Hello! I’m thinking about switching from my beloved fedora to a rolling release distro, because it really intrigues me, but I’m a bit scared of Arch, it’s still too soon for me to go down this rabbit hole XD
what do you think about debian testing? It’s not a “true” rolling release as long as I understand, but it “practically” behaves like one, correct? On the system informations I still see Debian 12, what will happen when Debian 13 stable will be released?
sorry if these are silly questions and thanks to all in advance!
I use it on a couple devices. It’s more stable than arch and certainly easier to use. It can sometimes be a bit finicky with third party repos. However Debian testing isn’t guaranteed to be stable, so things may break on your system. That being said I really haven’t had many problems.
There are a couple weeks/months before a new version is released where testing stops getting feature updates, as the packages are frozen.
thanks for the answer!
There are a couple weeks/months before a new version is released where testing stops getting feature updates, as the packages are frozen.
and do I need to do something, or I can just do nothing at all? will it still think to be Debian 12 or will it automatically switch to 13?
It should automatically switch to the next version, as the “testing” keyword gets passed down between versions. I’m not sure though
thanks!
I use debian testing and for me it’s the best of both world.
- your system is stable
- you have up to date package (not latest but still okay)
I use it since 3 or 4 years and i didn’t get any issued
I’ve been using it for 5 years on laptop and desktop and I’ve had very few issues since then. Imo it offers the best trade-off between up to date packages (and availability of packages and repos), rolling release and stability. I don’t see any reason to switch distros anytime soon.
More details: I’m using xfce and I’ve installed firefox from the unstable branch (via apt pinning) because I wanted it to be more bleeding edge.
thanks for the answer! I have installed it on a VM and noticed that only firefox-esr is present, which is a couple of versions behind. Why isn’t a “normal” firefox package included? and also, does installing firefox from the unstable branch causes any problems to other packages, conflicts, etc, or is it completely safe?
That is standard in all of Debian, just get it as a flatpack.
Yes, that’s why I installed it from unstable. The ESR version is an older version with added security patches. I’m not sure, why exactly they are doing it like that and I don’t think it’s a good idea. I’d say a browser should be as up to date as possible for both, bug fixes AND new features. But it worked flawlessly using the “unstable” firefox package. Another option would be the flatpak, but that’s not that well integrated into the system - last time I tried that, the font rendering in the browser was awkward. I use some other flatpaks though, most notably gimp and inkskape which work really well and are very up to date that way.
i encountered the font rendering bug as well, it seemed to be caused by x11 font packages and simply removing those with
sudo apt remove xfonts-base xfonts-100dpi xfonts-75dpisolved the problem, here is a more detailed explanation
I haven’t used it as a daily driver, but from my experience…? As long as you don’t do anything crazy (like using different packages from different architectures of something of the sort), you should be good.
Just keep in mind that you will not be receiving speedy security updates, and in some cases you will need to wait for quite a while before packages you have will be updated (weeks, maybe longer).
If you want a proper rolling release distro that is not Arch/Gentoo/Void/Nix/GuixSD, you could go for openSUSE, which provides a rolling release distro with a system rollback feature by default. Nice, easy to use GUIs for whatever you need. Although openSUSE also is sometimes a bit slow with the security updates for some packages, it’s nowhere near as slow as Debian testing.
thanks for the answer! I am also considering openSUSE
I have had a great experience with tumbleweed.
Integrating
debsecanwithaptand pulling security updates fromexperimentalandunstableis trivial as demonstrated here.What you’re proposing is creating a Frankendebian, which Debian explicitly warns against doing. The proper way of getting security patches from unstable would be to pull the source debs and compile it yourself against the current Debian testing base.
This lane of thinking however seems to be completely misguided when it comes to the target audience here, that is, a user who is not even experienced with Linux in general enough to know about various rolling release distros. Telling a user this inexperienced to go with either of those is in bad taste at the very least.
The benefit of testing branch is it’s still nit quite so bleeding edge, and updating from testing branch every week means you’ll never have to install new stable releases, you’ll already be running it.
While the testing branch is stable, if you want even more assurance of consistant stabilty, use Devuan testing branch, which is Debian without systemd.
thanks for the answer! In your experience, is Devuan more stable than classical Debian? I’ve never used a non-systemd distro, so I don’t really know what to expect from it
Yes, Devuan is more stable. It’s not modified or forked, it’s still Debian .deb files but with a different init system.
The difference is systemd is one thing to handle everything. The other inits are launched or initiated each time something thing starts on an individual basis.
I have heard that systemd has greatly improved, but a different init starts a new process ID for each separate program so if something locks or freezes, it affects that one inidividual init process. For systemd, which runs system wide to handle everything, if one program locks, systemd has to make adjusts for the whole system to fix the problem.
I also tried Artix, which is native Arch without systemd, and while it was still a rolling system like Arch, I found Artix to run smoother or lighter than Arch.
Some people find command line with systemd easier to do becase it is one centrslized control system, I say no, what you gain in ease of management you lose in optimal performance and precise control over each individual one, as opposed to systemd being a blanket system. I want Firefox running an isolated process from the one that Plasama desktop is running, each sith their own init started only when each one was started and not controlled by a shared resource.
Devuan is more stable
So Devuan has even older versions of packages than Debian? Stability in the distro context means that features, APIs, UIs don’t change. Please don’t mix software bugs with stability.
It may be I’ve entirely misunderstood how systemd works, but I think your description of it is off by a mile too.
but a different init starts a new process ID for each separate program
Of course there are PIDs with systemd too! First of all, systemd itself has a PID (1).
For systemd, which runs system wide to handle everything, if one program locks, systemd has to make adjusts for the whole system to fix the problem.
This is just wrong… Sure, if the service in question is dependent on a lot of other services, or vice versa. If your programs tend to lock, that’s the application’s fault and should be handled at the application level.
I found Artix to run smoother or lighter than Arch.
This is most definetly a difference in what else is running on the system. Systemd doesn’t really use that much resources. Unless you are measuring RAM usage in the megabytes. Which is of course valid on constrained systems, but on a regular desktop one browser tab will need orders of magnitude more resources than any init system.
I want Firefox running an isolated process from the one that Plasama desktop is running
This just shows you have absolutely no clue on Linux processes, I really really doubt anyone is running Firefox under systemd. And neither have you.
There are valid reasons for choosing a different init system, but you have not provided a single one that is really true. It seems like you are only repeating things heard from some one else.
The difference is systemd is one thing to handle everything
This is true, but it refers to systemd handling a lot more than process management. Systemd has the problem that nowadays it does log management, memory management, login management, user management etc. This goes against the UNIX philosophy of one tool for one job, and THAT is why people frown on systemd.
I used testing for ages, it is really stable. Only the phase after a feature freeze for the release of a stable version can be a bit shaky. For some weeks I just change my repos to the stable version.
I have been using Debian Sid (unstable) for a few months now without any problem, after trying the testing branch.
With a few tricks it runs well:
https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-run-debian-sid-relatively-safely
Historically I’ve used debian based distros on my home server. I recently switched to opensuse tumbleweed and Ive been very happy. It’s a rolling release, and I’ve found it more stable and easier to work with than linuxmint
The problem with Debian testing is that packages are not fresh, neither packages are fresh in sid. So, Debian is not a replacement for rolling distros like Arch Linux or openSUSE Thumbleweed
why not? I installed it in a VM and the packages seems all up to date (except for firefox because it uses firefox-esr)
Where can I track package versions without installing? https://packages.debian.org/trixie/ and https://packages.debian.org/unstable/ show outdated packages.
https://repology.org
Debian testing is Debian 13
From personal experience only distros that ever broke on me after update are Manjaro and Debian sid. I’m not claiming it is not my own fault somehow or my specific hardware problem and it did happen long time ago but if I want rolling distro I would go with something that is specifically made for it. I had good experiences with openSUSE and Arch so I would recommend something of those two. Also staying on Debian stable is not that bad nowadays when you can get newest packages with flatpak.
Try Siduction for a Debian Sid based desktop rolling system, at least if you like one of the supported desktop environments.
If you want a rolling release and like fedora maybe looking at rawhide. Otherwise suse tumbleweed is a solid choice.
Since you’re asking about Debian then SID is pretty much the rolling release version. This is what Ubuntu pulls from before doing their stuff. If you want close to bleeding edge this is a great way to get that rolling release feel. I know a few people who swear by it! I ran SID for a little while and it was okay but not for me. Arch was definitely better IMO for that. It’s also pretty easy to install arch (or gentoo) these days.
The problem is that Fedora rawhide have so many updates and experimental ones and not so much reliable in comparison with Debian sid
I would just use Arch. Everyone on Arch is rolling release, so they all experience the same problems at the same time. The Arch community plus the Arch Wiki make it easy to fix when it breaks. If you’re on non-stable Debian, you’re more on your own.
Try Arch Linux. First setup in VM, then on your computer. Been ~8 years on it. Tried to distrohop multiple times - still going back to it.
Plasma is awesome DE which requires bare minimum setup.
plasmapackage pulls basically everything - bluetooth, pipewire, sddm and so on. Then you just have to enable sddm/bluetooth services are you are done.Fixing broken system is also very easy. :) Just try, don’t be shy!
