I’d be interested why you think Debian isn’t suitable for the casual user? I had the least trouble with it and it always seemed to work when other distros had issues.
I think you just need more information to use it, and might not fit for a “I don’t care just work” kind of users, you need to select a DE which might be confusing (basically choice overload), by default you get to install a version with an older kernel which might cause problems with hardware compatibility, It also provides an image without non free firmware which can cause unexplained hardware problems (the download page mentions its but starts the download immediately so that could be easy to miss).
That’s just my impression as someone who never really tried it seriously, If you got someone knowledgeable installing it you can move around these problems and debian stability could be great for a casual users (assuming installing updates using the GUI is OK and KDE discover is no longer a mess).
I agree that the install might be a tad off-putting to casual users. It does look pretty techy.
However for newbies, I’d say you’d have to do two things:
enable non-free repositories which will fix hardware compatibility
choose a DE
Once this is done, I don’t think there is a more stable, compatible distribution around. I tried (and often liked) OpenSUSE, Arch, Ubuntu, various downstream versions of those, and Debian is just by far the most easiest to run. I generally run “testing” which makes it a rolling distro, and might be another thing that should be done for casual users (or for them to be guided through). “testing” therefore means that you never to have to go through an install again (until you go distro hopping…)
So three things to guide casual users to Linux happiness! I say that’s possible…
Appreciate the reply.
I’d be interested why you think Debian isn’t suitable for the casual user? I had the least trouble with it and it always seemed to work when other distros had issues.
I think you just need more information to use it, and might not fit for a “I don’t care just work” kind of users, you need to select a DE which might be confusing (basically choice overload), by default you get to install a version with an older kernel which might cause problems with hardware compatibility, It also provides an image without non free firmware which can cause unexplained hardware problems (the download page mentions its but starts the download immediately so that could be easy to miss).
That’s just my impression as someone who never really tried it seriously, If you got someone knowledgeable installing it you can move around these problems and debian stability could be great for a casual users (assuming installing updates using the GUI is OK and KDE discover is no longer a mess).
I agree that the install might be a tad off-putting to casual users. It does look pretty techy.
However for newbies, I’d say you’d have to do two things:
Once this is done, I don’t think there is a more stable, compatible distribution around. I tried (and often liked) OpenSUSE, Arch, Ubuntu, various downstream versions of those, and Debian is just by far the most easiest to run. I generally run “testing” which makes it a rolling distro, and might be another thing that should be done for casual users (or for them to be guided through). “testing” therefore means that you never to have to go through an install again (until you go distro hopping…)
So three things to guide casual users to Linux happiness! I say that’s possible…
:)