debian is a server distro

>>109338313
>So what are some things yall like to do on a fresh install?
gooning

>>109338313
Nvidia drivers if you have nvidia. Debian has an easy way for installing them but it should be noted that you need to disabled secure boot if you're installing the nvidia drivers.

Configure flatpak with your DE's software centre, discover for KDE, and the gnome software centre for gnome. Flatpaks might be helpful when you need software that isn't in the debian repo.

As for daily software I personally use whatever comes by default. Video players, text editor, etc. I personally don't care and I'd use whatever.

Other than that just use it as a computer, install software as needed.

>>109338322
What do u recommend? Kubuntu? :3

Ytdlp
Mvp
Vlc
Qtorrent
Firewall
Antivirus
Librewolf
And that's it unless you got the power for ai then comfyui i guess and emulators

>>109338313
I daily drive debian (sid).

If you need some software, the best and cleanest way is to install them via apt. You should really learn your way around apt:
- apt update : fetch latest version for packages
- apt upgrade : install latest version for packages (ONLY run after apt update)
- apt install/remove <package> : install/remove package
- apt-cache policy <package> : check installed/available versions for a package
- apt-cache search <text> : search for packages by description, name, etc.
There are tons more, but these are the abolute essentials.

I hugely, recommend you install apt-listbugs, this will show you bug reports when you want to install something. Most bugs don't affect amd64, but it may be worth reading bug reports when you install something. It's not really useful in debian stable, but you may want it later.

If you need to install a more recent version of a package, not available in your debian version, the easiest method is to use an application store that works with flatpak/snap. The other method is to compile/install manually.

Also, debian is not ubuntu, NEVER EVER install a third-party apt repository unless you absolutely trust the maintainers of that repository. Third-party repositories are usually less secure than official repositories.
And if they get hacked, they can install malware the next time you update.

>firefox
by default debian's firefox comes with sponsors/tracking disabled. It's alright IMHO, but I use librewolf.

>openvpn
If you've installed gnome/kde there's a VPN option in the networking tab. By default it supports openvpn and wireguard vpns, however you may need to install network-manager-openvpn or network-manager-openvpn-gnome. network-manager is the systemd service that manages networks (wifi, dns, ethernet, virtual networks, ...) multiple desktop environments (gnome, kde) rely on it.

1/3

>gaming
Do this before installing drivers.
If you want to play games on steam, you have to enable 32-bit support because steam is still a 32-bit application (in 2026).
This is done by doing this (as root): dpkg add architecture i386
Then run apt update to get the package list for 32-bit.
Later during nvidia driver install, it will ask you for 32-bit drivers. You don't have to say yes, but if you still play 32-bit games you should check this option (e.g half life, cs1.6 are 32-bit)

>nvidia driver
Those are tricky because nvidia is a bitch.
It entirely depends on your card's version. If you have an older card, there are packages available:
e.g nvidia-legacy-390xx-driver, or nvidia-tesla-550-driver.
If you need these packages, then simply apt install them. They should work fine.
Make sure to check which version your card supports.

If you have a recent cards with the latest drivers, then you first need to install linux-headers for your current kernel: linux-headers-$(uname -r). Then go to nvidia's website to download the install .run file.

You may need additional packages, in my notes I listed these:
apt install mesa-utils libwayland-egl1 libglvnd-dev linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essentials git pkg-config libx11-dev libxext-dev wget gcc-multilib g++-multilib cmake libssl-dev
That's for Xorg, I've never used wayland, but I support you'd have to remove libx11-dev and libxext-dev

After installing headers, run this file as root (e.g chmod +x file.run, then ./file.run) in the menu, selectt "Install the GPL driver", the other one is for outdated cards. Later, select the 32-bit option if you need it.

Reboot afterwards.
Note that every time you update your kernel or want to update the drivers, you'll have to install headers again and run the .run installer.

2/3

>codecs
Codecs that come from your CPU/iGPU should be fine for most things.
Note that if you have a modern intel iGPU, drivers should be automatically installed.
You can install the vainfo program and run vainfo to check which codecs are supported.

By default nvidia-driver should let you enable nvidia hardware decoding/encoding if needed, decoding should work automatically, but encoding needs special configuration in the software that uses it.

For ffmpeg, you'll have to compile your own ffmpeg with nvidia codecs enabled, but it's generally not worth it unless you absolutely need hw encoding.

>firmware
It's worth mentioning but if you have some message at startup complaining about missing firmware, install firmware-linux-free and if it still complains, also install firmware-linux-nonfree. Generally these aren't breaking issues, but they may be required. Especially if you have a laptop and want a working microphone, fingerprint scanner, webcam, etc.

>finally, some programs
IDK what you want to do with your debian, but I have some templates:
General desktop programs: pavucontrol thunderbird keepassxc zathura-pdf-poppler xcas libreoffice*
C/C++ programming: build-essentials g++ gcc cmake make ninja git valgrind kcachegrind xcas gdb clang++-22 lldb doxygen manpages-dev libomp-22-dev libgomp1
Data/Tex: r-base graphviz texlive-full # Warning >10GB
Debian dev: devscripts apt-build apt-files apt-forktracker apt-venv apt-utils apt-src

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>>109338313
You have chosen a very good operating system indeed. It is stable with very stable code base and very secure. It has a dedicated security team. But for desktop applications with the exception of the desktop environment itself, I wouldn't even install a single package from their own repository.

first of all install KDE Plasma. Avoid any GTK-based application.
Install KDE Partition Manager.

Use flatpak for all production applications for up to date production applications.
Install the flathub repository using the --user flag so you don't have to type in the fucking administration password all the time.

Install Krita via flatpak/ Discover
Install Inkscape
Install SMPlayer and change its theme to something like breeze (instead of VLC)

>>109339233
>C++
Stupid and dead lingo with a nice syntax.

>>109339540
>with a nice syntax
Uhhhh, your post generator AI is broken

>>109339210
>>109339219
>>109339233
AND THIS LADIES AND GENTLEMEN IS WHY LINUX WILL NEVER BECOME MAINSTREAM

>>109339762
But if you've version is this then do this. Yeah windows just works. Go to Google. Type nvidia driver. Hit install. Done. Wtf is this shit bro

>>109338313
why did they choose a pedophile symbol to identify them

>>109339762
is there a desire and want for it to go mainstream?

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>>109339210
Op here ty for your amazing post please feel free to add more you've been more than helpful

>>109339835
Apparently lots of troonix /g/irls want Linux to take off esp for gaming. I don't know why

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>>109339857

Whats a good vm for windows on linux? Sometimes i might need to run windows but dont wamna dual boot. Oracle one seems sus.

>>109339719
heh, no i know what I'm talking about.
C style syntax is very nice if compared to pretty much everything else

>>109339919
Use qemu, always qemu.

If you want to run windows in a VM, it depends on how exactly what you want to do with it. If you need USB passthrough for peripherals, NVME/GPU (PCIE) passthrough for certain anticheat/drm, qemu lets you configure all that.

Also Qemu has the best performances of all VMs, aside from type-1 hypervisors like xen that aren't traditional VM.

>>109339848
The version of debian you've installed is likely debian stable.

It gets a major update every 2 years around june (next update in june 2027). Otherwise it only gets security patches and bug fixes.
The downsides of uding stable is that newer hardware isn't supported and you may need features from newer software versions.
There are two other debian versions worth mentioning:
'testing' is a sort of 'rolling-release', meaning it gets updates more frequently, but it's not really bleeding edge, and it's mostly used by debian developpers to stabilize the package set that will make it into the next stable. So around every 2 years, testing is frozen and stops receiving updates for 2-4 month before the next stable release.

The other version of debian is 'sid'. It's basically like testing, except it doesn't get frozen. Packages are updated much more frequently, and is a sort of rolling realease version of debian, though not in the strict sense.

Sid/Testing are generally discouraged to new debian users because you need to know your way around systemd/apt/dpkg in case something breaks. Packages like apt-listbugs are no longer optional with these versions of debian and it may require you to read through changelog, system mail and bug reports when you update.


One thing to note is that debian stable is still using pulseaudio for mixing audio source to audio sinks.
pulseaudio has now been replaced by pipewire in most linux distros. Pipewire is simply more compatible, supports more programs and generally less buggy than poulseaudio, while still being compatible with pavucontrol (the audio configuration panel). It may be worth to try if you're having problems with pulseaudio. Though pulseaudio is generally stable enough.

>>109340118
My hardware is 4 years old so. Think I'll be fine. Ty anon

>>109340118
debian comes with pipewire now