Debian

Reader supplied reviews for Debian Average rating 8.8 from 316 review(s) What are your thoughts on Debian? Please include a few pros and a few cons, along with your overall impression of the operating system. Our FAQ page has tips on writing a good mini-review. Version: -- unstabletesting12111098.07.06.05.04.03.13.02.22.12.01.31.21.1 Rating:    -- 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 out of 10 Your review (minimum 250 words): Past reviews - sort by: DateVotes Version: 12 Rating: 10 Date: 2023-09-24 Votes: 8 Since Debian 12 was available for download it has been running smoothly. No problems so far, on Intel platform. Wayland is also getting better and better and works well under KDE Plasma. Debian is brilliant operating system: 1) it is perfectly stable; 2) it is endlessly flexible and customizable; 3) offers a wide range of software; 4) boots in 3 seconds (SSD disk); 5) uses little RAM and CPU, even under KDE; 6) offers many ways to install; 7) easy to add new repositories; 8) if some hardware is not supported out of the box, it is generally very easy to add that same support, install drivers etc. 9) proxy servers and firewalls run very well under Debian; 10) all f-keys work out of the box, audio and brightness control; 11) font rendering is great (hinting=none makes it perfect); 12) very easy to install commercial software, like Bitdefender Endpoint Protection, Master pdf Editor, and many more; 13) security tests give good result Debian is probably the best operating system I have ever used and have tried most of them, Windows, various UNIX systems, and many Linux systems. Keep up the good work Debian. Thanks. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 12 Rating: 10 Date: 2023-09-22 Votes: 11 Initially I was very reticent to use it. It was hard to set up and configure, especially to my liking and needs, so I looked elsewhere. I hopped onto so many distros, from Debian kids and grandkids to OpenSUSE to Manjaro to Arch to Fedora, and then I settled. But it still bothered me. Fedora was good, but was not giving me the satisfaction I wanted. Next I tried Pop! OS and NixOS, and I loved them both. But I wasn't a happy camper yet. Finally I decided to take the time tunnel, draw inspiration from my original mentors, download the ISO, and make it work. I installed it countless times on a VM, every time trying something new: different disk layouts; different FS formats; encryption or no encryption, and what partitions to encrypt; different DEs; no DEs. You name it, I tried it. And kept the lessons. So here I am, running Debian Bookworm with Gnome on an encrypted BTRFS partition with Timeshift on my old faithful desktop. I preferred this configuration because my desktop also serves as a home server, and rebooting it after most updates, especially when they come too frequently, is an annoyance. It's rock solid and everything works. Couldn't be happier. On my laptop, it's a different story. I opted for Debian Testing. Although updates come quite often, a full reboot isn't always required. The only problem is that, whenever it comes out of hibernation, I need to enter three passwords: one to unlock the root partition, one to unlock swap, and one to restore my session. If you think of it, it's a very small price to pay when you take security into consideration. Likewise, I have an encrypted BTRFS partition with Timeshift, but also an encrypted swap partition. It's also rock solid and everything works. Oh, I didn't mention the DE on the laptop… I have Gnome, i3, Sway, Qtile, herbstluftwm, and dwm. As I look back (and sideways), I don't regret getting in earlier. I prefer to think that all the experience I got with the past distros helped prepare and shape me for this final upgrade. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 12 Rating: 10 Date: 2023-09-21 Votes: 10 After some times on rpm distros (OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, mostly), I needed some stable (not abruptly changing) distro. Debian was an obvious choice, and with version 12 it's some smooth desktop experience: it works like a charm; it finds my printer; it's actually customizable; it finds my printer: it can be extremely minimal or it can be as "bloated" as you wish; it finds my printer; it's snappy and light on my medium-low hardware. Oh, and it finds my printer. The only thing I'm missing from Tumbleweed is it's wonderful font rendering. Was this review helpful? Yes No See all 316 reader reviews of Debian...