What are the best Debian-based Linux distributions?

Main Usage:Live Desktop, System Rescue

Many computers are incapable of loading the whole 4 gigabyte DVD into RAM. There is an older CD version, however. See More

Top Pro

Powerful and lightweight

Top Con

LiveDVD version requires a lot of RAM

Top Pro

Great hardware detection

Top Con

Runs off of optical disk by default

You have to enter a special boot option to run Knoppix entirely in RAM. See More

Debian has a Stable branch, where packages are thoroughly tested before a new release. Furthermore Debian is known to be the definition of stable when it comes to Linux production systems. See More

Debian GNU/Linux

Top Pro

Very stable

Top Con

Debian doesn't give you any choices

Even dpkg supports this feature with virtual packages: For example, it is very hard to use a different sound system than ALSA, eg: OSS. This could be easily done by creating a virtual audio package that is provided by both ALSA and OSS packages but debian does not provide such a package. The same goes for different init-systems which lead to the creation of devuan. See More

AdaptableNunbarsegunu's Experience

Its the best ditsro ever. I bet my soul on it and have won See More

Specs

Package Manager:dpkg (Debian Package Manager)

Main Usage:Universal

OS Family:GNU/Linux

Release Schedule:approximately every 24 months

Almost any software that is available for Linux provides a Debian package. See More

Top Pro

Widely supported

Top Con

It is the original

But here was asked for a debian-based distro. See More

OrganizedAlala's Experience

It sucks!, a start/stop job is running blah blah blah See More

Top Pro

Standard vanilla Linux desktop

Debian runs standard Gnome, XFCE, KDE - it doesn't use its own special desktop environment, which means that users benefit from the work of the whole Linux community, Debian developers can focus on the distribution itself, and any support for your desktop environment on other distributions should work on Debian as well. See More

Top Con

Internal quarrels harm the project

Instead of working all together to provide the best Operating System, some maintainers are just ignorant and aggressive to new ideas or new maintainers. That led to many crises and controversy in Debian's history. See More

HumorousMontu's Experience

This is the original distro. How can something be based on itself. See More

Top Pro

Easy to find help with any problem

Debian is one of the oldest and most popular distros out there. Debian's popularity means that you will always be able to find a solution for your problem just by searching on Google, or if by chance nobody has had the problem you are having it's very easy to ask the community and quickly get a solution. See More

Top Con

Stable release contains extremely outdated packages

If you want the newest packages, you'll have to do a minimal installation of Debian stable then upgrade to testing or you need to install testing directly: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianTesting. See More

EmpatheticGelos's Experience

I've used Debian for almost 20 years. Once in a while looked at the rest but always returned to my first love. For these last 10 years it's just me and Debian a very happy marriage. I use sid which makes it a rolling distribution. For my private uses SID is 99,xx % stable See More

Top Pro

Rolling or Release based

Every Debian Release can either use a Rolling or Release based model. See More

Top Con

Uses systemd

Even if you replace it it still needs to be installed. See More

MerryTuriacus's Experience

very good See More

Top Pro

Install and forget

Once installed you can almost forget about it and start to use your desktop for your daily tasks. See More

Top Con

No default support for unfree drivers

Debian does not official support unfree software so if you have a wifi card or anything elese that requires an unfree driver you will need to download the unofficial/non-advertised non-free iso image which contains all unfree driver packages. See More

Top Pro

Wide choice in desktop environments

Debian offers stable and testing CD images specifically built for GNOME (the default), KDE Plasma Workspaces, Xfce and LXDE. Less common window managers such as Enlightenment, Openbox, Fluxbox, GNUstep, IceWM, Window Maker and others can also be installed. See More

Top Con

Ridiculous package splitting

Even though it makes sense to split devel and the actual binary of an application, the splitting has become as mess in debian and its derivates: for example the nvidia driver is splitted into over 40 different packages: https://packages.debian.org/en/source/sid/nvidia-graphics-drivers See More

Top Pro

A real installer

Unlike other Distributions that just extract their LIve image, Debian offers a real traditional and modular installer to customize the installation. See More

Top Con

No bare/core desktop install tasks

Debian provides install tasks for desktop environments or a minimal install without X11 however it has no tasks that install the bare minimum of a desktop. See More

Top Pro

Comes with over 55.500 packages

Because of its popularity, Debian has a lot of applications available which range from productivity programs to business software, games and development tools. It comes with over 55.500 packages (software that is precompiled and ready to be installed on a local machine) -- all of them for free. See More

Top Con

No choices

Debian basically doesn't give you any choices, even dpkg supports this feature with virtual packages: for example, it is very hard to use a different sound system than ALSA, like OSS4 or to use ALSA with pulse audio emulation, and the same goes for different init systems. See More

Top Pro

Strict seperation of non-free software

Debian is one of the few distros that let the user choose if he wants a free system or not. See More

Top Con

Not designed for general desktop usage

By default, Debian Stable is not that great of a distro for general desktop usage, since the packages are very outdated. You'll have to spend a while configuring the system in order to make it work. See More

Top Pro

A lot of ways to install software

You can either use aptitude, apt or apt-build to install software from the Debian package archives. See More

Top Con

Outdated kernel of the live system

Since the LiveCD is based on Debian stable the kernel is old, outdated but stable. See More

Top Pro

Big open-source project

The Debian project is one of the biggest open source projects with over 5000 active contributors. See More

Top Con

No good choices of fresh desktop environments

GNOME is quite outdated and buggy; KDE is too old, even in Sid it is at 5.14 branch (at Jun 13 2019 Plasma 5.16 is available in many rolling/fresh distros); XFCE behaves like crooked, visual artifacts at the taskbar and so on; Cinnamon as far as I know works better in Linux Mint compared to (almost) any other distro; For other desktop environments (e.g. MATE) can't say - these are too new (as projects) and possibly incomplete, thus might have many bugs. See More

Top Pro

Live install images for CDs, DVDs and USB thumb drives

Debian releases live install images for CDs, DVDs and USB thumb drives, for the i386 and amd64 architectures, and with a choice of desktop environments. These Debian Live images allow the user to boot from a removable media and run Debian without affecting the contents of their computer. See More

Top Con

Breaks if you suspend/resume

Breaks when you resume the activity on the system. See More

Top Pro

Apt-build

It is possible to rebuild the entire system and optimize it for your hardware.(of course it is not detailed as Gentoo's USE flags) which transforms your debian install into a source based distribution. See More

Top Con

No default support for non-free hardware

Non-free hardware will not work upon install of Debian and the user will need to search out the correct non-free software to install in order to make them work. This can be difficult if one of the things not working is the WiFi connection. See More

Top Pro

Well-working team

The developer works very well so the the code is one of the best written out there. See More

Top Con

An investment for the future

Top Pro

It can be Stable or rolling release distro

Debian has a stable branch which is one of the most stable Linux distros but it has veeery old packages. There is, however, a rolling release branch "sid" too which always has newest available packages. See More

Top Con

Buggy and non-user friendly

Top Pro

Debian is an investment for the future

Top Pro

Great for gaming

As Debian is the base for SteamOS and because Ubuntu is based on it, it's almost certain that all Linux games will run properly and require no hacks like creating symbolic links because of some hardcoded paths. See More

Top Pro

Debconf

Depending how it is configured debconf does the most of the hard work for you and only asks you with configuration /file conflicts. See More

Top Pro

The Debian Social Contract

Guaranteed commitment to adherence to values, principles, priorities, requirements and guidelines by the Debian project See More

Top Pro

Wide choice of hardware platforms

Debian has one the widest choice of hardware platforms, including: amd64, armel, armhf, i386, ia64,mips, mipsel, powerpc, sparc, s390, s390x. See More

Top Pro

Supports SecureBoot

You don't have to disable SecureBoot if you use it, which is useful for LiveUSB or dualboot setups. See More

Top Pro

Unique release cycle

The most Linux distros have one or two stages before a release, but Debian has five before a new stable version is released (experimental > unstable > testing > code-freeze/bug hunting > stable). See More

Top Pro

Highly secure system

Known for being consistent in maintaining a highly secure system. Several other popular distros use Debian as a base or core for their own Linux OS, the security being one of the main factors why it's so commonly used. See More

Top Pro

Many ports

Debian supports almost any Kernel maintained CPU instructions set. It has also a few non Linux Ports. See More

Top Pro

TUI installer

The Debian installer can still be launched as text/curses-like installer which is more compatible and keyboard-friendly than the graphical version. See More

Top Pro

Standard archives

Debs are normal ar and tar archives with shell scripting and additional gz, bz, lzma or xz compression. See More

Top Pro

Great choice for returning Linux users

If you haven't used Linux for a long time, say 5-10 years, it's a great distro in which you can quickly get in the boat again. You don't have to worry about falling back. Everything is in its place. See More

Top Pro

Multiple package manager frontends

Dpkg has many frontends like apt, aptitude or synaptic. See More

Top Pro

Has small amount of today's bugs (e.g. no duplicate web cameras in Skype - likely not Skype's fault)

But has quite a few bugs from 2016-2017, apparently for long term. See More

Top Pro

Apt and Synaptic give you plenty of choice for daughter distros

the apt install program is the same among all derivatives, once you know apt (graphical: Synaptic) you know your way in all daughter distributions See More

Top Pro

Package splitting

debian splits packages to make sure that only used parts of a package are installed which will also greatly decrease the the download times and disk space wich is needed. See More

Top Pro

Inconsistent init systems

While Linux uses systemd, non-Linux ports use the traditional sysvinit. See More

It is pretty ugly by default See More

Siduction

Top Con

Ugly asthetics

Top Pro

Debian based

Siduction is fully binary compatible with debian unstable/sid. See More

NiceTlilhua's Experience

THe only debian based distro that is still based on Sid See More

Specs

Based On:Debian Unstable>Aptosid

Default Desktop Environment:KDE, Xfce, Cinnamon and LXQt

Main Usage:Recent Desktop

It extractes the LiveCD to your desktop and potentially many packages you will never need. See More

Top Con

Big bloated installation

Top Pro

Stable for desktop usage

It is stable enough for desktop usage since all major debian changes are done in experimental/rc-buggy See More

SensibleUksakka's Experience

Great distribution if you want recent packages but at the same time some stability. See More

Top Con

Dropped complete destops

In their recent release they dropped 2 complete desktops (GNOME & MATE) and support now only one complete (KDE) and 3 incomplete desktops (Xfce, Cinnamon & Lxqt). See More

Top Pro

No packagekit

It does not install Gnome-software, Apper, Discover or any other packagekit solution that can interfere with apt. See More

CaffeinatedTangaroa's Experience

Used it many years with MATE, but now they have dropped it :P See More

Top Con

Upgrade warings are not included

There is only a forum thread for upgrade warnings. See More

Top Pro

Unstable based

Even the debian team recommends the testing or unstable branch for desktop systems. See More

NeighborlyCromCruach's Experience

Pure debian See More

Top Con

Unstable based

New packages are only tested a very short time in experimental and regular package updates are almost untested. See More

Top Pro

vanilla packages

since it is based on debian it also uses almost vanilla packages. See More

Top Con

Hardware recognition is bad compared to Ubuntu

Siduction won't install any non-free drivers by default. See More

Top Pro

Secure Boot support

It supports secure boot which is great for LiveCDs and dual boot systems. See More

Top Con

Supports many Desktop Environments

It does not focus on one desktop and tries to support multiple at once. See More

Top Pro

Updates are slow, but stable. It is based on Debian after all.

It uses Unstable per default so it is still some kind of stable since all dangerous packages are tested in experimental first. See More

Debian has less overhead and customizations than ubuntu which makes it more responsive. See More

Linux Mint Debian Edition

Top Pro

Faster and more responsive than Ubuntu-based editions

Top Con

What is the point?

Nearly all packages in Mint are available in Debian. See More

NeighborlyGnowee's Experience

Very stable; very customisable. No Ub See More

Specs

Based On:Debian Stable

Default Desktop Environment:Cinnamon

Package Manager:Debian Package manager

Main Usage:Desktop, Showcase for the Cinnamon desktop

Its fully compatible to debian stable so more advanced users can easily switch to the testing or unstable branch. See More

Top Pro

Fully compatible to Debian

Top Con

Requires deeper knowledge

Requires a deeper knowledge and experience with Linux and Debian package management than Ubuntu-based editions. See More

CheerfulXmucane's Experience

I loaded this on an older HP laptop with only 4 Gb memory. It is responsive runs great and I was able to totally repurpose this old laptop. All the features work fine. i.e. sound, network, mouse pad, USB, etc. See More

Top Pro

Linux Mint based on Debian

Linux Mint Debian Edition was designed as an alternative to the Ubuntu based Linux Mint standard edition and isas fast, stable and responsive as the original, if not more so. See More

Top Con

Fails new install with (some) Intel RST

Unless you can turn off the Intel RST in some of the newer PC like HP has, then you can boot the live session but it can't find the disk to install. See More

CourteousBieggolmai's Experience

I like this distro as it is a Debian alternative (for those who distrust Ubuntu) and it is a fast, responsive, low requirement, stylish and functional distro. See More

Top Pro

Feature rich

Incredibly lightweight yet feature rich and familiar desktop. Low CPU usage. Low memory usage. Runs VMs super smoothly. Native apps are universally best in class stable open source tools. See More

Top Con

May not work with newer packages from Ubuntu

LMDE is Debian based and while Ubuntu is also Debian based, Ubuntu uses newer packages than the version LMDE is based on, which can lead to some Ubuntu apps not being able to be installed. See More

LuckyMomus's Experience

Very solid project See More

HilariousOrmenos's Experience

Stable, with a load of open source stuff. Best for corporate environments See More

ProductiveAnhur's Experience

iz gud See More

Fresh installation looks great. See More

Trisquel GNU/Linux

Top Pro

Polished look and feel

Top Con

No non-free drivers by default

What brings you the best and free OS if you can't connect to the internet? See More

Specs

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu

Default Desktop Environment:GNOME, LXDE, MATE, Openbox

Main Usage:Desktop without unfree software

There's been a lot of effort put in this project through the years, there is no question about it. It's 100% free and it's very user-friendly, but it being based on Ubuntu 16.04 isn't the best thing, as you are working with software that still is actual but the versions are not the newest. See More

Top Pro

Good but not so good

Since it is based on Mint/Ubuntu, the deb packages are not binary compatible with Debian. See More

Feren OS

Top Con

Incompatible with Debian

Top Pro

Simple installation

Uses Calamares installer, and has good support, even for obscure hardware. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu>Linux Mint

Default Desktop Environment:KDE

Main Usage:Desktop

Especially if you install a bunch of apps, and leave the default software in place. Then again, who does that? See More

Top Con

Can be a little bloated

Top Pro

Comes with Vivaldi as default browser, but has a browser selection tool

Has a tool to install pretty much any browser, and even adds other browsers from APT if you add PPA's. Default choices include Chromium, Google Chrome, Opera, Firefox, Falkon, and more. Tool also lets you set default browser if you install more than one, say for web-dev testing, or for usage segregation workflow. See More

Top Pro

It's basically Ubuntu/Kubuntu

so PPA's, and almost all of their documentation is applicable, but Feren has the extra stuff Canonical preconfigures or tries to pick for you taken out, and instead presents you with options. See More

Top Pro

KDE desktop, but with Nemo as default FM

It's an odd pairing at first glance, but oddly... imo, it works. The melding of styles and theming is actually really well done. See More

Top Pro

KDE only, but with the best out-of-box support for GTK apps that I've seen

Only other QT distro/DE that comes close is Deepin. Some see KDE/Qt only as a con, especially for distros with ZERO GTK support, but I think this strikes a nice balance. See More

Top Pro

Based off of Kubuntu, with some extra sauce

bits and pieces brought over from Zorin and Mint, and a few custom tools, on top of an Ubuntu LTS base. Flatpak and Snaps are both disabled, but either one or both can be enabled from the welcome screen, along with non-free codecs, with a few clicks. See More

Top Pro

A surprising amount of customizability

Preset color and widget themes that go a step farther than basic Qt or GTK styles out of the box, with preconfigured desktop layouts that can be further customized. See More

It is compatible to Debian >=testing. See More

Parrot GNU/Linux

Top Pro

Compatible with Debian

TrustingAtaguchu's Experience

Made for pentesting, but home edition is great as a general distro. Used for over a year would recommend! See More

Specs

Based On:Debian Testing

Default Desktop Environment:MATE, KDE

Main Usage:Desktop, Penetration testing

It is always based on the latest testing release so it includes more recent software than a stable based distribution. See More

Top Pro

Testing based

Top Pro

Focuses just one desktop

It focus the MATE desktop which makes it unique compared to the more general distros. See More

It is a very minimal debian setup that is ideal for DIY projects. See More

DietPi

Top Pro

Lightweight

Top Con

Keeping Packages up to date

The problems start when you want to update the supported packages beyond what the DIetPI distro has. Things start breaking quickly. Stopped using it because of this. See More

IndustriousPenthus's Experience

Very easy to setup it uses an dialog-like setup wizard to configure the system See More

Specs

Based On:Raspbian/Debian Stable

Default Desktop Environment:NA

Main Usage:Lightweight server and IoT OS

You have full access to all debian/raspian packages. See More

Top Pro

Highly customizable

DiplomaticBhima's Experience

Bad experience , the install is a nightmare. See More

Top Pro

Configuration tools

It features some curses-based configuration tools/scripts. See More

It's mainly a Debian stable with some recompiled/backported Debian testing packages. See More

MX Linux

Top Pro

Very stable

Top Con

Remixed Debian stable

ReflectiveTriton's Experience

It is a solid, stable and fast operating system. It has great tools to make system administration much easier. Without Systemd but emulates it for certain processes that require it, that is, MX tricks certain applications to work. It works well on older or less powerful hardware. For me it is basically a child of Debian better than Debian. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian Stable>antiX

Default Desktop Environment:XFCE

Main Usage:Stable System with backported Desktop

Even the Debian team recommends the use of testing or unstable for a Desktop system. See More

Top Pro

Lightweight

Top Con

Uses Debian stable

AwareTellumo's Experience

4 year Linux user See More

Top Pro

Based on Debian

Top Con

Old software

Many software aplications are older. See More

ConscientiousEndovelicus's Experience

I cant run VLC Media Player without it freezing the whole computer and no way to get out of it except the off switch See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

Top Con

Causes overheating on some hardwares

Other debian based XFCE distros- Xubuntu, Debian XFCE, Devuan leave small footprint on system whereas MXLinux uses too much CPU resources on same system. See More

IntelQuackCore's Experience

great clean and snappy See More

Top Pro

Binary compatible

It is fully binary compatible with debian stable. See More

Top Con

Not much out of the box

While this might be a pro for some, it is a pain to have to go and find all the software you end up installing anyway. See More

Top Pro

Supports non-free drivers

Top Con

VLC useless

Top Pro

Easy install

Top Con

Too much preinstalled applications

Top Pro

Supports but doesn't rely on Systemd

Mx linux runs using the sysvinit init system, but it also uses systemd-shim to support systemd without relying on it. See More

Top Con

Too much customization

Top Pro

Good MX Tools and Package Installer

MX Linux comes with its own set of tools called MX Tools, designed to make life easier for users. See More

Top Con

10s of media players preinstalled

Top Pro

No systemd

Top Con

Includes non-free drivers

Top Pro

Can also be used as an emergency tool

It has almost all tools to repair non booting systems or recover files & folders and save them on a safe place. And when thought together with it starts quick on live-session. In addition, you can do these with "your own", customized distro (snapshot). See More

Top Con

Only one desktop environment

Top Pro

MX Snapshot: lets you make your own distro

Can create your own ISO (snapshot) and use it either as live-session and install back when needed. With the (pre-installed) Snapshot tool you can easily create an ISO of your running system and then save it to a USB (or other media) and use "your own" distro as a live session or install back whenever you like (even on a different PC with different specs with no issues). You can even give that customized ISO to friends (selecting "non-personal" ISO when creating the snapshot; thus resetting the accounts & passwords and Home folder etc.). Also you can save that ISO directly encrypted via MX Live USB Maker tool. Again, you can install MX encrypted during installation with just ticking a box, no matter if it's the official ISO or your snapshot. See More

Top Pro

Has multiple desktops/ISO source options

Comes in KDE (Qt) and Fluxbox/XFCE (GTK) versions, with an easy to use mirror map for direct downloads, in addition to the usual auto-select and torrent options See More

Top Pro

Is based on Antix, technically, so the support and community of both is included

So, all the pro's of Antix also apply. MX also has a bunch of it's own utilities and tools, that cover a lot of functionality, and the community is great. See More

Top Pro

Includes Debian-Testing backports

Newer stable versions of software are vetted for usability and then backported via compilation against the Debian-Stable branch base, for the best balance of new software, usability, security, and stability. See More

Top Pro

Live-Session boots fastest after Puppy

After Puppy Linux (which's aimed to run from RAM and which is smaller in size) the second fastest (head & shoulders) booting one (together with the sister project antiX) and also has the option "toram" to run from RAM. Yes, not only when compared to full distros, even far faster than small sized or tiny distros, especially when booted to "live-session", about 2 - 2.5 times faster on an old single core laptop. See More

Awesome distro that balances its lightning fast speed with an unusual amount of flexibility (it runs all of my apps regardless of their origins) and has never crashed or failed to deliver the goods for years! See More

BunsenLabs Linux

Top Pro

Lightweight

Top Con

Long lag between when Debian releases and when bunsenlabs releases.

ModestLamia's Experience

Specs

Based On:Debian Stable

Default Desktop Environment:Openbox

Main Usage:Lightweight Desktop

It not just another distribution that ships an already in debian available desktop . See More

Top Pro

Different

ChattyLethe's Experience

I tested it on my Acer Aspire One AO725 notebook. All hardware worked well. Blender worked to with no render smoothly. See More

EagerHeqet's Experience

There's a lot of lag between when Debian releases and when bunsenlabs releases, so I always consider hopping to another distro, but I never do and always wait it out because I just love bunsenlabs so much. See More

Has a 70-90MB memory footprint. See More

antiX

Top Pro

Extremely lightweight

Top Con

Spreaded network config

The network configurarion is split into many different apps, with makes difficult to configure it. See More

TruthfulUoke's Experience

The best Debian non systemD alternative out there , fast , light weight , stable , and freedom to make it your own. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian Stable

Default Desktop Environment:IceWM

Main Usage:Desktop

The installation procedure for antiX is quick and painless. It installs the OS and grub in no time. See More

Top Pro

Quick installation

Top Con

No config possibility in network assistant

There is nothing else possible on the status tab (except refreshingthe list) - no config possibility. See More

SophisticatedRaediengiedte's Experience

Great alternative to a usual distro that comes with the common desktops. It is fast and comfortabe to use and follows the UNIX way more closely than other distributions. See More

Top Pro

Makes IceWM usable

It adds config tools that give you the same comfort as using Xfce or LXDE just with IceWM . See More

Top Con

Vanishing internet cards and drivers

In network assistant the avaliable network cards (status tab) and loaded drivers (linux drivers tab) can suddenly vanish from the list. See More

GenuineAlcyoneus's Experience

It's a quick and lightweight OS. It just works and lets me do the things that I want to do without the OS getting in my way. See More

Top Pro

Comes without systemD

And has much faster boot times. See More

Top Con

Wifi issues

Even if the Wifi card is correctly detected in the Network assistant visible, Antix is unable to use it. See More

Holo Deck's Experience

nice and fast system that should work on almost any i586-compatible PC. See More

Top Pro

Very fast , stable , freedom.

Top Con

Not really free and not available for download in Iran

Top Pro

Stats appear on the desktop

Default Desktop Environment:GNOME or Xfce

Voyager

Based On:Debian/Ubuntu

Main Usage:Live System, Desktop

Default Desktop Environment:KDE

Whonix

Main Usage:Live Desktop, Privacy

Deepin OS

Top Pro

Very stable

Even though it is based on Debian unstable, it is still pretty stable and you will hardly ever get a dependency issue. See More

Top Con

Very slow installer

Because the servers are in China. See More

MethodicalEurotas's Experience

Easy install, runs fast, very stable and it looks great See More

Specs

Main Usage:Desktop, Showcase for the Deepin Desktop

Origin:China

OS Family:GNU+Linux

Installing Deepin OS is very easy. Even easier than installing Ubuntu! See More

Top Pro

Easy to install

Top Con

Slow default repos

Download speed for packages from the default repos, is abnormally slow if you don't choose the correct sever. See More

SharpAsterion's Experience

stable. Debian well integrated. good network and printer connections See More

Top Pro

Well-designed in every detail, developers have a professional aproach to the system

Deepin has a sane default set of apps including custom apps of their own design that gives the distro a very consistent look and feel. By working with the community on these tools as well as custom translations there is a great sense of polish when using it that is not often seen when using such a new desktop environment. See More

Top Con

Cannot customize desktop environment.

Because the developers have locked down desktop customization is A HUGE detractor against the idea of setting things up how you want. See More

MerryUkanomitama's Experience

Awesome, everything just works :) See More

Top Pro

Enjoy the simplicity of Deepin's desktop

The desktop interface and apps feature an intuitive and elegant design. Moving around, sharing and searching, etc. has become simply a joyful experience. See More

Top Con

Based in China

CoolUoke's Experience

Very easy to use. I love the apps. See More

Top Pro

Based on Debian

It is based on Debian which is the best Linux distribution for desktops. See More

Top Con

Uses al lot of webtechnics like JS

The most apps are not traditional linux apps that use common toolkits like GTK, EFL or Qt. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

It's very easy to use. You can easily uninstall a program by going to the menu then right-clicking on the preferred app and selecting "Uninstall" option. See More

Top Con

Deepin store apps not up to date

Top Pro

Blur and transparent design

Deepin has a blur and transparent design throughout the OS, which makes it one of the most beautiful Linux distros. See More

Top Con

Customization is a bit hidden

GUI is not straight forward for changing GTK+ or QT themes. See More

Top Pro

Quite lightweight

Deepin 15.7 is lighter than Windows 10 and Ubuntu. See More

Top Con

Team doesn't know what to do

Deepin has changed the base 4 times, and the name 3 times. The Desktop Environment also has been changed 4 times. See More

Top Pro

Excellent apps

Having Deepin installed also means you have thousands of quality apps to choose from. The apps which come with installation will suit your needs to browse the Internet, listen to music, watch videos, talk with friends, editing documents or simply any task you want to do at home or in your office. See More

Top Con

Strange development organization

There aren't any sort of improvements over Deepin v15.1, though the only changes are icons, that become better. See More

Top Pro

Exciting applications

It has some exciting applications, such as Deepin Graphics Driver Manager which can easily change between free and proprietary drivers without any issue. See More

Top Pro

Great support for graphics cards

Deepin OS includes a program called "Deepin Graphics Driver Manager" which can easily install a good driver for the graphics card. See More

Top Pro

Great design to the app store

The app store is gorgeous. See More

Top Pro

Best for daily use

Top Pro

Includes both Windows and macOS style interface

Top Pro

Includes a lot of packages in the official repository

The official repository of deepin OS includes over 73,000 packages. See More

Top Pro

Launches programs faster

Programs load and launch faster in Deepin than other Linux distributions. It takes only about 3 seconds to launch Chrome. See More

Top Pro

Not based on Ubuntu

Some people don't like Ubuntu nor its derivatives. See More

Top Pro

Automatically cleans package cache

Deepin automatically cleans package cache. Cleaning package cache is a good thing as it will make the OS much faster and lighter. See More

Top Pro

Supports Flatpak

Deepin OS supports Flatpak. It also has some Flatpak programs installed by default. See More

Top Pro

Rolling release

It is a rolling release Linux distribution which is quite popular these days. See More

Top Pro

Seemless transition form Windows to Linux

Easy to install, comes with default packages to typical needs e.g. Chrome, WPS office, System Monitor and a bunch of multimedia utilities. Its easy to install and uninstall applications, it has a great app store and is fast. On same laptop run much faster than Windows 10 did. See More

Top Pro

Can be made to look like Windows easily

By default, Deepin looks kinda like macOS but it can be made to look like Windows by right-clicking on the dock and changing the mode from "Fashion Mode" to "Efficient Mode". See More

Top Pro

Has its own toolkit

It has its own toolkit called "Deepin Tool Kit". And the maintainers themselves use it. See More

Top Pro

Network managment

Deepin has the facilities to create VLAN and other configuration like Wifi Hostpot on their GUI. See More

Top Pro

Gives warning messages when upgrading packages using apt

Deepin uses their own modified version of apt. When there is a distribution upgrade available and if we try to upgrade by running "sudo apt upgrade", then this modified version of apt gives this warning message, "DDE programs will work abnormally if run this command. Run sudo apt dist-upgrade or sudo apt full-upgrade instead." See More

Top Pro

VLC media player works without any issue

In some cases, VLC media player has some problems with Ubuntu or Ubuntu-based Linux distros. That isn't the case with Deepin. See More

Top Pro

Company behind it

The Wuhan Deepin Technology is behind this Linux distribution. See More

Been using LXLE for a few months. It's lightweight with plenty of apps & is easy to configure. It's based on Lubuntu 18.04 LTS (only lighter & faster) with both the LXDE desktop or Open Box windows manger. I've added several things to it & still my idle ram usage with only wifi, & conky running ranges from 275 to 300. Runs great & never crashes. The only downside I can think to mention is that over a month after applying to join the official LXLE forum, I've still heard nothing from them, so am unable ask questions or get help. Other than that, I'm very happy with this OS. See More

LXLE

DignifiedAglibol's Experience

Specs

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu

Default Desktop Environment:LXDE

Main Usage:Lightweight Desktop

You can install different init-systems (currently with beowulf SysVinit, OpenRC and runit are available). See More

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Devuan GNU+Linux

Top Pro

Init freedom

Top Con

Difficult to install on non-free hardware

Unlike Debian, Devuan offers no unfree netinstall media so if your system needs unfree drivers (e.g a laptop or a tablet with WLAN), you will have to use Debian's nonfree firmware on a separate USB stick to install it. See More

InsightfulNefertum's Experience

NO systemd, fully binary compatible to Debian, very stable. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian

Default Desktop Environment:Xfce (KDE, MATE, Cinnamon and LXQt are available)

Main Usage:Universal

Devuan is fully binary compatible to Debian. It also has one compatible release for every Debian release (oldstable, stable, testing, unstable). See More

Top Pro

Binary compatible with Debian

Top Con

XFCE as default desktop

Since Xfce is not a full DE, it has no polkit client or archive manager so you have to borrow that stuff from other desktops like MATE or GNOME which require to install their DE-specific dependencies. See More

EnchantingSunWukong's Experience

20 years with debian See More

Top Pro

Rolling or Release based

Like Debian every Devuan install can either be rolling (oldstable, stable, testing, unstable) or release (jessie, ascii, beowulf, ceres) based. See More

Top Pro

It's Debian

Devuan is Debian just without systemd, it just mirrors the Debian archive and repacks/removes packages that have hard dependencies on systemd. See More

Top Pro

Stability

The stable release is almost on par with Debian stable. See More

Top Pro

No systemd

Isn't using systemd as init which is bloated and can spread malware into your system. See More

Top Pro

Debian without systemd

Top Pro

Very secure

More secure than Debian because it doesn't use Systemd. See More

Top Pro

Excellent for normal people

It is easy to use and is a good choice for beginners. See More

Top Pro

Most decent look amongst other XFCE distros

Default XFCE theme is unique of all the XFCE distos including MXLinux, Xubuntu etc. See More