After some experience with Linux Mint, I gathered the courage to try another distro. I’d like to turn an old laptop into an IPTV receiver plus FTP/OpenVPN/HomeAssistant server with occasional desktop use. I first installed Windows 11 just in case my family needs to use it (it fucking sucks, the built-in PS/2 keyboard doesn’t work half the time but that’s an issue for later) but now I’ll be turning it into a dual-boot setup with Debian as the primary option. Please give me some encouragement, I’m really afraid of new things.

  • AldinTheMage@ttrpg.network
    0·
    22 days ago

    I love Debian. Been using it on my laptop for over a year. Some specific drivers are a little fiddly if you have nvidia graphics but it’s not too bad, lots of good info on the debian wiki.

    • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      22 days ago

      same here even though i don’t use it much anymore.

      for me, it was both the distro that i had used the longest at home due to rock solid stability and it’s become a signal to me that the shop i’m considering working in has rock solid people working on it.

      i’m going to miss working on debian in a professional capacity and watching it due it’s thing in real world production capacities for millions of people at a time.

      • ChaoticNeutralCzech@lemmy.mlOP
        0·
        21 days ago

        You’ve used Debian for a while? Well, you might know something about one of the problems that were a factor in my hop from Mint: I installed a stable release in 2020 and used the computer as a MMPC every so often, but then I set up a DVI cable to the family Windows PC so the MMPC became redundant, and will be until we switch from satellite to IPTV next year. The computer lay mostly unused for 2 years and then it turned out that it wouldn’t update to a newer, supported release. I gave up troubleshooting that. What kind of distros are most prone to this?

    • ohshit604@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      21 days ago

      Some specific drivers are a little fiddly if you have nvidia graphics

      Nit-picking here but Nvidia drivers for Debian are ridiculously easy to install? Doc page

      • Prerequisites
      deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ trixie main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ trixie-security contrib non-free main non-free-firmware
sudo apt update
      • Install the driver (Trixie)
      sudo apt install nvidia-kernel-dkms nvidia-driver
      • Have an RTX capable GPU?
      sudo apt install libnvoptix1

      Edit: For an Nvidia Optimus Laptop just install envycontrol and set your Nvidia GPU as your primary GPU.

      sudo envycontrol -s nvidia --force-comp --coolbits 24

      Done, easy peasy.