Debian seems very enticing... talk me out of it?

[hydn (Hayden James)]

Can’t talk you out of it. Debian is solid for your use case of older GPU, Python dev, and using Flatpaks for keeping GNOME apps fresh. The “outdated GPU drivers” concern is a bit overstated IMO for a GTX 1060; that card has been well-supported for a while and the Debian stable drivers are fine for it.

For CUDA specifically, grab it from NVIDIA’s repo directly. That way you control the version and kernel updates don’t become a whole thing. Have a look also at @ricky89 post:

Steps for installing modern Nvidia drivers on Debian Stable

Each commands I type requires root privileges, so the first command I use is su. If you want to prevent each command from being executed as administrator, just type sudo in front of each command. Install package extrepo with the command apt install extrepo Refresh its repositories with the command extrepo update Search for Nvidia repos in extrepo with the command extrepo search nvidia Enable the official repo Nvidia Cuda with the command extrepo enable nvidia-cuda Now you can see the new repo…

Honestly the only way to talk you out of it at this point is to tell you Fedora is also great and you’ll spend a weekend reinstalling just to end up with ~ same setup. If the itch is there, scratch it.

I’m itching for sure. My Debian-based setup has been great for years, but I would like to be able to achieve something stable like this again with a new distro, well… because a challenge is sweet.

Not Debian related, but there’s a constructive discussion on general arguments and mindsets for our valid arguments for or against our current distros here:

Should I stay on Arch or try Fedora?

Read the full article: Should I stay on Arch or try Fedora? For the last month, this war has been raging in my mind. Stay with Arch or try Fedora? I have been on various flavors of Arch Linux for the last two years. What keeps me coming back is the Wiki and the ability to troubleshoot problems with a simple search. Sure, there have been times… continue reading.