Should I be using Debian?

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• mech@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I’m not having any issues with my current setup

  There’s your answer.

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  • goatinspace@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    +1

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• statelesz@slrpnk.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  If your current setup is satisfying your needs don’t change it. Linux Mint is quite similar to Debian when it comes to the base.
  If you want to try and learn new thing maybe look into Bash scripting or Docker. Think of something useful you would like to have and try creating it.

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• Strayce@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Debian is … fine. It’s the Toyota Corolla of distros. It’s reliable, it’ll likely do what you need it to do. It’s not fun or exciting or packed with the latest tech, it just does it’s job with minimum fuss.

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  • darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Toyota Corolla is not “fine”, it’s a marvel of engineering, reaching levels of reliability and quality control previously unfathomable, the world’s best-selling car of all time, still going strong and still constantly improving after six decades.

    But yes, Debian is the Toyota Corolla of Linux.

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    • Strider@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      I was going to say, stuff mostly working reliably is awesome.

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    • Lawnman23@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Image

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    • TBi@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      The new Toyotas aren’t as reliable as before. Slowly getting worse. Which is a shame.

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    • boonhet@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      It’s not so much a marvel of engineering as much as “if you make the tech as boring as possible, there’s less to go wrong”.

      The Germans will sell you a luxury performance SUV with the same highway fuel consumption as the Corolla. Of course the Corolla will be more simple and reliable.

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  • cenzorrll@piefed.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Which is what makes it an excellent server distro. And also why I don’t tend to use it on anything with a screen.

    The most messing around I’ve done with my server after setting it up is update to trixie. I think I might have had to reset it two or three times in the past 6 months for the reason of “I didn’t feel like actually troubleshooting”

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• Brewchin@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  My recommendation is Debian for a server (real or virtual), or Proxmox. The former is perfectly reasonable and excellent experience; the latter is more flexible and more complex.

  Debian is the parent distro of numerous Linux flavours (including *buntu, which aren’t suitable as a server OS, IMHO), so administration and services are all common (apt, etc). No need to learn dnf, pacman/yay, etc.

  It’s still my preferred server OS, despite other options and being experienced.

  Though I do also have a NUC running Proxmox (for VMs and LXCs), and both a NAS and RasPi running Docker. 🤷‍♂️ My Debian server is a VM inside one of them.

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  • lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Proxmox, ironically, is also based on Debian.

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    • beirdobaggins@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      It’s Debian all the way down

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    • eleitl@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      You can install Proxmox on top of Debian. I always do that.

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• lightnsfw@reddthat.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I have a headless Debian server I’ve used for hosting media for like 10 years now with 0 issues that weren’t hardware failures. It’s solid as a rock. That said if you already have stuff up and running and you’re not having any problems there’s no reason to touch it.

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• Alvaro@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  My personal journey:

  • arch is annoying to maintain and whil it is mostly stable, you do get some breaking updates here and there. It’s not a bad choice, it just doesn’t makeuch sense for a headless server.
  • Ubuntu server, just why? Works fine but why?
  • a not headless fedora, worked fine but still annoyed me sometimes
  • proxmox (debian based) works great, annoyed me to manage vm resources.
  • headless debian. Just works, I rarely if ever encounter OS issues. The only downside is that not everything can be found in the debian repos, but there is almost always an option to add a repo for whatever you want.

  My setup is mostly dockers so keep that in mind.

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  • TBi@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Debian is good choice. Another option could be open media vault. Which is Debian with a built in web interface.

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• fizzle@quokk.au ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Should I be using Debian?

  That’s unanswerable but …

  I’ve used Debian exclusively for many years. There are several aspects that have served me well:

  • debian is one of the older, more popular distros - huge community and catalogue of solved problems.
  • it just makes sense to run the same OS on my desktop and on servers, no oddities between them.
  • it’s stable and boring.

  On that last point, before switching to debian I (like everyone) enjoyed different DE’s and distros because they look great and the constant change gives a feeling of progress. However, at some point I realised that I didn’t want my OS to be a distraction from what I’m actually doing. Like I want to get my work done, and something not working quite right with the OS due to some bug or update is a huge distraction. Debian’s release cycle mitigates that problem.

  In the before times it used to be annoying that the software in Debian’s repos lagged a long way behind the current releases, but that’s not really a problem with the advent of flatpak, nix, and (my preference) AppImages.

  Recently I was tempted to switch to NixOS, but I didn’t.

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• EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Mint is based in U unit which is based on Debian. If you were spinning up a new server from scratch, I would definitely recommend Debian over Mint, but realistically if you’re not currently having any issues there’s no reason to rearchitect your whole server just for that.

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• LodeMike@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Debian is stable. It works well, but the software in its apt/deb repo are relatively outdated compared to what might be in Fedora.

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  • mjr@infosec.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    In the stable repo, but there are backports, testing and unstable repos too, if you want later versions and accept more risk of bugs.

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    • gblues@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Yeap, the price of security and stability is not having the latest bling. I’m fine with that.

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• dudesss@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Debian is fine, but if you have technical troubles you don’t want to deal with, then go straight to Ubuntu. Either Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE), Ubuntu, or some other Ubuntu variation.

  As a new Linux user, I would recommend Ubuntu over Debian. It is easier to setup, has a lot more online documentation, provides various apps to make life a bit simplier like integrations and AppStore (even though you should try to away from Linux app store because of broken apps)

  Arch is really the king diamond in desktop Linux in my opinion, due to their rolling releases (I love new stuff even if it may break things), but especially because for the Arch Wiki (which is good for other OS users to read too) and the Arch AUR.

  Also as a new or intermediate Linux user, I strongly recommend LTS (Long Term Support) versions. For example, Ubuntus latest version is not LTS, and has been out for multiple apps, but there is still a huge amount of apps not ready to easily install – and you either have to send a lot of time to figure it out yourself, or lose the chance to use some apps.

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  • ElderWendigo@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    All the kids here seem to get really annoyed whenever anyone suggests Ubuntu for “new to Linux” people. My story in particular seems to draw out the trolls, the know-it-alls, and the ricers. I had the same questions as OP 26 years ago, I made the choice you’re recommending (and getting down voted for), I’d do it again, and I have no regrets. Here’s my story anyway in case it resonates with someone.

    I picked Ubuntu for my “mostly a server, but sometimes a workstation, sometimes a multimedia PC” before Mint or Arch were even a thing. I knew about and tried Debian, but support for games and hardware at the time wasn’t there for me. Back when we used BitTorrent to literally mostly download Linux ISOs, I was a relatively new Linux user. I’d tried Debian, Slackware, Corel, SUSE, Redhat, etc. Played around distro hopping. But when it came time to build my next machine I landed on Ubuntu LTS mostly because a few important pieces of software I needed to run (paid real money for and needed for university) ONLY came packaged as Deb. Ubuntu turned out to be well documented, well supported, easy to learn, and stable enough that after a decade it was the hardware that failed me, not the operating system. Then, there was the Unity debacle. Then, there were snaps. But, by that time those issues were meaningless to me because I knew I could easily avoid snaps and unity altogether if they bothered me. I never even touched the app store. I guess I stopped caring about the desktop because by that point I was mostly only accessing the CLI remotely or tunneling individual X apps over ssh. When I rebuilt that machine, I considered other options, but ultimately all the choices had mostly insignificant differences except for my familiarity with them. So, I picked Ubuntu LTS again, and it’s been trucking along without getting in my way for nearly another decade.

    Arch and those other new distros are interesting. I can see the benefits of that kind of system. But it’s not for everyone. It’s not for me. 99% of users are not going to benefit from bleeding edge software updates. Moreover, there seems to be this widespread misinterpretation that stable and long term release cycles don’t get security updates. These days with snaps, flatpacks, docker, and VMs, running a flashy new bit of bleeding edge software on a long term or stable release cycle distro is easier than it ever has been. It may be slightly difficult for a new user, but it’s still easier than reinstalling and setting up a new distro with a host of undocumented bugs. I can’t even begin to imagine how awful it would be to try to learn about Linux and troubleshoot an issue as a noob in this post-search AI slop wasteland that is the dead Internet.

    Anyway, I guess the point I’m getting at is that I chose Ubuntu because it was easy, I chose it again because it continued to be easy, and now that I’ve been using it for a couple decades I’d choose it again because I care more about using my machine than tinkering with my machine. And ultimately, the choice of distro matters a whole lot less when you’re not new to Linux.

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• talkingpumpkin@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Don’t tear down your server just to have fun - setup a vm (or get one of those minipcs), call i “playground” and have fun there.

  Redo your server after you’ve tried different things, and only if you feel like you found something that is worth it.

  Experimenting with different distros can teach you a lot (especially if you try very different ones - mint and debian aren’t that much different) and I do recommend you do it, just don’t do it in production :)

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• lmr0x61@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  You probably know this, but Mint is kind of just Debian with extra stuff (some might call it bloat, but that’s a matter of use case). So a switch to Debian from Mint should be very straightforward, if not seamless. The package manager is the same, and that’s usually the biggest part of switching distros. Debian is also ideal for hosting specifically; many, many production servers run on Debian. It’s also arguably the best-supported distro out there, so whatever question you have had probably already been answered.

  TL;DR you should totally try Debian out (especially a headless version). It mostly like won’t be an issue.

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  • timmytbt@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    You could also try Mint DE (Debian Edition) and get closer to the source (and ditch any of that Ubuntu crap).

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• higgsboson@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  LMDE is life

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  • lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    One of us… One of us…

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  • frongt@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Desktop environments? On a server??

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    • Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      In an enterprise environment? Hell no. But a home server? Not like most of us are counting gigabytes of storage, and its not the worst thing to have in case your other hardware breaks

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• French75@slrpnk.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I’m not having any issues with my current setup

  I’m lazy. I just want things to work. So in your shoes, I wouldn’t go trying to create work if things work fine.

  I run Debian on my home server and my VPS, but I chose it for familiarity and stability. I wouldn’t say Debian is inherently barebones; you can add/build whatever you want. It is a longstanding, capable distro that is the base of many other distros. It’s a solid choice that favors stability. And if things are working with Mint, why break them?

  By contrast, I run CachyOS on my laptop because it’s a newer laptop and the rolling release model of CachyOS (and Arch, which it’s built on) gets the updates and hardware support I need to make my laptop work. It’s simpler, better, and less work, and significantly more functional than it’s be with Debian, because the rolling release distro moves fast. My home server is 10 year old hardware, so the more stable Debian is fine.

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• sobchak@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  For servers, I usually choose the distro with a version with the EOL scheduled furthest into the future. Usually that means Ubuntu (Server) LTS.

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• jimmy90@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Start playing with nixos in a VM

  You’ll get the idea I’m sure

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  • TBi@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I really love the idea of Nix. But not a fan of the scripting language.

    I do need to test it more.

    I do find it hard to update though. I’m not sure if they have released a GUI based interface to make it easier.

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  • Urist@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    NixOS for self hosted is awesome! A few lines of code and you have set up a service on bare metal, without needing to think about dependencies. Just look at this beauty, OP:

      services.immich = {
        enable = true;
        host = "0.0.0.0";
        port = 2283;
        openFirewall = true;
      };
    

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    • ppb1701@ppb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      @Urist @jimmy90 also awesome as you can put it in git and restore or replicate it fast.

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• empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Debian is what you make of it, definitely. But it is also inanely stability focused to the point of being a detriment. It takes many months for simple package updates to hit Debian repos and it leads to frustration when stuff I expect to be updated is still very much not.

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• d0ntpan1c@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Consider Debian without a GUI (i.e. “headless”) if you are setting up a new device in the future. There’s no reason you can’t run mint or mint DE for a server, and the presence of a GUI on the install is not significant for self hosting unless you are pushing the limits of your hardware. The differences between mint and Debian when it comes to how all the kernel bits and service configurations are set up aren’t going to be significant for most casual self hosting situations.

  But for now, just keep doing what you are doing. Make changes when you move hardware, that way you can test some stuff out on the new hardware while keeping your current setup running.

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• yardratianSoma@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  I honestly only use debian headless, and manage the server via ssh and manage docker containers via portainer’s web ui.

  I’m not new to linux though, so 100% stay with a desktop environment like the one that comes with Mint, because that makes things much much simpler. It’s all debian under the hood at the end of the day, and 95% of services provide install guides for debian-based systems anyways. Is this optiplex 3050 your first homelabbing system?

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  • Marshezezz@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Yeah just from everything I’ve read from everyone, I definitely will stick with keeping my server on mint and then do the experimenting I want on a totally separate machine.

    I have done some stuff with old laptops solely for media servers but now that I have a bit more computing power, my mind is getting curious. I’ve noticed the differences in performance having the better cpu and more ram so now I’m starting to get more into a rabbit hole with my curiosity. Just all the responses on here have given me a lot of good starting points to try out. Docker and and VM stuff sound really interesting, I absolutely love Linux and glad windows finally got me to switch with all their bs

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• abcdqfr@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  lights fuse* Proxmox! runs*

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• cecilkorik@piefed.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Distro-hopping is very fun and educational, but don’t dump a working system for an experiment unless you’re forced to or you’re just a masochist.

  Play around with it, try and recreate your current setup within it, and once (if) you’re comfortable enough to do that, then consider replacing your main server with it.

  There’s plenty of more wild distros out there too. I love Debian, I use it a lot, but you’ll also learn a ton by trying to wrap your head around Fedora Silverblue, NixOS, Arch or Gentoo. It used to be a rite of passage to build your own LFS (Linux From Scratch) distro, not sure if people even do that anymore, but you’ll probably learn a metric shitton if you try.

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• circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I’m running Mint currently

  I’m wondering if there is a lot of benefit to going more barebones

  Not really. On the scale at which homelabs operate, I doubt you’ll see any difference at all – except what might be the significant time sink to set everything up again.

  I’m not having any issues with my current setup

  I’d put this firmly in the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” category. Mint is already a distro which is ultimately a Debian derivative. It operates more like Debian as opposed to, say, Fedora or Arch. While it can be enticing to explore the many options of Linux, the benefit isn’t clear here.

  Now, distro hopping on a nonproduction system? Something where you don’t care what’s on it and you just want to experiment? That’s one of the best parts of being a Linux user. But at least do that first before even approaching breaking something that isn’t broken.

  It sounds more like you want to have fun distro hopping, and believe me: I can tell you from experience that distro hopping isn’t fun if you have to rely on that machine.

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  • cenzorrll@piefed.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    It sounds more like you want to have fun distro hopping, and believe me: I can tell you from experience that distro hopping isn’t fun if you have to rely on that machine.

    This is 95% of my use case for VMs. Want to check out opensuse? Set up a VM and try to do something in it.

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    • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Definitely makes a lot of sense to use a VM for it. Though there is something fun about having a spare laptop and just playing on bare metal.

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• Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

  Fewer Letters	More Letters
  LXC	Linux Containers
  NAS	Network-Attached Storage
  NUC	Next Unit of Computing brand of Intel small computers
  VPS	Virtual Private Server (opposed to shared hosting)

  ---

  [Thread #61 for this comm, first seen 4th Feb 2026, 21:50] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

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  • Lawnman23@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Good bot.

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• neidu3@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  If it works on mint, it’ll most likely work on debian. And depending on your setup, debian might be a better choice for you, as Mint is desktop oriented.

  But don’t fix something that already works. If there’s no issues with your Mint setup, I’d say keep it. Next time you set up a server, you can go for debian instead.

  Source: I use both extensively. Mint on desktop, debian on headless stuff.

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• BigTrout75@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Like everyone else said, didn’t fix it, if not broken. Admins like distros like Debian and Arch(sorry) because you have more initial control of what’s on them. Why have a GUI, if you didn’t need it? Mix that with a little OCD and next thing you’re doing is recompiling the kernel. Fun stuff 😀

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• dan@upvote.au ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  If your current setup works well for you, there’s no reason to change it.

  You could try Debian in a VM (virtual machine) if you want to. If you’re running a desktop environment, GNOME Boxes makes it pretty easy to create VMs. It works even if you don’t use GNOME.

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• spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I have both running right now. Mint on my laptop and media server. Debian only because it was previously required for Home Assistant support, (support which they’ve now dropped.)

  Both distros are extraordinarily reliable, but I much prefer Mint. Debian is more focused on security and some of the design choices focus on that over usability. My LAN is completely locked down and only accessible via Wireguard so IDK how much better security it provides in my situation. Mint has every package I’ve ever needed prebuilt while I have had to build some packages for Debian.

  Bottom line: For me there is no real reason to switch from Debian to Mint or visa-versa, but if I were installing from scratch I’d choose Mint every time.

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• watson387@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  That’s what I use, but it’s all preference. If your setup is working the way you want it, I wouldn’t fuck with it.

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• _Nico198X_@europe.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  i would say no. Debian, imo, is a bit outdated in concept for this usecase.

  aside from the “if it’s not broke” advice, i’d say if one is building a new home server today, use podman containers and something like opensuse MicroOS.

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  • EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    This kinda thing is like Debians primary use case lol

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    • _Nico198X_@europe.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      yeah, in the past.

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• Hiro8811@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  If you want an easier setup try truenas. It’s more NAS focused but it’s easier

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