It took me years to accept that Debian based distros, suck as a desktop.
Debian's one advantage is because they've been around forever, you can find pretty much anything in terms of software. You cannot ignore that DEB still significantly has a much wider selection of 3rd party apps.
But Debian as a desktop is frustrating. I could easily argue that their packages are older, and I know someone would argue, that is what makes it more stable. But that is not true, regarding a desktop.
Debian's true strength is as a server. Rock solid.
But as a desktop, where you've added many different features, functions, services, and apps, you're going to run into dependency issues, even if you install no new software (keeping only the stock install). sudo apt distr-upgrade which is the basic command to update everything, is considered "taboo" within the Debian ecosystem, for a reason.
I doubt many Debian groupies have stopped and asked themselves why there are so many built in commands to fix Debian, or continuous updated guides to fixing Debian. As a previous Debian users, it was only until I stopped using Debian, that I realized, I had a lot more free time on my hands.
As I said, as a server, with minimalist needs, Debian keeps on ticking faithfully, but as a Desktop, you're better going with an RPM distro. If you're OK with a little bit of work, perhaps Arch. -- I'm not joking (I was surprised, myself). Debian is not the distro for desktops.
Linux Is Best
Unknown parent • • •And do you add any non-free firmware, drivers, and media codecs, or do you just stick with the stock install? How many held packages do you have, and how often do you run into dependency issues or missing packages?
Have you tried running sudo apt dist-upgrade
Tom Boutell
in reply to Linux Is Best • • •Linux Is Best
in reply to Tom Boutell • • •Have your run:
sudo apt dist-upgrade
And are there held packages or dependency conflicts?
jrz
in reply to Linux Is Best • • •Linux Is Best
in reply to jrz • • •Francesco P Lovergine
in reply to Linux Is Best • • •Diego Roversi
in reply to Linux Is Best • •It's almost 20 years that I upgrade my pc only this way. It just works. I almost forgot how to install it. When I get a new PC, I just put the old storage on the new PC and it works.
The only reason to have dependency conflict it's if you install third party packages. In this case I remove them, and be happy. TBH I don't feel the need to install them. Usually everything I need is just in debian.
Elena ``of Valhalla'' likes this.
Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Linux Is Best • •@Linux Is Best @Debacle I also routinely do apt dist-upgrades on my debian testing (and every time a new stable is out on my debian stable machines): I have installed a lot of packages, including non-free firmware.
notably I never add 3rd party repositories, only the official debian ones; I almost never have held packages, and I can't remember running into dependency issues on stable. On testing sometimes it happens that dist-upgrade would remove some package I use, but in that case I just wait a few days before trying again and it usually has been fixed.
Linux Is Best
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • • •Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Linux Is Best • •@Linux Is Best @Debacle I do have libdvd-pkg installed from contrib (on some machines), so I do have some non-free media codecs, but I don't think I've ever seen them causing issues.
As for the reoccurring issues, I'd have a hard time calling them issues, since the only thing I have to do to see them solved is wait a few days, and they only happen on testing when packages are going through a transition.
For sure they aren't a reason to avoid doing dist-upgrades as a regular and frequent practice.
And they don't happen at all when using stable, or even stable + backports.
Elena ``of Valhalla''
Unknown parent • •@Debacle @Linux Is Best my will is not as strong :D
Contrib packages installed on <my desktop pc>
exult
game-data-packager
game-data-packager-runtime
libdvd-pkg
torbrowser-launcher
to be fair the first three are there to play exult, which *is* free software, just the data files are non-free, and torbrowser-launcher is in contrib because it downloads the package from upstream, but afaik what is installed is 100% free software
(I also have one package from non-free-firmware, but that's basically necessary these days)
12 Freya it/its๐ญ๐น๐ ๐ฉ
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • • •