PieFed.WorldWatched a video about Debian and now I am not sure is the best for me.
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I have just watched this video and in it 2 things are said that made my Linux newbie heart sink:
- Debian 13 is not going to get the latest versions of Nvidia drivers and there are better distros for us.
- Debian in general is not meant to run on the latest hardware.
I am on a regularly upgraded desktop tower gaming PC and currently I have an Nvidia card and an Intel CPU (which, I know, even just because of the mobo chipset is not a great choice).
In this conditions and wanting to invest even more in gaming and new hardware in the future, what should I run on, instead of LMDE 6?
Debian is awesome. For servers. For desktop I would use something else that pushes updates more frequently.
My personal opinion ofcourse, use what you like!
I have to agree, rolling release distributions are the greatest recent development in desktop linux because they make the surface area for updates small (fewer packages more frequently, so if something breaks you have fewer places to look). Immutable distros make reverting a bad update foolproof.
I ran bazzite for a while but then my work changed their VPN endpoints to use oauth, which didn't work on the openvpn2 version available. I switched back to Fedora (which updates pretty frequently, just not constantly) so I could install and use openvpn3. I'm sure I could have figured out a way to get it running by patching it into ostree, but that felt a bit like breaking the rules.
Debian is the underpinning for all of my homelab gear.
Yours is the first comment in this thread that didn't make me want to simultaneously upvote and downvote.
Pika... pika pi!
Pika.. PikaOS?
Pika pi, pi ka, pi chyuu, pika ¡pi! pika chyuu.
Pika pika pi chyu chyu pika pi?
Translation:
Hey! If you like Debian, but want something a bit more cutting edge...
Have you heard of PikaOS?
Roughly, PikaOS is to Debian as Nobara is to Fedora.
Also, I am hungry, can you spare an onigiri?
If gaming is your main goal. Bazzite or similar should likely be your first target. If you want a more desktop experience. I'd probably recommended vanilla mint. LMDE and Debian are great. But LMDE is a side project, that gets a bit less support and updates. And Debian is about stability over cutting edge anything.
Also worth noting that Debian's definition of "stability" doesn't mean "doesn't crash" even in the slightest. It means "doesn't change." That means not changing broken software to be newer working software.
Any non-security bug that exists will stay because new software only ships for backported security updates. So if you have a crashing issue, Debian has no interest in fixing it until the next release. Unchanging is more important than working.
If you don't have any crashes or bugs popping up, Debian is great, because it won't introduce crashes or bugs. Nothing unexpected will happen.
By Debian's definition, the Titanic is now VERY stable, unmoving at the bottom of the ocean.
This is not how Debian works .. at .. all.
Source: I've used it for 25 years.
Agreed. Pushing 20 years now myself. Miss debian-administration.com like Hell
what is the story on that domain why does it lead to a gambling site now
Think StackExchange, but a Debian-centered forum instead. And I didn't expect the link to appear, as I didn't give it an explicit https://www/. In the comment. For others, do not click that link. The site's long dead.
I've been told plenty of times that when I had bugs that weren't getting fixed that "stability means no unexpected changes, not uptime, compile the package yourself if you need it fixed."
There are plenty of examples of upstream projects asking debian to not package their stuff because they get bug reports for things that were fixed months ago.
Debian does not ship bugfixes. Debian only ships security fixes.
If something works, it's not going to break. But if something doesn't work, it's not going to unless you fix it yourself by going outside of the official packages.
That's bollocks. Bookworm has received 11 point release updates, and they were definitely not only security updates. Read through the the 12.1 release notes, for example. "Fix playing of custom alarm sounds" does not sound like a security fix, nor a severe issue.
Security updates are released frequently, often just days apart, to individual packages. https://www.debian.org/security/
Point release updates (12.1, 12.2, up to 12.11) are released several months apart. They are thoroughly tested and verified to work together.
Ok? "You only have to wait a few months for this crash to be resolved." still doesn't resolve people's issues.
“Fix playing of custom alarm sounds” doesn't sound like a severe issue to you, but it was also something that if someone needed, they were forced to wait a few months.
Debian would rather have broken custom alarm sounds for several months, even if it was fixed earlier. Fixing a bug to me lands closer to a security issue than "shipping bleeding edge feature sets".
It ultimately means if something you need is broken for a non-security reason, it is not being fixed until the next point release. There is a fixed unit of time in which you know your problem will not be resolved.
Packages are individually updated for security fixes. Individual packages are NOT updated for bugfixes.
Did Debian hurt you or something? You're just raging for the sake of rage.
I'd recommend Fedora if you want stable and modern hardware support.
Isn't Bazzite based on Fedora?
It is, and it's amazing for gaming
Honestly I think the utility beyond gaming is totally undersold:
- automatic background updates ( system and flatpaks)
- ujust singular commands for common tasks
- All of what really should be mandatory software out of the box, including some huge QoL extensions
- Bazaar package manager
It really fixes a lot of Linux's shortcomings, in my opinion.
Yes, I believe so.
yeah but you install your software via cringepak (bloat) or shitty rpm-ostree and nothing is as well documented vs traditional distros
That should be fine since I am planning to put it in its own partition and maybe disk, isolated from my main driver that would be Vanilla Mint, no?
Debian is like that. Mature. The point releases are thoroughly tested for reliability, but the cost is that they can't include bleeding edge software in the middle of the release cycle. The "stable" branch (currently Trixie) is always lagging behind, and the "testing" branch (Forky, next in line to become "stable") will be frozen long before it is released.
You might want to try a rolling release distro. Arch Linux or something based on it (EndeavourOS, Garuda, CachyOS), or Debian Sid (the unstable branch).
I’ve been running CachyOS for a couple weeks now and so far it’s been fantastic. Very user friendly and great for gaming, as well as other tasks. I’d highly recommend it.
I haven't watched the video. I've used Debian as my operating system of choice for over 25 years.
Debian is intended to be Free, it goes to great lengths to achieve this. Many of the popular distributions are based on it as a result.
It has the option to use non-free components like firmware blobs and weird vendor encumbered video drivers.
In addition, Debian runs on a large collection of different hardware platforms and as such is supported across more devices than many other alternatives.
If you run bleeding edge hardware, you have the option of running bleeding edge software within the Debian framework. It comes in flavours: stable, testing and unstable specifically to cater to different requirements.
Pick what you need depending on your use case.
Debian does not get the latest versions of anything. It is designed for, above all, stability, which means changes to the stable branch are greatly delayed while testing is completed.
You can always choose not to use the stable branch.
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CachyOS has been working issue free for me so far. Update the system once every few days and no bumps at all.
What's the estimated release for LMDE7?
I've found CachyOS to be a good fit for me, sounds like I'm in a similar position to you.
Same here! It's Arch-like in having the latest updates, but I've found it to be a lot easier and forgiving than "vanilla" Arch. Been running it for a while now and it's been a great fit.
When I see someone on social media claiming Debian is unsuitable for gaming, I know immediately that they don't know what they're talking about. I've been gaming on different distros since before Steam ran on Linux at all, and on Debian Stable for nearly a decade. This includes my current system, which was built a few months after the GPU was released.
In general, Debian can run just fine on new (Linux-compatible) hardware. If you're talking about Debian Stable and hardware that was released less than a year ago, then you might have to pull in a newer kernel and/or firmware, but it's not hard. In most cases, it's as simple as enabling Debian's Backports repository and installing the couple of new packages that you need. (You might not even have to do that, since Flatpak and Steam provide updates to much of what games need, but it would be wise to remember Backports anyway just in case you need them some day.)
The main thing to consider is that it's not completely effortless. It will probably require a little more setup than a game-focused distro would, so if you're considering Debian for a gaming system, you should know why you want it. For example, maybe you want a very low-maintenance system once it's up and running. Or maybe Debian's focus on Free software appeals to you. In such cases, a few extra steps when getting started might be worthwhile. But if you don't have a specific need that Debian fills, then another distro might be more convenient.
I don't know if that's true or not. Nvidia has a well-deserved reputation for making their hardware painful on Linux, and although the situation is less bad today than it once was, it's still not great. If you're determined to stick with them, then sure, a distro that does the extra work of packaging all of Nvidia's driver releases might be a better choice for you.
(For what it's worth, I finally ditched Nvidia in favor of AMD GPUs, and have been very happy with the results.)
If you want newer stuff the non-stable branches of Debian are perfectly usable.
Testing (the upcoming release) should be your first stop. But even Unstable works just as well as most other distros. There might be the occasional issue, but anything serious is generally fixed quickly.
Debian stable is intended for use cases where an update must never change anything that could cause any problem. For the average desktop it's perfectly fine to have things change or to be mildly inconvenienced every now and then.
Regardsless what distro you end up with, do your research before bying new hardware. Any hardware, such as keyboard, usb bluetooth adapter or gaming audio headset might be unsupported or supported poorly, and require out-of-kernel drivers, firmware or propietary vendor software, that work only with some kernel versions or certain distros. There often are options that have great linux support and work with any distro, but you'll need to find them.
Pick your prefered update interval between LTS, 6 month point release or rolling based on how much time you have for administration. If you need you PC also for work, a rolling distro might break just when you need it the most. After choosing the update interval, pick the distro with chosen update interval you like the most. Say you know and like Debian but need a rolling distro, then Debian unstable might be a good choice for you. You can also run multiple distros and dual-boot.
Special purpose distros such as gaming distros can be a good choice, but they often have less developer resources and tend to die then the few developers lose their interest.
Regardless of your choice of distro, spend some time to configure regular backups.
Only if you run an update! It's not random. I only update once every two weeks or so when I know I have time to fix problems if they arise. Easy peesy. Honestly it's safer than Windows in that sense because Windows pushes updates on you and a broken Windows update did out me in a boot loop, post COVID even.
It's not a bad piece of advice, rolling is still the least stable, but there are better ways to phrase it.
That works until there is a critical security issue which doesn't care about your free time, but needs an update right now, and you might not be able to only apply the security fix, because your rolling distro gallops ahead in package version numbers.
Give me older, but stable and boring over that any day. :)
I've been running Gentoo and Arch on my primary desktop PC for years back when I was a student and had oodles of free time, but in past decade, Debian is what I need. Including what little gaming I do some evenings.
Try any suse favours, it will surprise you.
I am on the rolling distro (tumbleweed) and it is surprisingly stable, the only time it broke was because of a new Nvidia driver release. But it came with a rollback feature and 2 daya later everything was fixed.
Honestly, just because you can not use debian shouldn't be any major problem in a modern pc
You should clarify that the roll back takes two seconds and the two days was the wait to upgrade again :D I do love Tumbleweed.
Fuck, you are right. It could be understood in that way.
Debian is a good stable distro but I personally wouldn't recommend it for desktop home users. There are debian derivatives that do use it as a base and offer more up to date packages.
There are also lots of alternatives that are dedicated rolling release or more frequently updated point release distros.
I often recommend Linux Mint as a good first distro. It's got a big user base, so lots of support online, and it's based off Ubuntu which itself is based off Debian, so has a wide range of software already packaged for it. Once you know what you want / like from Linux you could move on or stick with Mint if you like it.
I used to use Mint but I wanted to switch to KDE. You can install KDE with Mint but things are a little janky as the core mint tools are really built for Cinnamon (and GTK). I moved to OpenSuSE Tumbleweed 2+ years ago and like it. I've also used Nobara on another device - it's decent buf have moved away from it after some update issues. Regardless there is a lot of choice out there.
But I'd recommend starting with Mint as a good stable but updatable option. You can use Mint and add in cutting edge Nvidia drivers with relative ease for example.
I would not start with Arch as some others are recommending. It's a good distro but it's an involved manual set up and can require a lot of troubleshooting. I'd recommend picking something that is a simpler install and get used to Linux basics first before venturing into distros like Arch.
If you want something stable but up-to-date, Fedora is a very good option. Plus it has a bunch of "Spins". The two main ones are Gnome and KDE Plasma, but there is a bunch more, and they're all officially supported.
Then there's also Arch. Arch should not be considered stable, but anecdotally I've not heard many problems with it in the past few years, so you'd probably be fine. I'd go with EndeavourOS or CatchyOS if you want Arch without the tedious setup process.
Stable doesn’t mean “won’t crash”, or that there’s any guarantee that there are less problems. It just means that there won’t be any big changes during the distro’s lifecycle.
That might mean it crashes less since you won’t see much in terms of new features, or it might mean you have to live with a very annoying bug for a few years because the package maintainers didn’t want to back port the fix for whatever reason.
Just remember to check archlinux.org before system updates.
Maybe just regular Linux Mint then, which follows Ubuntu release schedule.
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+1 for OpenSUSE Tumbleweed.
I had noob problems with so many distros, and Tumbleweed gave me the least problems getting started. Good GUI based control with Discover and YAST. OpenSUSE really doesn't seem to get recommended enough.
I follow the channel OP linked and he's had a similarly positive opinion of Tumbleweed (2 years ago).
You clearly have no idea what you are talking about. Debian stable is not the same as Debian testing or Debian unstable.
You want to run bleeding edge hardware, you'll need to run bleeding edge software, which you'll find in Debian unstable.
Debian unstable and Debian testing aren't meant for daily use, I'm not sure why you're even bringing them up.
That is demonstrably incorrect.
* https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-faq/choosing.en.html
https://wiki.debian.org/DebianUnstable
You need some amount of testing because packages do break, the 2 week testing window on arch is really important in making sure your pc can at least boot.
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Thanks for the suggestion.
I just tried following the tutorial and... it only made me more proficient at using Timeshift.
To be exact, it prompted me to create a xorg.conf file, which apparently is not in my system.
I accepted and it brought me to a black screen with a black screen that remained there for 5 minutes.
I force rebooted the machine and it failed to launch lightdm.service.
So USB, Timeshift and back we are.
I am afraid I am not at your level yet. Been stable on Linux since only a few months.
Thanks again though, at least I know it exists.
Cachyos, its popular for a reason, the wiki is really helpful, and the goal is to quickly get you setup for gaming with the correct drivers
And you mention needing up to date drivers, its arch, easy to setup btrfs/snapshot support (parititon using btrfs, its one click on the post install menu) so you can rollback when stuff goes wrong Select limine bootloader if you go this route, its the easiest for snapshots imo
If you're currently running on LMDE and are enjoying it, why not just switch to the "vanilla" non-debian Mint? It should be similar enough to what you're used to, but with more up to date software.
Reading all the comments, I think I will do that since I want to stay on the same experience.
Then maybe I will have another drive in the future to test Bazzite or CachyOs on.
PikaOS is Debian with the latest drivers and hardware and selective updates where needed. It's basically perfect for me and I've been daily driving it on 3 different PCs (2 Nvidia 1 AMD) for more than a year now with zero regrets or significant issues. I did pop into the discord with a few speed bumps and questions that were quickly answered.
If you want to keep up with newer hardware and software and get the best performance out of your games, you'll want to use a distro with faster updates.
I've been using Nobara on my gaming computer for about 2 years and it's been pretty good, I get great performance in all my games.
Are you a huge fan of Debian as a base? And what Desktop environment/window manager do you prefer?
I am not a Linux person except for proxmox box, but I saw this on lemmy yesterday, and it talks about nvidia drivers on Debian 13
https://teejeetech.com/2025/08/14/debian_13_tips/
I run on debian-testing otherwise my resolution sucked. On newish AMD cpu and GPU.
https://wiki.pika-os.com/en/home
this should tick all your boxes.
Opensuse Tumbleweed. You get the drivers, it's stable, and the one time it isn't you just roll back to the prior snapshot in the boot menu that it takes automatically. Steam runs great on it. Honestly about the best there is.
I like endeavoros. I can't say how well it is for gaming, aside from installing steam and playing a few games...
It's pretty simple. Endeavor has their own easy update script.
I would recommend Nobara, Bazzite or PopOS for gaming; My personal experience with Debian is that it's a great OS, but the focus lies less on cutting edge features or support of the latest hardware, and more on stability over everything else, and the desktop environment is more of an convenience feature - Debian is very happy as a headless server. If you want an OS with record setting uptimes, pick Debian; but for gaming you want to be on the cutting edge, and that's simply not the case with Debian.
I would recommend Linux Mint for stable general purpose, or Bazzite as I see other people recommend it for more gaming oriented until SteamOS 3.0 comes out for desktop PC's
Debian is what you put on your grandma's Facebook machine
To put it in a less elitist way: you can put it on a family PC for light entertainment or for things like homework for kids
To be perfectly clear: most people use their PC as a glorified Facebook machine.
(it also doesn't have to be Facebook but the concept is the same)
Debian is what you put on a system you want to work forever with minimal maintenance. Whether that be your Grandma's computer or my headless server.
Isn't Debian the FOSS-only one? Or am I misremembering?
I'm sure one can have their install that way but mine isn't.
I'm gaming perfectly fine on my Debian machine. Only one single time in years I had a problem with some custom tailored script from someone that linked as minimum a dependency that was newer than the version served in apt
This. My main rig runs arch and I do my heavy gaming there, but for travel I have a laptop running Debian, it has no problem running Steam and games via Proton. I've also done some light coding, even a bit of 3D modeling. It's not basic, it's bulletproof.
The things I've been reading for years about Debian make me think most "linux" people really don't know or understand what stable/unstable means.
I ran mint (non debian) on older hardware for years and loved it mostly.
Upgraded everything in march and realised i needed newer kernel newer mesa.
I could of installed from certain ppa's but hey 12-13 years on one distro i fancied a change.
Kde took some learning (does one need all those settings) but hey functional hardware is the goal and the goal was met. Like graphics tablet i had to mess with modprobe and .sh files just works magnificently.
I can't compare performance as 8 thread to 24 thread i do not see a fair comparison.
Leaving the comfort zone i think made me understand more about linux and that is very good.
I knew which video you were talking about before I even clicked the link.
Don't use Debian for a gaming PC. Period.
Stick with an Ubuntu derivative like Mint or Kubuntu. It's your best bet.
If you want a gaming exclusive platform, you might want to check out Bazzite as well. But the *buntus are best IMO.
Why? I run Debian on my computer with absolutely no issues gaming.
These are all derivatives of Debian in the end.
Oh, no doubt it works. It's fine if you want to run on older software. You might just miss out on the latest new features for your hardware.
Yes Ubuntu is based on Debian only in the way that it uses the same package manager. The packages are not the same though. They have a totally different release cycle and the repos have more up to date packages and drivers. Not to mention the additional quality of life improvements.
It's a good middle ground between super stable but older Debian and unstable and bleeding edge distros.
Ubuntu-based, Arch-based, Fedora-based distributions will do you fine.
Debian is great for having a rock solid stable system that works, but not for the latest and greatest software or hardware combis.
First of all, no, youre not a noob, the corrent Name for people who contradict their own statements in less than 2 minutes of reading their Text (first you say you run Debian, them you say you are running Mint, which are completely different distros), is A stupid dummy dummy dumb dumb. (Seriously, .ml mods, you either let me say the R word, or you insta block such braindead clumps of biomass)
Second, LMDE still has newer packaged than vanilla Debian, afaik
Third, did you not take a single look at debians Home page, before installing something you yourself call Debian? It literally States that it is a „Stable OS”.
Fourth, if you dont want to overwork your single braincell, just use flatpaks. They already have their own drivers in their Sandbox, so you should be fine.
You use Arch, btw.
Asking the others, since I don't think you are up for a conversation with me:
is it a wild guess to imagine that the high chance to receive this kind of comments is the reason why Linux doesn't have a wider penetration on the consumer market?
I know the alternative of a call center slave from India for Microsoft is not exactly the most appealing, but anything is better than this, in my opinion.
I am in since a few months, as stated in one of the comments, and it is already the 4th or 5th time I get someone responding in this way.
For the most part its because most people who are in such Forums know way more about Linux than the Indian call center, and would much more like to think about real questions, such as actual comparisons between software and specific appliances.
The Questions you are asking had already been answered hundreds of times in other threads. There are whole megathreads about these Questions.
People have thrown hundreds of hours into writing Wiki pages so you can choose what distribution is for you based on literal essays, if not even longer, detailing the exact philosophy of every distribution, what it is for, what it isn't for, and what to expect from it.
Yet you choose to disregard those works from people, instead deciding to ask for yet another Tl;Dr, because you just can't be bothered to type your Question into searXng or Reddit or Kagi or even frickin' ChatGPT, which would all be able to answer it.
No, not even that. You can't even be bothered to do the bare minimum and offer actual information to the people trying to help you in their free time, making them have to painfully dig through your pile of horsecrap until they even understand what it is you want help with.
I'll just use AI next jfc, talk to a therapist.
Just use arch. It's a lot simpler than Ubuntu Fedora etc.
Occasional hiccups but nothing major.
I've run gentoo and void and tbh they were fine too, but more burden knowledge wise.
Debian and Fedora were always a chore to maintain. Major updates on Fedora constantly caused down time. Debian has no software and no ports like system which makes it difficult to get software.
Arch has most things packaged, decent docs a simple packaging system etc. The community is a bit mediocre but the os is pretty simple. Also what the steam deck uses FWIW.
Oh boy. So much ignorance concentrated in so few words. 😬
Well, all I can do is provide my insight based on my experience.
I've been teaching in industry and at public universities for a few years and this is what I've Found to be big sticking points For people new to computing.