Have you ever considered?

I don't know if you have heard the news, but Crunchbang Linux is basically dead now. With Linux comes great freedom, the freedom to create an OS the way you like it, the freedom to choose to use an OS that you like (instead of the one you are forced to use).

It is sad though when a distro ends. I understand that most projects (especially the smaller ones) do not make a profit. It takes a lot of love, commitment and time (and even money!) to create and maintain a version of Linux. Life changes and sometimes our priorities change and we don't have the time to do the things we used to.

My blog has a point and I am finally there:

If you are running Linux, no matter if it is a small distro or one with hundreds of thousands of users - you should learn a little bit more about Linux in general and broaden your horizons. What would you do if your favourite distro stopped tomorrow? If you only know how to use KDE or Gnome, and tomorrow both projects ended - what would you use? I am not encouraging anyone to be paranoid here please. The fear of change and trying new things is what keeps a lot of people locked into Windows, obviously if you have migrated to Linux from Windows you don't fall into that category. But what could it hurt to try something new? You might find that the really like the MATE desktop if you tried it. You might just encounter a new Linux distro that does things differently, (not that you have to switch) but you might learn a few tips & tricks from them.

Getting comfortable with something for too long and cause stagnation. When was the last time you used a different media player, for example? One of the beauties of Linux is that there are many thousands of apps out there. You don't need to try all of them, but having a broader set of general knowledge would not be a bad things either.

Don't go and change everything all at once now, but when and if you do have some free time - learn a new app along the way and explore a new desktop environment. You might just be surprised by what is out there.