No, I use whatever is most apropos for my needs and the hardware. I do stick to my preferred bases though.

I run Debian on my home server and my pi…my laptop runs fedora because I wanted to move away from Ubuntu back in 2021 and had no patience to solve my WiFi card issues with Debian…I miss running Debian on my laptop but fedora works for almost everything I need. I got no time to back things up and do a fresh install anyway.

I used to run Debian on my servers and arch on my laptop, but just like you, I had a hard time remembering stuff about the different systems. These days I just run arch on everything.

I don’t run the same distro on everything, but I find Debian works well for PC, laptop, and server. Updates become available at about the same time, and I can apply them in whichever order I like. My scripts, tweaks, and personal backports are portable between devices. Anything I learn on one can be applied to the others. This arrangement keeps things simple, and Debian respects my time, both of which are important to me.

I use different distros for special-purpose devices like phones and media players.

Oh no, I pick a different distro for different needs. On my desktop I run openSUSE Tumbleweed for that rolling release goodness (and the occasional hiccup). It’s my main computer and I like to keep it as up-to-date as possible.

On my laptop and media PC I use Debian, because I don’t update those as often and “stale” software is fine, preferred even, and because I don’t want to troubleshoot updates on the run with my laptop. I also used Debian (well, Raspbian) on my Raspberry Pi, but I retired that one. In general, I prefer Debian for servers.

I also have a PinePhone with postmarketOS, but I rarely use that these days. Still, I just recently re-installed it to have a small Linux tablet computer just in case. pmOS is the best OS I’ve used on the PinePhone, though it can’t really fix the PP’s inherent issues.

Sorta…

I’ve got 4x raspberry pis at my coffee house running things like digital signs and a soundboard. So PiSignage and PiOS. 2x laptops and 1x desktop running CachyOS. Then the steam deck running stock.

I’m only a recent Linux convert, so you probably know better than I, but it seems having distros suited to different use cases is a strength of Linux to embrace, not shun. And, even if it’s a little more work to maintain up front, staying familiar with distros from different families keeps you ready to pivot in any direction you might need to later if one family massively improves or sours.

Still, consolidation doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Instead of consolidating down to one distro, can you consolidate down to two or three with much less hassle? Instead of trying to “migrate everything over,” can you make it more piecemeal where each individual changeover is progress?

I’m personally just doing CachyOS for both my daily driver desktop and NAS with Bazzite on my laptop and friends and family gaming PCs. OpenSUSE Tumbleweed was also high on my radar, but I’ve got nothing running it at the moment.

I run Arch on my laptop, which is the machine I use most.

My personal desktop runs Cachy at the moment because I felt like trying something new.

The family desktop has Debian for its stability and ease of maintenance (I only have to update it like once a month).

I installed Zorin on my mom’s ex’s computer (and set it to auto update) because he’s a bit technologically impaired.

Edit: I use DietPi on my Raspberry Pi 3B. It was the easiest way to get Nextcloud running.

My setup:

• 2 Steamdecks running SteamOS
• Living room PC running Pop!_OS
• Gaming PC running Bazzite
• Phone, pixel 3a xl running Ubuntu Touch/Waydroid

I have like 5 years old openSUSE Tumbleweed on my desktop PC, rock solid.

I bought laptop recently and tried CachyOS there because it’s da bomb now apparently. It actually seems really nice with sane defaults, so I’m keeping it for now.

I’m running openSUSE Tumbleweed on all my desktop and laptop at the moment because it’s pretty stable (barring the recent SELinux issues that seem to be a regular occurrence). I don’t mind that there are a lot of distros, because there are a lot of people with different needs. Given there is so much freedom in the Linux scene, unlike the constrained Windows or MacOS world…You’ll never see a one true distro. As consolidating that much effort and money into one thing is how you get yet another Windows or MacOS but Linux flavored. I hope to continue to see a variety of distros (that can suit different use cases).

Personally, I am even planning on learning NixOS because it is one of those distros that is highly flexible and can be run on multiple machines…Yet be replicated to a tee, with a bit of effort and correctly building Flakes and Config files. To that end, I’m going to learn a scripting language in order to get familiar with it before trying to learn Nix’s declarative language that would be used to create the Flakes and Configs necessary for system replication. Never be scared to learn!

I don’t. In fact I don’t have two devices running the same distro at the moment.

My desktop is running Fedora KDE, which offered solid Wayland performance with my hardware.

My laptop is running Mint Cinnamon. Fedora would work on it, but it’s funny how often I have to dig out the laptop to do something because the software doesn’t work on Fedora.

My tablet is running Fedora GNOME because for a touch UI it’s the least worst. It’s fuckpuke, but it’s not boiling caustic fuckpuke.

My HTPC is running Bazzite. Mostly in desktop mode because most of what I do with it is watch Youtube and there isn’t a good solution to do that in Steam Big Picture mode.

I have a couple Pis running PiOS because there’s basically not a better solution.

It varies depending on use for me.

Arch on my desktop and main laptop. I use both frequently for gaming or working on my home lab.

Fedora Server for my two mini PCs. They both run docker containers.

Raspberry PI OS on one Pi for pihole, and a few other services.

DietPI on my other Pi for MotiomEye.

I test more bleeding edge stuff including testing repo for Arch on another laptop.

Debian on my servers. Arch based on my workstation. Fedora kinoite for parents and family to reduce tech support. Postmarket on my android chrome tab. BSD on my SBC.

I’m running Mint on my Desktop/Gaming rig, as well as on my laptop and a microslop surface. I have some old hardware I’m considering trying vanilla Debian with, to try it out.

I like to stick with distros based on Debian/Ubuntu as I’m familiar with the utilities. Default settings and locations of things change, but I don’t mind finding those if the base architecture is familiar. I spun up a VPS with Ubuntu on it, and I was very comfortable getting it set up due to this.

I’ve also looked into a way to sync my OSs, but that’s a whole other animal, from what I can tell. I just have a markup file shared with Syncthing that gives a little To do list when I’m setting up a new machine.

That being said, I have an old laptop and a Ventoy USB loaded with distro images that I like to boot up now and then. Puppy, Kali, and Pop are some of the really interesting ones.