this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2026
91 points (96.0% liked)
Linux
12288 readers
574 users here now
A community for everything relating to the GNU/Linux operating system (except the memes!)
Also, check out:
Original icon base courtesy of lewing@isc.tamu.edu and The GIMP
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this is why you should Debian
I usually use [K]ubuntu because I always try to install Debian first, but it ships with kernels so outdated that it rarely "just works" on the not-particularly-weird hardware I throw at it. That's understandable when it's missing drivers for my AMD 9070 XT GPU on launch day, but not so much when it's missing drivers for the Intel AX101 wifi chipset that got released 3.5 years before. (I've also experienced weird installation failures with Debian related to the partitioning and/or bootloader, but I don't remember the details of those right now. Point is, Ubuntu is -- unfortunately -- more reliable to install without tweaking or troubleshooting, in my experience.)
Hmm.
When is the last time you tried Debian, and what version was it?
If I'm recommending it to people, I'd like to be able to warn them about potential hurdles.
A week or so ago, with whatever version was current as of a week or so ago. I was about to install Linux on my kids' mini PCs, fired up the Debian live environment, and noticed that WiFi didn't work. Switched to Kubuntu and the WiFi did work, so proceeded to install with that.
Technically, I suppose it's possible that the actual installed kernel might've worked even though the live environment didn't, but I didn't want to take that chance. Plus, I needed networking in the live environment before install anyway, so I could copy a backup of the factory Win11 install to my other computer, just in case.
Hm. Did you see an option for "non-free firmware"? It should be included as an option since Debian major version 11.
It's an Intel wifi chip. It shouldn't need non-free firmware!
You're right about that. I wonder how it can be fixed so that other people don't hit the same issue.
The other day, the extent of my investigation was to find this forum thread, dismiss it as "kernel too old" (even though the thread was from 2023, LOL), and move on to Kubuntu. Looking more carefully, it seems like my Debian 13.3.0 image (debian-live-13.3.0-amd64-kde.iso) should've shipped with a kernel new enough to include it (6.12, compared to "6.1 or 6.2" which is when the Intel employee in the forum thread said it was added), so now I'm not so sure what the real problem was.
It also just occurred to me that I should've jumped up to Debian Testing before resorting to Ubuntu (I wasn't thinking too hard about it and just used the same flash drive as I had recently used to install it on my parents' PC, which I really did want to be on Debian Stable). Oh well.
Regardless though, I think the main fix is "ship a newer kernel in the next version of the distro" and it'll take care of itself over time.
I wonder if Forky would have worked.
Then Fedora may be an option for you. They have a KDE spin.
Besides that, Debian is my default distro nowadays; everything just works for me.
I was using Gentoo previously for many years, because I didn't require out-of-the-box back then.
I'm too lazy and set in my ways to switch away from
apt.(I also used Gentoo, many years ago when I could actually be bothered.)
I am an apt boi as well, but I recently switched to Fedora KDE spin. God has it been a breath of fresh air to have decently updated packages WITH stability on my desktop and laptop.
I'm still Debian all the way for server and "LTS" computers, like my HTPC, but Fedora is killing it overall.
I mean, Kubuntu has "decently updated packages WITH stability," too. It just has Snap that annoys me, but that probably annoys me less than
command 'apt' not foundwould.Snap and the stink of Canonical are the reason anything Ubuntu is not an option for me
By sheer coincidence, I just made an install image yesterday and will be switching soon
nice, Debian is more stable and you will have an easy switch, use the graphical install.
This is what really pisses me off about the Linux community. Everyone says the same thing about every distro, except Arch. That shits apparently for hardcore CLI only programmers or something.
Mint's whole paradigm is an OS that emphasizes stability and usability and you claim Debian is more stable even though it's the cutting edge base of an entire distro tree while Mint is 2 years behind it's Ubuntu base to ensure functionality? Make it make sense.
You're a little confused about how this stuff works. Debian is not cutting-edge.
E: btw "not cutting-edge" is neither inherently positive, nor inherently negative
Well Mint is based on Ubuntu (unless you get the Debian Edition) and Ubuntu is based on Debian sooo...
Basically the majority of Linux distros are based on either Debian, Fedora or Arch. IMHO it's usually best to go with one of the originals, not the derivatives. Although I will admit Ubuntu has made Debian a lot better over the years, but that's only because they took the bits from Ubuntu that actually made sense and ignored the rest.
I was just thinking about swapping from Mint to Debian the other day actually...
you can try linux mint debian edition. i love it so far <3
I might have to check that out, thanks!