this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2025
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Debian is a good stable distro but I personally wouldn't recommend it for desktop home users. There are debian derivatives that do use it as a base and offer more up to date packages.
There are also lots of alternatives that are dedicated rolling release or more frequently updated point release distros.
I often recommend Linux Mint as a good first distro. It's got a big user base, so lots of support online, and it's based off Ubuntu which itself is based off Debian, so has a wide range of software already packaged for it. Once you know what you want / like from Linux you could move on or stick with Mint if you like it.
I used to use Mint but I wanted to switch to KDE. You can install KDE with Mint but things are a little janky as the core mint tools are really built for Cinnamon (and GTK). I moved to OpenSuSE Tumbleweed 2+ years ago and like it. I've also used Nobara on another device - it's decent buf have moved away from it after some update issues. Regardless there is a lot of choice out there.
But I'd recommend starting with Mint as a good stable but updatable option. You can use Mint and add in cutting edge Nvidia drivers with relative ease for example.
I would not start with Arch as some others are recommending. It's a good distro but it's an involved manual set up and can require a lot of troubleshooting. I'd recommend picking something that is a simpler install and get used to Linux basics first before venturing into distros like Arch.