Debian...

After trying the taste of Linux using Ubuntu/Xubuntu, I decided I was ready to try something new: Debian. For me, at the time, a good thing about Debian was that it also used apt as package manager, the same as Ubuntu (actually, Ubuntu used apt just like Debian, but anyway...) which I was already familiarized.

Debian is already a grandfather distro (Ubuntu was based on Debian and there are distros based on Ubuntu) known for it’s speed and stability. Who doesn’t want a fast and stable system? It seemed perfect. Put that along with XFCE and you’ve got one hell of a system (or so I thought). Another good thing Debian is known for is it’s helpful community (indeed, hey do help a lot, check their forums!). Anyway, I downloaded the first DVD of Debian stable. Debian is divided in 3 branches: stable, testing, unstable.

Debian had a graphical install with some presets. You can choose a regular installation with almost any desktop environment. I installed the default desktop with XFCE as DE. I soon found out why Debian was not perfect: I don’t remember the XFCE version I got on that install, but I can say it was very different from the one I was using on Xubuntu, it was an outdated version. It was indeed faster than Xubuntu, but in order to get the stability Debian is known for, you have forfeit the newer software. Okay, learned my lesson. As for hardware detection, I can’t say much as this setup didn’t even stay running for more than one day.

I did not give up on Debian then. Kept reading about it and decided to do a “minimalistic install” of Debian testing, which has newer software on it’s repositories. Minimalistic because you just install what is absolutely necessary. So I downloaded the netinstall iso of Debian testing, which only installs the base system and after you’re done you only get a command line. You have to download everything else by yourself. I followed these instructions (in Portuguese) I found on the web and ended up with a bare minimal XFCE desktop. I don’t remember the version of XFCE I got but I do remember it was slightly outdated compared to the one I used on Xubuntu. I thought, “okay, I can live with that”. I had a very fast system, not as bloated as Ubuntu/Xubuntu, only running things I had installed myself. I can’t remember if the scanner worked out of the box, but everything else worked. I did have to install CUPS and gutenprint driver to get the printer to work properly.

Then I thought: “if Debian runs so fast like this on this desktop, it would run decently on a old laptop”. But that’s gonna go on the next post.