that applies to servers also applies to desktops: the closer you stay to default, the smoother everything tends to work together. I still use a tiling style workflow, mainly for fast workspace switching, but without heavy customization.
Ubuntu LTS with the free ESM subscription also means I now have a stable workstation that should stay supported for many many years.
Same goes for my Linux servers. These days it’s mostly Debian or AlmaLinux with a minimal setup. Configure it well once, then largely set it and forget it.
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@hydn nice point!
I am pretty abitudinary person, I think if I need to go with Linux Distro I’m pretty sure I’ll go with a Debian based distro with XFCE desktop.
For example yesterday I nuked my modest Intel 8° generation and 16gb ram Notebook and I decided to go with Linux Lite, which is a simple distro based over Ubuntu LTS and with a bit riced version of XFCE, which I thought is one of best distro for this old hardware. 
I’m also everytime very undecided on which OS go on my main desktop, I was stuck with Debian stable for nearly 3 monts, recently I switched to a clever and debloated Windows 11 setup 
But yes, my virtual machines are surviving for a couple of years now, they are tailored for my personal workflow, I never considered to nuke them.
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I think for me the windows 11 laptop I was using for school which is a HP Elite book 840 G5 it just seemed slower and slower even when I upgraded the ram to 32GB, So after my professor talked up linux and using manjaro i decided to nuke my laptop and install linux mint which I will say it felt faster after that and more responsive. Then after some research and youtube videos I nuked it again and went to CachyOS and the difference was night and day everything was super responsive no lag what so ever but like @ricky89 i am also very undecided on what to stick with for my main desktop that I have recently upgraded I did a fresh install of windows 11 de-bloated it and I still hate it, as of right now I have CachyOS installed on a different drive since I have test drove Linux mint, Manjaro, Endeavor, Bazzite even Void Linux, but nothing just seems as snappy or responsive and CachyOS.
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I know Windows 11 tent to getting slower in time.. For now I’ve just debloated the system and giving costantly maintenance, for example deferring Windows updates just once at month, disabling hibernation, moving pagefile on a secondary hard drive, disabling some various softwares autoupdates etc etc.. let’s see.
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If I rebuilt my Linux system from scratch, I’d keep it minimal, reproducible, and easy to recover instead of heavily customized.
Thanks
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Since getting back into Linux, I have been donating laptops to friends and family, I have learned a few things and kinda wish I had known/thought of them from the start. If I had to Start my own system over again I would skip using the MSI and dual booting, I would buy the exact same laptop I have been using for the last 7 or so months, my Tux which wasn’t cheap by any means, but also pretty reasonable for any new laptop. It came shipped (or has updated since) for about $2k as follows:
Operating System: TUXEDO OS
KDE Plasma Version: 6.5.2
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.19.0
Qt Version: 6.9.2
Kernel Version: 6.17.0-108014-tuxedo (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 24 × AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 w/ Radeon 890M
Memory: 128 GiB of RAM (124.9 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon 890M Graphics
Manufacturer: TUXEDO
Product Name: TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro AMD Gen10
With 4T Samsung 990 Pro.
But the change I would make is with what I have been buying and setting up for the friends & fam. I think I found the best starter laptops being the intel Macbook airs 2015-ish and installing MX-KDE on them. then I set them up with the same shortcuts I use and simply instruct everyone to use krunner for basically everything. I had started setting people up on mint-cinn, one everything from old Thinkpads to brand new Yoga’s, I found there were a lot of hoops to getting everything running, driver issues mostly. Then I started putting TuxOS with KDE plasma on laptops for people and that mostly worked, but when there was an issue, it was almost always a pretty big one. So getting back to the original question, I would simplify things to old macbooks running KDE on MX because that combination gives the ease of use having krunner, with no (so far) issues whatsoever, regardless of what insane things my friends and family have tried to do with these extremely inexpensive (I buy the macbooks refurbished from a local pc shop for $200-$250 each) starter laptops.
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Welcome to the forum @Zach and honestly this is a great first post, lots of real-world experience packed in here.
Your journey sounds super familiar to a lot of us who’ve gone down the “let me set up Linux for everyone I know” road. The Intel MacBook Air plus MX-KDE combo is a really clever landing spot. Those old Airs have solid build quality, great screens for the price, and the Intel hardware just works without fighting driver issues. At $200-250 refurb that’s honestly difficult to beat for getting someone started.
The krunner tip is smart too. People coming from other operating systems just want to hit a key and type what they need, and krunner nails that without having to teach someone a whole new workflow.
Interesting that you had more trouble with Tux OS on non-Tuxedo hardware than with MX Linux. MX is just rock solid on basically anything you throw it at.
That InfinityBook Pro sounds like a beast by the way. 128 gigs of RAM and that Ryzen AI chip, you’re not hurting for power anytime soon. 
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Thanks, it’s been a fun journey. I’m just glad I finally switched to Linux again. I actually enjoy my computers now, even the little quirks here and there. Mainly I am glad to be able to support open source again. As for the issues I had with Tux OS on the older systems, the biggest one was a kernel panic after a recent update on my Wife’s macbook air, the dreaded “kernel panic! Unable to mount root fs”… Etc. which I did manage a work around for “wget https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/restricted/b/broadcom-sta/broadcom-sta-dkms_6.30.223.271-23ubuntu1.2_all.deb” in the temp folder, then install and reboot. She remains on Tux OS for now, but on the others I tested a few different distros and landed on MX. I have fun with it all, I’m not terribly sure what the heck I’m doing sometimes, but that’s okay, the answers are usually a forum search and a little scrolling away. I’m learning slowly, and enjoying every minute of it all. I just need to get better at something so I have more to offer the community. lol
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