I distro hopped for a bit before finally settling in Debian (because Debian was always mentioned as a distro good for servers, or stable machines that are ok with outdated software)
And while I get that Debian does have software that isn’t as up to date, I’ve never felt that the software was that outdated. Before landing on Debian, I always ran into small hiccups that caused me issues as a new Linux user - but when I finally switched over to Debian, everything just worked! Especially now with Debian 13.
So my question is: why does Debian always get dismissed as inferior for everyday drivers, and instead mint, Ubuntu, or even Zorin get recommended? Is there something I am missing, or does it really just come down to people not wanting software that isn’t “cutting edge” release?
Debian is more like AOSP. It’s a starting point. Super bare. More commonly used in servers and such.
Also things tend to be older on Debian which isn’t the fit for more gaming oriented systems. Due to optimization not being yet available and drivers for the latest hardware
Ah, ok - yeah I can definitely see how for gaming it might not be ideal. I’ve never thought Linux was all that smooth of a transition for gamers though, no matter what OS you’re using - but I guess that heavily depends on the games you’re playing.
These days, you can install any of the gaming focused distros (Bazzite, CachyOS, Nobara, …). And you didn’t have to do anything. It just works, and works well. Steam is either installed or suggested initially. Really trivial.
Gaming on Linux has been really good for the last several years. The main issue is certain multiplayer games that intentionally block Linux users.
That in community apps, third party hardware and a bunch of other nice cities still don’t have good support unless you’re on Arch.
Things are starting to support Fedora, but it’s unlikely that we’ll ever see a lot of the more niche stuff support something like Debian.
This is mostly VR stuff tho.
It is annoying how often I find that pre-compiled binaries are only available on the aur. And if you want to install a community application for a game, you basically have to compile it from source for anything else.
Super annoying
It’s pretty smooth on bazzite aside from kernel anti-cheat games. Just run em through steam, even pirated games
Even with games that usually use kernal anti-cheat systems like battleeye, some games specifically have enabled proton support and just work as well.
The problem hasn’t been compatibility for a long time, it was developers intentionally blacklisting Linux in their anticheat. Turns out a lot of people hate their customers having freedom in their software
I think this is the key thing.
If you’re always buying the newest GPU to play the latest tech- envelope-pushing AAA title that requires the latest greatest driver, then you’re probably not going to have a good time with gaming on Debian.
But some of us don’t care about those types of games, or maybe in some cases we do but are willing to wait a while to play a particular title (hello Patient Gamers). In that case Debian is a nice, rock solid gaming platform.
Anecdotally, I probably do 85+% of my gaming on Debian (the rest being my steam deck). And it works fine for me because of the types of games I play and/or how long I tend to wait before getting new titles (giving Debian time to catch up).
It’s definitely not for every gamer, but I don’t think it’s as unusable for gaming as people often suggest.
What would be considered “bare” about it? Granted, I’m not gaming on it or anything, but I’ve found it to work pretty well out of the box, just downloading software as I need - but nothing that has caused any sort of headache due to missing drivers or anything like that.
To me it seems like it would be pretty simple for most people to switch over from windows - albiet maybe not for the super beginners that have never seen a command line - but for most semi-tech literate, I would think it would be a decent entry into Linux.
Genuinely curious what is actually stripped down or missing, because maybe it’s just something that I’m not even aware that I’m missing out on, lol
Older drivers won’t support newer hardware. Only includes default apps from gnome and KDE. No DE tweaks to speak of. No performance optimizations. No Gear Lever. No fractional scaling implemented, etc. etc.
I guess it makes sense that I’m comfortable with using Debian then, lol, because I don’t know what most of those things you mentioned are - haha.
Thanks for the explanation though :)
no fractional scaling? thats a DE/WM feature not distro related
old drivers? so is every stable point release distro unless you go out of your way to get an to date kernel,
only includes default apps? you mean following the DE’s developer’s vision? (sure for gnome it is a downside for most, tweaks should 100% be included on all gnome installs)
It is a distro thing. It requires configuration and most good distros have it pre-configured.
Lots of distros these days come out of the box with that pre-configured, so no, it’s not.
Yes.
Super bare. 🤣🤣🤣
Debian is probably Thee most supported distro with the most packages available.
Debian is also among the absolute best among Linux desktop options, and actually quite popular.
There’s a reason Debian is still the most forked distro.
I’m not talking about availability. I’m talking about comes pre-installed so the user doesn’t have to go out and find them to use basic functionality.
I did not say it was not great or popular.
This is not the dunk you think it is…
While I get what you mean about things being pre-installed for super new people to Linux/terminal. . . If it has a apt package, it’s as easy as “sudo apt install xyz”. Also, I thi k Debian comes with the synaptic package manager which makes it fairly easy to install as well. With that said though, I do see your point, as it’s one more hurdle.
This is the kind of ignorant shit that relegates Linux to nerd circles. What do you do with this information? What is xyz, and exactly xyz because if you get a single letter wrong it does not work. Further the user has to already know what they want, which a new user will not.
Apart from Steam not being a standard installed item, it is very feature full.
For 32 bit you also need to enable multi-arch.
But apart from gaming it is in no way bare and very very far from “super bare”. Ans Steam is pretty easy to install.
You wrote it was mostly for servers. Which although it is an excellent server distro, it is most definitely developed at least as much for desktop use.
I don’t think you really understand the implications.
I’ve just given you several examples of how it’s not.
Just making my point for me now.
No I wrote that’s it’s more commonly used in servers.
I don’t think you do.
I think you’re treating this like a pit fight.
I dunno what that means. I gave what I felt like a very simple take and this person started to argue with me, not the other way around.
It looks like one of you is treating the other as a person deserving of respectful conversation.
I don’t know the AOSP acronym so I’ll take a guess: Always On Server Platform?
Android Open Source Project, it’s the open base that the actual Android releases are built upon. It’s not really usable as is, since it lacks the required kernel blobs and software that people have come to expect (like Google’s proprietary stuff).
Android open source project. It’s the base behind every android variation, but it has pretty generic software (although sometimes better than the alternatives companies choose to ship instead).