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I tried going this route and the desktop experience was rough. Debian doesn't seem to have reasonable defaults for fonts so I spent way too much time learning a

I tried going this route and the desktop experience was rough. Debian doesn't seem to have reasonable defaults for fonts so I spent way too much time learning and configuring all the font systems. So literally just the font configuration was enough for me to switch back to Ubuntu and just only install the stuff I like (no snap, gnome).

wegs 6y ago
I ran Debian for maybe 15-20 years before switching to Ubuntu. The first few weeks are rough. But once you get it configured up the way you like, it keeps on ticking for a decade with no announced changes or surprises. You front-load a lot of the work, but then productivity stays high. Those 15-20 years, it was the same Debian install. Everything else in the computer changed, but Debian kept on ticking. There was a while Debian was behind on supporting things like laptop power management and graphics cards, when I switched to Ubuntu. For a while, it was a more polished, user-friendly up-to-date Debian. That was nice. Now that Ubuntu re-invents the wheel each new release (and quite often, replacing a spoked, pneumatic-tired wheel with a square piece of wood), and hardware support is a little more standardized, I think it's time to switch back. It feels more like a tech gizmo, designed for Ubuntu developers, than an end-user OS.
ohazi 6y ago
Yeah, I remember this... fontconfig can be kind of a bear. Once you find a configuration that works for you, save your fonts.conf somewhere so you don't have to do it again. The Debian wiki page on fonts is helpful. The Arch wiki page is better, and most of it still applies: https://wiki.debian.org/Fonts https://wiki.debian.org/Fonts https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Font_configuration https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Font_configuration
lucb1e 6y ago
> Debian doesn't seem to have reasonable defaults for fonts When was this? I can confirm that it breaks from time to time but usually that means I haven't rebooted for four months and by restarting everything, it all works again. I never needed to dive into the font system at all while using Debian stable or testing in the past 5+ years with Cinnamon as DE. (Firefox, not from the repositories, being the exception where one might need to toggle gfx.canvas.azure.backends in about:config.)
diffeomorphism 6y ago
How many years ago was this? Debian used to have different settings than ubuntu for legal reasons, but since a few years at least is idential.

wegs 6y ago

I ran Debian for maybe 15-20 years before switching to Ubuntu. The first few weeks are rough. But once you get it configured up the way you like, it keeps on ticking for a decade with no announced changes or surprises. You front-load a lot of the work, but then productivity stays high. Those 15-20 years, it was the same Debian install. Everything else in the computer changed, but Debian kept on ticking. There was a while Debian was behind on supporting things like laptop power management and graphics cards, when I switched to Ubuntu. For a while, it was a more polished, user-friendly up-to-date Debian. That was nice. Now that Ubuntu re-invents the wheel each new release (and quite often, replacing a spoked, pneumatic-tired wheel with a square piece of wood), and hardware support is a little more standardized, I think it's time to switch back. It feels more like a tech gizmo, designed for Ubuntu developers, than an end-user OS.

ohazi 6y ago

Yeah, I remember this... fontconfig can be kind of a bear. Once you find a configuration that works for you, save your fonts.conf somewhere so you don't have to do it again. The Debian wiki page on fonts is helpful. The Arch wiki page is better, and most of it still applies: https://wiki.debian.org/Fonts https://wiki.debian.org/Fonts https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Font_configuration https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Font_configuration

lucb1e 6y ago

> Debian doesn't seem to have reasonable defaults for fonts When was this? I can confirm that it breaks from time to time but usually that means I haven't rebooted for four months and by restarting everything, it all works again. I never needed to dive into the font system at all while using Debian stable or testing in the past 5+ years with Cinnamon as DE. (Firefox, not from the repositories, being the exception where one might need to toggle gfx.canvas.azure.backends in about:config.)

diffeomorphism 6y ago

How many years ago was this? Debian used to have different settings than ubuntu for legal reasons, but since a few years at least is idential.