For me, the best part of free and open source software is the “free” part. If you don’t like an app, you can simply download another one and try it without having to purchase or subscribe to anything. Over time, you end up trying so many apps that you have a good idea of what you’re looking for in open source software, and that’s when you settle down.
But before that, there is the notion of “jumping.” It’s when you have that nagging feeling of FOMO, the feeling that you’re one change away from finding the perfect solution. And although I finally got tired of distribution jumping, the desire to desktop environment jumping still burns strong. It’s much easier to do, in any case.
The beginning of my Linux adventure had me jumping between distributions a lot.
I was trying to find my home away from Microsoft.
The first time I was inspired to try Linux was after reporting that PewDiePie had abandoned Windows and moved to Linux Mint. While reporting on the news, I noticed you made some pretty interesting points about using Linux Mint instead of Windows.
At the time, I was using an old PC that was stuck on Windows 10 because it didn’t meet the requirements of Windows 11. I knew Microsoft had expanded security support for the operating system, but it seemed like a temporary patch rather than a permanent fix. I knew that one day Microsoft would give up on Windows 10 and my poor PC would be left without updates.
So what happens if I switch to Linux Mint? I wouldn’t have to worry about my PC running out of security updates and it was free. All it would cost would be the time spent backing up Windows 10 and installing Linux Mint. So I did it.
I only had a week with Linux Mint before I was bitten by the distribution-hopping bug. What followed was a wild flurry of different operating systems. During my exploration, I tried Arch Linux, EndeavorOS, Fedora KDE, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, openSUSE Tumbleweed, Parrot OS, Zorin, and AerynOS. I finally discovered Fedora’s immutable twists, fell in love with its model, and declared that I would stick with it forever, just before reopening SUSE Tumbleweed. What can I say? I love Pargo.
I finally realized that the desktop environment matters almost as much as the distribution.
It’s not that important, but it’s up there.
When people recommend newcomers try an operating system, they often focus on the distribution. I totally understand why; After all, different distributions have different levels of accessibility for beginners. Asking someone who knows nothing about Linux to set up Arch on their own is just asking for trouble.
Choosing the perfect Linux distribution also means aligning your views with those of the developers. Some teams will prefer a cutting-edge distribution, while others will take things slow. Some are community-funded, while others have their foot in the door of companies and sell their software for profit to companies and server farms. and with him recent community schism over the use of AIThe stance of the developer team is now more important than ever.
But I also learned that it is also important to choose the right desktop environment. In my early days of distro hopping, I assumed that when you installed a distro, whatever it looked like when you booted it up was just… how it always looked. I didn’t realize that I was looking at a desktop environment and that I could, at any time, install a new one and try it out.
Over time, I realized that the desktop environment was a big part of how I use Linux. I then gravitated towards KDE Plasma, and it became the “lens” through which I jumped the distribution. If a distro supported KDE Plasma, I would install it and use the desktop environment as my familiar “home base” while I explored how the distro worked.
Once I found my home, I started experimenting with desktop environments.
FOMO is still real
For a while, I just used KDE Plasma and didn’t think about anything else. However, after seeing the impact COSMIC has had since its stable public release in December 2025, I wanted to give it a try to see what it’s like.
At first, my distribution hopping brain kicked in again. Surely this means I have to take Pop!_OS and overwrite openSUSE Tumbleweed to try COSMIC. But then I remembered that no, I didn’t have to do that at all. All I had to do was tell openSUSE Tumbleweed to download COSMIC and I could check out the desktop environment without having to reinstall anything. And best of all, you could switch desktop environments at any time simply by selecting a new one on the login screen.
That’s when the dam really broke. Now I could keep all the benefits I love about openSUSE Tumbleweed while still downloading and swapping between desktop environments whenever I wanted. Sometimes I would try one out, put it aside for a while, and then come back when a major update came out and I wanted to check it out. Sometimes I switched simply because I was missing a desktop environment. And since I didn’t have to reinstall or format anything to swap (unlike distributions), there were basically no issues with jumping between desktop environments.
The desktop environment jump is much less disruptive than the distribution jump
Overall, I’m glad I had my distribution jump phase. I don’t think I would have settled for what I had if I hadn’t had that moment to try everything at least once. However, jumping between desktop environments is also a lot of fun and I can see myself doing it a lot more in the future.
