Kernels shouldn’t be a problem if you have the backports repo enabled (you can enable it during install, otherwise add it to your sources.list).

You do first have to specify that you want the kernel from backports (or set up APT pinning preferences), but after that, it’ll keep that specific package updated whenever you run sudo apt upgrade and there’s a newer version.

If you installed the generic Linux image on installation (usually the default, I believe), the quick way to upgrade is basically just:

sudo apt install -t bookworm-backports linux-image-amd64

It should be noted that backports is not Sid or Testing, it’s stuff built specifically for current Stable that people might need newer versions of for various reasons (e.g. hardware, limited feature updates that don’t affect the base system, some development libraries, etc.), so it’s quite small in the amount of unique packages it has. Like, you can get newer LibreOffice packages, but you’re not going to get Plasma 6 or whatever.

Right now, the kernel is on 6.7 in backports, while Stable is on 6.1 and Sid is on 6.8. So you’ll get them a tiny bit later, but that’s in terms of days/weeks, rather than, you know, the usual two-ish years (not counting security updates).

Side note: if you want all this enabled by default, Spiral Linux is just straight up Debian Stable with a bunch of firmware packages preinstalled for easier installation on a variety of hardware and the kernel is updated via backports by default, so you could give that a shot as well.

It’s not like “a distro based on Debian”, it is Debian, but set up with conveniences for modern desktop users and also sets up btrfs + apt snapshotting by default, similar to OpenSUSE Tumbleweed’s process.

Ah, I responded to one of your comments in your other thread, but it’s more relevant here.

Debian has several live ISOs with the Calamares installer that most other distros use, so it’s as easy to install as any of those.

No need to use the more complicated setup. Boot up the live CD/USB and install like anything else.

If anything, the default install is filled with too many applications (at least the KDE one). Got all the office software, media players, a browser, and anything else that might be relevant. Even comes with a bunch of accessibility stuff like a screen reader preinstalled (but not configured).

Also, you can install Timeshift immediately and use it. Don’t know why that’s an issue. Yeah, it’s not preinstalled, but it’s super simple to install and run the first snapshot and have it do its thing in the background. (Actually, this goes for Fedora as well as several other distros which you’ve put in your recommendations, so it’s not unique to Debian or Ubuntu.)

Honestly, even as someone who uses Timeshift and Debian, I’ve needed to use it waaaaaaay less than I ever did on Kubuntu. I don’t know how someone who isn’t tinkering is going to break the system enough to need Timeshift, really.

I’m not even sure if someone unfamiliar with Linux and not interested in the inner workings will even really understand the purpose or how to use Timeshift either. There are Windows users who have no idea about System Restore or how to use it, which is the closest equivalent.

Also, it’s around two years between releases. Same as Ubuntu LTS, which Mint is based on (and Mint also has a Debian edition based on Debian Stable which they may move to at some point, if the burden of “fixing” Ubuntu becomes too much).

Its biggest problem for beginners is the upgrade process. Instead of just notifying you about a new release and offering to upgrade your whole system, it’s usually on you to follow the release cycle and change the relevant lines in your sources.list, which isn’t particularly user friendly.

So, I don’t know if you’re aware, but Debian has live CDs/USBs with the same Calamares installer that so many other distros use. Pick any of the eight different DE ISOs and the installation process is identical to that of… pretty much everything.

It’s all preconfigured (to the point where some might say there’s a bit of bloat) and there’s no need to go messing around with the more complicated stuff (although I’m not certain if it requires enabling the non-free repo separately or offers it on installation; that would be the only major issue).

My only problem with that installation method is that the default partition setup sticks with the traditional “half your RAM size” swap space, which I think is annoying. But if someone doesn’t know or care about what swap is, there’s no real problem with it.

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After my bios splash, it shows „welcome to grub“ and then switches to the debian start menu for 3 seconds or so, then shows some terminal stuff and then starts kde splash and then login.

Yeah, the reason for this is that sometimes Debian doesn’t enable Plymouth splash screens by default, so you just see the text stuff. It actually annoys me a bit.

Not on my computer at the moment, so I can’t remember the exact packages you might need, but if I recall, they should be plymouth-themes and kde-config-plymouth (so that you can choose the splash screen theme in your system settings). You can also find other themes online, but I forgot the name of that website where all the stuff is. Pling? I think it’s that.

Anyway, once you have the themes installed, you need to sudo edit /etc/default/grub and append "quiet splash" (with the quotes) to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT= (“quiet” might already be there).

You can also change the value of GRUB_TIMEOUT= in that file to whatever your preference might be for the duration of grub’s boot menu, but there might be other things you need to adjust in order to hide it completely and still be able to access it if necessary.

After that, run sudo update-grub so that it’s using the new config and choose whichever theme you want in the system settings.

Alternatively, grub-customizer is a GUI app that you can install to do all of the above (which will also update grub when you save your changes). Just don’t touch anything that’s not relevant. Stick to just the duration of the grub boot menu and add the splash parameter. Ignore boot priority, etc.

It should feel less “slow” to start up once all that’s sorted.

Yeah, Kubuntu’s fine. It has some of the Snap stuff, but the “minimal install” greatly strips down unnecessary bullshit to the point where I even find vanilla Debian Plasma to be more bloated in comparison.

I used Kubuntu for most of my time on Linux before switching to Debian. Still fully recommend it as a basically “plug and play” distro with a quick installer that works OOTB.

There’s also a KDE-specific backports PPA which gets you new Plasma and Qt stuff fairly quickly, but that works best on regular releases rather than LTS releases. (The only issue is that, because it uses Launchpad, the Plasma updates can be super fucking slow to download, regardless of your network speed).

Then again, if someone’s going to be using LTS versions only, there’s not really that much of a difference between it and Debian Stable in terms of DE updates.

It’s a bit hidden in the FAQ, but here you go.

Probably inevitable considering Jeremy Soller is the lead dev on Redox while also currently contributing to COSMIC.

To be honest, I’m surprised COSMIC isn’t the default, but it’s likely due to display server stuff that isn’t part of Redox (Wayland, etc.).

You can get a Cinnamon image via U-Blue.

U-Blue in general is a nice collection of images because not only are there various unofficial options, but a lot of things like RPMFusion, etc. are preconfigured in their versions of the main editions (SilverBlue, Kinoite, Sericea, Onyx).

Or you can just rebase regular SilverBlue (or one of the three other official variants) to one of those images if you’re running it already. Can roll back if you don’t like it.

I doubt there’ll be an official edition until Cinnamon has full Wayland support since Fedora is going all in on that now.

In the meantime, the community has it covered.

Can I just say that my favorite thing about Xfce users is that whenever the dumb “GNOME vs KDE” shit starts, you guys are all chill in the back being like, “let them fight while I drink my tea and move on with my life”.

I might be a very longtime Plasma user, but I appreciate the shit out of Xfce and what its capable of while being light as a feather. Other than Budgie, it’s the only DE I could actually see myself using if I absolutely had to ditch KDE for whatever reason. Although my reliance on Dolphin alone makes that very, very difficult. Thunar is pretty good, though. More file managers should have batch renaming built-in. Then I wouldn’t have to use GPRename or KRename for so much shit.

YaST in a nutshell…

Takes a whole bunch of system command line stuff (and even stuff already in other GUIs) and throws it into a Windows-like control panel type thing.

Now, it’s great that it’s an option.

What’s not great is opening it and seeing dozens of fucking options, not knowing what half of them are if you’re new to Linux. (To be honest, it’s even overwhelming if you are familiar with Linux.)

So the people it’s supposed to appeal to end up with a complicated control panel they don’t understand, and the people who actually know what all the entries are for end up sticking with the terminal and ignoring it altogether.

Although, all things being fair, no one new to Windows would really understand the control panel either, but at least it’s so widely used that any instructions you get about it usually won’t have you going into the registry or cmd.exe or PowerShell or something.

On Linux and using YaST? Here’s the response you’ll usually get: “Okay, so click the exit button and look for something called ‘Konsole’ or ‘Terminal’ in your applications. Open that up and paste this command…”

For all the praise I give Debian, I still just run Kubuntu and call it a day.

It’s not that Debian’s particularly hard to install or set up (pretty quick and easy after you’ve done it enough times, though there is also the Live CD with Calamares for an easier install), and it’s honestly better than (*)Ubuntu in terms of official repos (at least Sid is), but I sometimes just find it simpler to install Kubuntu, unsnap it, remove apport, and get on with everything else.

Maybe I’ll go MX or something at some point and just enable systemd because I use it and out of the “anti-systemd” distros, it’s the most “hey, if you want to use systemd, no prob”.

Actually, for Debian, another good option is Spiral Linux. It’s basically just Debian, but with btrfs, snapshots, and zRAM all set up (from the same dude who does GeckoLinux, so very familiar with btrfs). Maybe once the new Bookworm-based ISO is up, I’ll switch over.

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Ah, yes… Good ol’ library mismatches. Definitely not a point in Debian’s favor.

Well, at least for Stable. In Sid, different ^(Toy) story.

I don’t particularly like Arch.

I don’t actually have a problem with it in general or its users. Wiki is helpful for almost everyone, regardless of distro (except maybe Nix and some immutables, where some things can be a bit different).

It’s actually a tremendously important distro, and it, Debian, and Gentoo are the distros I know that if they disappear, Linux is either dead or very close to it.

Still, I find Arch to be… I don’t know. I think this is actually about to be a very unpopular opinion, but I don’t like Pacman at all, and that’s probably the source of my issues with it. Its syntax annoys me and I use the terminal for package management so I’d have to be using it all the time.

I think maybe I’m just too used to APT. The same way Arch users find Pacman intuitive, that’s how I feel about APT. I can use DNF and Zypper fine, but I’ll still prefer APT to them as well. It just feels like “home”, if that makes sense. (Nala and aptitude are both nice frontends to it as well.)

I also don’t like having to rely on AUR for third party packages. That actually goes for every distro. Do not like third party packages or repos. Sometimes it’s necessary, but I keep it to absolute minimum and find Debian has most of what I need. If not, Flatpak. If not Flatpak, source.

Another reason is that I think I prefer regular releases to rolling. I can go rolling if I need to, but I like just having something that doesn’t surprise me with a shit ton of updates every day. Well, not surprise me as it’s expected, but too many can be quite overwhelming sometimes.

Just personal preference, I guess. Nothing at all wrong with rolling, it’s fantastic for a lot of purposes, just not mine.

You may be right.

I’m wondering why apt-get isn’t erroring out, though. Usually after enough tries, it just quits, at least in my experience.

Probably best bet, then, is to remove and re-add the third party repos.

I don’t think that’s the problem, and I wouldn’t really anything related to sources.list or anything in sources.list.d/.(*)

It does seem like an auto update thing, so got some quick suggestions.

Since you mentioned Discover, I’m guessing you’re on KDE Plasma, which is great because it’s what I use and know immediately where to go.

Go into the main settings and way at the bottom left after all the other sections, there should be a section labeled “Software Update”. The only thing you need to care about is the first option, which will be “Update software: Manually/Automatically”.

If “Automatically” is checked, try disabling it and then reboot. If that doesn’t, work, there’s a more useful GUI tool, but for some reason it doesn’t show up when searching the application menu (or at least doesn’t for me).

Quick command line thing here:

sudo software-properties-kde

This has a bunch of options which I won’t get into, but in the “Updates” tab, you’ll also see “Automatic updates” with a few more options than the one in Settings. I’d enable “Only notify about available updates” if everything else is enabled.

You can disable “Check for updates” entirely, but I wouldn’t recommend it. You can change that to “Weekly” or something, so that it isn’t constantly checking, but I don’t know if it starts up on every boot, so might be useless to change that specifically.

After rebooting, take a look at what the file /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto-upgrades says.

It shouldn’t be too long, but depending on what the values might be for Download-Upgradable-Packages and Unattended-Upgrades, that could be the source of the problem.

Everything in that file should now have a value of “0” except for the first line (Update-Package-Lists which will have a value of “1”).

(*) Theoretically, your idea about sources lists could maybe be an issue, but I’m not sure. I don’t know if it’s possible that apt-get could be in some kind of loop if there’s a mismatch or duplicates with your repo sources. I’d assume it would error out, but maybe it’s just being weird.

For now, I’d leave that all alone. If none of the above works, I can give some instructions on dealing with third party repos, but I don’t want to make this comment any longer than it is already.

Konsole because it does everything I need it to and naturally integrates with Dolphin, which is something I like a lot. (F4 may be my most pressed Fn key thanks to this.)

As for customization, switched from bash to fish and use some fisher plugins for added convenience, along with the Tide prompt. I still use bash for some scripts, but that’s about the extent of it.

Also, I use a light theme, so feel free to crucify me.

Sid is pretty reliable if you pay attention to what you’re updating.

If someone wants a more user friendly option, Siduction is a Debian Sid based distro which tries to keep things smooth.

When it comes to Debian, you might find yourself getting more up-to-date software with the backports repo, particularly when it comes to the kernel. It’s not a large selection of packages, but there’s some useful stuff in there.

You can also use apt pinning, but that requires maintenance and makes it fairly easy to break everything.

Good idea might be to keep Timeshift on a decent schedule and if you mess something up, run through an older snapshot.

Alternatively, OpenSUSE Tumbleweed is a good rolling release that has full integration with btrfs, so mess up an update and just boot into an old snapshot. Can also choose any DE (that’s in their repos, at least) on installation. It doesn’t require much maintenance at all. Very unlikely to break regardless.