I wouldn’t really call myself a distro hopper, but in the last few months I’ve had to do some fresh installs on a couple of machines and VMs for work
If these aren’t included by default, I’ll make sure to get em:
GUI:
- Firefox & Chromium
- Gimp & Krita
- VSCode/VSCodium
- Okular
- Libre office
CLI*:
- git
- wget&curl
- neovim
- zsh/ohmyzsh + plugins
- glow
- neofetch
- figlet/toilet
- zellij
- python
- nodejs/npm/nvm + nodemon globally
- ranger/rifle
Also, how do you go about migrating your old config and rc files? Start fresh or just copy em over and make adjustments where necessary?
First I install home-manager, then home-manager installs and configures everything else I’ve added to my config over time
- fish
- tmux
- sshfs
- htop
- nmap
- distrobox (haven’t tried this yet but looks amazing)
- zfs (and any utilities that go with that)
- sanoid
- syncoid
- tailscale
- snapper (if using btrfs)
As far as config files go, I haven’t gotten around to automating those so I usually search my nas for old ones and copy/paste what I need
Use Ansible for package installations and configuration, and a git repository & GNU stow for dotfiles.
Step 1: install Debian 12 today, Step 2: upgrade to Debian 13 when available, then Debian 14, Debian 15 and so on… that’s the only hopping one should.
Before I do anything at all my VPN gets installed, then whatever firewall gui along with OpenSnitch.
- Keepassxc
- Librewolf
- Signal
- Element
- OpenRGB
- OpenRazer
- Game stuff
I have a text file that lists everything I need to do on a clean install - a list of programmes and bits that need to be set in each programme. It’s really easy to forget important stuff - like making sure my refresh rate is set at 165hz and not left at whatever the default is.
