I’ve been getting more into self hosting lately, grabbed an optiplex 3050 for everything and I’m running Mint currently. Looking more into things though, I saw Debian come up as a more barebones distro and now I’m wondering if there is a lot of benefit to going more barebones. I’m not having any issues with my current setup but now I can’t stop thinking about it. I am newer to Linux but having to learn new things doesn’t wig me out much if there is a lot more involvement with Debian

Edit: I appreciate the responses. I do see where I could just end up creating problems that don’t exist by experimenting with it more. Debian does sound enticing so it’s definitely something I’ll mess about with virtually for now and see how I like it in comparison. But I definitely have to agree on the “don’t mess with a good thing” if it’s working for me. All your answers have definitely given me something to play with now as well, I want the problems to solve but doing it in a separate environment would suit me better to learn a few things. This community rocks.

  • lightnsfw@reddthat.comEnglish
    14·
    il y a 7 jours

    I have a headless Debian server I’ve used for hosting media for like 10 years now with 0 issues that weren’t hardware failures. It’s solid as a rock. That said if you already have stuff up and running and you’re not having any problems there’s no reason to touch it.

  • Alvaro@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    11·
    il y a 7 jours

    My personal journey:

    • arch is annoying to maintain and whil it is mostly stable, you do get some breaking updates here and there. It’s not a bad choice, it just doesn’t makeuch sense for a headless server.
    • Ubuntu server, just why? Works fine but why?
    • a not headless fedora, worked fine but still annoyed me sometimes
    • proxmox (debian based) works great, annoyed me to manage vm resources.
    • headless debian. Just works, I rarely if ever encounter OS issues. The only downside is that not everything can be found in the debian repos, but there is almost always an option to add a repo for whatever you want.

    My setup is mostly dockers so keep that in mind.

    But really, if something works for you go with it. If you are looking to change, I would recommend debian.

    • TBi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      il y a 6 jours

      Debian is good choice. Another option could be open media vault. Which is Debian with a built in web interface.

  • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    il y a 6 jours

    Mint is based on Ubuntu which is based on Debian. If you were spinning up a new server from scratch, I would definitely recommend Debian over Mint, but realistically if you’re not currently having any issues there’s no reason to rearchitect your whole server just for that.

  • talkingpumpkin@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    il y a 7 jours

    Don’t tear down your server just to have fun - setup a vm (or get one of those minipcs), call i “playground” and have fun there.

    Redo your server after you’ve tried different things, and only if you feel like you found something that is worth it.

    Experimenting with different distros can teach you a lot (especially if you try very different ones - mint and debian aren’t that much different) and I do recommend you do it, just don’t do it in production :)

  • Kairos@lemmy.todayEnglish
    91·
    il y a 7 jours

    Debian is stable. It works well, but the software in its apt/deb repo are relatively outdated compared to what might be in Fedora.

    • mjr@infosec.pubEnglish
      6·
      il y a 7 jours

      In the stable repo, but there are backports, testing and unstable repos too, if you want later versions and accept more risk of bugs.

      • Guda Blues@lemmy.zipEnglish
        2·
        il y a 6 jours

        Yeap, the price of security and stability is not having the latest bling. I’m fine with that.

  • dudesss@lemmy.caEnglish
    51·
    il y a 6 jours

    Debian is fine, but if you have technical troubles you don’t want to deal with, then go straight to Ubuntu. Either Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE), Ubuntu, or some other Ubuntu variation.

    As a new Linux user, I would recommend Ubuntu over Debian. It is easier to setup, has a lot more online documentation, provides various apps to make life a bit simplier like integrations and AppStore (even though you should try to away from Linux app store because of broken apps)

    Arch is really the king diamond in desktop Linux in my opinion, due to their rolling releases (I love new stuff even if it may break things), but especially because for the Arch Wiki (which is good for other OS users to read too) and the Arch AUR. If going Arch, I recommend using arch-install to make installing it much easier. Update the default arch-install after booting pacman -Ss arch-install then just run.

    Also as a new or intermediate Linux user, I strongly recommend LTS (Long Term Support) versions. For example, Ubuntus latest version is not LTS, and has been out for multiple months, and there are still a huge amount of apps not ready to easily install – and you either have to spend a lot of time to figure it out yourself, or lose the chance to use some apps.

    • ElderWendigo@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      3·
      il y a 6 jours

      All the kids here seem to get really annoyed whenever anyone suggests Ubuntu for “new to Linux” people. My story in particular seems to draw out the trolls, the know-it-alls, and the ricers. I had the same questions as OP 26 years ago, I made the choice you’re recommending (and getting down voted for), I’d do it again, and I have no regrets. Here’s my story anyway in case it resonates with someone.

      I picked Ubuntu for my “mostly a server, but sometimes a workstation, sometimes a multimedia PC” before Mint or Arch were even a thing. I knew about and tried Debian, but support for games and hardware at the time wasn’t there for me. Back when we used BitTorrent to literally mostly download Linux ISOs, I was a relatively new Linux user. I’d tried Debian, Slackware, Corel, SUSE, Redhat, etc. Played around distro hopping. But when it came time to build my next machine I landed on Ubuntu LTS mostly because a few important pieces of software I needed to run (paid real money for and needed for university) ONLY came packaged as Deb. Ubuntu turned out to be well documented, well supported, easy to learn, and stable enough that after a decade it was the hardware that failed me, not the operating system. Then, there was the Unity debacle. Then, there were snaps. But, by that time those issues were meaningless to me because I knew I could easily avoid snaps and unity altogether if they bothered me. I never even touched the app store. I guess I stopped caring about the desktop because by that point I was mostly only accessing the CLI remotely or tunneling individual X apps over ssh. When I rebuilt that machine, I considered other options, but ultimately all the choices had mostly insignificant differences except for my familiarity with them. So, I picked Ubuntu LTS again, and it’s been trucking along without getting in my way for nearly another decade.

      Arch and those other new distros are interesting. I can see the benefits of that kind of system. But it’s not for everyone. It’s not for me. 99% of users are not going to benefit from bleeding edge software updates. Moreover, there seems to be this widespread misinterpretation that stable and long term release cycles don’t get security updates. These days with snaps, flatpacks, docker, and VMs, running a flashy new bit of bleeding edge software on a long term or stable release cycle distro is easier than it ever has been. It may be slightly difficult for a new user, but it’s still easier than reinstalling and setting up a new distro with a host of undocumented bugs. I can’t even begin to imagine how awful it would be to try to learn about Linux and troubleshoot an issue as a noob in this post-search AI slop wasteland that is the dead Internet.

      Anyway, I guess the point I’m getting at is that I chose Ubuntu because it was easy, I chose it again because it continued to be easy, and now that I’ve been using it for a couple decades I’d choose it again because I care more about using my machine than tinkering with my machine. And ultimately, the choice of distro matters a whole lot less when you’re not new to Linux.

  • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    6·
    il y a 7 jours

    Debian is what you make of it, definitely. But it is also inanely stability focused to the point of being a detriment. It takes many months for simple package updates to hit Debian repos and it leads to frustration when stuff I expect to be updated is still very much not. As a server distro I recommend it, but as a play around distro it’s a bit more annoying and you have to do a ton more self maintenance on packages to get the latest and greatest.

  • yardratianSoma@lemmy.caEnglish
    3·
    il y a 6 jours

    I honestly only use debian headless, and manage the server via ssh and manage docker containers via portainer’s web ui.

    I’m not new to linux though, so 100% stay with a desktop environment like the one that comes with Mint, because that makes things much much simpler. It’s all debian under the hood at the end of the day, and 95% of services provide install guides for debian-based systems anyways. Is this optiplex 3050 your first homelabbing system?

    • Marshezezz@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOPEnglish
      3·
      il y a 6 jours

      Yeah just from everything I’ve read from everyone, I definitely will stick with keeping my server on mint and then do the experimenting I want on a totally separate machine.

      I have done some stuff with old laptops solely for media servers but now that I have a bit more computing power, my mind is getting curious. I’ve noticed the differences in performance having the better cpu and more ram so now I’m starting to get more into a rabbit hole with my curiosity. Just all the responses on here have given me a lot of good starting points to try out. Docker and and VM stuff sound really interesting, I absolutely love Linux and glad windows finally got me to switch with all their bs

    • TBi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      il y a 6 jours

      I really love the idea of Nix. But not a fan of the scripting language.

      I do need to test it more.

      I do find it hard to update though. I’m not sure if they have released a GUI based interface to make it easier.

    • Urist@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2·
      il y a 6 jours

      NixOS for self hosted is awesome! A few lines of code and you have set up a service on bare metal, without needing to think about dependencies. Just look at this beauty, OP:

        services.immich = {
    enable = true;
    host = "0.0.0.0";
    port = 2283;
    openFirewall = true;
  };
  • sobchak@programming.devEnglish
    3·
    il y a 6 jours

    For servers, I usually choose the distro with a version with the EOL scheduled furthest into the future. Usually that means Ubuntu (Server) LTS.

  • neidu3@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    5·
    il y a 7 jours

    If it works on mint, it’ll most likely work on debian, with the caveat that debian is a lot more CLI and a lot less handholding. Depending on your setup, debian might be a better choice for you, as Mint is desktop oriented.

    But don’t fix something that already works. If there’s no issues with your Mint setup, I’d say keep it. Next time you set up a server, you can go for debian instead.

    Source: I use both extensively. Mint on desktop, debian on headless stuff.

  • cecilkorik@piefed.caEnglish
    5·
    il y a 7 jours

    Distro-hopping is very fun and educational, but don’t dump a working system for an experiment unless you’re forced to or you’re just a masochist.

    Play around with it, try and recreate your current setup within it, and once (if) you’re comfortable enough to do that, then consider replacing your main server with it.

    There’s plenty of more wild distros out there too. I love Debian, I use it a lot, but you’ll also learn a ton by trying to wrap your head around Fedora Silverblue, NixOS, Arch or Gentoo. It used to be a rite of passage to build your own LFS (Linux From Scratch) distro, not sure if people even do that anymore, but you’ll probably learn a metric shitton if you try.

  • spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    3·
    il y a 7 jours

    I have both running right now. Mint on my laptop and media server. Debian only because it was previously required for Home Assistant support, (support which they’ve now dropped.)

    Both distros are extraordinarily reliable, but I much prefer Mint. Debian is more focused on security and some of the design choices focus on that over usability. My LAN is completely locked down and only accessible via Wireguard and the physical systems are only accessible to me, so IDK how much better security it provides in my situation. Mint has every package I’ve ever needed prebuilt while I have had to build some packages for Debian.

    Bottom line: As much as I like Mint, for me there is not sufficient reason to switch from Debian to Mint or visa-versa, but if I were installing from scratch I’d choose Mint every time.