The Switch (And Not The Nintendo Kind)

📆 09 Jul 2026 22:05 UTC +01:00
📕 625 words ⏳ 5 min.
🏷️#Linux#Debian

I have been using Arch Linux full time since 30^th November 2025, where I wrote this blog post, talking through all my install steps and what I experienced. It’s been a fun time and a really enjoyable way to learn more about Linux and system management. BUT, I feel that the time has come for me to move again. I have run a poll on my Fedi account and the options were:

• Stick with Arch
• Back to Fedora
• Retry Debian

As with any sort of poll about Linux distros, everyone is going to choose the one they use, so it’s interesting to see the outcome nonetheless, even though, after posting it, I had already made up my mind on what to do and where to go.

Debian.

I wanted to make a change, and I felt like going for something more stable and tested than Arch. And that’s where Debian comes in.

My History With Debian

I first tried Debian, a good few years ago, I think it was around the time that Bookworm was released as stable. I didn’t have much luck, ending up with my operating system completely gone after a reboot or two. I think this might have been a GRUB issue thinking back on it, but back then I didn’t know what I know now. About a year ago, I tried Debian again, which was fine. I used it for a while, but then I managed to create a Frankenbian, where I tried to install an app from the testing repo and then turn the repos back to stable, which, as you can expect, broke things.

Why Switch?

I was getting a bit bored with Arch. Same old, same old. It’s a shame, because I was really enjoying it.

I wanted a different scenery for my distro so chose to move back away from Arch and use something a bit more stable (in terms of packages)/

I know that this move is going to be controversial with some people, but I don’t care for the politics of which Linux distro you use, it’s silly. Use what works for you. And that’s the most important thing, if something works, why change it? Just like the good ol’ saying:

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

As of writing this blost, I have Debian all installed on my laptop.

Experience So Far

My experience with Debian so far tonight, since installing has been very positive. My Pentium laptop is running Gnome Wayland very smoothly, and that’s with both Gnome and KDE Plasma installed. All good so far.

In terms of desktops, I went for Gnome and KDE Plasma, because I like them both. KDE being my first experience on Linux. I am going to test KDE after finishing this blost and see whether that runs any smoother or slower than Gnome on this laptop and then I’ll make a choice for what I stick with for the foreseeable future (probably not that long). I will undoubtedly end up installing a tiling window manager (BSPWM is my go to) at some point, but maybe I’ll use the distro hop as an opportunity to make the switch to a Wayland tiler. maybe

I think that there’s nothing more to be said, without repeating myself, which I could happily do and then this blost would be thousands of words long, but that’s a bit pointless, so that’s that.

I hope this has been a nice read, thanks for sticking to the end of my ramblings. BYEEE!!!