Snapless Debian/Ubuntu-based point-release distro?

2 years ago by Nicro to c/linuxquestions

Heya, I'm currently on Opensuse Slowroll with KDE-Wayland and came from Leap for more recent updates. Even if Slowroll promises monthly big updates, the rolling snapshots still seem to replace most of the system weekly with ~4GB downloads. I don't like that. I looked at Fedora, but found that I would like .deb-compatibility, if I'm already switching. Debian stable is as stale as Leap from what I can see. Debian testing is in flux, and people don't agree on stability. Kubuntu has built-in reliance on snaps, which makes me hesitant to switch. I'm currently trying Mint-Xfce with post-install KDE, it doesn't seem to have wayland support.

Are there any good daily-drivers with sane updates and good support, I should try? I'm not willing to do proper Arch yet, never mind that that would be bleeding-edge-rolling. ^_^

Edit: I'm now on TuxedoOS, it's snapless Ubuntu with official KDE-wayland support. It handles Nvidia automatically and only corrupted it's home-partition once, so far.

superkret 9 points 2 years ago

MX Linux would be another option for a desktop-oriented Deb-based distro.
But the packages aren't really newer than Debian (some are, some aren't).

Honestly, I'd just run Debian, get kernel, drivers and firmware from Backports if necessary and install Flatpaks for software I need to be newer.
I don't need the latest, freshest version of the KDE printer setup utility to be honest.

But in general, it's always better to fix your issues on the distro you have. Mint is what you're looking for. KDE does support Wayland, all it needs is in the repos, and there would be no point for Mint to patch that support out.
Do you not have a "Plasma (Wayland)" option on the login screen where you choose your session?

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Nicro 5 points 2 years ago

Honestly, I was avoiding Debian for the staleness, but it might be what I go for. I use ungoogled chromium, and all but the flatpak version seem to lag behind. I don't like the packaged dependencies for each app, since there tend to be a lot of redundancies and bigger deltas. Though if you fully commit to flatpak, with Debian as a stable base, that might be good. The more I try to customize Mint, the more it fights me.

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superkret 5 points 2 years ago

Minimal Debian with Flatpaks is the way I went, too.

Deselect everything except Standard System Utilities during installation.
Reboot
sudo apt install plasma-desktop cups dolphin konsole flatpak
edit /etc/network/interfaces and comment out the interfaces it configured during installation, so network manager can take over
Reboot
flatpak remote-add flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo and install your software

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reseller_pledge609 2 points 2 years ago

Wayland might also be a seperate package that needs to be installed. I remember having to do that at some point.

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superkret 6 points 2 years ago

Found the issue:
plasma-desktop recommends kwin-x11 first, and kwin-wayland as an alternative.
So if you just install plasma on Mint, it may install kwin-x11 only.

sudo apt install plasma-workspace-wayland should pull in everything that's needed.

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MyNameIsRichard 3 points 2 years ago

You could try Siduction which is based on Debian Unstable. I ran it for a little while in my distro hopping days and it seemed mostly reliable with any problems fixed quickly.

Edit: unstable not stable

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Zachariah 2 points 2 years ago

I was happy with Kubuntu plus: https://gitlab.com/...

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Kory 2 points 2 years ago

Maybe TUXEDO OS is something you want to consider. From the description of Distrowatch: "The distribution uses KDE Plasma as the preferred desktop (...) removal of Ubuntu's snap daemon and snap packages..." The first review mentions that "You can even switch between X11 and Wayland at the log-in screen" and Distrowatch also lists all the packages so you can compare if they are newer than Debian's.

I haven't tried it myself yet, but I've read some good reviews - might be worth a try. Let us know, what you settled with, please!

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Nicro 2 points 2 years ago

I'm on Tuxedo now, really nice so far. Thanks.

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Kory 1 point 2 years ago

Really glad to hear it, I hope it stays that way!

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