Today I am moving not only myself, but my parents to Linux!
For me this is a long time coming. I discovered and started dabbling with Linux when I was 13 or so and somehow got an image of Backtrack 5 running on a Macbook Pro without virtualization (I’m still not entirely certain how I managed it) as I was always interested in IT/Security.
Eventually I went to school for IT and I’ve been working in tangents of the industry ever since, though few of my workplaces have made use of Linux unfortunately.
I have been running Debian on my personal laptop for a couple years now and I have had very few problems outside of breaking my sources.list the other day when I echo’d into it with instead of >.
I have a friend who recently fully switched over to Arch as well, and now more than ever I have found that all my friends, including those who are non-technical, are interested in learning about or moving to Linux, so I have decided now would be a good time to be an example for them.
I have made my parents aware of the ongoing and worsening problems with Windows and that their version of the OS will be out of support soon and today I’ll be putting them on Mint. I don’t expect any problems as I already had them using Open Office and other such applications since they didn’t want to buy licensing for MS Office years ago. Furthermore their computer has no special hardware/software otherwise, it’s basically just a Micro-ITX email machine that they sometimes use for printing.
I have enjoyed using Debian on my laptop so I intend to install Debian 12 to my desktop system, though I expect some complications as it has some hardware I have not had to configure on Linux before. Specifically It has an NVIDIA EVGA RTX 3090 FTW3 ULTRA and an NZXT Kraken Liquid CPU cooler.
I am aware that Debian has full documentation on how to go about installing and setting up the drivers for an RTX card, but if anyone has done this, I would certainly appreciate any anecdotal advice regarding the matter as well as anything I might want to know about making sure the cooler is functioning.
If anyone wants to offer advice but needs to know more about the hardware, I have the following specifically:
- PSU - Cooler Master V750 Gold V2, 750 Watt, White
- Motherboard - ATX ASUS PRIME z390-A
- Case - White NZXT H510 Elite for ATX form factor, Tempered Glass, Integrated RGB lighting
- CPU Cooling - NZXT Kraken X53 240mm AIO RGB CPU Liquid cooler, Rotating infinity mirror design, improved pump
- GPU - EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 FTW3 ULTRA
- RAM - Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro SL 32 GB (2x16GB) DDR4, White
- Storage - Two 2 TB Seagate Firecuda M.2 NVME’s
- Peripherals include a focusrite Scarlett audio interface, Wired Logitech mouse and keyboard, Logitech C920 HD Pro Camera
Thanks for any advice, and I just wanted to offer a thanks to this community at large as I have read and learned some very neat things since I joined Lemmy.
Welcome! Based on the GPU I assume you’re into gaming, and Debian is not the optimal distro for that because it’s focused on stability and is not as up-to-date as other distros. Personally I use CachyOS (based on Arch) on my gaming PC and it works very well. EndeavourOS is similar and is also based on Arch — it’s what I use on my laptop. Bazzite (based on Fedora) is another popular gaming distro. If you really prefer Debian you may also want to look at PopOS, which is based on Ubuntu, which is itself based on Debian. You can by all means use Debian if that’s what you really want, but there’s a good chance you’ll run into issues that wouldn’t appear with distros designed for gaming, especially since you have an Nvidia GPU which tend to have driver issues with Linux in general.
This community really should stop FUD peddling about debian.
stableis not the only debian release, and there are multiple ways to pull newer package versions. For instance, anyone who can read a manual can run a cutting edge rolling release debian box with this simple incantation:stableis their default, but debian can be just as “up-to-date” as you want it to be.I find it is all pretty relative as well. People do talk about Debian as if it’s always boring and ancient, but I think the release cycle on Debian stable is something like every 2 years? So it’s not super out of date for what I use. As I said in another comment I think a few rust libraries I wanted for installing the Helix editor were not available on Bookworm, but other than that there really isn’t too much that I want right this second that even warrants me changing the repos to Sid. Everything I needed to install and run Kakoune was available so I’m just running that as my editor for now instead.
I assume people do not want to run an OS that has “testing” or “unstable” in its name.
If you don’t need the latest packages, Debian is the way to go but if you do need the latest packages, you are much better off with a distro that is primarily made for that.
You can do that, or you can install Cachy or Bazzite and not have to take any extra steps, not to mention if you need to you have community support from people who are overwhelmingly using it for the same purpose as you rather than greybeards who never leave emacs. I’m not anti-Debian, but for a first-time Linux gamer it really isn’t a great recommendation.
Thank you, all good suggestions. I have looked at Bazzite and another user had recommended EndeavourOS so if things go awry then I will likely try one of them.
I am hoping that as long as I can get the card functional I will be ok. I have been running lower-requirement games through proton on my Debian laptop without needing to install additional libraries and they all work well.
If too many problems are introduced from the card I will probably distro hop (which should be easy as I keep good backups) and see how things look elsewhere.
Otherwise I will save some money and see about a comparable AMD card going forward in any case!
Thanks for your advice!
Nvidia released their OS drivers. I think 565 are OS… But even before that I think nvidia bad comes from historical issues that don’t happen anymore but ymmv
PopOS is in between generation shift from gnome to cosmic.
Hard to recommend it to anyone who aint willing to deal with Cosmic Alpha.
I think in 1 year it will be the go too for any normie Debian enjoyer tho.
I doubt s76 will push an update until Cosmic is out of beta, let alone alpha.
I am planning on raw dogging once it is beta…
Alpaha already works well enough that
You can download 24 verion with alpha though
I uses PopOS for a while and liked it a lot, but I’m so used to Arch-based distros that I don’t think I can go back. I may use Cosmic as me DE once it’s out of beta, though.