Debian User Forums

Personally I'm old school and I like to keep my old hardware running until it's final post fault. I even had a IBM thinkcenter you had to hit in order to get it to boot (failing cpu R.I.P. ) I did my first Debian test install back in 1998. And ran with Mandrake for a couple years until I came back to debian. I prefer the control and configurability of Debian. And the ease of package management. Though in recent years I have been soured on Linux in general due to the desktop turmoil. I used to like to tinker under the hood but now i prefer stuff to "just work" It took a while to get settled again but Debian Buster with Cinnamon is a nice fit. Having been an old KDE fanatic in the pre-rewrite days (3.5) With different stage machines (one still runnning Win98) I like having a way to keep that old crap still functional. Though as they get older their usage gets less and less. Even my Winxp box is relegated to old games and the such. But Debian has always provided the tools I needed for my main machine work. (Big Box: Win7/Buster 10.3 dual boot)

I'm using Debian because;
Mycroft AI has a number of useful skills that are specifically written for Debian (and only ) Debian and for KDE Plasma - which Debian runs.

And an elderly relative has gone blind (legally) and using the telephone to help them get Teamviewer open on their computer so I can open a specific movie / video / screen reader pdf / audio file for them has grown more and more difficult.

Them saying "Hey Mycroft, open Teamviewer" and me doing the necessaries is the goal.

If that expands to them saying "Hey Mycroft, play Mozart's Horn Concerto". then even better.

sleepy possum wrote:I'm using Debian because;
Mycroft AI has a number of useful skills that are specifically written for Debian (and only ) Debian and for KDE Plasma - which Debian runs.

And an elderly relative has gone blind (legally) and using the telephone to help them get Teamviewer open on their computer so I can open a specific movie / video / screen reader pdf / audio file for them has grown more and more difficult.

Them saying "Hey Mycroft, open Teamviewer" and me doing the necessaries is the goal.

If that expands to them saying "Hey Mycroft, play Mozart's Horn Concerto". then even better.

Why not use fittstool https://github.com/jeanCarloMachado/fittstool to give your relative hotspots with sound hints. Point the mouse and it speaks to say the hotspot name. e.g internet or files then they just need to learn which mouse button to press. e.g left mouse button under internet is browser. Once clicked it says "browser"

I set this up for people with poor sight in dragora the config is here if it's of any use. https://paste.debian.net/hidden/889dd3b8/

here's a clip of how it works with notifiers rather than sound but the principle is the same you just edit the config.
https://invidio.us/watch?v=-oYH9gsNqFc

If you want to know more start a new thread or pm me

oswaldkelso wrote: ... use fittstool https://github.com/jeanCarloMachado/fittstool to give your relative hotspots with sound hints. Point the mouse and it speaks to say the hotspot name. e.g internet or files then they just need to learn which mouse button to press. e.g left mouse button under internet is browser. Once clicked it says "browser"

I set this up for people with poor sight in dragora the config is here if it's of any use. https://paste.debian.net/hidden/889dd3b8/

here's a clip of how it works with notifiers rather than sound but the principle is the same you just edit the config.
https://invidio.us/watch?v=-oYH9gsNqFc

If you want to know more start a new thread or pm me

Thanks for that info and the offer of more - that might be useful - it sounds like a nice simple version of NVDA that is (a) usable on Linux, (b) confined to the desktop.

I'll have a closer look at it after (if) I get Mycroft running (or fail).
I saw the shopping list for an enterprise level development computer to run Mycroft on, that's $20K, without adding Intel's latest $20K tensor processor.
So I'll be running Mycroft on hardware worth $19,700 less than enterprise level - it might not perform as well as I want.

Running fittstool and Mycroft together could be a possibility.

Zoot wrote:T 95% of my usage was gaming or music production which needed Windows. I ended up removing Debian from my main desktop given I got to the point that I wasn't using it anymore.

There are lot of great tools for music production now available on Debian and specialized derivatives such as AVLinux and KXStudio if that's something that still interests you; my Deb box is my main platform for that. Ardour, Reaper, and LMMS all run great and the audio is cleaner under ALSA/JACK than under Windows as well.
Just throwing that out there.

Why do I use Debian?
It was kind of a gradual thing for me; I've been a Linux user for ~16 years and had another distro that I considered my "everyday driver," and it was for several years. I even commented about it in this very thread when I first started with Debian ~9 months ago. But when I started getting involved more with music production back then I gave Debian a go because I knew that Ubuntu Studio and KXStudio were both based on it, but I liked the idea of going to the source and crafting an OS for myself that had a lot of the same enhancements for audio those other specialized distros had to offer but not the other fluff I didn't really need. A bare-bones net install of Debian let me do exactly that; there isn't anything unnecessary on this box that I didn't install myself. I'm still learning and tweaking things, but this particular install of this particular distro really does feel like "mine."
As time wore on and I got my Buster install behaving the way I wanted it to, I started just booting right to it in the morning rather than Windows or that other distro first because I knew once the workday was done I was going to reboot to Debian anyway to work on stuff and practice piano via the MIDI controller in my DAW. Why boot to something else first if I know I'll just wind up on Debian later? It hasn't taken very long for Debian to be the OS representing 90%+ of the uptime on this box, despite having four OS's installed. It just does what I want and need it to do, so why mess around?
So yeah, I have several reasons why Debian has become my first choice:

• Do you need a music production platform, a web server, a generic OS just to web browse and check email, or a router? Do you need something for an alternate platform such as Raspberry Pi? Debian can be that.
• Do you want to start with only the essentials and build up an OS that is suited to your needs and feels like it belongs to you? Debian can be that.
• Peripheral support is great. I was able to configure my audio interface and MIDI controller with no trouble at all.
• I've used Yum and I've used Pacman. Dpkg and its front ends such as apt and Synaptic trounce them.
• Assuming you don't go crazy adding things from alternate repos and the like, it's rock-solid. The only failures I've encountered have been from poorly-coded VST plugins locking up my DAW, but those are easily avoided once you figure the culprits out.
• The forums for some of the other distros always seemed to say that Debian had a lot of elitist and condescending users, and that if I needed help I'd be greeted with snark and left to fend for myself. That did honestly delay my adoption, but I really haven't found that to be the case. Sure, there are some who get snarky here but it hasn't been any worse that on any other distro forum I've been on, and if I present my question in a way that shows I did make an effort to try to figure out the problem on my own first, it's been welcoming and helpful.

So yeah, that's how Debian became home.

tried a lot of flavors but liked debian best.

I use Debian because it starts with the letter "D" and I use Sid because it starts with the letter "S" - and those are my late fathers initials

But seriously, I use Sid as my daily driver. I know I'll get flack for saying this and perhaps the content is wrong, but I like the rolling release-like feel and the newer packages. I also like the solidness that I have experienced using Testing and Sid over the years (on and off) but for the last year, Sid has never given me an issue, ever.

I second that. I also use Debian Sid as my daily desktop without any problems. I switched from Testing to Sid three years ago and haven't regretted it.

Stability, and I like the package system.

I used to run Ubuntu, but got tired of things breaking regularly.

For me, the decision was essentially always dependent on the intended use, such as Multimedia applications or the hardware installed for them and its architecture. Debian is also an international distribution and one of the oldest at the same time. Freedom, security and an immense selection of applications are additional attributes.

It feels more "bare" than Ubuntu (my other distribution of preference), without loosing too much simplicity.

Out of the box it is the most stable and minimal distro whereas nowadays apps of flatpak/snap/appimage format can upgrade it to a modern workstation that is totally controlled by the user without dependencies conflicts. Bloatless by nature and fun to use and explore the linux capabilities without giving away the ease of use or going towards a hardcore configuration path (like ground up Arch installation and configuration).

To be fair for a total beginner it can be tough at times because of the needed terminal interaction for some things, but the Gnome Software store can take away this "burden" at least for software installation. On the other hand for the moderate user who wants to explore a bit and get familiar with the Linux philosophy but not try hard I think it's the golden ratio.

For my daily development workstation I've settled to Debian with i3 window manager The golden ration of stability - minimalism - compatibility

zarathustra-f90 wrote:Out of the box it is the most stable and minimal distro whereas nowadays apps of flatpak/snap/appimage format can upgrade it to a modern workstation that is totally controlled by the user without dependencies conflicts.

flatpak/snap/appimage are not much different from Ubuntu PPA's - they are breaking the stability and security of the system just like PPA's - by installing outdated/incompatible/insecure versions of various system libraries (DSOs)
You are fooling yourself - better stick with Ubuntu if You are not willing to learn how to maintain a stable system.

The question I have is, "Why do I still use Debian?" I've been struggling over this ever since Buster was released. Debian is bloated. Some of this is Systemd but my daily tools are too. For example, years ago I installed Icedove to handle my email, just email. Icedove became Thunderbird and grew. Now it has a calendar and a task manager and a chat function none of which I use or need in an email client. Most alternatives are also bloated. What to do? I've tried a lot of OSs during the past year and find myself stripping stuff I don't want out of them. Bloat is not just a Debian problem. There are some stripped down OSs but they tend to have a steep learning curve and very few packages, if any, in their repositories. I admit to be terrible at installing from source and I loathe dependency hell as we used to call RPMs. Debian's big advantage is a massive repository and easy tools to use them. For now, I'm still here.