Looking for a low-maintenance distro that doesn't update a lot. What are my options?

Looking For A Distro

I use EndeavourOS on my main desktop, which is kind of the opposite of this. It updates all the time, and needs occasional maintenance, but it's flexible and fast and gives me access to a vast library of software thanks to the AUR.

I'm looking for something I can throw on my laptop, an HP Elitebook 840 G1, where it'll "just work" and it's not a big deal if I don't use it for a few months. Right now, I have Bazzite on it, but after an update broke SDDM a while ago, I learned that Fedora's approach to software updates is too bleeding-edge.

I have Debian 12 on my server, and it's pretty close to what I'm looking for. The biggest downside is probably that I'd need to use Flatpak if I wanted to run a browser that's more current than Firefox ESR. I had performance issues with Flatpak apps in the past in Debian on my Thinkpad x230t, and my HP has a CPU that's slightly weaker, but maybe it's more tolerable now?

What are your picks? Should I try something different like Mint?

Posted Apr 5, 2026, 5:26 AM UTC

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