Also, shouting this one with the bold text:

Debian isn't just for servers. Debian rocks on a desktop.

"But Veronica, I need newer packages!"

Do you really? If I'm doing dev work and need something newer, I'm using containers. If I need desktop applications, there's usually Flatpak/AppImage/Nix/source. And backporting and pinning is an option if you want to get super nerdy with it.

I don't like when my desktop updates. It means I have to relearn stuff. If you feel the same way, consider Debian. On your desktop. Seriously.

Honestly, I thought the .deb file extension was a Debian package thing, so I assumed they would work on Debian as Ubuntu.

I once got to name a software update package file for some product, and I chose .STU, because it was pronounced "stew" and it was a Sound Touch Update.

Because I could...

Everything is transparent, sometimes painfully so

So pls post facts...

apt is the debian package manager and deb the native package format.

apt works reliably

Fatpack, sometimes called flatpack because it falls flat is not a Debian package format. It also has nothing to do with making desktop usage easy.

Updates, Debian packages are often updated during the release cycle, there are also updated install images released as necessary.

That also goes for security updates.

@veronica@explains.social also one can take so much bs. Windows is just user-unfriendly enough to grind one's gears in the long run, and from what I tested from some recent MacOS version, feels like OEM Android distros with how stiff it felt.

If someone sticking to such systems can be convinced to test, from what I observed over the years, such person will be more prone to "deshitify" his/her workflow and tools, even if not necessarily moving to Linux.

I tried it on a laptop and gave up because hibernate did not work. Even after following various sets of instructions, hibernate did not work.

Wound up installing Ubuntu 22.04, setting up disk encryption without lvm (which 24.04 cannot do) and then upgrading to 24.04. After some hacking, hibernate does work reliably.

It took several days to get a usable laptop configuration put together.

I flirted with Ubuntu years ago,but since then it's been Debian on servers, Arch (and now Artix) on laptops/desktops/

The problem with Debian on laptops/desktops is that you wind up compiling a lot of stuff from source, and IMHO rolling distros rule of course.

@alice The downside is that apps in the distribution are often painfully outdated, so installing Flatpaks or compiling things yourself is necessary if you want to run anything recent.

(My previous desktop was Debian. The current one is Arch, which doesn’t seem to involve as much putting out fires as I feared it might.)

You know how people dread the next operating system update? Try to put it off as long as the damn thing will let them? That is not a thing on #Debian.

You know how people used to look forward to all the shiny new features in the next major operating system update? That is still a thing on Debian.

I've been running it non-stop for almost 30 years. I was only 12 or 13 years old when I first installed it. It's been my cherished sanctuary ever since.

I've been running Devuan for years. And it is essentially the original Debian from before the mid 2010, maintained to this day.

I think it deserves a mention in your post.

Debian netinst minimal install + kde-plasma-desktop + whatever packages I want. Nice and minimal and most stuff Just Works.

Bonus: install Librewolf using extrepo.

Linux Mint also has a Debian Edition (LMDE), which comes with Mint's polished Cinnamon Desktop.

Always an option 😁

I've happily used Debian as a server/NAS/VPS distro for ages...

Back in the day Ubuntu made it a lot easier to get "just works" desktop/laptop environments (notably GPU drivers, etc) spun up, but, yeah, I'm thinking the time to revisit Debian-on-the-desktop may have arrived.

It's also worth noting that you can use Debian instead of Ubuntu in CI settings like codeberg (or github).

Use a docker image like node:25-trixie-slim to get node (needed for most major composite actions such as actions/checkout) based on the current stable debian, then add development tools with apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends.

(or you can use, say, python:3-trixie and then install the debian nodejs package)

If your dependencies are small, do it each time. If they're big, then make a docker image and publish it to whatever container repository you favor. Update it when you need to. I recommend using a date-based tagging scheme if you do this.

A bonus of doing this: you can just run the very same docker image locally to diagnose build failures.

A second bonus of doing this, especially on github: you won't be bitten by changes to the default runner environment that are outside your control.

A third bonus of doing this: you can use debian:testing or images based on it, if stable's too old for you. (traditionally GHA has only offered LTS Ubuntu versions for CI)

For a new user, Debian is not that OS that is ready to use upon a fresh install. You're going to have to configure things manually and install many other things, adding 3rd-party repos.

For example, sudo is not even enabled upon install. Debian themselves don't supply truly working non-free media codecs or firmware, so I suggest deb-multimedia.org
(think of it as Fedora's RPM Fusion repo).

And as pointed out, yes, a lot of old software. Stable, yes, but old.

#Debian #Linux

... debian is wonderful, it's very easy to use... i just tell the google machine to print one-liners and scripts to handle installs and whatnot, so, other than the trouble that comes along with that... it's pretty great.

It didn't take long for me to set up my monitor either. The only thing I could get happening was a 'too-old' graphics card.

What can you do... Really a nice light setup with Debian 13. This box basically has it all.

I"m using Zorin OS, based on Ubuntu. It's pretty good, but I'm growing more aware of the issues with Ubuntu (and I'm super wary of any organization that starts reeking of billionaire).

I have to find an easy way to move to a Debian set up. This computer's old as hell.

Yes, Debian is far from perfect.

Far above perfect.

Debian. ❤️

Might even be worth taking a look at Devuan at this point with systemd going so wildly out-of-scope and in a very very dangerous direction. Devuan is basically just plain Debian using a different init. (the classic sysvinit by default.) As far as I know they make no other changes.

Maybe I'm being paranoid... based on everything that's going on right now... but systemd looks really bad right now to me. Dangerous bad.

Only complaint I have is Debian (and by extension others that don't make big changes) is still way back on the 6.12 kernel. I have to install liquorix for modern stuff, but I want something more stable than liquorix...

This! 👆

Ubuntu is literally the capitalist-enshittified fork of Debian. If you're using Ubuntu and hate that aspect, chances are Debian is exactly what you wanted (but the tech press wasn't popularizing because they're all mouthpieces for capitalism).

my daily driver since 2014 💜

as a not-very-confident, non-expert/non-power user, being able to trust that the OS is solid is very reassuring

Nobody is ever, ever, ever going to sell you "Debian Pro"

dang you just made me remember Progeny