Some questions for a newbie to Debian 10

[Armored_Wellfare]

Hi, I'm a Win10 user looking to migrate to Debian 10, and I have some of questions:

1. How do I get codecs for Multimedia playback? (I do not like VLC since it kinda does badly when I try to watch subbed anime from certain subbing groups) What are the exact commands I have to type in the command line/terminal to do so?
2. Which Desktop Environment do I pick? (Hardware is a Thinkpad T450s, Intel HD Graphics, 8 GB of dual channel ram, 250 gb SSD)
3. Do I pick the free or non-free ISOs? (Going to use it as my daily driver in law school and I need wifi to work out of the box)

Thanks for the answers =)

[D2b2426R5d]

Hi. I am also migrating to Debian 10, from other distro based on Debian. Probably I will do it this weekend, can't wait for Buster.
My tips:

1. Can't help here much, VLC works for me on everything I ever watch

2. Download various Live CD images and try them for yourself before installing it on your laptop. Link to images:
https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/cu ... bt-hybrid/
Then you will know which one you like most and go ahead with that one.

3. Try Live CD images first, as mentioned above. If WiFi doesn't work or you have other problems on Live CD, they are easy solvable by googling/searching this particular driver problem. If, however, you have serious problems with display/audio/wifi or something, try this: https://wiki.debian.org/Firmware, it reads:

A suggestion, especially when installing on unfamiliar hardware, is to download the firmware archive for your platform and unpack it into a directory named firmware in the root of a removable storage device (USB/CD drive). When the installer starts, it will automatically find the firmware files in the directory on the removable storage and, if needed, install the firmware for your hardware. You can find firmware downloads for your Debian version at http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unoff ... /firmware/.

So as you see, there is plenty of steps to take and mitigate problems, before you download full non-free image. Again, I recommend to download Live CD Non-Free image first, with your favourite DE flavour first To make sure everything works. (link to them http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unoff ... bt-hybrid/)

[ruwolf]

1. Codecs are in regular packages like libavcodec58.
   In VLC you can set Video Subtitles by your needs and feelings. There are other multimedia players like kodi, xine, smplayer...
2. Choose which you want/like. I prefer Xfce.
3. You will probably need non-free driver for wi-fi.

[theblueplll]

1) I imagine a few searches on your favorite search engine would help

2) no one can tell you what you are going to like the best you are going to have to do the live cd thing like was mentioned above or just read alot about the different ones, look at some screen shots, look into the applications that come with them(they all come with different things but it all will usually work with any of them if you find something you like that didn't come with the DE you picked)

3)no one is going to have a clue since you didn't mention what hardware you think is going to need non free

[Armored_Wellfare]

1. Codecs are in regular packages like libavcodec58.
   In VLC you can set Video Subtitles by your needs and feelings. There are other multimedia players like kodi, xine, smplayer...
2. Choose which you want/like. I prefer Xfce.
3. You will probably need non-free driver for wi-fi.

How do I get this package?

[Armored_Wellfare]

1) I imagine a few searches on your favorite search engine would help

2) no one can tell you what you are going to like the best you are going to have to do the live cd thing like was mentioned above or just read alot about the different ones, look at some screen shots, look into the applications that come with them(they all come with different things but it all will usually work with any of them if you find something you like that didn't come with the DE you picked)

3)no one is going to have a clue since you didn't mention what hardware you think is going to need non free

The answers I got on the search engine weren't really definitive. Some mentioned I had to install linux headers, etc, while some just had one line of code, so it's confusing for someone like me who's migrating from Win10. My hardware is a Thinkpad T450s, I indicated the specs above and its intended use.

[stevepusser]

VLC or most other players automatically pull in libavcodec packages for you. The only exception is for gstreamer-type players like Totem which use a plugin-type setup for codecs, and you probably should search in Synaptic for the "good", "bad", and "ugly" plugin packages.

[Armored_Wellfare]

VLC or most other players automatically pull in libavcodec packages for you. The only exception is for gstreamer-type players like Totem which use a plugin-type setup for codecs, and you probably should search in Synaptic for the "good", "bad", and "ugly" plugin packages.

What about Parole, MPlayer, Kodi, SMplayer, and the like? Will those media players pull in the necessary codecs for me?

[ruwolf]

Kodi and (S)MPlayer depend on codecs packages, so they are installed automatically with them.
Parole is based on the GStreamer framework...