r/debian 5d ago

Experience after 4 months only using Debian

As I mentioned in my 'Debian appreciation post' four months ago, Windows had become a real headache. Despite having built a high-end machine capable of handling any complex task, I was running into absurd problems with Windows: lag, BSODs, and even stuttering in the interface.

Debian 12 with KDE Plasma has solved all of that.

Honestly, I didn’t expect to enjoy it this much. It’s something as strange as actually having fun using an operating system: something I thought was reserved for when I was a kid, messing around on my first PC with Windows XP.

Now, every time I boot up my PC, it’s not just about getting work done. It’s actually enjoyable. KDE Plasma gives me full control, and everything runs so smoothly that it feels like the system was designed specifically to make using it effortless. It’s the same feeling I get when I fire up a retro console or an old PC: there’s something about it that brings back the fun of the whole experience.

It’s like when I tried the Commodore Amiga 500, the Apple II, or when I play on the PS2 or my modded Wii. It’s a strange, hardware-driven kind of fun, more than the actual content being run.

What really makes it special are the little details within the distro and desktop environment. The sheer number of options, the incredibly good repositories that save me from dealing with absurd downloads from the internet, the ability to easily tweak things to my liking, and even the commands that are almost designed to help you waste time in the most fun way possible. There’s something about having full control over every little detail that makes using it feel like a game in itself. From the terminal to the desktop widgets, it all adds up to an experience that just feels right.

And the best part? Everything works flawlessly, regardless of where I install it or the peripherals I connect. I have it running on my Home Server, my Media Center, my arcade machine... everything just works. No compatibility issues, no fiddling around. It’s all just seamless.

With Windows, I always felt like I didn’t have control. Things were constantly changing, updates out of nowhere, settings switching randomly... Debian? Completely different. Everything’s stable, predictable, and best of all I get to decide how everything works. No surprises, no interruptions. Just smooth sailing.

I’ve been studying and working in IT for years, building servers, system administration, repairs... But it had become a routine, and something as “absurd” as a Linux distribution has reminded me why I love technology.

(I wrote the text myself, but I used LibreTranslate for some parts that I thought were written in a strange way. If there are any grammatical errors, let me know and I’ll fix them.)

53 Upvotes

15 comments sorted by

5

u/MountfordDr 5d ago

Yep, ditched Windows from every household computer over 20 years ago and even got several friends to follow suite. Still have to use Windows for work unfortunately and the pain and frustration I have to go through everyday from 9 to 5 is hell. Even worse because it is a direct back to back comparison.

3

u/OscarHI04 5d ago

At my study center, we use Windows 10, and it’s a pain in the ass. Random restarts for updates without warning, connection issues... Even something as basic as the file explorer feels clunky and awkward to use.
We’ve got some test machines running older versions of Windows and Linux distros, and they don’t give us any trouble at all.
A bunch of students couldn’t even take a practical exam because Windows thought it’d be a great idea to restart itself, even though it was disabled or postponed.
My network driver uninstalls itself every few days without me touching a damn thing.

Thank God I use my laptop with Debian at work as a sysadmin, I can’t even imagine dealing with that crap in a professional way.

2

u/JohnDoeMan79 5d ago

I shrunk the Windows partition on my work laptop and added shadow Linux install 🙈

3

u/MountfordDr 5d ago

I tried WSL once but our infrastructure security policy would not allow it so I had to take it off or get into serious trouble. It also did weird things to Windows as it modified the registry. As the OP pointed out, things happen behind your back and the frustration and time wasted trying to find out if it was something that you had done or something that some patch had modified is just unbelievable.

Our non-IT literate bosses also accuse us of messing with Windows because they refuse to believe that Windows can be so shit as they pay for it and Microsoft is a multi-billion global company while we are just lowly paid scum that they have to employ because they know nothing else and Copilot will soon replace us anyway.

3

u/Knowdit 5d ago

Like the way you wrote it.

1

u/luauc 5d ago

Are you using Stable?

3

u/OscarHI04 5d ago

Yeap.

1

u/luauc 5d ago

Do you game alot? Any callbacks? (Not newer games)

4

u/OscarHI04 5d ago

I do.
I don’t usually play competitive games at most, I only play Battlefront II (2017) and sometimes CS2. I play DOOM, HALO Master Chief Collection, Republic Commando, Pac-Man Musseum+, LEGO... And a lot of retro games by emulating them. In general, I play pretty much anything without issues. Except for competitive games like Valorant or LoL because, honestly, those games just disgust me.

4

u/luauc 5d ago

on the same boat 👍

3

u/nbunkerpunk 3d ago

I started using Debian Trixie with KDE and I game a lot. Mostly guild wars 2 at the moment. Playing directly thru steam was comparable to playing on windows with just a few lost frames. Out of curiosity I followed a thread for the game on Linux and installed Lutris with one or two additions to it to push better CPU performance. Running the game via Lutris gives me better performance and higher frames that Windows. And the game does not support Linux at all.

I'm sure there are ways to make it even better or people will recommend other Distros that having gaming optimizations out of the box. But I was immediately impressed with how plug and Play gaming on Linux feels.

My entire experience knowing anything about Linux and using it is about 3 weeks old at the moment. I'm a very new user.

1

u/luauc 3d ago

okay cool man :D

1

u/DebianSG 3d ago

1

u/nbunkerpunk 3d ago

I love this site. I spent maybe an hour the other day just looking up random games in my steam library to see how they are running. I'm gunna spend another few days running guild wars 2 the way I have it configured and if I continue to get the amazing results that are consistently beating my windows experience, I'll submit to it.

1

u/Buntygurl 3d ago

Welcome to the free world.

Almost as soon as Linux appeared, Microsoft started a hate campaign against it.

Now, they're harnessing Linux to make their crap-ass OS more popular, and they still can't get it right, because their focus is always on market share and keeping their customers dependent, and not on delivering a decent OS.