Rant about LTS vs rolling distros
Posted: 2018-01-31 22:35
Or, my review of Debian Stable GNU/Linux.
Preface (skip this if you came for the review only, but it‘s relevant):
So, I had this thing going for a while. I would read, watch and listen about this or that Linux distro featured on Distrowatch. I would get excited over it and decide to try it. No big problem for me since I have all that I need backed up. Classic case of distrohopping (a terrible, terrible thing). I was on Testing for a short while. Then I went up to Sid. Then a bit of Ubuntu, and after all that back to Windows 10. On Windows 10, you guessed it, I read a lot about Linux.
And then I installed Solus. I heard every single good thing about that distro. It felt more like polished Windows 10 without adds with it‘s Budgie DE. Well, Solus lasted for about a day. Reason? Even though drivers for my Broadcom card are there, they didn‘t work. I mean, the whole point of laptops is in Wi-Fi, so if a card doesn‘t support the OS (or the other way around, as you prefer), then that OS is useless. Solus was supposed to be solid rolling release OS. It wasn‘t for me.
Why all this ranting at the beginning? Because people get burned by hopes of running a rolling release distro all the time. On Arch, my woes could have been worse. Maybe my laptop would not even boot. An application wouldn‘t start, etc. This is not how you design an OS, and I‘ll explain this.
Every successful OS has a solid, stable base that gets changed maybe once in a blue moon. That which will change frequently are user-space programs. Windows had that for a while and decided to throw that golden design in the recycle bin. MacOS has it too, but Apple does the change more often. This is the right design. You don‘t break user-space by introducing core functionality-breaking change to the OS. And that is exactly what rolling release distros do, all the time.
So, Wheeler, what‘s your idea of an ideal OS, you ask? Let me tell you.
Review of Debian Stable:
Debian is the firs distro I came to love. Not just because it saved me from Windows XP EOL disaster. It‘s because it made me learn a lot more about Linux in general. I will first say that Debian is my distro of choice. Why?
1. It is the most tested .deb based OS on the Linux scene. It realeses „when ready“.
2. It is non-changing, so it is expected to work the same all the time.
3. It has great, dedicated security team. The only other distro with such pro-grade support is RHEL.
4. It‘s an independent, global project.
5. It‘s endorsing true software freedom, but at the same time gives choice to people who need non-free software.
6. Did I mention it gives you choice? GNOME is the default, but you can choose whatever DE you like.
Debian is the base of many distros, including Ubuntu. It‘s official release is designed for stability. What this means is that you can expect your PC to behave exactly the same as it did on the release day. It will have „frozen“ versions of programs. That doesn‘t mean Debian isn‘t distributing newer versions of software. Check out backports repository, or you can build your own package from source.
https://wiki.debian.org/BuildingTutorial
https://backports.debian.org/Instructions/
Current Debian Stable is Stretch. Even though Stretch had some problems in it‘s initial release, most of those problems have been ironed out. It is a solid, enterprise grade OS that you will setup and forget about. What more can you want?
Preface (skip this if you came for the review only, but it‘s relevant):
So, I had this thing going for a while. I would read, watch and listen about this or that Linux distro featured on Distrowatch. I would get excited over it and decide to try it. No big problem for me since I have all that I need backed up. Classic case of distrohopping (a terrible, terrible thing). I was on Testing for a short while. Then I went up to Sid. Then a bit of Ubuntu, and after all that back to Windows 10. On Windows 10, you guessed it, I read a lot about Linux.
And then I installed Solus. I heard every single good thing about that distro. It felt more like polished Windows 10 without adds with it‘s Budgie DE. Well, Solus lasted for about a day. Reason? Even though drivers for my Broadcom card are there, they didn‘t work. I mean, the whole point of laptops is in Wi-Fi, so if a card doesn‘t support the OS (or the other way around, as you prefer), then that OS is useless. Solus was supposed to be solid rolling release OS. It wasn‘t for me.
Why all this ranting at the beginning? Because people get burned by hopes of running a rolling release distro all the time. On Arch, my woes could have been worse. Maybe my laptop would not even boot. An application wouldn‘t start, etc. This is not how you design an OS, and I‘ll explain this.
Every successful OS has a solid, stable base that gets changed maybe once in a blue moon. That which will change frequently are user-space programs. Windows had that for a while and decided to throw that golden design in the recycle bin. MacOS has it too, but Apple does the change more often. This is the right design. You don‘t break user-space by introducing core functionality-breaking change to the OS. And that is exactly what rolling release distros do, all the time.
So, Wheeler, what‘s your idea of an ideal OS, you ask? Let me tell you.
Review of Debian Stable:
Debian is the firs distro I came to love. Not just because it saved me from Windows XP EOL disaster. It‘s because it made me learn a lot more about Linux in general. I will first say that Debian is my distro of choice. Why?
1. It is the most tested .deb based OS on the Linux scene. It realeses „when ready“.
2. It is non-changing, so it is expected to work the same all the time.
3. It has great, dedicated security team. The only other distro with such pro-grade support is RHEL.
4. It‘s an independent, global project.
5. It‘s endorsing true software freedom, but at the same time gives choice to people who need non-free software.
6. Did I mention it gives you choice? GNOME is the default, but you can choose whatever DE you like.
Debian is the base of many distros, including Ubuntu. It‘s official release is designed for stability. What this means is that you can expect your PC to behave exactly the same as it did on the release day. It will have „frozen“ versions of programs. That doesn‘t mean Debian isn‘t distributing newer versions of software. Check out backports repository, or you can build your own package from source.
https://wiki.debian.org/BuildingTutorial
https://backports.debian.org/Instructions/
Current Debian Stable is Stretch. Even though Stretch had some problems in it‘s initial release, most of those problems have been ironed out. It is a solid, enterprise grade OS that you will setup and forget about. What more can you want?