Debian 9.5 experience - just use something else please

Forums › Linux › Debian 9.5 experience - just use something else please - Ubuntu, Mint, etc.

amiga500

1402 posts

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# 243126 28-Nov-2018 06:04

I should have believed the reviewer at dedoimedo when he reviewed Debian 9, but oh no I thought 9.5 might be like a Ubuntu point release and be much better.

After trying it virtualised I did a full install onto a portable hard drive. Lots of scary ACPI warnings and then it started o.k. First thing I noticed was how sluggish the XFCE desktop

seemed. I dragged the trash can from the top L/H of the screen down to the bottom R/H. Immediately the whole top panel disappeared along with the menu. I had not touched the panel at all!

Spent some time on Google trying to restore the panel - gave up! Right click was now the only way to get a menu. I started Synaptic which took a long long time to appear. I was able to install HPLIP and get my

printer going so that was nice. Anyway after about three hours I'd had enough. Every time I give Debian a try it turns out like this. I am absolutely sure that if I had been patient & prepared to spend a lot of time I would

have finished up with everything working nicely but why bother when Ubuntu, Mint, and other distros have done all the hard work for you? Debian is like buying a really good and expensive BBQ kitset - much assembly required!

Linux Mint is like buying the same BBQ & having someone assemble the BBQ & get it going for you! And other distros such as Xubuntu 16.04 are also very stable. I usually keep the DVD when I try a new distro but this damned Debian 9.5

DVD went into my rubbish bin. No wonder the guy at Dedoimedo was so angry!

timbee

48 posts

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# 2135575 28-Nov-2018 06:36

That's Linux for you

MikeB4

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# 2135581 28-Nov-2018 07:15

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I have never liked Debian. In the two decades I have been using various Linux flavours Debian has triggered the most rage and I am a calm mild mannered guy but Debian will trigger the Bruce Banner affect very quickly.

If it is the intention of the Debian developers to create the most complicated, buggy distribution they have succeeded probably well beyond their own expectations.

I would have Gentoo or Slackware over Debian if I were to make things hard for myself, at least they work after the labour of install.

So yeah I agree use Ubuntu, Mint, Kubuntu or any of the smorgasbord of useable distribution and leave the stress and Bruce Banner in the cupboard.

Mike
Retired IT Manager.
The views stated in my posts are my personal views and not that of any other organisation.

There is no planet B

amiga500

1402 posts

Uber Geek

# 2135590 28-Nov-2018 07:32

Yep! The only sensible thing I did was giving up fairly quickly.

michaelmurfy

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# 2135592 28-Nov-2018 07:38

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timbee:

That's Linux for you

It really isn't... Perhaps for people who don't understand it maybe... I can set up and run Debian fine on a desktop but is just isn't a nice experience compared to many others. Ubuntu, for example is based off Debian Unstable I believe. I now use Debian for servers as it is stable. I used to run it as a desktop OS but not anymore as many packages are quite behind being a stable distribution.

If you want good for desktop use then try https://manjaro.org/ or https://getsol.us/home/

scetoaux

51 posts

Master Geek

# 2135706 28-Nov-2018 09:19

2 people support this post

Booting from a portable hard drive could possibly explain the sluggishness you encountered. I haven't tried Debian 9.5 myself, but I've not experienced any issues with previous versions that I've used.

I'm inclined to agree with @michaelmurfy about it not being best suited to desktop use due to outdated packages (stability being prioritised). This makes it an excellent choice for server use though.

dfnt

defiant
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# 2135709 28-Nov-2018 09:35

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Debian is fine for servers, I wouldn't use it for desktop though

gehenna

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# 2135742 28-Nov-2018 09:42

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michaelmurfy: I now use Debian for servers as it is stable.

As a server OS Debian is highly regarded, along with RHEL. You don't much hear about people using it for desktop computing though. Generally they'll stick to Ubuntu/CentOS/Mint/etc for desktop.

amiga500

1402 posts

Uber Geek

# 2136195 28-Nov-2018 16:59

scetoaux: Booting from a portable hard drive could possibly explain the sluggishness you encountered. I haven't tried Debian 9.5 myself, but I've not experienced any issues with previous versions that I've used. I'm inclined to agree with @michaelmurfy about it not being best suited to desktop use due to outdated packages (stability being prioritised). This makes it an excellent choice for server use though.

I've had other distros running from the portable hd. & not experienced anything similar. The sluggishness was very like what the guy at the Deidomedo site was experiencing with Debian 9. As I own a Nokia phone perhaps I was sub-consciously thinking I was going to get something akin to the 'pure Android' experience!

KiwiSurfer

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# 2136203 28-Nov-2018 17:10

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I have to say Debian can be a bit of an acquired taste but I've come to love Debian. It's rock stable and with most (if not all) packages coming with sane defaults (especially when the upstream default is utter crap) and regular security updates. There are lots of little things I like e.g. their incredibly flexible split-files approach to Apache and Exim configuration management, the fact they start all services by default, unattended-upgrades that I can rely on as the default update configuration will only push security updates, etc so it's pretty much set and forget. I started out with FreeBSD ~15 years ago but have since migrated to Linux due to the wider software support and more up-to-date hardware support. Debain is the only one with quality on par or better than what you'd find in FreeBSD (and that is a very high bar indeed).

It's not the best for Desktops so I'd refer people to Ubuntu for that as it's based on Debian so inherits many of the benefits but with the defaults more suited to desktop usage as well as packages optimised more for desktop usage. However I do run Debian on my home desktop using LXQt and it runs quite well on older hardware Windows 10 really struggles to run on.

scetoaux

51 posts

Master Geek

# 2136204 28-Nov-2018 17:13

I've had other distros running from the portable hd. & not experienced anything similar. The sluggishness was very like what the guy at the Deidomedo site was experiencing with Debian 9. As I own a Nokia phone perhaps I was sub-consciously thinking I was going to get something akin to the 'pure Android' experience!

Fair enough, I just thought it might contribute to sluggishness but if other distros run without issue then perhaps not!

I've got a Nokia for the exact same reason by the way (former Nexus owner), but Fedora has been my choice for desktop linux for quite some time. There's plenty of other really good choices out there these days though, as others have mentioned.

amiga500

1402 posts

Uber Geek

# 2138690 3-Dec-2018 17:55

I've been giving Kubuntu 16.04.3 another go & it seems to be very stable much like Xubuntu 16.04.3. When I did a software update it came in at over 300 mb. Although I like Xubuntu a lot the standard XFCE desktop is a little bland & Kubuntu looks a lot more modern. One very nice feature is being able to get extra wallpapers very easily much like Windows 10. It is kind of sad that you have to pick and choose between releases of linux to get stability and avoid regressions and so on.

To be quite honest if I had to choose between Windows 10, Xubuntu, or Kubuntu, I'd be more than happy with any of them.

dgashby

67 posts

Master Geek

# 2138730 3-Dec-2018 19:38

I've been using Debian for about 17 years. I got burnt a few times early on using the Testing distribution but the Stable distribution is exactly as the name suggests. Packages might not be the latest and on occasion I've compiled the odd thing from source. I also run Debian stable for my laptop and desktop at work. I didn't like what they did with Gnome 3 so switched to Mate, it's clean and simple, does everything I need it to do and runs quite fast even on older hardware (upgraded with an SSD). Over that period I've also worked with Redhat, Centos, and Ubuntu but still go back to Debian Stable + Mate as my distribution of choice.

Cheers,

Dean

alexx

635 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 2140033 5-Dec-2018 18:56

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I've been running Debian for years and it's been very stable. My current system has been continuously upgraded from Debian 8 when it was in still in testing through to the current Debian 9.6 with MATE desktop.

Previously I ran Debian 6.0 and it was trouble free except for some sound problems, which might have been related to the custom kernel I was using to boot from UEFI.

I'm not sure why you'd want to run a full Debian installation on a portable drive though. If your goal is to run linux from slow/portable media, then you'd be better off using some sort of live distribution optimised for this sort of media.

#include <standard.disclaimer>

amiga500

1402 posts

Uber Geek

# 2140076 5-Dec-2018 19:49

alexx:

I've been running Debian for years and it's been very stable. My current system has been continuously upgraded from Debian 8 when it was in still in testing through to the current Debian 9.6 with MATE desktop.

Previously I ran Debian 6.0 and it was trouble free except for some sound problems, which might have been related to the custom kernel I was using to boot from UEFI.

I'm not sure why you'd want to run a full Debian installation on a portable drive though. If your goal is to run linux from slow/portable media, then you'd be better off using some sort of live distribution optimised for this sort of media.

I've decided to keep a nice fully updated installation of Windows 10 on my SSD & then I can play around with Linux distros using my portable hard drive. A light distro such as Xubuntu runs really well on a 1tb portable drive.