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submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by midtsveen@lemmy.wtf to c/linux@lemmy.ml
 

I have used Debian for the past 3 years, who else uses Debian?

Also, what makes you use Debian?

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[–] bilb@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago

I use Aurora, but my dev containers on aurora are usually Debian. So yes, technically I use Debian a lot!

[–] silentjohn@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 hours ago

I like Debian + flatpaks. 🤷‍♀️

I like the philosophy behind Debian. It's not a corpo distro

[–] kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I love Debian, its IMO the best distro even though atm I dont use it. Its the most stable and by far the distro that just works the most.

[–] simop_jo@lemm.ee 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Sure its the most stable, but the packages are usually out of date

[–] kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Tbh sometimes having the most up to date packages isnt very important

[–] simop_jo@lemm.ee 3 points 15 hours ago

Yes, there are different distros for people with different wants. That's the beauty of Linux.

[–] vandsjov@feddit.dk 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Old but not necessarily out of date. The system is at a stable state. It’s working and we don’t want to make changes that can compromise stability. New features and other big code changes comes with increased risk of something breaking. Debian Stable means running code that have been tested and used a lot.

Security fixes and critical bugs get back ported if feasible, or a package might get updated to a newer version.

[–] simop_jo@lemm.ee 3 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I agree with you. I didn't say Debian was bad. There are people who want the stability of Debian and that's not a bad thing

[–] vandsjov@feddit.dk 1 points 4 hours ago

I was just to clarify that you're not sitting with software full of security issues because of older versions of packages. And then some bonus info on what "stable" means in Debian :-)

[–] trk@aussie.zone 1 points 1 day ago

I used to like Ubuntu LTS because it was just Debian that wasn't quite as out of date, but more recent installs seem to suggest that you only get all the patches if you subscribe to their paid service? Not sure what the fine print is on that.

This box was turned on, Nextcloud installed, and never touched since (side from apt updates).

06:49:18 up 2081 days, 22:07,  1 user,  load average: 0.21, 0.33, 0.42
[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 13 points 2 days ago

Thank you Deb and Ian.

[–] o1o12o21@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

It's what I know and love, just Debian, bspwm and startx. Servers and desktop both. I feel somewhat grumpy that I can't run xorg on remote servers, but I made my peace.

Apart from my current complete move to Linux, I'm contemplating setting up a prettier Debian for my folks.

[–] Creat@discuss.tchncs.de 17 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Debian on Servers. Not-Debian on not-servers.

It's doesn't have to be complicated.

[–] Lychee@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Exactly this, unfortunately we have a company policy from the group which says we must use Ubuntu Server as a server OS... 😬

[–] MajesticElevator@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] Vendetta9076@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] hepp3n@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Vendetta9076@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

I mean youre right. But as someone who's used both I couldn't tell you the difference between the two except for snap.

[–] lordnikon@lemmy.world 32 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Debian since 1998 checking in

I use it because it's just always been there it's the foundation for so many other distros and can be customized the way I want it to be. All the packages are for the most part vanilla other than fixing them to follow the Debian rules. The Debian rules are great since once you learn them. You knows where to find anything on a Debian system.

[–] midtsveen@lemmy.wtf 9 points 3 days ago
[–] Zenlix@lemm.ee 27 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Stable, fully foss and commonly used.

[–] midtsveen@lemmy.wtf 10 points 3 days ago
[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 21 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

The most reliable Linux OS out there, software and community. If there's still people and computers in 50 years, Debian will still be around.

[–] midtsveen@lemmy.wtf 10 points 3 days ago
[–] sp3ctre@feddit.org 18 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm using Debian too. I switched to linux because of privacy reasons and my second thought was that it would be nice if it's completely developed by an open community without a bigger corporation behind it.

Works great so far. See no reason to change distros.

[–] midtsveen@lemmy.wtf 19 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (4 children)

Yes, Debian is run by the people for the people, no corporate giant behind it!

The Debian community is so sweet and caring, MiniDebConf Berlin 2024:

This pic made me smile.

I haven't been to DebConf since before COVID, but I definitely recognize a few people in that pic.

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[–] superkret@feddit.org 6 points 2 days ago

I'm a big fan of a minimal Debian system with Flatpaks.
Technically, Fedora Silverblue would be perfect for me, but I had way more issues with it than with Debian, despite it being immutable and atomic.

[–] njordomir@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I appreciate their philosophy. I've been a Linux user since the early 2000s and have cycled through 30-40 distros at least. I'm not a highly technical user. I would consider myself a solid intermediate. For a daily use system I prefer arch, but my servers run Debian. Most of the people writing install guides for the software I deploy seem to use Debian so I run into less issues this way. It can be hard to follow a guide for Gentoo when you're using Hanna Montana Linux, know what I'm saying? Same thing with Debian. It's just a solid choice with the bonus of having a better, more ethical philosophy, and the benefit of being widely adopted and supported by people who can help when you get stuck. I don't even mind gnome on my servers since it works well with a single screen and it's super rare that I actually need the server GUI anyway.

[–] funkajunk@lemm.ee 3 points 2 days ago

This is the way.

I have 3 servers that are all on some flavor of Debian, but Arch on my personal rig.

Stability where I need it for those always-on workloads, and the ability to fuck around as much as I want over in the corner.

[–] Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee 2 points 2 days ago
[–] valetdetrefle@sh.itjust.works 12 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

I use it on every server I set up. Just configure it once and leave it, it works. I love not having to constantly adapt to changes from package updates, since I rely on Debian's index, which is updated quickly only in case of critical security issues.

[–] poinck@lemm.ee 2 points 2 days ago

Yeah, Debian for services/servers (Raspberry Pi in my case) and Gentoo on the desktop.

But for the not tech-savy family members I've choosen Fedora for them. They need more GUI.

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[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 2 points 2 days ago

Debian on servers. Mint for my friends' laptops.

Debian in Qubes for me.

[–] data1701d@startrek.website 7 points 2 days ago

I have been using Debian - it's the only distro I've used in my 3 years of Linux as a daily driver, and I started using it in VMs instead of Ubuntu a while before that.

I also like stability and Debian's community-oriented nature.

I am currently on Testing for my desktop, but plan to either go stable or do a reinstall when Trixie hits stable - I'm tired of rolling release and my programs changing frequently. I have really enjoyed Debian 12 + Flatpaks on my Thinkpad, so I think I will do that when summer rolls around.

[–] hernanca@beehaw.org 4 points 2 days ago

I've been using Debian for 20 years now, since Debian 3.1 "Sarge".

My first distro was Knoppix, and it was incredible that I could run a Linux desktop from a CD without installing it. Back then I had something like 96 MB of RAM and my computer was an already ancient Pentium II. And yet it worked fine. This opened my mind about what a computer can actually achieve so I asked around forums in my country and met a guy who had the installation media for Debian. I only had dial-up so downloading DVDs was impossible.

Installed it and used it non stop since then. I'm running Debian Testing with the Unstable and Stable repositories pinned at a lower priority.

It's hard to describe but the first time I used Linux it just felt like home. I have used DOS 6.x and Windows since 3.1 but it didn't feel like I was in control of the computer; in retrospect it felt something like an amusement park instead of the engineering marvel it really was. We take it for granted now and don't completely realize that we have actual super computers in our pockets!

Debian was the epitome of this, for the first time I could understand and control the entirety of the software and best of all: it is a community effort. Smart people all around the world donate their time and skills to create something to improve humanity. What's not to love and appreciate?

[–] limelight79@lemm.ee 8 points 3 days ago

I've been using it on my server for 6 or 8 years, and on my desktop and laptop for maybe a year. I'm not sure when I switched.

I like the stability, I generally don't need bleeding edge software. And as someone else mentioned, it's one of the packages distributors always offer.

I've been using Debian since 2000 (potato).

I've occasionally had to use other distros for work (Red Hat or Ubuntu, typically), or to verify/troubleshoot bugs reports in upstream packages.

But my preference is Debian all the way, for servers or workstations.

It's stable, and it has a great community. Also ideologically speaking, it has the Debian Social Contract and Debian Free Software Guidelines.

[–] monovergent@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 days ago

Also have been using Debian for the past 3 years. It just works on all of my machines and comes with just enough features to make life easy. Also love the variety of packages and compatibility with pretty much anything I need that isn't in the official repo.

Many would beg to differ but I love how stable and predictable it is. I have a very particular taste in UI and the less work to maintain that cozy look, the better. Having been a holdout on old Windows versions in the years before I moved to Linux, getting new features at all is already very exciting. I had thought for several years that nothing would beat the comfort and reliability of Windows 2000, but Debian proved me wrong.

[–] SapphironZA@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 days ago

I use it because of the lack of BS.

Secondly, it's stable.

[–] Safeguard@beehaw.org 6 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Hell yeah, debian stable on my servers and testing on my laptop. #perfection

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[–] crmsnbleyd@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 days ago

I love Debian because it just works, its administration is completely open, and there's a lot of software support.

[–] Czele@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Are You on stable or testing repo? Do You use flatpaks?

[–] midtsveen@lemmy.wtf 12 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm running Debian on multiple computers and laptops. This screenshot is of my desktop running Debian Trixie and yes I use flatpaks!

[–] Czele@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I see. Im asking because software in debian is old and so I wonder if this bothers desktop debian users or maybe they like it this way. If I were a debian user I would probably stay on testing to get some packages faster. Thanks for a reply!

[–] pmk@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 day ago

I like it this way. When you say old, I hear "the environment is predictable". What works today won't break in a week because an update changed functionality of something. As long as I have hardware support, I don't need the latest packages for what I do.

[–] midtsveen@lemmy.wtf 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I always use Debian unstable, but my desktop has an Nvidia GPU and I want some stability for #Warframe and #Minecraft, the only two games I play.

So I just installed the latest update by changing my /etc/apt/sources.list.d from Bookworm to Trixie.

[–] furrowsofar@beehaw.org 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I use it for when I want a custom system. Big ripo, and clean minimal installs along with security updates. I run it my workstation and on my vps systems.

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