this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2024
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I'm planning to put Debian-based operating system onto my Surface Laptop Gen 1, following the guide (linux-surface). Any good Debian-based Linux recommendations? For now I'm considering AntiX (lightweight debian) and normal Debian.

P.S. I’ve installed pure Debian, as everyone suggests. Thanks for advice!

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[–] [email protected] 83 points 5 months ago (1 children)

What about something novel, like installing actual Debian?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Will work fine indeed. Only I always have some issues getting the touchscreen working seamlessly. Is there a window manager on Debian who does it well?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

I've used both KDE Plasma and GNOME on my Laptop with a touch screen and both worked well. GNOME is better with touch screens in general but that's just because of the gestures and GTK apps working better with touch screens (e.g. you can always scroll by swiping up or down, not sure if that's the same in QT apps).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

I don't have a touchscreen, so I have no lived experience, but this should get you started at least:

https://wiki.debian.org/TabletAndTouchScreen

[–] [email protected] 40 points 5 months ago (1 children)

If you want Debian, just install Debian.

Maybe if you're into wm setups and you'd like to not have to do everything from scratch you can install Bunsenlabs instead.

It's just plain Debian with preconfigured Openox, that's all.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Never heard of Bunsenlabs. It looks good!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

It is :)

There's a very useful and friendly forum at https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/ and it is very easy to replace openbox with any other wm of your choice, as long as you're fine with X11.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 5 months ago

Just use debian

[–] [email protected] 29 points 5 months ago

Just go with Debian.

[–] KindaABigDyl 26 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

Can confirm. I use Debian on a laptop and it's great.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I just use Debian and it's fine. I don't understand the point of using "Debian-based" instead of just plain Debian. Maybe I'm missing something but we have some Ubuntu machines at work and it's hard to tell much difference.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Idk I thought something niche is better fun

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago

Ur already a Linux user, being niche is kinda of our character

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

That would be Guix, I think. Debian is pretty traditional.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Hmm... I wonder if Guix is ok to use with Surface

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Which features are you looking for beyond what can be done on Debian?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Lightweight and maybe has some “cool features”

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago

Debian is the lightest derivative of Debian

The installer outright gives you the option out of many different desktop environments and use cases and if you don't like to install a desktop you can install base system debian that's literally just a terminal environment and nothing else

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago

Maybe Debian with a wm? I like cwm, but there are many to choose from. You can add pretty much any cool feature on top.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago

Debian Testing. My daily driver since.. a long time :)

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago

Pick one. It's debian-based. You literally can't pick "the wrong one". You just have uninstall what you don't like, and install what you want. That simple.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago

Debian.

If you want to try something different, maybe LMDE.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago

Linux Mint Debian Edition.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Not Debian-based, but Debian. With KDE.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (4 children)

Some say that KDE on Debian is unstable. Is it real?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

There's a difference between stability and reliability. Stable means that functionality is the same over a period of time, no major changes to how it works. Reliable means that it doesn't crash all the time. If something crashes the same way for the same reason, it's stable but not reliable. If something changes a lot but doesn't crash, it's reliable but not stable.
In practice what it comes down to is a choice if you want outdated but known bugs or new surprise bugs.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Been using KDE since Debian 9. I'd say it's stable enough.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

I've had problems with KDE on Wayland on Debian 12, it fails when entering sleep mode with multiple monitors. Thankfully, KDE on X is just one package install away, and it works with no bugs.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Why don't you give PopOS a try, it is quite user friendly Ubuntu/Debian based

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Up! Depending on what you are looking for also VanillaOS could be an interesting option

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Yes, this OS looks interesting and beginner friendly

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago

i tend to go with debian.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

If you want something Debian-but-not-Ubuntu-based, give LMDE a try.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

You could try VanillaOS 2.0 Beta which is a Debian-based immutable distro, planned for final release later this year.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

You can just go for Ubuntu, Mint or AntiX if you want good experience. Debian can be harder but it's quite stable (unless you use KDE). Any other suggestions depend on your use cases. For example, you can only use Ubuntu based distros for some Android development tasks

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Go with Linux Mint, but the Edge edition. This will have the best chances to support your hardware, because it uses a newer kernel.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Look into MxLinux. It is Debian based with lots of noce tools. And as DE you could use KDE.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

MX seems good

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Check out projectbluefin.io, the developer experience has lots of goodies built in.

It's a immutable/atomic fedora silverblue spin based on cloud native principles.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I agree with you but I assume they want Debian for a reason.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

distrobox enter debian-toolbox :)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Maybe Sparky Linux ...

Normally, I use Debian. However, Debian 12 installer didn't work on my Acer Extensa 💻. So I installed Sparky Linux, and it works.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

My Son, SpiralLinux, is the neatest lil package of Debian you could ever want. It comes with all the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi drivers I need and it actually has an installer (Calamari’s I think?) that’s efficient and easy to understand.

Other than that-…. Uuuuhhhhh have you tried Hanna Montana OS?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Hannah Montana Linux – a live Linux distribution based on Kubuntu with a Hannah Montana theme. It has been created to “attract young users to Linux”.

Thanks that’s attractive

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

How lightweight do you really need to go? I have a Lenovo "barely worth calling a chromebook" with 4GB/64GB/2 core N4000. It's fine with Gnome on Bookworm.