Moving to Debian - questions

[liamodo921]

Hello Everyone

So this weekend I am looking at moving my main laptop (Thinkpad X250) to Debian but I have some questions before I begin the transition.

Firstly I have used Linux on and off now for a couple of years and after mostly distro hopping for that entire time I think Debian is where I would essentially like to make my Linux home, and while I know my way around Linux I would still consider my self a noob with Linux, although I can google issues and usually fix them given a little bit of time.
So following on from that is my first question, what Debian should I use as my base, I am looking for stability but I ideally dont want to run on super out-dated pacakges, I was thinking of either using Testing or Stable + backports, which would you suggest?

Secondly I am looking for a desktop environment to link with i3, I have become fond of its keybindings and to be honest my workflow changed rapidly for the better when using it to the point that when I am on other machines I try to use i3 keybindings to move around,
Now I know this enters the opinionated area but I am looking to use a panel from another desktop with I3 to have the best of both works and was wondering at all if there is a desktop environment more stable than the others.

And finally is there any tweaks to do that wont affect stability but do improve Debian? more of a personal experience question to be honest.

Many Thanks

[pawRoot]

Well the question is do you need every software to be in newest version available, which might cost you stability.
Software in stable isn't imo super outdated, but i guess it also depends on what kind of software do you need.
I am using i3 on stable myself and have 0 problems (except some bug with Firefox).

I would recommend doing clean minimal install of Debian Stretch without any DE selected, and then just install things like Xorg and i3.

I even made a script myself which transforms clean install of Debian into fully configured i3 (except networking).
https://github.com/DebianFanboy/debian-i3




Also check this out: https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian

[debiman]

stable + backports.

[bw123]

And finally is there any tweaks to do that wont affect stability but do improve Debian? more of a personal experience question to be honest.

I think using one DE is best for stability, and it makes things easier to maintain. The idea of mixing two or more of the large desktop environments makes me cringe. I know people do it, and that's fine. I just wouldn;t want to deal with it myself. I think each has it's own problems/issues if you want to replace it's window manager with something else.

Using several window managers though shouldn't be a problem, but I haven;t used I3 specifically. Some of the older wm people on here often recommended tint2 as a panel replacement for just about any wm.

[None1975]

more of a personal experience question to be honest.Many Thanks

Personally, i use only one wm-Openbox. On another machine i use Herbstluftwm, on a third-i3.