My brain also runs nix.

I'm running Mint on my Desktop/Gaming rig, as well as on my laptop and a microslop surface. I have some old hardware I'm considering trying vanilla Debian with, to try it out.

I like to stick with distros based on Debian/Ubuntu as I'm familiar with the utilities. Default settings and locations of things change, but I don't mind finding those if the base architecture is familiar. I spun up a VPS with Ubuntu on it, and I was very comfortable getting it set up due to this.

I've also looked into a way to sync my OSs, but that's a whole other animal, from what I can tell. I just have a markup file shared with Syncthing that gives a little To do list when I'm setting up a new machine.

That being said, I have an old laptop and a Ventoy USB loaded with distro images that I like to boot up now and then. Puppy, Kali, and Pop are some of the really interesting ones.

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'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.

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

I run Arch on my laptop, which is the machine I use most.

My personal desktop runs Cachy at the moment because I felt like trying something new.

The family desktop has Debian for its stability and ease of maintenance (I only have to update it like once a month).

I installed Zorin on my mom's ex's computer (and set it to auto update) because he's a bit technologically impaired.

Edit: I use DietPi on my Raspberry Pi 3B. It was the easiest way to get Nextcloud running.

Mint for my machine and my kids machines, ubuntu on my server as its just what Ive used there forever. If that server ever implodes I might consider a rolling debian of some kind for that server, maybe even LMDE or just possibly base debian as its a lot more friendly these days I hear. I worry about using LMDE as a server because of the prospect of Mint dropping it because its taking too much dev time.