Have you thought about trying Mint, specifically LMDE?

You can just nix-shell -p <obscure cli tool> and it's just magically there in a new temporary shell, and then cleaned up once you quit that shell.

🤯❤️

Nah, not really. Pop_OS has been my favorite so far. Been on it about 5 years now.

Their documentation says Debian is supported.

Hate is perhaps too strong of a word, but personally, I just don't care for their default desktop environment. If I had to, I could still use it but as I have lots of choices I'm going with something else.

On the other hand, I find Ubuntu to be a fine server OS, especially if you want something in the Debian family but want something a bit more up to date than what's currently in Debian stable but still widely supported.

Yeah so "cleaned up" wasn't completely true.

Nix basically works by installing packages in a store or cache, and then soft linking to the binaries in the cache.

When you exit the temporary shell, the link will no longer exist but the cached package and its dependencies are still there.

You can easily clear that cache but it's not gone instantly when you exit the shell.

What were the worst aspects for you?

For me, the main thing i don't like is how the app store defaults to snaps, when the system package you want is hidden behind a drop down.

But i like a lot about it, namely the look and feel of the settings applications, hardware drivers, community support, trouble free updates, so for me it is my favorite.

Widely and loudly hated, but not universal. The fans just aren't that loud ;)

Same, on the XFCE/LXQt/MATE desktops

same but the drivers though 😓😓

Holy shit i did not expect slack

Gentoo is how you upgrade from here

I'm not a greybeard ^(yet)^ but xbps-src would like to have a word.

Also, Debian is bad for cognitive abilities since if you use it long enough you forget how to configure things. /j

It's just mayhap, fyi.

That's actually what I figured/hoped. As long as they're making an effort to keep that secure, sounds like a good approach to me!

Slackware brainwashing

Im a long standing debian user and i just recently installed arch in a separated disk mainly for gaming. I like arch, but debian is just beautiful.

Template please 🐧

It's literally a white screen with black rectangles 💀

Too much corporate control and enshittification. For example, when you use apt-get to get native packages, it can instead download a snap package (which works differently, is controlled by them and might not be preferred for many other reasons), even though you clearly meant not to.

Canonical (Ubuntu's developer) is trying to push people deeper into the ecosystem they build and control.

Then, they roll out a paid Ubuntu version, Ubuntu Pro, separating paying and non-paying customers and turning Ubuntu into a subscription-based SaaS.

Favorite: still searching

First: Manjaro (actually went quite smooth...until it didn't. Still grateful to have it, might not switch if it didn't exist)

Current: Bazzite (immutable distros finally matured enough for me, works perfectly fine for non-gaming tasks as well as gaming)

Distro you liked the least: Ubuntu (was the reason I didn't get to Linux earlier and got only worse from there)

Distro you want to use in the future: Debian (needs to stop being so easily broken, it's a stability distro ffs)

Distro you used for the longest time: Fedora (generally a good experience, but doesn't play fantastically well with nvidia)

Distro everyone likes but I don't: Linux Mint. (Cinnamon is severely limited and looks dated to me, and it broke like a week into me using it. Not my choice, but apparently others have better experience)

Honorable mention: OpenSUSE Tumbleweed (awesome stability and native rollbacks, but didn't fix a much highlighted update breaking nvidia drivers in two months, prompting me to reinstall; didn't ever face breaking issues with other hardware)

Fedora is the most corporate not-actually-corporate distro

The thing about Debian is that it's really not meant for the bleeding edge, not unless you shim a completely different runtime platform onto it, like Docker or Flatpak (or Proxmox). It shines as a very stable very basic host OS that's limited to just the base functions of the machine and lets the other platform deal with the latest and shiniest releases.

Every time I have to upgrade to a new release I have to go read the instructions on how to do it...

I would appreciate a big button like in fedora "push here to upgrade to Debian sailwind"

Well, you asked for it.

I started my Journey on Mint. The Install broke, but I wasn't gonna give up that easily. So I used AI to troubleshoot it (not my best times, but I was desperate). I customized mint, I cherished it and loved my escape from the grasps of Microsoft.

Eventually, I noticed you couldn't do rounded corners on Cinnamon (I didn't understand DEs at the time, thinking you could only use the DE that came with the Distro).

It pissed me off so much that I went and tried something with Plasma. I went with OpenSUSE, in part cuz I liked the Chameleon, in part because I did like the concept. Bluetooth and wifi didn't work ootb and for me as a beginner that sealed the deal, I wasn't able to fix it.

Next, I went to Kubuntu, thinking it'll be stable and have Plasma. And it was. It was all i'd ever hoped for. Stable, many features, super customizable. I even messed around with config files etc (mind you, this was like 3 weeks into my journey). I loved it. Even disabled snaps eventually.

But eventually I got bored. I started trying out other Distros, not hopping but just trying out their live installs. I no longer liked the corporate backend of Canonical. I wanted something new.

I also watched a lot of Linux content at the time, and I was confused and annoyed that I wasn't getting the newest updates to stuff. That's when I really started learning about DEs, Rolling releases etc.

I didn't even really think of Debian as an option at the time, I kept hearing it was old and outdated, which I didn't want.

That's when I fell down the Arch rabbit hole. Cool logo, cool concept, hacker mode.

I wanted that, So, I tried Cachy and Endeavor. No. It wasn't enough. I wanted that Arch logo natively in fastfetch. I wanted to say "I use arch btw". First, I messed around in VMs. from 3pm to 3am, all I did was try and install arch in VMs. Manually, of course. I decided it was the only way to get the experience needed.

I was able to do it eventually. The Step to bare metal was... not as smooth as expected. what the hell is NVMEp02?? And stuff like that. It look a long time until I was done. And it was buggy, I had messed up. Shit didn't work. I decided, well, it works except for weird stuff, strange issues I didn't care to troubleshoot. So I used Archinstall, and no I don't feel guilty, I can still do it manually if I wanted to I was just lazy.

Aaaand here we are. Arch is amazing and fantastic. But Debian Testing is almost as fast in terms of releases and I like the extra stability. Using Cosmic on Arch, actually. I love the tiling functionality. We shall see what the future brings

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

I'm always curious about what you all do with your OS 😅 I mean sure why not but for me it was (after 6 months before going for it) like a weekend check out and then my pc became an 'ol Linux box (boxes, laptops etc followed) and it just chugs on?

Don't have one. I just took someone else's post and put white squares over the ones I disagreed with

I believe it's still one of the most used distributions. One of those people still associate with Linux.
For some strange reason it's also widely used in server hosting.

Because apt is fundamentally broken and it shows most readily on a desktop-oriented distro like Ubuntu.

In order to benefit from packages not included by the distro you need to use 3rd party apt repos, but there's no rule against those repos using package names used by another repo, including the distro's repos. It could've also been fixed by identifying packages by [repo name + package name] instead of just [package name]... but it hasn't.

The result is that when Ubuntu packages get replaced by 3rd party packages by the same name it can mess up the dependency graph if the 3rd party repo isn't super careful about it.

It's not a huge issue immediately after installing something but as time passes and more updates pile on top of each other (from both Ubuntu and the 3rd parties) it can get completely ruined and eventually the update solver can't find an upgrade path anymore and you can't use Ubuntu's newer releases.

At that point you have two options. One is to use an advanced solver like the one in aptitude, for example, but in order to fix the mess it will recommend to uninstall and reinstall a huge number of packages, including very core, essential packages, which is very risky and you lose the 3rd party stuff anyway. At which point you might as well use option two, which is to reinstall a newer Ubuntu release from scratch.

Eventually after you go through this a few times it starts to get really annoying and you either get stuck on an old release out of dread, or you start looking for a distro that can be updated in-place indefinitely.

Ahh yeah, that's the music player I've been working on since the beginning of the year called Aika. It's still pretty early on, but it's mostly usable so far, depending on your needs. I mostly use it as my daily player right now, except for a few odd cases (like Opus files).

Aika is a spiritual successor to my other music player, Benben, which looks very similar, but not exact. Aika has some different features and goals, is much easier to build, and is lighter on system resources. But Benben is much more mature and featured complete. My goal is to release Benben v1.0 by years end, put it in maintenance mode, then focus on Aika.

Close! Just the wrong repo link. Check my other comment.

Every time I tried to install SUSE, it ended up with a white screen with cursor. Truly worthy of honorable mention

Over 20 years I've been trying many distros and even rolled my own and now I'm a happy mint user.
Did I do it backwards?

Favorite: Debian Stable (For my uses, it was the least trouble)

First: Slackware (1995, installed from floppy disks, also a short stretch in 2009)

Current: Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) (Using because I need to support users on stock Mint)

Distro you liked the least: Novell SuSE (Used in a corporate setting)

Distro you want to use in the future: Unknown

Distro you used for the longest time: Debian Stable (15 years)

Distro everyone likes but I don’t: Ubuntu

Honorable mention: DietPi (RaspberryPi and SBC focused OS)

Over time, I've used quite a lot of different distros: Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise, Scientific, CENTOS, Fedora, Mandrake, Damn Small, Puppy, CrashBang, Raspbian, Bazzite, to name just the ones I can remember off the top of my head now.

First: Slackware (there were 2 or 3 distributions at the time... also so many floppies)
Next: Mandrake.
Next: Debian
Next: Ubuntu (and variants, didn't like it, was brittle and messy)
Next: Gentoo (didn't like it much when I did an update after three or four months idle, might be on me)
Next: Manjaro (self immolated at some point just because)
Next: OpenSuSE (soon switched to TumbleWeed, was rock solid, but didn't like one of my new machines for some reason)
Next: Fedora (current, no issues, I'd still prefer a European system, but meh.)

I probably forgot a few, but that's more or less the last thirty years. Unless there's an issue, I see no reason to change. They all pretty much install the same thing anyway, and I want to use the machine, not configure it. The system ought to be as un-noticeable as possible IMO.

twm was good enough for us, we didn't need no stinkin' DE!

It was broken in many subtle ways even before snaps. Version updates were always a bit of a gamble and the whole thing was never as solid as properly managed distributions like the industrial ones such as SuSE or RH (or the properly managed ones that followed).

The only real reason to use a BSD is if you use a dedicated system for something like serving files, or some embedded stuff that requires to poke at its innards. As a general purpose machine, it's way, way more limited than Linux. You'll find yourself very constrained by the hardware and some of the software support. But there are lots of nifty toys, so if you have a spare machine and want to play with it, by all means, it's certainly worth your time.

I loved Peppermint OS 10. They did a complete redesign of the DE and it just isn't the same. It's also based on Debian or Devuan now instead of Ubuntu which i'm mostly indifferent to.

Nethack runs fine on my Debian computer.

Hey, I have a multiboot system with Debian, too! I wanted to switch to it fully, but I did a LOT of configuration and manual software installs on my old Ubuntu install, some of which was included OOTB by the Ubuntu Studio people (I dabble in electronic music) ... I've been dragging my feet for so long that the Debian install slipped into oldstable ...

Debian, but simply find it difficult to adopt for gaming-related reasons (both hosting and as a game client).

I do remember installing a mesa PPA on Ubuntu to play Elden Ring the year it was released, doing the same or similar on Debian stable seems even more of a mess ... I kinda soured on AAA gaming since, though.

it's not that hart to upgrade, just change the sources list and run apt dist-upgrade

Did you ever do a major version update (i.e. one that's based on a new Ubuntu LTS release than the one before)? AFAIK they still recommend that you do a fresh install every time the switch the Ubuntu base, which makes me hesitate to recommend it to newcomers - Debian and Ubuntu have always updated in place for me without major issues.

I did use Mint in like 2018, though, it was neat in general.

Oh, I know that, I've done a lot of Debian upgrades in my time. Just making a point about how long I've had this "switch to Debian on desktop"-project sit idle.

Funny, Debian is the reason I came to Arch in the first place and never really left. I like Debian, but once you need more recent versions of something, things quickly get messy.

My journey was: Ubuntu, Debian, ChrunchBang, ArchBang, Arch. Not a big fan of distro hopping, so I'll probably stay like this or try Fedora if ever I want something non-rolling again.

I sure am excited for gaming this year. I saw some adverts in a magazine for Half-Life, Ocarina of Time, and Resident Evil 2 and I can't decide.

Ah ok, you wanted something new and to experiment and wanted the most up to date thing without going into "side branches".

I also really understand wanting to use a mainline Linux, I'm prouder of using main vanilla ass Debian since it feels more official and respected to present myself professionally saying "yes, I use Linux, my distro is Debian" instead of "I use mint because I need more handholding" or "I use Nobara/Pika because I am a 420 blaze it gamer".

I did similar stuff to you, if you're interested you can check out my journey. However, during this distro hop I did come more to terms with understanding distros are basically DE + package manager + bundled software, with a few differences and outliers.

Which led me to having the fun situation where I hated MATE, uninstalling it from my Ubuntu mate install, putting on KDE, distro hopping and when I went for Debian net install, repeating the KDE install after being shocked that a bare bones Debian install has no DE.

I did it again for a trashtop that I have, removing LMDE's default DE and installing XFCE because I didn't like... Cinnamon?

I've been on Bazzite for a couple of years now, and I've started to just prefer the way it does things over mutable distros. It's so unbelievably stable.

I went from EndeavourOS to Bazzite, and have no real desire to hop off of it.

favorite: chimera linux <3
currently using: gentoo
least favorite: ubuntu

ever since i tried to apt install firefox and was instead given the snap version without even being asked permission i gave up on ubuntu then and there