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in Debian (because Debian was always mentioned as a distro good for servers, or stable machines that are ok with outdated software)

And while I get that Debian does have software that isn’t as up to date, I’ve never felt that the software was that outdated.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?

  • UnfinishedProjects@lemmy.zipOP
    7·
    17 hours ago

    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

    • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
      91·
      17 hours ago

      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.

      • UnfinishedProjects@lemmy.zipOP
        3·
        17 hours ago

        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 :)

      • furry toaster@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        21·
        16 hours ago

        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)

        • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
          21·
          16 hours ago

          no fractional scaling? thats a DE/WM feature not distro related

          Lots of distros these days come out of the box with that pre-configured, so no, it’s not.

          only includes default apps? you mean following the DE’s developer’s vision?

          Yes.