Post #871612
2026-03-30 14:37 UTC
Replies (28)
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@tfb@mastodon.bsd.cafe 2026-03-30 15:08
@ruben Gentoo has binary packages these days
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@Twelvebarblues@ieji.de 2026-03-30 15:20
@ruben I'm using a Dell Latitude E5470, Core i5. It probably has about half the resources of your target machine although it still runs Debian 13 just fine.
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@alienghic@timeloop.cafe 2026-03-30 15:29
@ruben I rather like this cynics guide to desktop Linux from the register. https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/31/the_cynics_guide_to_linux/ You might want to take a look at mint or pop is though those may be Ubuntu derived instead of Debian derived. But for a new user avoid small distros you want easy to maintain.
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@gingered@mastodon.art 2026-03-30 15:30
@ruben Fedora Atomic for that easy recovery
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@lemgandi@mastodon.social 2026-03-30 15:59
@ruben Yuge Debian fan here. It has always been rock-solid Stable for me.
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@MythingPerson@mastodon.social 2026-03-30 16:03
@ruben Based on the recommendation of a friend, I went with CachyOS, which is an Arch Linux distro and supports XFCE & ZFS (though I use KDE Plasma & BTRFS myself), and it's worked really well for me. The only (minor) challenges I had were with setting up less common s/w like Dropbox and some custom gaming & peripheral software. And the CachyOS installation wiki was solid. https://cachyos.org/
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@on_olli@norden.social 2026-03-30 16:17
@ruben You know it already. This was not an open question :). Other than you I would go for Debian.
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@manpacket@functional.cafe 2026-03-30 16:23
@ruben NixOS might do the trick. Not beginner friendly, but all the configuration will be living in a few text files that you can copy or test locally.
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@rdfhrn@hessen.social 2026-03-30 17:12
@ruben a Debian based distro. BSD isn't Linux!
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@EF@mastodon.bsd.cafe 2026-03-30 17:55
@ruben #alpinelinux because it is rock solid, no DKMS ZFS compiling, X/#xlibre/Wayland available, good software choice from the repos, very light on memory. Only slight negative is remote unlock of encrypted root is a roll your own.
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@mhier@norden.social 2026-03-30 20:40
@ruben What about Linux Mint Debian Edition? I am using the normal variant, which is Ubuntu-based (hence excluded) but feels a lot like I whish Ubuntu should be. My recommendation assumes, the Debian variant is very similar (which should be true since they created it as a fallback in case Ubuntu is no longer usable). It is simple to use, which I like a lot (despite having a lot of Linux experience). Integration of Flatpak is very good, so you can get latest apps easily.
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@bigsilicon@social.treehouse.systems 2026-03-30 20:53
@ruben why did you decide to choose Xfce for the DE?
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@avoca@gladtech.social 2026-03-30 21:31
@ruben I tried FreeBSD, actually GhostBSD, recently and really liked it. However, the availability of drivers for even basic peripherals was, I found, still an issue, WiFi for example, and switched back to Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE 7) after a short while. No doubt if you are prepared to put in the effort you could find workarounds, but I'm too old for that. LMDE 7 would be my recommendation by the way. The advantages of Linux Mint, with an element of smugness.
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@gertvk@mastodon.nz 2026-03-30 22:22
@ruben LMDE !!
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@blogdeenrique@mastodon.social 2026-03-31 18:49
@ruben Opensuse 100%
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@daj@gofer.social 2026-03-30 16:06
@ruben You're going to get hundreds of opinions. All will claim to be best. haha. I will throw in my 'for what it is worth' -- Linux Mint. It has never let me down on detecting hardware, even on older machines. I have it running on a 12 year old iMac and a MacBookPro from 8 years ago. Plus a friends old Del.
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@grahamperrin@mastodon.bsd.cafe 2026-04-02 15:53
@ruben condensed: 1. Ubuntu, for simplified OpenZFS-encrypted root-on-ZFS 2. xubuntu-desktop Whilst I have not tested @itsfoss (2023) the page is, at a glance, consistent with (2022). I chose Ubuntu 25.04 as my base for Kubuntu. I overlooked your comment about Ubuntu (sorry) because the installer made it so simple for me to get root-on-ZFS; and I love simplicity. #Xubuntu #Xfce #OpenZFS #ZFS
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@andy@billboard.bsd.cafe 2026-04-02 16:02
openSUSE perhaps? Never let me down in 20 years. Void Linux also sits nicely with zfsbootmenu (but will consume the whole weekend probably).
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@grahamperrin@billboard.bsd.cafe 2026-04-02 16:17
@ruben@kedara.social said: Sysadmin tasks will be performed (remotely) Maybe difficult with OpenZFS-encrypted root-on-ZFS. Will your mom be prepared to enter the passphrase when a task requires a restart of the OS?
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@jhx@mastodon.bsd.cafe 2026-04-02 16:58
@ruben I'd for sure go for #Debian 😎 :debian:
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@catavz@mastodon.social 2026-04-03 08:26
@ruben @grahamperrin https://www.linuxmint.com/download_lmde.php Encrypted root on ZFS might be possible for Ubuntu 24.04.
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@MediocreWightMan@indieweb.social 2026-03-30 14:57
@ruben The only distro on your list that supports ZFS in the installer is Alpine (using the extended release) so you’ll have to do it manually for the others and setup DKMS to rebuild ZFS modules on every kernel update. Chimera Linux and NixOS are also potential alternatives if out-of-the-box ZFS is a requirement. I wrote a blog post a while back on setting up NixOS with native ZFS encryption for my ThinkPad T480 that may be of some help: https://blog.hetherington.uk/2025/02/installing-nixos-on-a-thinkpad-t480s-with-encrypted-zfs-2/
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@pauldoo@mastodon.scot 2026-03-30 14:51
@ruben what is her usecase? Also, do you want what works best for your mum, or what works best for you to remote admin?
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@nlowell@zirk.us 2026-03-30 14:49
@ruben Maybe Bazzite? I would have suggested Cinnamon flavored Mint but you said no Ubuntu or derivatives. You included Debian as a choice - which is Ubuntu's grandparent or something. Maybe something on the edges Periodic Table? https://distrowatch.com/images/other/periodic-table-of-distro.png
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@seindal@mastodon.uno 2026-03-30 14:48
@ruben If you do the support, install what works best for you. Her desktop will be the same,gnome or KDE or whatever
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@babble_endanger@freeradical.zone 2026-03-30 14:48
@ruben Debian has been really good to me since i gave up on Ubuntu and Arch. You can even do rolling release Debian with the testing version
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@alexanderniki@techhub.social 2026-03-30 14:45
@ruben Take a look at https://endeavouros.com/ It's good solid Arch-based distro
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@marzlberger@neander.social 2026-03-30 14:43
@ruben Linux Mint os a good choise for a fire and forget Laptop with very good hardware support.