You can't go wrong with Debian
this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2023
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All my servers run debian and it's going swimmingly. My daily driver runs bookworm with huge success
Bookworm is such a tremendously good release. I’ve been on Debian since Potato, and IMHO we are seeing the absolute best release they ever put out.
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As an old fart, I'm happy to see that Debian is still cool. All of this arch-manjaro-nix-os-awesome-bspwm-i3-xmonad-flatsnap whippersnapper stuff is over my head.
Realistically, it doesn't make sense for folks to be using bleeding edge distros like Arch for a server anyway. LTS of Debian or even Ubuntu are definitely the right answer
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"flatsnap". This made my day
I'm all for using Debian and such, and I think out of all the new and hip things people brag about, using Flatpak is the most useful thing for the average user experience and worth checking out. Everything (almost) else is just extra.
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You already figured it out. It’s Debian stable.
Will start to test Debian stable.
This is a smart move.
Debians make for very good servers, I've been using Debian servers since moving my desktop from Fedora (when it was still called Fedora Core) to Ubuntu. I don't regret it one bit. The community is excellent, and there is ample information available online without having to ask a new question.
My vote is Archlinux. Debian is sometimes a little too "optimisitic" when backporting security fixes and upgrading from oldstable to stable always comes with manual intervention.
Release-based distros tend to be deployed and left to fend on their own for years - when it is finally time to upgrade it is often a large manual migration process depending on the deployed software. A rolling release does not have those issues, you just keep upgrading continuously.
Archlinux performs excellent as a lightweight server distro. Kernel updates do not affect VM hardware the same they do your laptop, so no issues with that. Same for drivers. It just, works.
Bonus: it is extremely easy to build and maintain your own packages, so administration of many instances with customized software is very convenient.
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Desktop? Arch. Server? Debian, NixOS.
Debian.
I would recommend openSuSe. It is using rpm, but it is an independent distribution.
Huge fan of openSuse Tumbleweed. Rolling release like Arch with the backing of a decently sized organization.
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If you're up for it: NixOS!
It's quite a steep learning curve, but after some time (after you've configured your "dream-system") you don't want to go back/switch to any different distro.
Specifically servers IMHO are a great use-case for NixOS. It's usually simpler to configure than a desktop distro, and less of the usual pain points of "dirty" software (like hardcoded dynamic libraries, that exist on most systems (ubuntu as reference) at that path).
I've much less fear maintaining my servers with NixOS because of its declarative functional reproducability and "transactional" upgrade system, than previously (where I've used Debian mostly).
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Go Debian
Debian 12 just released this month too! It has LXD in the repos now, no snap required.
Honestly, Debian stable has always been my first option. I'll continue using Arch for my desktops and Debian on servers and stuff.
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If your solutions are work/job related and need to be distributed I think your current options are SUSE or Debian. If your solution is something only you maintain, you could check out NixOS.
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Can't really go wrong with Debian or Ubuntu server LTS
You can definitely go wrong with an Ubuntu server
How? I've run several for years with no issue. They're as stable as a rock
snaps are pretty insecure.
Snaps are pretty terrible IMO, so I usually end up bootstrapping a custom Ubuntu image without snap for this reason (and others) for my cloud images. Definitely not general purpose though.
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I have been using Debian for about 20 years now. Server and desktop. But I recently migrated all my server stuff to FreeBSD and I don't think I will move back. Jails are great and provide me a convenient way to isolate my apps. On the desktop side I will stay with Debian.
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Debian 12, Opensuse leap or tumbleweed, SLES, Fedora, Linux mint / LMDE, Freebsd, Alma Linux OS
Debian stable. The mix of having a stable host but being able to pull in flatpak / appimage / docker containers with newer software is awesome.
Debian yes, but don't install from flatpaks or docker. Neither is secure.
AppImage can be secure if the release is signed.
Docker can pull images securely, but it's disabled by default and many developers don't sign their releases, so even if you enable it client-side there's a risk you'll download something malicious.
Flatpak is never secure because it doesn't support signing of releases at all.
Apt is always secure because all packages must be cryptographically signed (by default).
Flatpak is never secure because it doesn't support signing of releases at all
Can you elaborate on this? I ask because I build my own flatpaks, and signing is part of the publishing process.
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I've been running Debian stable for years now on everything. My laptop runs it, my home server runs it headless with no GUI installed, my gaming desktop runs it and even my kids run it without issue. If we need a newer version of some desktop app I just get the Flatpak. It's pretty great and the good thing is that it's predictable. Once it's up and running I don't have to worry about things breaking because of an update.
minimal: alpine
general purpose: debian or CentOS, i'll still use it for now.
I haven’t been keeping up, what happened?
https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2023/dear-red-hat-are-you-dumb
TL;DR - RedHat is going to wall off all their code/packages behind a paywall meaning the only way to use RedHat is with a paid subscription.
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For server, Debian is great :) i use ubuntu 20.04 lts personally
Any issues with CentOS stream for your work? Could always switch to Fedora server too if you wanted to keep the same structures and such, but separate some from RedHat.
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- Debian for stable.
- Fedora if you want a bit more bleeding edge.
- Arch for desktop/laptops.
At least that's how I've been running my homelab stuff for years now.
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If you need enterprise support I'd look for Ubuntu or maybe SUSE. If you can't tolerate RHEL closing their source, that is (some people won't be bothered).
If that's not needed, then Debian all the way! It's served me well for like 10 years in my home lab.
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