One of the great things about the Linux world is that, as an open ecosystem, it opens up the possibility for just about anyone to create their own modifications and distribute them to others who might have the same needs and tastes. From that basic idea, a very wide range of Linux distributions has arisen over the years, such as Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux Mint, or Arch Linux.

But for every big Linux distro you've likely heard of, there are numerous options out there maintained by a very small community, or arfe heavily dependent on other distros or software components and the way they do things. We've covered some of these smaller distros on XDA, too, such as AnduinOS and, more recently, Nitrux. And while these distros can do important things right for a lot of people, they come with a big downside: you can't really trust them to be around for too long. And in fact, Nitrux is a big example of this.

Nitrux relied heavily on KDE Plasma

It became a big problem

One thing we didn't really mention about Nitrux in our aforementioned article is that the version we tested is quite different from what Nitrux used to be. Until this year, Nitrux was heavily built around the KDE Plasma desktop environment, and introduced some custom elements and tools on top of it. It offered the NX Desktop as a custom layer over Plasma, and it relied on the Plasma LTS (long term servicing) release to ensure that it could provide a consistent experience that wouldn't be broken by a new version of Plasma.

However, KDE announced earlier this year that it no longer intends to offer LTS releases of Plasma going forward, meaning that Nitrux would have to either adapt to Plasma 6 or find another solution. Initially, the company was going to develop its own Maui Shell to support its customized desktop vision, but ultimately, the developers decided to switch from KDE Plasma to Hyprland as the desktop environment, and in the process, nixed the NX Desktop experience.

That's not to say the transition to Hyprland is a downgrade, but the real problem here is what it means for you if you put your bets on Nitrux for the heavily custom experience it offered. Nitrux now just has a Hyprland desktop, something you could more easily get by opting into a Linux distro that's supported more actively, whether that's Ubuntu, Arch, or something else. It does still include the team's NX AppHub app distribution platform, which is still a unique selling point, but a lot of what used to make Nitrux unique isn't there anymore.

Others might just be abandoned entirely

You never know what will happen to a niche distro

What happened with Nitrux is potentially frustrating, but it's not the worst outcome you could get from using a newfangled Linux distro with a very specific purpose. A distro like AnduinOS is maintained by a single developer, and that means you're at the whim os a single person to get support for the experience.

While the experience is based on Ubuntu and you can still get Ubuntu updates, AnduinOS-specific packages may break over time, and there's only one person working on updates for it. If the developer needs to take time off, gets sick, or just abandons the project for one reason or another, there's no guarantee you'll continue to get updates into the future, which can become a real problem.

In the case of AnduinOS, the distro has been around for a little over a year and it's still getting support, but that's a relatively short window all things considered. Over the years, a lot of distros maintained by smaller teams have come and gone, and while it can happen to larger communities, too, the risk is much higher for new, niche distributions.

Sometimes changes can be for the better

Pop! OS moved away from GNOME when it needed to

Having a Linux distro that's heavily dependent on the work done by only a subset of the Linux community can come with some problems when the developers of said distro clash with those who maintain the backbone. But it's not always as problematic of a transition as what happened with Nitrux. A large enough team may be able to take control of development and craft an experience that's even better for its users. That's what happened with Pop! OS, developed by System76.

Pop! OS is a Linux distro based on Ubuntu, and it used to rely on the GNOME desktop environment that Ubuntu uses with a layer of customizations to create the Cosmic desktop. But as GNOME continued to deviate from the vision of the Pop! OS developers, they decided it would be best to move away from GNOME and create a new desktop environment from the ground up with Cosmic.

I actually went hands-on with Cosmic a couple of months ago when it was in beta and found it to be a very compelling proposition with cool features like treating every window as a tab that can be stacked alongside other windows. Cosmic just got its first stable release last week, and it's now the default experience on Pop! OS, with a ton of improvements to the desktop workflow.

But that's likely only possible because System76 isn't a tiny team with no funding. The company makes all kinds of computers that likely help it stay afloat and fund the development of its own platform, so it was able to evolve the operating system to make it better and less reliant on other projects' visions. You can't expect every small-time developers to be able to do the same.

Even then, though, if you relied on parts of PoP! OS that were dependent on GNOME, this transition may be frustrating. GNOME extensions are a big thing you'll be missing out on, so if you're using them, this change isn't all too thrilling.

A time-tested approach is important

For some users (myself included), trying different distros and desktop environments is part of the fun of using Linux, and I would never tell you not to try something if you think it's interesting and you know your way around. But if you rely on your computer for work and you need a consistent experience that gets supported without any hassle, it's best to bet on a tried-and-true distro or team.

Of course, every distro is new at some point, and even Pop! OS is only eight years old, so it wouldn't be crazy to call it risky just a few years ago. But System76 as a company is much older, so it already had some pedigree to back up its efforts. A lot of Linux distros will just spring up out of nowhere, and that's where the risk really is if you don't want to end up with an unsupported piece of software. It's best to be cautious, but if you have the know-how, then experimenting can be a lot of fun too.