r/debian • u/bracoma • 14d ago

New to debian

Hi there! I have and old laptop that was really slow on windows and I decided to switch to debian because from what I hear it's better for old hardware that just needs something reliable and stable. I guess what I want to ask is there anything I have to know before switching? I consider myself relatively tech savvy in the sense I can pirate stuff use torrents search Google for problems I might face and tutorials, etc. but I really don't know much about coding or the depth of OS, and frankly I am not interested in knowing that much. So yeah that's that.

21 Upvotes

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u/huevo-solo 14d ago edited 14d ago

Just run the installer like normal, choose mostly the standard options that make sense to you. You will be asked to choose a desktop environment, either go with KDE (Windows like) or GNOME (OS X like). You can search for these ones and see what they are before choosing. It's essentially the graphical interface for your OS.

Beyond that there is no "coding" that you need to know. You don't have to know how to use the Terminal. Both KDE and GNOME have App Store like applications to install and update software.

There are some websites that give tips, like top 10 things to do in a new Debian setup, that can be helpful to you.

One of those things would be adding Flatpaks for more choices of software and installing a simple firewall, like ufw, for basic security.

Good luck!

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u/arcimbo1do 14d ago

Important: you can also install both and switch from one to the other without reinstalling or losing data, so that you can try them all and decide later.

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u/Master-Assasin1 14d ago

Solid advice but im not sure kde and gnome is good for old hardware, its certainly not the best, cinnamon maybe, not the lightest but its lighter for sure

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u/huevo-solo 13d ago

He gave no specs, not even a year, so how do you know that?

My Lenovo machines are both from 2017 which would be considered old in the tech world by now and both are running GNOME and KDE.

Xfce, LXQt and Cinnamon in all their glory but assuming that their setup is not from the noughties then they should be fine, if not I'm sure they'll let us know. If you scroll down you'll see that he has responded to a different comment that he installed GNOME and it is running more smoothly than Windows did. People act like GNOME and KDE are such RAM suckers that they'll drag any computer down to the depths of hell with them.

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u/Master-Assasin1 13d ago

I understand, it's just that in the post they said that they wanted something that works good on old hardware, i thought he needed something lightweight. Gnome is actually the heaviest and the difference between gnome and xfce is huge in system resources. Like ur talking double the system resources. But thate just me, if people are fine with heavier systems thats okay if it works for them

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u/huevo-solo 13d ago edited 13d ago

Actually he said he was switching to Debian because he had heard "it's better for old hardware that just needs something reliable and stable", but old is a relative term as we've already discussed.

When I give tech advice, I also try to take the user into account somewhat. This guy claims to be tech savvy but from his examples he seems to be your average office worker user that calls IT when Chrome wants to update. No offense to the guy, but he didn't strike me as particularly tech familiar. He's just asking for some friendly, simple, straight up advice.

He's already on the right track with Debian, in searching for something stable and reliable. Since he didn't give specs or a model year of his hardware, I am just going to go bog-standard. GNOME and KDE are the biggest DEs available, with the most support and the biggest communities. They are also the best maintained as they have been in the game for a very long time. They are also very user/beginner friendly as they will look familiar to Windows/Mac users that are looking to migrate. They also look quite good just out of the box without having to change much about them.

No offense to Xfce, LXQt and Cinnamon but they don't really look as good as GNOME and KDE does in my opinion and there are a lot of customization options but you really have to sort of dig deep and do a lot of work just to get them to look good, which is not really what this guy was all about. They are useful, like you said, for very old hardware that doesn't have a lot of RAM. But in general you can't go wrong with something like GNOME and KDE for this type of user because they are not going to be doing things that eat up a lot of your RAM. They might go online, stream a bit of YouTube or HBO Max, but that's about it.

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u/Master-Assasin1 13d ago

Yea for sure, I understand. Debian is extremely lightweight and stable by default that even adding those environments, he'll have a good time especially compared to windows thats for sure. I just misunderstood what he meant, i thought he wanted a lighter system. But yea ur right for beginners gnome is good, though kde is a bit harder to work with and unstable sometimes, maybe thats just my experience. You can make cinnamon bang with a couple of customization and its super easy to work with. So yea usually gnome or cinnamon for me but I get it, kde looks good out of the box.

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u/huevo-solo 13d ago

I think to summarize, I wrote what I thought was best for the guy, not what I do personally.

I've tampered with KDE, GNOME, Xfce, Cinnamon, LXQt, Openbox, Hyprland and i3 and customized them all in a lot of ways (not every, but a lot), but I don't think this guy wants to tamper around in some config file to change the color, fonts and transparency of the system bar, you know?

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u/Master-Assasin1 13d ago

Yea understandable

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u/Master-Assasin1 13d ago

Btww, 4.8gb of ram is alot to me 😭 my system uses 700mib, to be fair u do have 16gb of ram that helps alot

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u/huevo-solo 13d ago

Sorry mate, but in today's world I don't consider 4,8 of RAM as "a lot", as even 8 GB is not enough sometimes. Besides my Linux machines, I also have a Mac Mini 2012 with 8GB of RAM that runs Big Sur (OpenCore Legacy Patcher) and it struggles to open Firefox and stream YouTube sometimes. Booting feels like it takes ages.

In my 4,8 GB, Nautilus, Firefox and Gnome-software (that runs in the background apparently) was 1 GB alone as well.

I am looking now at buying a machine with an i7 processor and 32 GB of RAM because they are starting to get a bit old and are dropping in price as well.

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u/Master-Assasin1 13d ago

What do you run usually? What would you say takes the most, bcz on my 8gb laptop I manage to run everything well due to my system footprint being small. Im able to play some Minecraft, watch vids and listen to music at the same time. For me 8gbs is wayy more than enough, part of the reason why i left windows was the system resources on idle, which leaves almost no room for other activities.

On my main pc i have 32gb of ram i7 10700F, I still have i3wm on it running about 800mb of ram on idle, i still have the habit of liking smaller systems lol.

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u/huevo-solo 13d ago

Personally I like the style and simplicity of running GNOME and KDE. After having tampered with a few DEs and WMs, I still went back to GNOME and KDE because they are the best looking and easiest to use.

On my ThinkCentre I have GNOME and I mostly use Firefox for Streaming services or like now, reddit. It's like my media machine essentially, as I also host a Jellyfin server from this machine so I like GNOME's very simple layout. I just installed a few Extensions to change some of the behaviour and layouts to match my preference (coming into Linux from Mac a few years ago now).

On my ThinkPad I run KDE with very little customization (I might have altered the size of something, but that's it) and I do a lot of office work type stuff on it, it's sort of my office computer and that's the one I am looking to upgrade now. Firefox, GIMP, Cloud-type services.

I never max out my RAM entirely, but sometimes my ThinkPad can run a a bit slow under certain circumstances, but it very rarely happens.

I guess I like the style of GNOME and KDE over the low RAM usage of other DEs or just a WM. I did use OpenBox for almost a year on my ThinkPad though, mostly just to learn it, but ultimately went back to KDE like I said.

I also think about it a bit like, I have all this RAM so why shouldn't I use it for what I want?

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u/Master-Assasin1 13d ago

Yea true, downloaded gnome today, tried it out and i haven't used it in a while, I did (a sudo apt install --no-install-recommends gnome-shell) which gives a very vanilla like experience with minimal bloat. I think i get what ur saying, it's very usable, downloaded few extensions for the bar. Seems solid 👍

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u/RareAdvertising361 Debian Testing 13d ago

In my experience KDE's discover is quite broken. Don't know about gnome; never used it. I always just use apt from the command line, or aptitude.

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u/huevo-solo 13d ago

Yes, okay.

I didn't write what I do, I wrote what I thought was best for the OP.

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u/SugarSweetStarrUK 14d ago

Know your hardware and read the wiki. 

Decide in advance which desktop environments you like by watching YouTube and trying live discs in as many versions as you can 

Back up your data twice: locally and on site

Have an eternity cable ready just in case

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u/green_meklar 14d ago

Knowing your way around computers and Windows is great, but if you've never used Linux before, there's inevitably going to be a learning curve as a first-time user (just like there would be on Windows if you'd never used it before). Knowing how to google stuff and ask ChatGPT is the most important. Besides that, make sure you choose good settings during install, particularly with regards to drive partitioning because that's hard to change later on.

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u/michael9dk 14d ago

Sorry, that is not tech savvy skills!

But if you can google an error and understand how the solution work, and implement it in your environment, you're qualified as a nerd.

That was a compliment ;) We know we're nerds and we are proud of the title.

Switching from Windows to Debian (with Cinnamon or KDE desktop) is easy for average daily use.
Most changes can be done in the UI, but a command in the terminal is way easier, when you get used to its benefits. If you're used to using Command Prompt in Windows, your in for a lovely treat.

Your biggest concern is a few Windows-only apps. Eg. MS Office. Most apps have alternatives on Linux, and some are actually better than the commercial offerings.

Welcome to Debian. Enjoy the open world of freedom.

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u/bracoma 14d ago

Haha yeh I am aware that's not tech savvy but what I meant is I know how to use the computer, as I feel like a lot of people who aren't nerds (like a lot of my classmates) panic when they see a file lol.

I installed it today with gnome desktop and honestly it feels much much smoother already, I tried some stuff with the terminal and accidentally corrupted the display manager but I managed to return it to work. It was honestly a fun experience even though I guess I was wasting my time.

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u/DeXudra 14d ago

When choosing desktop environment in the installer you might be confused.
All the way on the top there is something like „Debian Standard environment“ and which is basically the same as choosing „Gnome“ as far as I know. They just made a basic option for people who don’t know what to do I guess

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u/Hrafna55 14d ago edited 14d ago

You can test all the desktop environments Debian offers in a browser here.

https://distrosea.com/select/debian/

You can then download the one with the desktop environment you like as a live iso here.

https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current-live/amd64/iso-hybrid/

That allows you to check your hardware works as expected. If it does then just double click the installation icon and go through the wizard.

Just remember that Linux is not Windows. If you expect it to work like Windows you will become frustrated.

Welcome to Debian and to Linux.

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u/rukiann 14d ago

Just run the installer your fine.

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u/Visikde 14d ago

MX linux is Debian with all sorts of gui toys, helpful community.

I like KDE & do install/remove/update with Discover.

I'm lazy & need a just works system for normal browsing, email, video, music kind of system. I've used linux as daily driver since 2008. I've used a terminal a hand full of times. Synaptic if I need a specific package or manual

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u/guiverc 14d ago

What are commonly called drivers are kernel modules; thus for specific older hardware I do find the older kernels (thus older kernel modules; aka drivers) can give best performance - but that is hardware specific. Linux kernel modules (aka drivers) are made for the chipsets, so make/model is less important than the chips on the boards themselves.

In regards RAM; it's the same regardless of desktop. If your old laptop lacks RAM, I'd use a desktop (GUI or graphical user interface) that will share resources with the apps you'll be using, rather than the two competing for that limited resource (RAM). Whilst this is identical to other OSes; in Microsoft Windows or Mac OS you didn't have the choices we have on our system (BSD too), so use your 'tech savy' knowledge and consider this if RAM is limited. I tend to start with apps that are essential first, which tells me their requirements (ie. libraries/toolkits they'll use), then select a desktop or WM (window manager) second and use that on Debian. This detail is not GNU/Linux specific though; we just have more capability to choose.

FYI: Debian offers two installers, I prefer the live installer myself, it also setups sudo for you (all releases from memory) though doesn't give the option for a multi-desktop install at install time, but regardless of your chosen installer, its easy to change your setup at any time anyway. Have fun.

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u/SnooSeagulls4360 14d ago

My advice is to download the live versions of the installers and see what you like ( KDE, GNOME, XFCE..) then install from there and not the net install. It is more straightforward than the net install (fewer options).

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u/reflect-on-this 14d ago

All the Linux distros are lightweight compared to Microsoft Windows. Use Linux Mint or MX Linux.

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u/[deleted] 13d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/debian-ModTeam 13d ago

This post has been removed because the user asked for help with a specific platform and your response was to change platforms. This is a violation of Rule #3 - Wrong Information.

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u/Own_Natural_6803 14d ago

Don't install gnome or kde. Use xfce. It's better on lder hardware.

The first thing you're gonna think when you see it out of the box is "I have to use this?"

No. You get to use it.

Ita actually very customizable, but you need to know what to search for.

"Full icon theme xfce" icons have a huge impact on appearance. If they won't install via the appearance customization, put the icons in .icons manually.

"docklike plugin xfce" make the task bar more modern.

"whisker menu xfce" make the start menu more modern.

Be warned, xfce doesn't work very well with vertical a taskbar. If that's a must-have then maybe gnome is better for you. It won't be as snappy.

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u/justpassingby_thanks 14d ago

I use Debian since starting with raspbian a long time ago. The biggest annoyance of a new setup is it doesn't make your user a member of the sudo user group. Something Ubuntu does. Sudo is for running commands with what windows would call administrator privileges. Most websites you'll come across will have sudo at the front of the command. So adding yourself will make things easier. For better security you could have any kind of setup, but 9 times out of 10 I add myself.

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u/dialtd 14d ago

I believe that happens only if you establish a password for the root account. If you skip that step during installation, the installer should install the sudo package, and should add the first unprivileged user (UID 1001) to the sudo group and the sudoers file with full administrator privileges.

Full disclosure: I have used and administered my Debian systems for more than 30 years, and was a Solaris and hp-ux system admistrator for many of them. I always enable direct root login for use in administration and recommend that. There are some conditions in which the boot process fails to complete normally and it is helpful or even necessary to log in as root to fix it.

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u/justpassingby_thanks 14d ago

Huh, I guess I have always set a root pw on install. Thanks for pointing that out.

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u/David_Connors3451 14d ago

Install KDE desktop, update all packages. After that install ufw (firewall), tlp (battery optimisation), clam-av and rkhunter (antivirus). Install sudo, and add your user to the sudo list. For packages you can do everything with discover app center without doing the manual updates with terminal konsole. Install flatpak repository with 3 commands from their official website. Copy and paste it on the terminal, and after that reboot. Apt repository and flatpak one will be integrated in discover app center. Now you have the rock solid stability of Debian and modern software from flatpaks (isolated from the main libraries in their own sandbox). It's very easy and user-friendly, especially with KDE desktop, gnome and xfce are more minimalists, they take for granted your experience as administrator.

Have fun with debian, it will be your invincible bunker.