{"slug": "debian", "name": "Debian", "category": "os", "category_name": "Operating systems and desktop", "description": "Community-developed, long-running Linux distribution known for its stable releases and apt packaging.", "recommenders": 56, "commenters": 90, "warners": 3, "score": 54.079, "rising": 9.22, "first": "2025-11-01", "latest": "2026-10-27", "why": "HN commenters like Debian as a stable, low-maintenance system for servers and desktops, often after leaving Ubuntu.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 58, "neutral": 34, "compare": 1, "warn": 4}, "spark": [7, 1, 12, 2, 0, 3, 4, 4, 3, 7, 8, 7], "listed": true, "loved": ["Stability", "Server use"], "caveat": "Outdated software", "short_quote": "Everything works for me on Debian, with the additional bonus that my operating system is no longer spying on me.", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.debian.org/", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["Debian"], "verdict": [{"text": "HN commenters like Debian as a stable, low-maintenance system", "cites": [{"id": 801666449, "item_id": 50104153, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50104153", "by": "nicfio", "date": "2026-10-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love debian: stable", "excerpt": "I don't like Ubuntu. It was born with the intent of making Linux more user friendly, it changed policy wanting to become the Microsoft of the linux world: Snap, Mir. And then why use a derivative if I can stay on the original? I love debian: stable, it creates the right environment to feel at ease without the fear that every update can break something. Old software? flatpak and appimage solve the problem comfortably.", "context": "", "use_case": "stable system", "switched_from": "Ubuntu", "story": "Ubuntu 26.10 (Stonking Stingray) released"}, {"id": 770412448, "item_id": 48150778, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48150778", "by": "chociej", "date": "2026-05-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched to Debian around then, which may or may not fully explain the improvement.", "excerpt": "I empathize with the frustrations with Linux, and I certainly used to have them. But about 5 years ago I just... stopped having any issues at all. I switched to Debian around then, which may or may not fully explain the improvement. Point is, I've barely thought about or actively maintained or troubleshooted my operating system for several years now.", "context": "", "use_case": "daily OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "I love Linux, but I can't quit Windows"}, {"id": 801666210, "item_id": 50104138, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50104138", "by": "c7b", "date": "2026-10-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "nothing standing against using just boring Debian stable these days", "excerpt": "CachyOS is probably the new hip one (Arch-based). The new \"I use x, btw\" would be nixOS. Arguably, the distro matters a lot less if you use containers or flatpaks for most things (which I'd recommend). So there's nothing standing against using just boring Debian stable these days, or Fedora if you want to be more up to date. If you like fancy UI, check out the COSMIC desktop environment, should work on all mentioned.", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux distro", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ubuntu 26.10 (Stonking Stingray) released"}]}, {"text": " for servers and desktops,", "cites": [{"id": 798552674, "item_id": 49909542, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49909542", "by": "Retr0id", "date": "2026-09-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Or I use Debian, for headless/server setups", "excerpt": "It used to be my \"it just works\" distro for systems I didn't want to spend time configuring, but they managed to make me feel like a second-class citizen as a not-enterprise-customer (not really anything specific, just a lot of small cuts). I appreciate that they're running a business, but the Fedora/RHEL split feels much cleaner, and Fedora is my current go-to in instances where I used to reach for Ubuntu. (Or I use", "context": "", "use_case": "headless/server setups", "switched_from": "", "story": "Upgrade your desktop: Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS is now available"}, {"id": 791905953, "item_id": 49494122, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49494122", "by": "BlueRoguesDevel", "date": "2026-08-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I live and die by Debian in my servers", "excerpt": "Apologies for not replying to you right away. I intended to follow up but HN wouldn't let me because my account is too new. No, it wasn't a random snipe. I used Windows extensively from 95-Vista and Win 10 for work. In my person user experience W11 is bafflingly bad, and the MS team are making design choices that honestly make me feel like Windows ME was doing more right in that area. Now the argument that genAI is h", "context": "Runs Debian on servers", "use_case": "servers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Debian votes to allow \"responsible use of generative AI\""}, {"id": 745390480, "item_id": 46586905, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46586905", "by": "masfoobar", "date": "2026-01-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "In the end, I have stayed with Debian for a good 10 years, now. Both for desktop/laptop and server.", "excerpt": "I have been a Linux user since 2005 or 06. It was one of the best decisions I ever made in the world of computers. I started with Ubuntu and went on a distro hunt such as Fedora, Mandriva, Mint, and others. In the end, I have stayed with Debian for a good 10 years, now. Both for desktop/laptop and server. (Maybe one day I will dive deeper with Arch.. but I also like the direction of Guix) While I use Windows at work,", "context": "Linux user since 2005", "use_case": "desktop and server OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too"}, {"id": 762430336, "item_id": 47651896, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47651896", "by": "hnarn", "date": "2026-04-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched to Debian a long time ago for both desktops and servers.", "excerpt": "I switched to Debian a long time ago for both desktops and servers. For me personally I don\u2019t see what value prop Ubuntu even has anymore, apart from maybe having ZFS in the kernel. Support maybe? I\u2019ve never used it personally so I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s any good, but for any serious shop willing to spend money on support I\u2019d probably go with RHEL anyway.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktops and servers", "switched_from": "Ubuntu", "story": "Ubuntu now requires more RAM than Windows 11"}]}, {"text": " often after leaving Ubuntu.", "cites": [{"id": 791301441, "item_id": 49456340, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49456340", "by": "runjake", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've moved to Debian for servers", "excerpt": "I don't. Ubuntu forcing snap and other non-standard junk on server was the last straw. I've moved to Debian for servers and Fedora (usually KDE) and Omarchy for desktops. Fedora seems much higher quality than Ubuntu these days and faster! dnf seems comparatively slow compared to apt, but that's the least of my worries.", "context": "", "use_case": "servers", "switched_from": "Ubuntu", "story": "Ask HN: Why do you use Ubuntu?"}, {"id": 776511248, "item_id": 48531953, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48531953", "by": "pmontra", "date": "2026-06-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I installed Debian 11 and got a faster machine with less background processes.", "excerpt": "Probably because it got popular as the easy Linux distro back in the 2000s and that label is sticking. I remember that I attempted to install Debian on my laptop in 2009. It was ugly. I installed Ubuntu 8.04 and it was a totally different and much nicer experience. Because of that I've been on Ubuntu until they started pushing snaps very aggressively. I live booted Debian 11 and realized that its UI was exactly the s", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop OS on laptop", "switched_from": "Ubuntu", "story": "Linux 7.1"}, {"id": 768488048, "item_id": 48030503, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48030503", "by": "TutleCpt", "date": "2026-05-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Already switched to Debian vanilla.", "excerpt": "Canonical's recent problems show that its leadership is extremely poor. They don't know the first thing about communicating during a major outage. And they know nothing about corporate responsibility. Already switched to Debian vanilla.", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux OS", "switched_from": "Ubuntu", "story": "Ubuntu Is Run by \"N00bs\" (and It Shows)"}]}, {"text": " The most common complaint is old packages and kernels,", "cites": [{"id": 769022672, "item_id": 48063917, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48063917", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-05-08", "stance": "warn", "quote": "you end up with super stable debian stuck on ... ancient software.", "excerpt": "> It's impossible to convince the \"frequent upgrader\" that maybe that's a risk in terms of introducing new issues. Well, you critisize people who run the latest software here. Two counter-arguments: 1) If you don't upgrade frequently, you end up with super stable debian stuck on ... ancient software. This in turn means that many more recent software, won't work, unless you recompile a lot. I had this issue with mesa ", "context": "frequent updater", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Maybe you shouldn't install new software for a bit"}, {"id": 751463024, "item_id": 46966439, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46966439", "by": "PlatoIsADisease", "date": "2026-02-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Debian is intentionally outdated. You will never have a good experience with drivers when you are always using 2 year old kernels and software.", "excerpt": ">I started out with Debian >There are still issues with driver and software compatibility but it is getting better in the recent years thanks to projects like Wine and Proton . OP, stop using outdated linux. Debian is intentionally outdated. You will never have a good experience with drivers when you are always using 2 year old kernels and software. 99.9% of humans think the word 'Stable' means bug free, but that isn", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Switch to Linux and the Beginning of My Self-Hosting Journey"}]}, {"text": " which can cause driver and software compatibility trouble.", "cites": [{"id": 751463024, "item_id": 46966439, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46966439", "by": "PlatoIsADisease", "date": "2026-02-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Debian is intentionally outdated. You will never have a good experience with drivers when you are always using 2 year old kernels and software.", "excerpt": ">I started out with Debian >There are still issues with driver and software compatibility but it is getting better in the recent years thanks to projects like Wine and Proton . OP, stop using outdated linux. Debian is intentionally outdated. You will never have a good experience with drivers when you are always using 2 year old kernels and software. 99.9% of humans think the word 'Stable' means bug free, but that isn", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Switch to Linux and the Beginning of My Self-Hosting Journey"}, {"id": 769022672, "item_id": 48063917, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48063917", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-05-08", "stance": "warn", "quote": "you end up with super stable debian stuck on ... ancient software.", "excerpt": "> It's impossible to convince the \"frequent upgrader\" that maybe that's a risk in terms of introducing new issues. Well, you critisize people who run the latest software here. Two counter-arguments: 1) If you don't upgrade frequently, you end up with super stable debian stuck on ... ancient software. This in turn means that many more recent software, won't work, unless you recompile a lot. I had this issue with mesa ", "context": "frequent updater", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Maybe you shouldn't install new software for a bit"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Stability", "summary": "Commenters say updates rarely break things and the system needs little maintenance.", "quotes": [{"id": 801666449, "item_id": 50104153, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50104153", "by": "nicfio", "date": "2026-10-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love debian: stable", "excerpt": "I don't like Ubuntu. It was born with the intent of making Linux more user friendly, it changed policy wanting to become the Microsoft of the linux world: Snap, Mir. And then why use a derivative if I can stay on the original? I love debian: stable, it creates the right environment to feel at ease without the fear that every update can break something. Old software? flatpak and appimage solve the problem comfortably.", "context": "", "use_case": "stable system", "switched_from": "Ubuntu", "story": "Ubuntu 26.10 (Stonking Stingray) released"}, {"id": 770412448, "item_id": 48150778, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48150778", "by": "chociej", "date": "2026-05-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched to Debian around then, which may or may not fully explain the improvement.", "excerpt": "I empathize with the frustrations with Linux, and I certainly used to have them. But about 5 years ago I just... stopped having any issues at all. I switched to Debian around then, which may or may not fully explain the improvement. Point is, I've barely thought about or actively maintained or troubleshooted my operating system for several years now.", "context": "", "use_case": "daily OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "I love Linux, but I can't quit Windows"}, {"id": 737669088, "item_id": 46104318, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46104318", "by": "js-j", "date": "2025-11-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "In production we use debian (without systemd!), and here's the uptime of one of our servers", "excerpt": "I like freebsd a lot, too. In production we use debian (without systemd!), and here's the uptime of one of our servers: $ uname -a Linux deb2 3.16.0-4-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.16.7-ckt25-2 (2016-04-08) x86_64 GNU/Linux $ uptime 08:50:41 up 2512 days, 17:15, 1 user, load average: 18.70, 20.46, 21.43", "context": "runs production servers", "use_case": "production servers", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to FreeBSD"}]}, {"label": "Server use", "summary": "Many call it their default or preferred choice for servers and production.", "quotes": [{"id": 791905953, "item_id": 49494122, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49494122", "by": "BlueRoguesDevel", "date": "2026-08-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I live and die by Debian in my servers", "excerpt": "Apologies for not replying to you right away. I intended to follow up but HN wouldn't let me because my account is too new. No, it wasn't a random snipe. I used Windows extensively from 95-Vista and Win 10 for work. In my person user experience W11 is bafflingly bad, and the MS team are making design choices that honestly make me feel like Windows ME was doing more right in that area. Now the argument that genAI is h", "context": "Runs Debian on servers", "use_case": "servers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Debian votes to allow \"responsible use of generative AI\""}, {"id": 754078835, "item_id": 47129927, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47129927", "by": "h4kunamata", "date": "2026-02-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Debian still the king to be used as servers", "excerpt": "Ubuntu used to be the distro to go do, used to. - SNAP which is only managed and supported by them - Tried to reinvent the wheel with sudo-rs - They are heavily focused into cloud, servers and business - Following the Rust hype train I used Ubuntu for 13y or so, it is a Windows within Linux world. Bloated, kernel panic, heavy, privacy issues. Debian still the king to be used as servers, Mint Cinnamon is the king for ", "context": "", "use_case": "servers", "switched_from": "", "story": "What it means that Ubuntu is using Rust"}, {"id": 744074466, "item_id": 46504654, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46504654", "by": "rand846633", "date": "2026-01-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I still love Debian for prod", "excerpt": "Recently had to reinstall my Linux (btw, Arch). Normally I\u2019d just dd/mirror the NVMe, but this time I decided to stop putting off the switch to Wayland and just do it \u2014 moved from i3 to sway, etc. I\u2019d been avoiding this for years. Turns out: absolutely no problem. The tooling around Wayland and adjacent programs is way more modern and functional. Great experience. Can recommend switching in 2026. For me, the unintuit", "context": "", "use_case": "production servers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Can I start using Wayland in 2026?"}]}, {"label": "Desktop daily driver", "summary": "Several users run it as a desktop that just works, including some who game on it.", "quotes": [{"id": 781775296, "item_id": 48860956, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48860956", "by": "abenga", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I install Debian and the packages I use, I open Gnome, I open the software I'm using, I do my work.", "excerpt": "I really don't understand what everyone does that gets in their way on Linux desktop. I install Debian and the packages I use, I open Gnome, I open the software I'm using, I do my work.", "context": "Linux desktop user", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Good Tools Are Invisible"}, {"id": 748871824, "item_id": 46804489, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46804489", "by": "accrual", "date": "2026-01-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "now have a very smoothly working desktop that I can still game on", "excerpt": "I also recently switched to Debian + KDE after decades on Windows. I cloned my previous workflows in a few days and now have a very smoothly working desktop that I can still game on. High DPI and refresh are also working OK.", "context": "switched after decades on Windows", "use_case": "daily desktop", "switched_from": "Windows", "story": "Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux"}, {"id": 743806471, "item_id": 46487904, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46487904", "by": "whalesalad", "date": "2026-01-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I\u2019ve been using Wayland on Debian 12 since 2023.", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve been using Wayland on Debian 12 since 2023. On an Apple Studio Display (5K) over thunderbolt (the built-in camera, speakers, etc work fine) I screen share and video call with Slack and Google Meet. I use alacritty/zsh/tmux as my terminal. I use chromium as my browser, vscode and sublime text as code editors. Slack, Spotify, my studio mic, my Scarlett 2i2, 10gbe networking, thunderbolt, Logitech unifying receiver", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Can I start using Wayland in 2026?"}]}, {"label": "Ubuntu alternative", "summary": "Users left Ubuntu over snaps and Canonical decisions and found Debian a cleaner replacement.", "quotes": [{"id": 791301441, "item_id": 49456340, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49456340", "by": "runjake", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've moved to Debian for servers", "excerpt": "I don't. Ubuntu forcing snap and other non-standard junk on server was the last straw. I've moved to Debian for servers and Fedora (usually KDE) and Omarchy for desktops. Fedora seems much higher quality than Ubuntu these days and faster! dnf seems comparatively slow compared to apt, but that's the least of my worries.", "context": "", "use_case": "servers", "switched_from": "Ubuntu", "story": "Ask HN: Why do you use Ubuntu?"}, {"id": 776511248, "item_id": 48531953, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48531953", "by": "pmontra", "date": "2026-06-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I installed Debian 11 and got a faster machine with less background processes.", "excerpt": "Probably because it got popular as the easy Linux distro back in the 2000s and that label is sticking. I remember that I attempted to install Debian on my laptop in 2009. It was ugly. I installed Ubuntu 8.04 and it was a totally different and much nicer experience. Because of that I've been on Ubuntu until they started pushing snaps very aggressively. I live booted Debian 11 and realized that its UI was exactly the s", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop OS on laptop", "switched_from": "Ubuntu", "story": "Linux 7.1"}, {"id": 762403568, "item_id": 47650223, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47650223", "by": "TacticalCoder", "date": "2026-04-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "After a few weeks: got rid of Ubuntu, installed her Debian.", "excerpt": "I had a machine (an AMD 3700X with 32 GB of RAM and a fast NVMe SSD) on which I used to run Debian. Then about 2.5 years ago I bought a new one and gave my wife the 3700X: I figured out she'd be more at ease so I installed Ubuntu on it. I couldn't understand why everything was that slow compared to Debian and didn't want to bother looking into it so... After a few weeks: got rid of Ubuntu, installed her Debian. A sim", "context": "sets up machines for wife's two SMEs", "use_case": "desktop for small business", "switched_from": "Ubuntu", "story": "Ubuntu now requires more RAM than Windows 11"}]}, {"label": "Lightweight performance", "summary": "Users report it feels snappy, even on old hardware, with fewer background processes than Ubuntu.", "quotes": [{"id": 790338385, "item_id": 49396149, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49396149", "by": "canada_dry", "date": "2026-08-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've install debian onto my fairly ancient Lenovo X201 Tablet and it is exceptionally snappy.", "excerpt": "I regularly support Windows users and when I do, I cringe at just how awful the experience is! (My daily driver for the last decade have been various flavours of linux) High end Windows 10/11 machines (like my Alienware I9 w/ 64GB mem + RTX4090) seem a bit sluggish. Low end machines with Windows are absolutely painful to use! I've install debian onto my fairly ancient Lenovo X201 Tablet and it is exceptionally snappy", "context": "daily Linux user", "use_case": "old hardware", "switched_from": "Windows", "story": "There's no reason for software to be slow anymore"}, {"id": 776511248, "item_id": 48531953, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48531953", "by": "pmontra", "date": "2026-06-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I installed Debian 11 and got a faster machine with less background processes.", "excerpt": "Probably because it got popular as the easy Linux distro back in the 2000s and that label is sticking. I remember that I attempted to install Debian on my laptop in 2009. It was ugly. I installed Ubuntu 8.04 and it was a totally different and much nicer experience. Because of that I've been on Ubuntu until they started pushing snaps very aggressively. I live booted Debian 11 and realized that its UI was exactly the s", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop OS on laptop", "switched_from": "Ubuntu", "story": "Linux 7.1"}, {"id": 790525680, "item_id": 49407855, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49407855", "by": "TacticalCoder", "date": "2026-08-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'm running Debian since Debian 1.1 (1.1, not 11).", "excerpt": "> I've install debian onto my fairly ancient Lenovo X201 Tablet and it is exceptionally snappy. I'm running Debian since Debian 1.1 (1.1, not 11). My install has always been very lean: a minimal WM I love. Computers have only ever gotten fast and Linux more optimized. It's extremely snappy indeed and feels like it. The problem is what happens inside browsers: are great many websites are just lame. So many pointless c", "context": "long-time Debian user", "use_case": "daily OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "There's no reason for software to be slow anymore"}]}, {"label": "Package management", "summary": "Commenters praise .deb packaging and its repositories as easy to manage and trustworthy.", "quotes": [{"id": 797018688, "item_id": 49813668, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49813668", "by": "bayindirh", "date": "2026-09-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Debian is still easier to manage than RH based systems, and .deb is a really good package manager", "excerpt": "If I remember correctly, the reason why Scientific Linux was RHEL based instead of Debian because RedHat was a company and can pay them for services. We used to run it on our Grid nodes, and while it was not bad, it was not that smooth, either. It was a little kludgy but worked if you didn't diverge from the happy paths much. Now Debian has Extended Long Time Support via Freexian, I believe CERN has enough confidence", "context": "ran Grid nodes on Scientific Linux", "use_case": "server OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Abandoning Scientific Linux Was a Mistake"}, {"id": 736755954, "item_id": 46047247, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46047247", "by": "hedora", "date": "2025-11-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you want a good package manager for C/C++, check out Debian or its derivatives.", "excerpt": "People that don't understand make are destined to recreate it poorly, and there's no better example than cmake, imho. Here's my arc through C/C++ build systems: - make (copy pasted examples) - RTFM [1] - recursive make for all sorts of non-build purposes - this is as good as hadoop up to about 16 machines - autotools - cmake - read \"recursive make considered harmful\" [2] - make + templates Anyway, once you've underst", "context": "", "use_case": "C/C++ package management", "switched_from": "", "story": "APT Rust requirement raises questions"}, {"id": 795679824, "item_id": 49729989, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49729989", "by": "fsflover", "date": "2026-09-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Debian repositories are good enough to save me from malware, aren't they?", "excerpt": "> operating systems shouldn't have gatekeepers which can deny access to billions of customers for any and no reason at all This is exactly why I use a GNU/Linux phone that runs a desktop operating system with no artificial restrictions. Debian repositories are good enough to save me from malware, aren't they?", "context": "uses a GNU/Linux phone", "use_case": "GNU/Linux phone OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Google Play app review process now regularly takes longer than a week"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Outdated software", "summary": "Stable releases ship old kernels and software, so newer programs may need workarounds or recompiling.", "quotes": [{"id": 769022672, "item_id": 48063917, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48063917", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-05-08", "stance": "warn", "quote": "you end up with super stable debian stuck on ... ancient software.", "excerpt": "> It's impossible to convince the \"frequent upgrader\" that maybe that's a risk in terms of introducing new issues. Well, you critisize people who run the latest software here. Two counter-arguments: 1) If you don't upgrade frequently, you end up with super stable debian stuck on ... ancient software. This in turn means that many more recent software, won't work, unless you recompile a lot. I had this issue with mesa ", "context": "frequent updater", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Maybe you shouldn't install new software for a bit"}, {"id": 751463024, "item_id": 46966439, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46966439", "by": "PlatoIsADisease", "date": "2026-02-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Debian is intentionally outdated. You will never have a good experience with drivers when you are always using 2 year old kernels and software.", "excerpt": ">I started out with Debian >There are still issues with driver and software compatibility but it is getting better in the recent years thanks to projects like Wine and Proton . OP, stop using outdated linux. Debian is intentionally outdated. You will never have a good experience with drivers when you are always using 2 year old kernels and software. 99.9% of humans think the word 'Stable' means bug free, but that isn", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Switch to Linux and the Beginning of My Self-Hosting Journey"}, {"id": 801666449, "item_id": 50104153, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50104153", "by": "nicfio", "date": "2026-10-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love debian: stable", "excerpt": "I don't like Ubuntu. It was born with the intent of making Linux more user friendly, it changed policy wanting to become the Microsoft of the linux world: Snap, Mir. And then why use a derivative if I can stay on the original? I love debian: stable, it creates the right environment to feel at ease without the fear that every update can break something. Old software? flatpak and appimage solve the problem comfortably.", "context": "", "use_case": "stable system", "switched_from": "Ubuntu", "story": "Ubuntu 26.10 (Stonking Stingray) released"}]}, {"label": "Hardware drivers", "summary": "Some users hit driver or power management issues, such as a WiFi driver breaking after an update.", "quotes": [{"id": 800542324, "item_id": 50033895, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50033895", "by": "newsoftheday", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Debian (yes, even Debian but it was with the unsupported drivers and the issue was in a WiFi driver)", "excerpt": "> Too many times even in the past I do an update the distro and then something stops working and then I have to spend a day fixing. On Ubuntu starting in 2006 and Kubuntu the last several years, what you're describing doesn't and hasn't happened to me. When I've tried other distros over the years, the issue you described has happened to me on: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Fedora SuSE Debian (yes, even Debian but it was w", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload"}, {"id": 751463024, "item_id": 46966439, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46966439", "by": "PlatoIsADisease", "date": "2026-02-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Debian is intentionally outdated. You will never have a good experience with drivers when you are always using 2 year old kernels and software.", "excerpt": ">I started out with Debian >There are still issues with driver and software compatibility but it is getting better in the recent years thanks to projects like Wine and Proton . OP, stop using outdated linux. Debian is intentionally outdated. You will never have a good experience with drivers when you are always using 2 year old kernels and software. 99.9% of humans think the word 'Stable' means bug free, but that isn", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Switch to Linux and the Beginning of My Self-Hosting Journey"}, {"id": 748762224, "item_id": 46797639, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46797639", "by": "antonyh", "date": "2026-01-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Cut over to Debian about 4 years ago", "excerpt": "The only tools pinning me to Windows were photo editing apps (Capture One, Adobe), and some music apps (Reason, a whole bunch of other apps) that I barely used. Cut over to Debian about 4 years ago when my laptop started having thermal issues and Covid encouraged me to buy a tower desktop machine. Haven't looked back, it's been so much more productive. The strange and toxic-to-me design choices in the Win11 UI helped", "context": "photo editor and music app user", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "Windows", "story": "Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux"}]}, {"label": "Multimedia defaults", "summary": "One commenter says Debian's default multimedia setup is poor out of the box.", "quotes": [{"id": 789802067, "item_id": 49362629, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49362629", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-08-19", "stance": "warn", "quote": "both debian and the rpm-based distributions, are usually quite retarded by default", "excerpt": "> Getting media to work on Linux is more complex than you may think. Not at all: ffmpeg + mpv Problem solved. > a lot less feasible for Linux distributions designed to be freely downloaded and redistributed. > [...] spent some time enabling third-party repositories to get multimedia codecs, you already know what it's like Well, this was quite easy on debian, but I abandoned being a slave to distributions. I compile f", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "A 25-year-old video patent just expired, ending a legal headache for Linux"}]}, {"label": "Legacy kludges", "summary": "One commenter sees Debian as a bit moldy, with legacy-support kludges left in place.", "quotes": [{"id": 794397664, "item_id": 49649854, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49649854", "by": "ocd", "date": "2026-09-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I would choose Debian as well in their place.", "excerpt": "I often think of Debian as a bit moldy from some changes over the years with legacy support (kludges?) in place, where it seemed more like an outdated Arch Linux at some point once it had switched to systemd. But if I were CERN, I understand the choice of not getting involved with newer forks that aren't novel distributions you can trust to be around for the long haul. I would choose Debian as well in their place.", "context": "", "use_case": "server OS for large organization", "switched_from": "", "story": "CERN Renounces RHEL in Favor of Debian"}]}, {"label": "LLM build concerns", "summary": "One user worries that integrating LLMs into the build process conflicts with Debian's values.", "quotes": [{"id": 804114192, "item_id": 50257137, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50257137", "by": "louwrentius", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "There is no alternative to Debian for me.", "excerpt": "I\u2019m still sad that Debian is now integrating (external?) LLM in the build process which seems antithetical to the core values of Debian (as pointed out). There is no alternative to Debian for me. I\u2019m ready to justy throw out all my computers and become a goat herder at this point. PS I\u2019ll remove memory and storage from said computers to pay for land and goats before I chuck them out of my window.", "context": "", "use_case": "operating system", "switched_from": "", "story": "I will no longer upload to NEW"}]}], "who": [{"by": "walrus01", "context": "Runs a headless VM reached via VNC/SSH", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50214315", "date": "2026-10-23"}, {"by": "chickensong", "context": "Nix daily driver for years, Linux user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50040421", "date": "2026-10-11"}, {"by": "StudyForeverath", "context": "FOSS enthusiast job seeker", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49973871", "date": "2026-10-06"}, {"by": "raegis", "context": "Linux user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49826706", "date": "2026-09-24"}, {"by": "bayindirh", "context": "ran Grid nodes on Scientific Linux", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49813668", "date": "2026-09-23"}, {"by": "encom", "context": "Linux user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49733384", "date": "2026-09-16"}, {"by": "fsflover", "context": "uses a GNU/Linux phone", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49729989", "date": "2026-09-16"}, {"by": "asteroidburger", "context": "Runs a home NAS", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49496078", "date": "2026-08-30"}, {"by": "BlueRoguesDevel", "context": "Runs Debian on servers", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49494122", "date": "2026-08-29"}, {"by": "TacticalCoder", "context": "long-time Debian user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49407855", "date": "2026-08-23"}, {"by": "canada_dry", "context": "daily Linux user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49396149", "date": "2026-08-22"}, {"by": "permalac", "context": "built DIY NAS", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49131951", "date": "2026-08-01"}], "tags": ["for servers", "for desktop daily use", "for beginners", "for older hardware", "for friends and family"], "use_cases": ["desktop os", "servers", "daily os", "server os", "daily driver os", "home nas"], "compared": [{"slug": "ubuntu", "name": "Ubuntu", "co": 30, "switched_from": 9, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "fedora", "name": "Fedora", "co": 16, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "nixos", "name": "NixOS", "co": 9, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 2}, {"slug": "arch-linux", "name": "Arch Linux", "co": 13, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "freebsd", "name": "FreeBSD", "co": 8, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "windows", "name": "Windows", "co": 2, "switched_from": 4, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "openbsd", "name": "OpenBSD", "co": 5, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 2}, {"slug": "linux-mint", "name": "Linux Mint", "co": 7, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46795864", "title": "Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50102423", "title": "Ubuntu 26.10 (Stonking Stingray) released", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49029345", "title": "Ask HN: What Linux distro do you daily drive?", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46574707", "title": "I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49445382", "title": "Ask HN: Why do you use Ubuntu?", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49395628", "title": "There's no reason for software to be slow anymore", "mentions": 2}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 5, "recommend": 7}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1, "compare": 1, "neutral": 3}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 12, "neutral": 5}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 2, "warn": 1}, "2026-03": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 3}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 2}, "2026-07": {"neutral": 4, "recommend": 3}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 4, "warn": 1, "recommend": 7}, "2026-09": {"neutral": 5, "recommend": 8}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 7, "neutral": 4, "warn": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 804114192, "item_id": 50257137, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50257137", "by": "louwrentius", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "There is no alternative to Debian for me.", "excerpt": "I\u2019m still sad that Debian is now integrating (external?) LLM in the build process which seems antithetical to the core values of Debian (as pointed out). There is no alternative to Debian for me. I\u2019m ready to justy throw out all my computers and become a goat herder at this point. PS I\u2019ll remove memory and storage from said computers to pay for land and goats before I chuck them out of my window.", "context": "", "use_case": "operating system", "switched_from": "", "story": "I will no longer upload to NEW"}, {"id": 803429041, "item_id": 50214315, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50214315", "by": "walrus01", "date": "2026-10-23", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "started as a bare bones debian install", "excerpt": "In my case it's a fairly boring proxmox server. The KVM VM started as a bare bones debian install and then I added xorg and xfce4 and the tiger vnc server. I have a GUI on it for when I want to use it that way (in screen dimensions that are a 1:1 mapping of the native resolution of my laptop for full screen VNC session), or of course I also talk to it by regular SSH session, and screen or tmux. The VNC server listens", "context": "Runs a headless VM reached via VNC/SSH", "use_case": "VM guest OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenShell \u2013 A safe, private runtime for fleets of autonomous AI agents"}, {"id": 803206291, "item_id": 50200393, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50200393", "by": "ossusermivami", "date": "2026-10-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "moved to hosted debian with docker-compose and neveer had a breakage", "excerpt": "I used to run freshrss on nixos and moved to hosted debian with docker-compose and neveer had a breakage either while using docker compose. says a lot about freshrss not about because running on nixos is being more \"stable\"", "context": "", "use_case": "server OS", "switched_from": "NixOS", "story": "NixOS is making me less afraid"}, {"id": 801666449, "item_id": 50104153, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50104153", "by": "nicfio", "date": "2026-10-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love debian: stable", "excerpt": "I don't like Ubuntu. It was born with the intent of making Linux more user friendly, it changed policy wanting to become the Microsoft of the linux world: Snap, Mir. And then why use a derivative if I can stay on the original? I love debian: stable, it creates the right environment to feel at ease without the fear that every update can break something. Old software? flatpak and appimage solve the problem comfortably.", "context": "", "use_case": "stable system", "switched_from": "Ubuntu", "story": "Ubuntu 26.10 (Stonking Stingray) released"}, {"id": 801666210, "item_id": 50104138, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50104138", "by": "c7b", "date": "2026-10-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "nothing standing against using just boring Debian stable these days", "excerpt": "CachyOS is probably the new hip one (Arch-based). The new \"I use x, btw\" would be nixOS. Arguably, the distro matters a lot less if you use containers or flatpaks for most things (which I'd recommend). So there's nothing standing against using just boring Debian stable these days, or Fedora if you want to be more up to date. If you like fancy UI, check out the COSMIC desktop environment, should work on all mentioned.", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux distro", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ubuntu 26.10 (Stonking Stingray) released"}, {"id": 801656848, "item_id": 50103553, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50103553", "by": "bayindirh", "date": "2026-10-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I replaced them with Debian step by step.", "excerpt": "I never used Ubuntu outside VMs to test Ubuntu-specific stuff. I used to have a colleague who installed Ubuntu as defacto server OS, but I replaced them with Debian step by step.", "context": "", "use_case": "server OS", "switched_from": "Ubuntu", "story": "Ubuntu 26.10 (Stonking Stingray) released"}, {"id": 800646738, "item_id": 50040421, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50040421", "by": "chickensong", "date": "2026-10-11", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used Debian more than anything over decades", "excerpt": "Nix daily driver for years here. I don't know what they did to screw up their system like that, but it's unusual IME. Normally you can just reboot and load the previous profile. Even in the absolute worst case, as long as you have your config, you could boot the installer and then load your config and your system comes back exactly as it was. It's definitely not beta software. FWIW, I used Debian more than anything o", "context": "Nix daily driver for years, Linux user", "use_case": "previous OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nix wrote half of my debugger"}, {"id": 800599345, "item_id": 50037459, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50037459", "by": "rrego", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Its just running straight debian though.", "excerpt": "Yeah, pretty much exactly the same scenario. I used gallium os on an Acer Chromebook but I think that distro has been long discontinued. I gave that laptop away though. Now I just use a (different) chromebook as a audio sink for pipewire so I can use my tv speakers from my desktop. Its just running straight debian though.", "context": "", "use_case": "Chromebook audio sink", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google ending ChromeOS support two years early"}, {"id": 800542324, "item_id": 50033895, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50033895", "by": "newsoftheday", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Debian (yes, even Debian but it was with the unsupported drivers and the issue was in a WiFi driver)", "excerpt": "> Too many times even in the past I do an update the distro and then something stops working and then I have to spend a day fixing. On Ubuntu starting in 2006 and Kubuntu the last several years, what you're describing doesn't and hasn't happened to me. When I've tried other distros over the years, the issue you described has happened to me on: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Fedora SuSE Debian (yes, even Debian but it was w", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload"}, {"id": 800220368, "item_id": 50013773, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50013773", "by": "throwaway81523", "date": "2026-10-08", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "It's quite possible to run a useful basic Debian server on that.", "excerpt": "By my standards (lowendspirit.com) $5/month is kind of high end for a VPS. I have a small personal web site on a $4 per year VPS. Other than that I have another VPS (I think around $7/m with 500GB of HDD) that I use as a personal storage server and git repo since its internet connection is much faster than my home one, etc. For a while I ran some monitoring tasks on VPSes, though I don't have any active right now. ti", "context": "", "use_case": "tiny VPS server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What do you run on a $5 VPS that's worth keeping online 24/7?"}, {"id": 799581936, "item_id": 49973871, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49973871", "by": "StudyForeverath", "date": "2026-10-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "have used Debian Linux as my daily driver for decades", "excerpt": "Location: Texas Remote: Yes, or whatever Willing to relocate: Yes please, USA or Panama Technologies: Sage 50, Peachtree, Linux, Windows Server, GNU/Linux, Python, Jupyter Notebook, Haskell, Carto, Power BI, Google Data Studio, Ahrefs, Moz, SEOshark. R\u00e9sum\u00e9/CV: Ask via email Email: StudyForever-HN [at] proton [dot] me I have a somewhat unusual work and education history. I spent several years working as a freelance w", "context": "FOSS enthusiast job seeker", "use_case": "daily driver OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (October 2026)"}, {"id": 798819777, "item_id": 49926236, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49926236", "by": "goolz", "date": "2026-10-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Debian for servers still", "excerpt": "I love Debian for servers still but man Bazzite (atomic Fedora) has been a dream these past years for my gaming PC and laptop. Astoundingly it \u201cjust works\u201d in every regard and is rock solid. With the advent of LLMs automating away all the minutiae of caring for a desktop environment I feel like I have died and gone to heaven.", "context": "", "use_case": "servers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Red Hat being phased out of existence?"}, {"id": 798552674, "item_id": 49909542, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49909542", "by": "Retr0id", "date": "2026-09-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Or I use Debian, for headless/server setups", "excerpt": "It used to be my \"it just works\" distro for systems I didn't want to spend time configuring, but they managed to make me feel like a second-class citizen as a not-enterprise-customer (not really anything specific, just a lot of small cuts). I appreciate that they're running a business, but the Fedora/RHEL split feels much cleaner, and Fedora is my current go-to in instances where I used to reach for Ubuntu. (Or I use", "context": "", "use_case": "headless/server setups", "switched_from": "", "story": "Upgrade your desktop: Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS is now available"}, {"id": 797227296, "item_id": 49826706, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49826706", "by": "raegis", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I replaced it with Debian, of course, but the battery life is fine and it is a quiet machine.", "excerpt": "This already exists. I got a Thinkpad T14s 2-in-1 last year from Lenovo, and it shipped with Ubuntu, which made the price around $50 cheaper if I recall. I replaced it with Debian, of course, but the battery life is fine and it is a quiet machine. I also purchased the T14s Snapdragon two years ago, and it gets longer battery life (if you just use a terminal only, the battery life remaining will sometimes say 20 hours", "context": "Linux user", "use_case": "laptop OS", "switched_from": "Ubuntu", "story": "Linux support is coming to Snapdragon X2 series"}, {"id": 797018688, "item_id": 49813668, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49813668", "by": "bayindirh", "date": "2026-09-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Debian is still easier to manage than RH based systems, and .deb is a really good package manager", "excerpt": "If I remember correctly, the reason why Scientific Linux was RHEL based instead of Debian because RedHat was a company and can pay them for services. We used to run it on our Grid nodes, and while it was not bad, it was not that smooth, either. It was a little kludgy but worked if you didn't diverge from the happy paths much. Now Debian has Extended Long Time Support via Freexian, I believe CERN has enough confidence", "context": "ran Grid nodes on Scientific Linux", "use_case": "server OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Abandoning Scientific Linux Was a Mistake"}, {"id": 796793696, "item_id": 49799606, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49799606", "by": "aspbee555", "date": "2026-09-22", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "it has made my Debian desktop unstable with random gnome and application crashes", "excerpt": "I recently started playing a game that installed \"anti-cheat\" software that has done absolutely nothing to stop the amount of cheating in the game but it has made my Debian desktop unstable with random gnome and application crashes caused by their poor software. I never had crashes until that garbage got installed. It works exceptionally hard at preventing me from streaming my games I used to not have an issue with k", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "I said no and Apple said yes"}, {"id": 796358672, "item_id": 49772417, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49772417", "by": "em-bee", "date": "2026-09-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "i switched to debian for servers", "excerpt": "no thanks to red hat. i switched to debian for servers. fedora fortunately still supports btrfs. zfs is shunned. can't really get around that copyright issue. bcachefs just hit a setback, which i am hopeful will eventually be resolved.", "context": "", "use_case": "servers", "switched_from": "Red Hat", "story": "Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip"}, {"id": 795929296, "item_id": 49745581, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49745581", "by": "Xander2026", "date": "2026-09-17", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "using only a Debian laptop", "excerpt": "Dear Ladies and Gentlemen , At https://manifest.saturnwelt.org you will find a pretty exciting story for an IT / net-politics topic. A single citizen with FASD went through several legal proceedings up to the Federal Constitutional Court and the UN in record time \u2013 completely without a lawyer, using only a Debian laptop and around 2,000 local AI models. The computing load was so extreme that the laptop was thermally ", "context": "", "use_case": "legal work with local AI", "switched_from": "", "story": null}, {"id": 795734144, "item_id": 49733384, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49733384", "by": "encom", "date": "2026-09-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Debian+KDE here. It's what I use to get away from OS excitement.", "excerpt": ">OS excitement Debian+KDE here. It's what I use to get away from OS excitement. I miss the 90's when nobody ever updated anything, and if they did it was on purpose and not something that happened behind your back. For example, the other day Google \"updated\" the clock/alarm/timer app on Android with pointless and annoying changes. A clock app does not need an update, ever. \"But...\" No! /usr/share/zoneinfo handles tha", "context": "Linux user", "use_case": "stable desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "macOS 27 Golden Gate \u2013 Review"}, {"id": 795679824, "item_id": 49729989, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49729989", "by": "fsflover", "date": "2026-09-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Debian repositories are good enough to save me from malware, aren't they?", "excerpt": "> operating systems shouldn't have gatekeepers which can deny access to billions of customers for any and no reason at all This is exactly why I use a GNU/Linux phone that runs a desktop operating system with no artificial restrictions. Debian repositories are good enough to save me from malware, aren't they?", "context": "uses a GNU/Linux phone", "use_case": "GNU/Linux phone OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Google Play app review process now regularly takes longer than a week"}, {"id": 795458965, "item_id": 49716185, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49716185", "by": "whalesalad", "date": "2026-09-15", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Linux workstation (Debian 12)", "excerpt": "I am doing the opposite. I have been a Mac user since ~2005. My first Mac was actually a Quadra 610, but I was a wee little lad back then. I started my career on a G5 Power Mac with dual 23\" cinema displays (studio displays? can't remember what they were called back then). Then the intel Macbook/MBP, etc. I think my favorite mac of all time, or the one I look back most fondly on, was my 2012 Macbook Air. In 2022 my M", "context": "", "use_case": "workstation OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Leaving Linux"}, {"id": 795300433, "item_id": 49706277, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49706277", "by": "TacticalCoder", "date": "2026-09-15", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I switched to Linux in the early Slackware days (then Debian 1.1).", "excerpt": "> I grew up with DOS, Win 95, 98, 2000, XP and so on. For me it's worse: I grew up on stuff like the C64 and then the Amiga. Switching to DOS was a serious step backwards. > I have to ask when was Microsoft above breaking things? Never: they've always been mediocre. > As soon as MacOS (OS X) was a viable alternative I gleefully switched and never looked back. I switched to Linux in the early Slackware days (then Debi", "context": "", "use_case": "daily OS", "switched_from": "Slackware", "story": "Microsoft patches Windows and Excel \u2013 breaks audio, remote access, and paste"}, {"id": 794397664, "item_id": 49649854, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49649854", "by": "ocd", "date": "2026-09-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I would choose Debian as well in their place.", "excerpt": "I often think of Debian as a bit moldy from some changes over the years with legacy support (kludges?) in place, where it seemed more like an outdated Arch Linux at some point once it had switched to systemd. But if I were CERN, I understand the choice of not getting involved with newer forks that aren't novel distributions you can trust to be around for the long haul. I would choose Debian as well in their place.", "context": "", "use_case": "server OS for large organization", "switched_from": "", "story": "CERN Renounces RHEL in Favor of Debian"}, {"id": 793664450, "item_id": 49604028, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49604028", "by": "IslandRebel", "date": "2026-09-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "projects like Debian, Mint, etc., are great at bringing users a boring but stable desktop", "excerpt": "The Linux community needs to embrace being something for the enthusiast. If you look at things that have got people interested in Linux. It wasn't just that Windows 11 is awful, because a lot of people just install Windows 11 LTSC and call it a day. Hyprland was/is something that excites people. There was a lot of hype around Omarchy (I don't care about the guys' politics, and please don't bring it up; I find the dis", "context": "", "use_case": "stable desktop", "switched_from": "", "story": "Switzerland's Federal Government Is Replacing Microsoft on 3k Computers"}, {"id": 792382865, "item_id": 49523929, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49523929", "by": "stavros", "date": "2026-09-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used both Bazzite and Debian, and, while the games do \"just work\"", "excerpt": "I used both Bazzite and Debian, and, while the games do \"just work\", the problem with Bazzite was that the peripherals were fiddly. Getting the Xbox controllers to work needed some fiddling every time, streaming games from the desktop was hit and miss, and a few other small things like that. It's still amazing how well gaming on Linux works, but the only reason why I wanted a Steam machine is becasue when a few frien", "context": "", "use_case": "gaming", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ubisoft's FOR HONOR will block SteamOS / Linux players starting September 10"}, {"id": 791937248, "item_id": 49496078, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49496078", "by": "asteroidburger", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I just run bare Debian myself.", "excerpt": "Yeah, I just run bare Debian myself. It's really not hard to setup LVM and Samba. And all of the major frontier models are well-versed in those things, so I used their help to get all of the various bits setup to make access from MacOS fast.", "context": "Runs a home NAS", "use_case": "home NAS", "switched_from": "", "story": "FreeCORE TrueNAS Core \u2013 Continued"}, {"id": 791905953, "item_id": 49494122, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49494122", "by": "BlueRoguesDevel", "date": "2026-08-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I live and die by Debian in my servers", "excerpt": "Apologies for not replying to you right away. I intended to follow up but HN wouldn't let me because my account is too new. No, it wasn't a random snipe. I used Windows extensively from 95-Vista and Win 10 for work. In my person user experience W11 is bafflingly bad, and the MS team are making design choices that honestly make me feel like Windows ME was doing more right in that area. Now the argument that genAI is h", "context": "Runs Debian on servers", "use_case": "servers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Debian votes to allow \"responsible use of generative AI\""}, {"id": 791363425, "item_id": 49460214, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49460214", "by": "ValtteriL", "date": "2026-08-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "At home I started with Debian and after a few missteps have always come back to it.", "excerpt": "I use it at work for ubiquity. Every new member with Linux experience at least feels familiar with it, and therefore can get to speed faster and with confidence. When we build containers to be used or built on by other teams, Ubuntu as the base minimizes the friction and support needed for the same reason. There are Arch/Fedora/etc users too, but Ubuntu is the common denominator. I think it is good enough. At home I ", "context": "", "use_case": "home OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Why do you use Ubuntu?"}, {"id": 791301441, "item_id": 49456340, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49456340", "by": "runjake", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've moved to Debian for servers", "excerpt": "I don't. Ubuntu forcing snap and other non-standard junk on server was the last straw. I've moved to Debian for servers and Fedora (usually KDE) and Omarchy for desktops. Fedora seems much higher quality than Ubuntu these days and faster! dnf seems comparatively slow compared to apt, but that's the least of my worries.", "context": "", "use_case": "servers", "switched_from": "Ubuntu", "story": "Ask HN: Why do you use Ubuntu?"}, {"id": 791173763, "item_id": 49448360, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49448360", "by": "troupo", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Ubuntu. Debian. Fedora especiall via Bazzite. Arch via CachyOS.", "excerpt": "> It\u2019s a really strong UX that\u2019s rapidly improving without a profit motive and people are excited about it. /r/unixporn is all about that. They don't get a $10 million fund though. > Closest thing to the \u201cit just works\u201d experience that Mac was always known for and it runs great on older hardware. Ubuntu. Debian. Fedora especiall via Bazzite. Arch via CachyOS. > Small example, running Zoom on i3 caused a tile cascade ", "context": "", "use_case": "it just works desktop", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy development practices lead to predictable security issues"}, {"id": 790525680, "item_id": 49407855, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49407855", "by": "TacticalCoder", "date": "2026-08-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'm running Debian since Debian 1.1 (1.1, not 11).", "excerpt": "> I've install debian onto my fairly ancient Lenovo X201 Tablet and it is exceptionally snappy. I'm running Debian since Debian 1.1 (1.1, not 11). My install has always been very lean: a minimal WM I love. Computers have only ever gotten fast and Linux more optimized. It's extremely snappy indeed and feels like it. The problem is what happens inside browsers: are great many websites are just lame. So many pointless c", "context": "long-time Debian user", "use_case": "daily OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "There's no reason for software to be slow anymore"}, {"id": 790338385, "item_id": 49396149, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49396149", "by": "canada_dry", "date": "2026-08-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've install debian onto my fairly ancient Lenovo X201 Tablet and it is exceptionally snappy.", "excerpt": "I regularly support Windows users and when I do, I cringe at just how awful the experience is! (My daily driver for the last decade have been various flavours of linux) High end Windows 10/11 machines (like my Alienware I9 w/ 64GB mem + RTX4090) seem a bit sluggish. Low end machines with Windows are absolutely painful to use! I've install debian onto my fairly ancient Lenovo X201 Tablet and it is exceptionally snappy", "context": "daily Linux user", "use_case": "old hardware", "switched_from": "Windows", "story": "There's no reason for software to be slow anymore"}, {"id": 790247874, "item_id": 49390492, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49390492", "by": "Imustaskforhelp", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "for servers, I mostly use debian/ubuntu or alpine", "excerpt": "For what its worth, I am part of the very young men you mention* (currently 18) and I have talked to people my age on discord who use Linux. My opinion is that I think that cachyos is a much more suitable option over omarchy. Personally out of so many of the distros that I have tried including Omarchy, I found Cachyos to be somewhat perfectly balanced (atleast for me). So I highly recommend Cachyos if you haven't alr", "context": "", "use_case": "servers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omacom Foundation Launches with $8M"}, {"id": 789802067, "item_id": 49362629, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49362629", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-08-19", "stance": "warn", "quote": "both debian and the rpm-based distributions, are usually quite retarded by default", "excerpt": "> Getting media to work on Linux is more complex than you may think. Not at all: ffmpeg + mpv Problem solved. > a lot less feasible for Linux distributions designed to be freely downloaded and redistributed. > [...] spent some time enabling third-party repositories to get multimedia codecs, you already know what it's like Well, this was quite easy on debian, but I abandoned being a slave to distributions. I compile f", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "A 25-year-old video patent just expired, ending a legal headache for Linux"}, {"id": 786514898, "item_id": 49157181, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49157181", "by": "nextblock", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "on a Debian Linux with no GUI that I access remotely", "excerpt": "I have a 5080 Super RTX but its still not enough to run these big models. I use Gemma 4 right now on a Debian Linux with no GUI that I access remotely. Its works pretty well, but still not as good as any of the big models like Opus 5... Can't wait to be able to buy a personal home server that can run much bigger models. I heard some companies have started building AI PCs only used to have a personal AI model at home,", "context": "", "use_case": "headless home server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Qwen3.8-Max: A New Bar for Coding and Cowork"}, {"id": 786240149, "item_id": 49140009, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49140009", "by": "ninefathom", "date": "2026-08-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "you'll find Debian, Alpine, and Manjaro Linux installations running almost constantly", "excerpt": "Presently in my home you'll find Debian, Alpine, and Manjaro Linux installations running almost constantly (plus Android if you wish to be pedantic), each for their various niches. You'll also find more esoteric stuff like OpenVMS/VAX 7.3 (on actual VAX hardware), Mac OS 7.5.5 and 9.2.2 and 10.4.11 (each on their native hardware as well), and occasionally 9front or Haiku or QNX or OpenIndiana for various purposes. Th", "context": "", "use_case": "home systems", "switched_from": "", "story": "NetBSD 11.0 Released"}, {"id": 786111216, "item_id": 49131951, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49131951", "by": "permalac", "date": "2026-08-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Then I used a 11 years old optiplex 990 as Debian zfs connected to 8 of the disks", "excerpt": "I bought a plastic tower for disks which let's me have 10 disks with some space between them. I then bought some Artic fans and attached them with tape to the 'tower'. Then I used a 11 years old optiplex 990 as Debian zfs connected to 8 of the disks, and I have 2 spares which I'll be able to use when the others die. Performance is great. I could do it because I was given those disks for free, with plenty of ours on e", "context": "built DIY NAS", "use_case": "home NAS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ten Ways NAS Is Getting Enshitified"}, {"id": 784536674, "item_id": 49033542, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49033542", "by": "zepearl", "date": "2026-07-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "For VMs I basically use always either Debian or Linux Mint with Xfce.", "excerpt": "Gentoorian here as well, cheers. I use it since ~20 years on most of my notebooks/PCs/root servers mainly because of its flexibility and I often end up wanting to use the very latest versions of software (e.g. ZFS, kernels, etc...) without struggling as most things are available from the official central package repository. I admit that updating/upgrading the OS is a pain from the time perspective (because of the lon", "context": "", "use_case": "VMs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Linux distro do you daily drive?"}, {"id": 784531216, "item_id": 49033201, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49033201", "by": "austin-cheney", "date": "2026-07-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I rely on Debian for my daily needs and forced it on my wife.", "excerpt": "I have toyed around with Arch and I really believe you can accomplish almost everything with it when other distros just aren\u2019t as ready or capable. I rely on Debian for my daily needs and forced it on my wife.", "context": "", "use_case": "daily driver OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Linux distro do you daily drive?"}, {"id": 784471765, "item_id": 49029485, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49029485", "by": "didriksg", "date": "2026-07-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Preferably in something more beginner friendly. I've heard good things about Debian.", "excerpt": "I'm actually in the opposite position. I've used Linux for 10 years until I recently had to switch to Mac due to work. I started off in Ubuntu in 2016 and moved to Arch in 2018. I ran it until I started in a new job. One thing that Linux just gets right compared to macos and windows is the package managers. Brew is nice and all, but it's nothing compared to pacman/apt. I also miss it for the window managers. Coming f", "context": "", "use_case": "beginner Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Linux distro do you daily drive?"}, {"id": 776511248, "item_id": 48531953, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48531953", "by": "pmontra", "date": "2026-06-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I installed Debian 11 and got a faster machine with less background processes.", "excerpt": "Probably because it got popular as the easy Linux distro back in the 2000s and that label is sticking. I remember that I attempted to install Debian on my laptop in 2009. It was ugly. I installed Ubuntu 8.04 and it was a totally different and much nicer experience. Because of that I've been on Ubuntu until they started pushing snaps very aggressively. I live booted Debian 11 and realized that its UI was exactly the s", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop OS on laptop", "switched_from": "Ubuntu", "story": "Linux 7.1"}, {"id": 770412448, "item_id": 48150778, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48150778", "by": "chociej", "date": "2026-05-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched to Debian around then, which may or may not fully explain the improvement.", "excerpt": "I empathize with the frustrations with Linux, and I certainly used to have them. But about 5 years ago I just... stopped having any issues at all. I switched to Debian around then, which may or may not fully explain the improvement. Point is, I've barely thought about or actively maintained or troubleshooted my operating system for several years now.", "context": "", "use_case": "daily OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "I love Linux, but I can't quit Windows"}, {"id": 769022672, "item_id": 48063917, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48063917", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-05-08", "stance": "warn", "quote": "you end up with super stable debian stuck on ... ancient software.", "excerpt": "> It's impossible to convince the \"frequent upgrader\" that maybe that's a risk in terms of introducing new issues. Well, you critisize people who run the latest software here. Two counter-arguments: 1) If you don't upgrade frequently, you end up with super stable debian stuck on ... ancient software. This in turn means that many more recent software, won't work, unless you recompile a lot. I had this issue with mesa ", "context": "frequent updater", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Maybe you shouldn't install new software for a bit"}, {"id": 768488048, "item_id": 48030503, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48030503", "by": "TutleCpt", "date": "2026-05-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Already switched to Debian vanilla.", "excerpt": "Canonical's recent problems show that its leadership is extremely poor. They don't know the first thing about communicating during a major outage. And they know nothing about corporate responsibility. Already switched to Debian vanilla.", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux OS", "switched_from": "Ubuntu", "story": "Ubuntu Is Run by \"N00bs\" (and It Shows)"}, {"id": 762430336, "item_id": 47651896, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47651896", "by": "hnarn", "date": "2026-04-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched to Debian a long time ago for both desktops and servers.", "excerpt": "I switched to Debian a long time ago for both desktops and servers. For me personally I don\u2019t see what value prop Ubuntu even has anymore, apart from maybe having ZFS in the kernel. Support maybe? I\u2019ve never used it personally so I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s any good, but for any serious shop willing to spend money on support I\u2019d probably go with RHEL anyway.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktops and servers", "switched_from": "Ubuntu", "story": "Ubuntu now requires more RAM than Windows 11"}, {"id": 751463024, "item_id": 46966439, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46966439", "by": "PlatoIsADisease", "date": "2026-02-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Debian is intentionally outdated. You will never have a good experience with drivers when you are always using 2 year old kernels and software.", "excerpt": ">I started out with Debian >There are still issues with driver and software compatibility but it is getting better in the recent years thanks to projects like Wine and Proton . OP, stop using outdated linux. Debian is intentionally outdated. You will never have a good experience with drivers when you are always using 2 year old kernels and software. 99.9% of humans think the word 'Stable' means bug free, but that isn", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Switch to Linux and the Beginning of My Self-Hosting Journey"}, {"id": 745390480, "item_id": 46586905, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46586905", "by": "masfoobar", "date": "2026-01-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "In the end, I have stayed with Debian for a good 10 years, now. Both for desktop/laptop and server.", "excerpt": "I have been a Linux user since 2005 or 06. It was one of the best decisions I ever made in the world of computers. I started with Ubuntu and went on a distro hunt such as Fedora, Mandriva, Mint, and others. In the end, I have stayed with Debian for a good 10 years, now. Both for desktop/laptop and server. (Maybe one day I will dive deeper with Arch.. but I also like the direction of Guix) While I use Windows at work,", "context": "Linux user since 2005", "use_case": "desktop and server OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too"}]}