u/tungnon

Hi and apologize for mildly strong languages but this is my frustration I have had for a while

As the title says, I genuinely see Debian as a whole being undersold a lot among discussions with reasons like "packages too old" "too hard to use" "it's not usable ootb" "not good for gaming" or even "only for servers". Many of these are ridiculously nonsense claims that even I believe it's just blatantly bad takes. Let's address these one by one:

"packages too old"

My bother in tux, not every use case need bleeding edge packages. For many use cases stable system is enough just to do with your stuff. This is very true for DE like GNOME, XFCE, or Cinnamon on Mint which you do not need bleeding edge stuff at all.
Edit: Flatpaks are available for newest apps for ya. They are great.

"not good for gaming"

Let's be real, unless you are benchmarking with magohud overlay or smth similar, you can just launch Steam or emulators then enjoy your damn games.

"It's not usable ooth" and "it's too hard to use"

While this is true debian netinstall iso isn't exactly easiest thing to use. But, Debian also provides liveimage isos which have simple calamares installer which install frankly ootb usable desktop. Sure Nvidia proprietary driver might need manual installation later but aside from this, it's actually very easy to work with (arguably easier than Ubuntu flavors)

"only for server"

Coming from someone who enabled cachyOS znver4 repos on Arch, generic binaries and kernel actually in fact more than enough to do most use cases. Differences won't be noticeable much unless you are aggressively benchmarking (which in that case you have better things to do)

"kernel too old for my device"

👏Backports 👏 fucking 👏 exist 👏

"Just use Ubuntu"

Unless you really enjoy snaps for some reasons, I do not see any reason to use Ubuntu at all for desktop in 2026. Want stable? Go for Debian (or Mint for Cinnamon). Want actual corporate backed distro? Fedora is there

Overall, Debian is distro that I genuinely always trust and is actually looking into it on PC that does not need bleeding edge stuff myself. Thank you Debian community for doing good work for Linux and the entire world

Hi

I saw many people are acting like it's the end of the world. For new users, it's still one command away from installing paru and for current users paru is still on cachyos repo

Am I missing something here? I am genuinely confused

btw I use yay

View Poll

I just wonder how could hyprland users deal with configs syntaxes constantly change. Last time I heard hyprland dropped hyprlang for lua. And if anything is there ever guarantee that smth like these won’t happen again?

Thanks for constructive answers

Hi

I use Arch btw and I think Arch is still perfectly despite clownfest going on with AUR, only a fraction of AUR were infected there are clearly several ways to mitigate this

Don’t use AUR… unironically this is most braindead easy solution ever but still valid

Use third party repos but accept the risks (CachyOS, Chaotic AUR)

Or take responsibility and read PKGBUILD properly

There are several ways to properly approach this yet chosen option is distrohopping out of theoretical fear? Why?

Edit: If you are new users, you are lost, or you were actually infected, then I wouldn't blame you for hopping tbh. You deserve better. Feel free to leave a comment here if you really need my advice, I am here to help. But fear hopping without critical thinking while NOT being infected still deserves to be questioned

Hi

Let's get this out of the way first: KDE Plasma isn't officially supported on Mint

Even if you could technically install KDE Plasma on Mint, it won't be genuine good KDE Plasma experience

KDE Plasma on Mint 22.3 (based on Ubuntu LTS 24.04) is only version 5.27, while literally on almost other distros Plasma is already at least 6.X

For comparison: Debian (and LMDE): 6.3.6 Arch (and CachyOS): 6.6.5 Fedora: 6.7.0

There could be some SIX or SEVEN (I am not sorry for this joke) people who genuinely enjoy outdated Plasma on Mint... but I assure you, many of you won't

Here are recommended distros:

Fedora - Prob easiest choice if you want Plasma that "just works" and has solid overall experience while still being easy to use

CachyOS - If you ever feel spicy and want some powerful distro, CachyOS is great choice with Plasma as default DE. But being arch-based, user responsibility is very much expected

Debian - if you are fine with a bit older Plasma, Debian works. Just be mindful that bugs on older Plasma version will stay as many bugfixes are on newer versions instead. Also yes, if you are already using LMDE, you can install Plasma and Debian would pull Plasma 6.3 for you without reinstalling

Hi

Just be clear, I already tried Void XFCE for a week on spare laptop and was surprisingly satisfied.

But now I have gaming PC that currently running Arch Linux with CachyOS Kernel with CachyOS znver4 repos

Why I want to try out void seriously:
- I like simplicity and minimalism on void
- genuinely find Arch to update too fast for my on taste
(I am not really bothered by recent AUR attacks)

My use case:
- bootloader: systemd-boot
- initramfs generator: booster
- filesystem: xfs
- niri + noctalia v5
- browsing + chatting + youtube
- Gaming mostly on emulators ranging from SNES, GBA, NDS, 3DS, or even Switch games (I mostly play Pokemon and JRPG titles)
- Boring office job with Libreoffice
- Not interested in programming
- Not going to be "look at my FPS!" gang, I don't even install mangohud, lutris, heroic whatever. Steam + Emulators are enough for me

Specs:

https://preview.redd.it/xxysms1lsc7h1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=2d2f5b50fe28471e6e8aa886fc3bb4b85afb6512

I am worried about:
- Would I really lose something seriously much going from znver4 binaries to generic binaries on void?
- Would I really lose something much from switching from cachyOS kernel to void generic kernel? I don't have time to compile kernel

Thanks in advance for constructive replies

As promised from my previous post, here are basic guide how to install and use flatpaks

What is Flatpak?

Essentially Flatpak is sandbox environment where your apps generally won't touch system layer. Plus, Flatpaks are universal across all Linux distros. For example, if you install Sober from Software Manager on Linux Mint, it will still work on CachyOS if you install Flatpak via Shelly. This is highly convenient both for users and developers. Users can have basics app which don't have to mutate system internally while developers can only release via Flatpak without package for all Linux distros (which there are a lot).

Why Flatpak is so important?

Not everyone is available from CachyOS repositories (which are the main source where you get apps from). And thus, Flatpak is very attractive alternative sources of applications without risking ourselves by getting one from AUR or other sources.

What's wrong with AUR?

Nothing, but due to recent attack on compromised AUR packages, some users may seek alternative to AUR (which include newer users who generally may not want to deal with AUR).
See here about the recent incident: https://www.reddit.com/r/cachyos/s/uoEi7WHUu4
See on my brief post how to handle AUR: https://www.reddit.com/r/cachyos/comments/1u3oppo/read_this_if_you_are_not_sure_what_to_do_about/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

I am interested, where do I get started?

Generally. the most reliable standalone Flathub store (which is most common Flatpak source) is Bazaar. Do this and you are ready to go: sudo pacman -S flatpak bazaar

https://preview.redd.it/kt6jsqac2y6h1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=a4b7d02c4c9ea4d23c85a8b3f0cf7593e9efbd5a

(Ignore Lana on background, that's Niri blur)

It's simple to use. And it works reliably.

Shelly also works as Flathub store but Bazaar works more reliably and it's def more mature as dedicated Flathub store. How reliable? Bazzite, Bluefin and Aurora use Bazaar as main store on OS that dedicated to have Flatpak as main source of applications.

Downsides of Flatpaks

Flatpaks are amazing but they are not without downsides:

- Runtime "bloat": Flatpak application require their own runtime to work. Granted, they share runtimes across all Flatpak apps, but the fact that they still use big sized runtimes meaning that they can eat considerable amount of disk spaces. This should not be worrying if you have at least 250+ GB on your disk. But if your disk spaces are cramped, disk size should be considered greatly. Or if you just hate "bloat" in general, yeah avoiding Flatpak is completely reasonable tbh.

- Permissions hiccups: This is arguably most important reason why many users prefer system packages. Because Flatpak applications are sandboxes, there are issues with permissions, especially if said Flatpak apps need to interact with files outside Flatpaks location. The most infamous example here is Steam: Steam flatpak can't create game entries reliably without scripts from users. Granted there is a thing called Flatseal to help with permission stuff but I don't think I am acknowledgeable enough to go deeper into Flatpak permissions rabbit hole.

- No CachyOS optimizations: It is clear that Flatpaks are not main application sources for Arch Linux (and CachyOS by extension). They do not receive CachyOS optimization at all. But do they work? Yes.

- "It is not magically more secure": Yes it still has a risk but compared to AUR? Yeah many users would rather pick Flathub for good reasons. After all, many Debian users (you know the one who really rely on stability) rely on Flathub for their applications.

When NOT to use Flatpak?

- Apps are already available from CachyOS repos and Arch repos: If apps are already available there, it's better to get from there instead due to system integration and many of them would be optimized for your CPU.

- You cannot tolerate Flatpaks' downsides: This is a matter of preferences, but for me, I value system integration and simplicity. This means I would rather learn how to live with AUR and not use Flatpaks at all. However, if you are still new to CachyOS/Arch Linux or new to Linux in general, I would advise you to stick with Flatpak instead if apps are not available on repos.

Your priorities should be like this if you are new:
CachyOS/Arch Repos > Flatpak >>>>>>>>> AUR (if needed)

End Note

Flatpaks are great. But they are also flawed. You own your PC. You can decide what to do with your system. It's your choices after all. But you should know that whatever you decide on your system, there are always consequences if you are careless.

Read more about Flatpak here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Flatpak

Changelogs:
- Added more "nuances" for security nerds who keep nitpicking about Flatpak security models.
- Rewrote Flathub store section to focus entirely on Bazaar instead as I trust it most