kill9/rocks/computers/software/distros/debian.md

1.9 KiB

Debian second best distro

Debian is a (very) old GNU/Linux distribution. Which has done a lot (lot) to the Free Software movement. And we owe it almost every GNU/Linux distribution. Such as Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Deepin. And many, many more. It started in 1993 by Ian Murdock (✝). The name Debian is the combination of his name and his girlfriend's name (Deborah + Ian)

There's the Debian Manifesto, which you can read here Where a 100% Free (As in freedom) GNU/Linux distribution is stated.

There's also the DFSG (Debian Free Software guidelines). Which are the guides that a package must follow for it to be considered Free Software by Debian. I am not going to state them here. But you can read it here.

Debian has a lot of good stuff and a bit of bad stuff. But the bad stuff can be easily fixed

  • Since it is a very old GNU/Linux distribution, there's a lot of documentation written. So it is useful for new GNU/Linux users.
  • Xorg just works.
  • Lots of packages.
  • Runs on everything. Almost as NetBSD, and not planning to drop i386 support, so my x60 can sleep in peace tonight.
  • A lot of ISOs to choose from. Netinst for network installation or even a full image.
  • Lot of mirrors around the world. So apt downloads can be very fast.

But there's also bad stuff.

  • systemd by default. You can change it. But it is a very bad idea. If you want Debian without systemd. Use Devuan, which is the distro I use (2020-06-05)
  • apt is slow as fuck while unpackaging.
  • same as dpkg
  • Old packages if you don't use Debian testing/sid. Which is not a big problem since you can edit sources.list or install Debian testing directly.

That's all about Debian. Probably my favorite distro and you should use it if you're net to GNU/Linux.