I feel like most of these systems tradeoff too much simplicity.

I've been using ArchLinux for ~14 years now, previous to that I used Slackware and Gentoo. IMO it's better to be simple, yes there aren't any guarantees but worst case scenario I can rebuild, run my install script (which might require a few tweaks if it's been a while since I setup a new system), push new keys etc and then I'm up and running again in ~15 mins. i.e I think it's easier to repair or replace a simple system than it is to try work out how to do novel things on a complicated but safe system.

I intend to try NixOS at some point as a foray into these more complicated but "safer"/transactional/immutable/deterministic systems but I just haven't found the motivation yet.

I run it for the base system, and then use gnu Guix for the rest. I don't have time to deal with a system that changes under my feet. Being able to rollback both the base system and userland has saved me twice. It also means I can use one tool for userland things instead of both distrobox and flatpak.

Until I am smart enough to run guixSD completely this feels like a decent compromise.

Whenever SUSE is mentioned, I remember their songs, e.g. how to pronounce SUSE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLdexZlVkAY

There's also openSUSE Kalpa, which is like Aeon but with KDE Plasma instead of Gnome.

I tried out Aeon a while back and mostly liked the idea, but not so sure about the execution.

First, last time they had no firewall and the main developer thinks a firewall is not needed. I disagree strongly and won't run an OS w/o firewall. (https://forums.opensuse.org/t/micro-os-suse-aeon-compared-to...)

Second, getting everything from flatpak would be a good idea, if the software I need would be available as certified flatpaks. Downloading random flatpaks is IMHO the same as downloading random executables.

Third, the AARCH64 version is not distributed anymore (this was the version I tried/used), AFAIK because the initial install script could not download the non-existent Firefox for AARCH64 flatpak (thanks Mozilla).

In the end I still like the idea of Aeon and hope they change their positions concerning firewalls. Points two and three are obviously not Aeons to fix, so I hope we as a community (and Mozilla) get there in time.

does "getting stuff done" include having the Gnome password prompt consistently lose focus and send your password into background applications because it does that a lot

Looks like it uses btrfs for everything. Btrfs performs notoriously poorly for VMs and databases without the "nocow" hack, which is a no-no for raid1 setups. What should I do if I'm an Android developer who frequently tests code in Android VMs?

Tumbleweed is a very solid distro, one could also use it as an "immutable" distro by installing the software from Flatpaks and distrobox. Been using it for more than a year after a decade on Ubuntu.

I use OpenSUSE Leap with transactional server, which is another immutable distribution by SUSE. I run it on my storage node primarily serving a ZFS pool over the network. This means the server is more like an appliance (NAS) and this immutable setup is a perfect fit IMO.

I suppose I could have use Aeon instead? But I like having OpenSUSE Leap across the fleet too which others doing more heavy lifting.

Feels like a step backwards that I have to reboot the system for every update.

Has anybody tried Spiral and Gecko? Same developer adapted Debian Sid and Suse Tumbleweed with btrfs snapshot after each install. How did they/similar systems work in practice for you?

Is SUSE still used by anyone other than SAP or other German businesses?

I don't see how this is for lazy developers, it seems that you'll need to learn a new system with new quirks and probably make your own packages.