do you stick with the same distro across your PC, laptop, and server, or do you pick different ones based on the device and what you’re doing?

Definitely the latter.

constantly have to look up flags for different package managers.

FWIW, you don’t have to choose the distro’s package manager. While it makes sense in most cases, it’s definitely not a requirement. And that’s where the nix package manager comes in. Unbeknownst to some, you don’t have to be on NixOS to access it, simply because it’s probably already found in the repository of the distro you’re using. So, frankly, you can even expect that it’s well-supported.

I feel like NixOS might be the only distro that could realistically handle all these use cases

FWIW, containerfiles used in conjuction with bootc to boot your OS from, do allow differentiation within a single containerfile; i.e. specific changes are only applied for the designated target. This is accomplished by virtue of a single containerfile being able to produce many (very) different container images to boot from. So, in short, other avenues exist and bootc happens to be one I know. Note that bootc doesn’t (necessarily) push you towards Fedora(-derivatives). Despite being very new (and perhaps somewhat experimental), Bootcrew does provide container images for other distros; some of which have already spawned multiple derivatives of their own. See e.g. Tartaria and XeniaOS.

but I’m a bit scared of the learning curve and the maintenance work it’d take to migrate everything over.

My 2 cents: if you’re interested in NixOS, just start out with installing nix on any distro. And see where that takes you ;) !

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

I’m on the transition phase, but I think I have settled on CachyOS for my Desktop/Gaming Rig, and Debian for the NAS/Server. The logic behind the choices can be summed as:

I want my desktop on the as recent as possible because of games and drivers and performance. The less friction there is when it comes to games and playing with other people, the better.

For the NAS, though? Once it is setup, I plan to only touch it for upgrades and the less of a headache I can make those, the better. I am trying to do my best at writing things out so that when, in three years, I have to inevitably solve an issue or three, I remember whatever it is I did and why. More importantly, Debian promises to make upgrades of in-pattern software easy, and I will be throwing docker at everything else, so I am hoping I can just update the packages/distro on a schedule and minimize the maintenance burden.

We will see how it goes, though.

My brain also runs nix.

Only Debian-based

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.

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 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.

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.

I used to, but I’ve settled into MX Linux with KDE everywhere except my laptop. It has Ubuntu Studio so I can try out the software it has for my Midi Keyboard.

nah my home lab devices run Ubuntu server.

my laptop runs arch

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.

Fedora Kinoite for all desktops, Fedora CoreOS for Kubernetes, and RockyLinux for anything else. I do use Proxmox though for any hypervisors though.

We’re all RHEL/Rocky at work so I try to restrict myself to something similar.

I run Alpine Linux on my laptop and two Raspberry Pi’s. I also have Linux Mint DE on my laptop but that’s exclusively for steam games. I also have GrapheneOS with Termux on my android phone.

Alpine on my laptop uses Sway as my desktop and it’s where I do all my coding and self hosting work. It’s also where I spend most of my time.

My Raspberry Pi 4 exclusively runs HomeAssistant and it doesn’t get touched unless I’m doing an update or making a backup.

I have a Pi 5 that’s going to be used to host a server. I’m just doing some background learning and setting up before I start hosting again. It should go a lot quicker and smoother this time because I set up my computer and HomeAssistant up in a standardized way. I tried to make as many files and folders as similar as possible so I have less differences to sort out from one machine to the next.

It’s feels a lot easier to manage for me.

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.