Here are some Debian based distributions: LMDE - Linux Mint Debian Edition, Linux Mint, *buntu, Peppermint OS, Pop!_OS, Raspberry Pi OS, Zorin OS, KDE neon, TUXEDO OS, Deepin, siduction, MX Linux, Kali Linux, and antiX; there are quite a few others. For those @Debian who use Debian derivatives (or pure Debian), let us know what you like and why you like it.
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Good question @Brian_Masinick
Great to see more love for Debian! I
Itās one of the oldest and most reliable distros out there. So I always find myself coming back to either pure Debian or one of its popular derivatives, like Kali.
The huge package repository makes it super convenient to get whatever software I need in quick time.
I always say, Arch has the better Wiki, but Debian has less reason for needing such Wiki. jk 
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Thatās a great point hydn! Debian and Arch derivatives are both up there today; I now have a few that have been in place for 2-3 years, only doing regular updates and theyāre all working great: among these - Debian based: antiX and MX Linux on my main system, and Endeavour OS and Cachy OS representing Arch; I have a Sid, currently siduction, saved and used occasionally on another computer.
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Pure Debian all the way. Iām on testing (Trixie) and havenāt had a single problem with it. Debian has been rock solid since I switched to it from Fedora 7 (yes that long ago). Other than Kali I havenāt tried any derivatives. One Other OS I like is Parrot Linux. Parrotās Web site, itās every bit as good as Kali I think. It even has a home edition Home download link. if you just want more security and privacy, without the Hackerās tools.
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My only hesitation with Parrot is that the official desktop environments are (I believe) limited to KDE and MATE.
Aesthetics aside (the wallpaper is beautiful!) the layout feels a bit too much like Windows 10 for my taste, especially the start menu setup.
That said, I completely get the appeal. Itās the same reason I like Kali ā it includes special hardening features and can be more secure than vanilla Debian when set up properly.
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I was wondering why I hadnāt tried out Parrot; now I know: the desktop offerings have not been appealing to me.
I have installed a few KDE Plasma systems, but I really donāt need any DE at all; simple window managers, for example IceWM or JWM, are fine for me.
I handle the CLI just fine, have a complete collection of alias commands so thatās enough.
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@tmick You are right that Debian, regardless of the release, has always been faithful to overall system stability and has tremendously improved since the Woody days in ease f use and other things that it once lacked in itās early history.
Nevertheless I have a few minor ābeefsā with the lastest version of Debian. Prerequisite: Iāve always been a multi-distribution user. From about 2001 on, I even booted many of them on the SAME hardware; prior to that, I would change between one distribution to another to test them out.
With that said, when I was messing with Trixie, before and after the release, Debian had a tendency to want to take over the boot loader, and worse, the latest release added several hundred MB in size to the required boot partition, so neither of these things pleased me at all, especially since I HAD and still have a pretty nominal sized boot partition (around 100 MB), still more than capable of storing the controlling EFI/UEFI boot image. Bottom line: Iām using either MX Linux or antiX ( Debian derived prior to Trixie) to maintain my boot loader image. Both of them have a couple years left in support, so while I may install their newer images, Iāll retain one of them so that I can retain a smaller boot partition without having to redesign my boot partition for a couple of years. By then I may get another primary system; if not, Iāll use legacy or older stuff for as long as possible when it comes to boot system management.
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I will follow up on my Debian comments.
Debian Trixie was remarkably stable throughout testing, so much so that RC 2 (Release Candidate 2) was more solid than many released distributions.
Only Slackware and some of the best Debian derivatives do as well.
The tendency to take over the boot loader is not unique to Debian. MX Linux and antiX are among the best in terms of either effective management of the boot loader or even helping to repair the boot loader for their own - or get this - another distribution.
Only special purpose boot rescue distributions, MX, antiX, and possibly PCLinuxOS tend to be really good in this regard.
Have any of you found another distribution capable of repairing another distro boot loader other than the ones that I mentioned?
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As a Microsoft prison āescapeeā, I have been enjoying Linux Mint for over a decade. Linux Mint has served me well for both desktops and servers. Using a Debian and Ubuntu derivative means that I have access to any software imaginable. Using an Ubuntu derivative means that I can and do use ZFS pools for data volumes.
@Brian_Masinick, I am a heavy proponent of virtualization / hypervisors, specifically QEMU-KVM, to run more operating systems than I have the hardware. One of the benefits of virtualization is that each virtual machineās operating system gets its own dedicated storage in the form of a virtual disk. Have you considered switching from multi-boot to virtualization?
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That is the question Iāve been thinking myself.
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No, not really. Iāve done it before and it was OK, but I often spend hours in the various systems I use and I find an installed instance more enjoyable to me; Iāve got the space so itās not a serious consideration to use virtualization / hypervisors.
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Lately it comes out Debian 13, still on Kernel 6.12 LTS, sadly itās a completly mess with Nvidia cards compatibility.. I tried to install it on a separate hard drive.. No suggested at all if you own fresh hardware.
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Have you tried these links: NVIDIA Optimus - Debian Wiki NvidiaGraphicsDrivers - Debian Wiki and they were of no help? I know you need to ensure the contrib-non-free & non-free-firmware repositories are enabled.
that way if you run uname -ra it should show something like 6.12.41+deb13-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.12.41-1 (2025-08-12) x86_64 GNU/Linux Hope that helps.
What GPU card are you running?
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I tried using this guide:
https://www.reddit.com/r/debian/comments/1klhssk/guide_how_to_have_debian_with_latest_kernel_using/
Where the author suggest to install the Liquorix kernel along the latest Nvidia Drivers from Cuda repositories.
I tried to follow line by line in the end when I finished installing everything Linux where no more able to startx in desktop environment.
Last time I was in this problem was last week but, as I said many times on this forum, Iām stable on Fedora, Nvidia drivers are working out of the box.
Btw I own an RTX 5070, before I owned a 3070ti, and this was working correclty in Debian 12 as well.
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I hear you. Storage space is cheap now days.
Actually, I was mentioning virtualization as a way to get away from the boot loader aggravation.
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Nice point!
I also donāt like to make the bootloader more fragile by installing multiple OS on the same system. Thatās one of reason that keep me distant from dual booting.
I can relate you very well about virtualization, and I can share the same experience and the point of view.
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At my office, Microsoft Windows is still king, but for my work laptop I have been using Linux for about two years. Therefore when I need to use a Windows Machine, virtualization using QEMU is what works best for me. I did try VirtualBox at first, but I found it breaking easily with every update. QEMU has been rock solid.
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Not sure what your reluctance with multiple booting is; I feel that the trade-off in complexity exceeds the value of virtualization; I find the features and performance of VM solutions uninspiring to say the least, plus I relish the challenges of keeping the boot loader working properly.
MX Linux happens to have an excellent boot loader replacement and recovery tool; I use it live any time I bork a boot loader and in a short time everything is corrected, therefore boot loaders arenāt a problem for me at all, plus I consider my skills to be better than average in boot loader management. For example I can work with efibootmgr as well as boot loader tools and I can read and modify boot loader configuration files and utilize distribution tools; thatās more than enough to solve problems.
Besides I can resort to Roderick W. Smithās refind boot manager and Rodās written expertise if a scenario takes too much time and research. Refind typically locates any bootable image. With this many resources at my disposal you can see why I donāt have to resort to a slower virtual solution; I prefer using my mind and experience to configure what I want.
Iāve changed images at least a half dozen times during August alone so I get plenty of practice.
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For daily stability purpose I think is not a good practice costantly install new OS on hard drive. Altough I remember sometimes while installing Linux I was not able to select the device where bootloader should be installed, then the bootloader were installed on wrong disk. Iām sure I can avoid this by disconnecting the disk from the system before installing Linux, but to be honest having a desktop is quite challenging dismount case and then reassemble case just for take off and reinstall an hard drive.
I respect your point of view, but I prefer virtualizing OS: with my Ryzen 5800x I can assign without problems 12 cores to a virtual machine, and trust me performance are not so bad after all.
Moreover in my usecase if I need to use Windows specific software I donāt have to reboot the entire machine but I can do all with a Windows vm, without splitting the workflow.
Moreover backing up a virtual vm would be easier then doing an entire disk image.
Personal point of view and personal experiences.
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