Why don't more people use Debian Linux?

oh Debbie and Debian why don't more people use Debian to be clear Debian is extremely used in the context of servers in fact it is the second most common OS other than its derivative Ubuntu however that market share drops significantly when we are talking about desktop Linux there is of course no reliable data to show that but Debian rarely gets a great position in polls such as the steam survey where it's not even listed in the results so why is the second biggest server distribution rarely chosen by desktop users and there are many reasons the first one should be apparent simply if you go and try to install Debian for the first time but before we talk about all that and more we need to thank the sponsor of today's video lenode with the node firing up your very own Debian server is actually super easy just go and click create the node pick the distribution you want to use including Debian and a bunch of others pick your region your plan all that and you are good to go at that point you have a Linux server in the cloud or you can use a variety of their one-click installers to get up and started with ease and better yet if you are a first time user you can check out the link down below for a hundred dollar sixty day credit this is their website featuring a large download button but as soon as you click it you see the only available install is the net install meaning that the OS packages will be fetched from the internet during the installation process let's say instead you wanted to download an image that can be installed without an internet connection you first have to click on the getting Debian which will bring you to this page here you have to find the link that says complete installation image this will bring you to another Wiki page containing four different downloads and between them a link to a list of vendors of physical installation media there are directions that are not easy to catch for an example there is a difference between the options of downloading CD DVD image using http which will only install Debian and download live images using HTTP which will allow you to try out Debian before installing it to add to the confusion links only mention CD DVD images even though you're probably going to end up using a USB stick it's still the same image for USBS but only if you read the entire page from top to bottom even after selecting the image you download you'll only be brought yet to another Wiki page luckily there is a link that says official CD DVD images of the stable release on top of the page and luckily this is the only link to the first section of the page now that you have chose between a cvd and DVD image Debian again doesn't message you as fees you have to choose your Hardware architecture there are 10 options so make sure you pick the right one done that you'll be brought yet to another page finally containing the iso download link and checksums only now that we have our download link the page tells us that for extra convenience these images may also be written directly to a USB stick not only to a DVD by comparison the exact same process starting from beginning to end on the Ubuntu homepage looks like this yep that's it one might now rightfully point out that most laptops do have an internet connection and the net installer would have worked just as well however the only image offered on the initial download page contains the non-free firmware as debian's page says non-free firmware is helpful for some networks and video adapters but if you're a new Linux user most likely you won't know whether your network or video adapters require it or not so it would be recommended to use the unofficial image containing them which can be found either on the same page that we've come across before or by directly clicking The Unofficial non-free images including firmware packages link this will require these same choices as we mentioned above live image or not Hardware architecture Etc but we're no longer presented a Wiki page but more confusing navigation folders old school internet type stuff some people might criticize ubuntu's approach including proprietary drivers directly within the OS image but again in the context of of somebody approaching the Linux world for the first time or for those not so experienced users the ability to install a distribution and have everything working out of the box is an absolute must it is worth mentioning though that they're doing something good kind of unlucky timing on my part Debian has decided to include non-free firmware on the official download installer image starting with Bookworm which will be released sometime around June now talking about the release cycle this might be another reason people tend to pick Ubuntu for example over Debian Ubuntu has a six month release cycle which means users have access to the latest features more frequently than Debian which is known for being quite out of date and even when a release is put out it's still often a little out of date compared to others this distribution doesn't technically have a fixed release schedule though new versions are published roughly every two years or so furthermore there are long freezes before releases which means like I said certain releases or certain packages might be slight really out of date on the actual release day there is a reason behind this as an example a distribution with such a high market share in servers prefers being stable and reliable over having the latest desktop and Suite of applications however many desktop Linux users might have different needs and might not be fulfilled by this more stable approach but let's get back to the installation since that does not end as you download the image as soon as you're in the live session you'll notice that the Debian installer itself is not as usable and Polished as ubuntu's for example or many others as an example you might get confused by the installer asking you for a domain name and the partitioning step also exposes you to a lot of technical details and some options that might easily scare new users away you have to then manually set up the package manager by setting the country of the mirror to use next its URL from a list of possible options again the installer will ask you for an HTTP proxy and whether if you want to install grub or not all of this is quite technical for somebody who's just trying out Linux or Debian for the very first time due to all that it's very hard to suggest it to users who aren't very experienced with Linux they probably wouldn't be able to install it I know the first time I went to go try out Debbie and I literally just kind of gave up through the installation page and given that we have a derivative Ubuntu that addresses all of the above concerns and has a more active Community it's instead very easy to pick that over Debian itself and speaking of community another obvious advantage to Ubuntu over Debian for many desktop users is the community and the support for the desktop given the big desktop market share of Ubuntu in the Linux World there are countless guides form posts with solutions to various issues when choosing Ubuntu you know that any significant issue that you have you'll is more than likely to have been encountered by another user and there's probably a page or post with troubleshooting steps even if that is not the case the more active user Community makes it easier to get support from other experienced users and same applies to various extents to other frequently used Linux desktop distributions not including Debian again this is not something that might be of interest to the person that is using that distro on their server but inexperienced users might be better off with a more used derivative not only that but Ubuntu has a family of derivatives and these include all of the above mentioned advantages over Debian but they also offer a variety of different desktop environments if you'd prefer KDE plasma with KDE apps you could pick kubuntu or El buntu with lxde if you have a low end device that needs a distro that's lighter on resources users might quite appreciate being able to Simply pick one of these os's rather than in debian's case having to select one or more certain collections of software from a quite long list in the ins installer itself finally if you need additional stability that Debian offers it's worth noting that most users might still be more tempted with ubuntu's LTS releases which again have a well-defined release schedule and are supported for up to five years with regular bug fixes and security updates given all of this it becomes quite unclear why most users would need to even try Debian over Ubuntu or any other widely used distribution but this might not be an issue for Debian at all as its focus seems to be rightfully so on being a good Upstream over its derivatives and ultimately the real reason Debian is not as widely used on desktops as its competitors might be that it's just not debian's role in the Linux world and with all that if you're interested nonetheless I'll leave links to Debian down below and a few other distros and I might as well leave a link to my personal top 5 Linux distributions uploading that video a couple months ago it is worth checking out and with all that I do hope you have an absolutely beautiful day make sure you subscribe to our newsletter weekly source of good old Linux news I do recommend it free open source stuff text news it's a good time with all that I do hope you have an absolutely beautiful day and good bye

Channel: TechHut

Views: 49,118

Keywords: linux, linux tutorial, desktop enviorment, Debian

Id: _vUkFAf8XPU

Length: 9min 28sec (568 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 12 2023