Why did Valve switch from Debian stable to Arch Linux for the Steam Deck instead of Debian testing or unstable?

[jebez]

https://www.pcgamer.com/this-is-why-val ... -linux-os/

That's something Valve designer, Lawrence Yang, told us during our hands-on time with the Deck when we asked about the switch from Debian to Arch.

"So, Arch Linux, one of the main reasons, there's a couple, but the main reason is the rolling updates of Arch allows us to have more rapid development for SteamOS 3.0," says Yang. "We were making a bunch of updates and changes to specifically make sure that things work well for Steam deck, and Arch just ended up being a better choice for them."

But Debian testing & unstable are rolling releases...

I prefer Debian than Arch Linux because:
Debian is older,
has more packages (Arch Linux hasn't Alien Arena),
you have to compile an AUR package,
Arch Linux hasn't a (official) graphical package manager, Debian Synaptic (Syn"apt"ic),
Arch Linux hasn't a graphical installer nor a live.

[FreewheelinFrank]

Testing and Unstable are not rolling releases.

It is not a "rolling release", as no release-like quality assurance and integration testing is done on it.

https://wiki.debian.org/DebianUnstable

Applies to Testing too.

[jebez]

Well I read before on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian that at least Debian testing is rolling release, not anymore...

I was on Debian testing a few months, except viewtopic.php?t=157575 & reinstallation for KDE Plasma 6 it's ok...

Feature request: Debian rolling release?

[gamingondebian]

If I had to guess at the answer without reading the quoted article, I would point out the fact that distro's like arch, and gentoo(which I believe chromeOS is based on) have built in facilities for altering packages from source, which enables a higher degree of control over all the components of the system, it's high fantasy for debian users to build the whole distro from source like arch/gentoo users do, to apply similar optimizations, because they have built in facilities to make it easy to do, which debian does not.

Alternatively, corporate operating systems are designed to be set and forget, and food for the trash bin, after so long, forcing users to simply buy new devices completely, instead of maintaining the devices people already paid for.

As a long time linux user, that has tested, and worked with all these systems from the point of view as a consumer of the end product of development Debian has provided the most consistent, and long term stability over all, whereas these other distro's are as fragile as glass. New updates, which interact with all of the custom updates in rolling distro's break very easily, and debian lacks the fatal flaws that they do in other words.

[jebez]

Except the AUR packages to compile, the regular Arch Linux .pkg.tar.zst packages are binary, I think you're wrong.

omg you pretend Valve does planned obsolescence? As a fan of Half-Life, Portal (Linux native games) argh...

[gamingondebian]

You have to understand from their point of view, they have hypothetically a million X users, and if the systems everyone bought keep working for eternity, they wont get to make more money from them. So when they come out with a new system, and their million X users are forced to buy it, they are making tons of money.

[mcdaniels]

Feature request: Debian rolling release?

Have a look at https://siduction.org/

[arzgi]

Well I read before on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian that at least Debian testing is rolling release, not anymore...

Feature request: Debian rolling release?

It has never been, and I dare to say, will not be.

Rolling relaease is disucssed in other active thread.

[jebez]

Have a look at https://siduction.org/

viewtopic.php?p=815265#p815265, I don't know siduction but I prefer vanilla than fork.
Sometimes Discover doesn't wanna update, so manually uninstall (a) package(s) then it works.

It has never been, and I dare to say, will not be.

Why not? Valve would be happy...

Rolling relaease is disucssed in other active thread.

Where?

[Uptorn]

Also consider that Debian testing effectively "freezes" for several months while the next Stable is prepared for launch. That alone, prevents it being considered a "rolling" release, thus putting Valve back in a holding pattern while their changes to things like Mesa wait to trickle down into the repositories.

[mcdaniels]

I don't know siduction but I prefer vanilla than fork.

Siduction is not really a fork. It is debian-sid with minimal adjustments coming from siduction.repo (to make it "more stable".)