How Debian 13's Little Improvements Add Up To The Distro's Surprisingly Big Leap Forward

Jack Wallen/ZDNET

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• Debian 13 (aka "Trixie") is now disposable for wide use.
• This latest merchandise is an elegant, smooth, and unchangeable OS.
• Trixie ships pinch plentifulness of applications, a caller theme, and a modern kernel.

Debian is often called nan "mother of each distributions" because truthful galore distributions (such arsenic Ubuntu) usage it arsenic a base. The logic for this is twofold: Debian is user-friendly and is perfectly rock-solid. It's a uncommon juncture that I tally into an operating strategy that is arsenic reliable arsenic Debian. Part of nan logic for this is nan clip nan developers return earlier releasing a caller iteration. The clip betwixt releases allows them to do extended testing, which ensures nan merchandise is sound.

As acold arsenic what's caller successful nan release, you tin cheque retired this elaborate explanation from my relative successful open-source, Steven Vaughan Nichols. For this piece, I want to springiness you my first belief of nan latest loop of that Linux distribution that inspires truthful galore others.

Debian 13.

It is, successful a word… smooth.

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But what is smooth, pinch respect to an operating system?

It's simple: arsenic you usage Debian 13, you consciousness calm, for illustration you're interacting pinch an aged friend who someway ever looks and behaves overmuch younger than they should. While you're pinch them, you ever look astatine peace.

That's nan emotion I get pinch Debian 13.

It's not a showstopper

I don't mean this successful a bad way. If you've utilized Debian for immoderate magnitude of time, you cognize afloat good that each merchandise isn't going to bring massive, profound, and eye-opening changes. With this distribution, it's each astir subtlety.

At slightest connected nan surface.

There are immoderate important changes that person been undertaken beneath nan aboveground (such arsenic nan caller /tmp behavior, apt 3.0, a caller default theme, and each nan upgrades to immoderate desktop situation you choose), but from nan naked eye, it looks very overmuch for illustration "second verse, aforesaid arsenic nan first."

Again, that's not a bad thing. In fact, it's that familiarity that keeps galore a personification sticking pinch Debian. I can't retrieve a clip erstwhile I've installed a caller Debian merchandise and thought, "Wow! That's changed a lot!" It's always, "This looks amazingly conscionable for illustration nan past release." 

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Of course, that besides depends connected which desktop situation you select. I went pinch KDE Plasma for my testing, and it looks beautiful overmuch for illustration each KDE Plasma-based distribution I've tried lately (only pinch a somewhat different theme). Of course, I instantly switched themes (I'm not a instrumentality of acheronian themes), which is arsenic easy arsenic going to System Settings > Colors & Themes and selecting Breeze.

Debian 13 ships pinch kernel 6.12 and KDE Plasma type 6.3.6. Those 2 together make a superb combination. Apps unfastened quickly, animations and scrolling are buttery smooth, font rendering is stellar, updates/upgrades are fast, and everything behaves precisely arsenic you'd expect from a high-performing desktop operating system.

And, of course, it's KDE Plasma, truthful it looks awesome and is highly configurable. In conscionable a fewer speedy clicks, I changed nan look and consciousness of nan desktop (even adding widgets).

A reconfigured sheet and a recently downloaded taxable was each it took to execute this look.

Jack Wallen/ZDNET

Preinstalled apps

With Debian 13, you get plentifulness of preinstalled applications. Of course, nan database of applications you person will dangle connected nan desktop situation you choose. For example, pinch KDE Plasma, you get those apps associated pinch Plasma (such arsenic KMail, KOrganizer, Discover, Konqueror, etc.). If you spell pinch nan GNOME desktop, you'll get nan default GNOME apps. On apical of that, you'll find LibreOffice, GIMP, Firefox ESR, Dragon Player (videos), JuK (music), and plentifulness of utilities. In different words, Debian 13 is fresh to go, correct retired of nan gate.

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The 1 point I did find missing was nan cosmopolitan package manager, Flatpak. I'm not really amazed by this, arsenic Debian tends to support things in-house. You can, of course, instal Flatpak pinch nan bid (run arsenic nan admin user):

apt-get instal flatpak

The logic you person to tally nan supra bid arsenic nan admin personification (by issuing nan bid su - first) is that Debian doesn't springiness modular users admin privileges. Why? Security. Of course, you tin ever adhd your modular users to sudoers pinch (after you su to nan admin personification first):

usermod -aG sudo username

After that, reboot and your personification will person sudo privileges.

One app that really amazed maine was Konqueror. Of course, this is simply a KDE Plasma point and not a Debian thing, but KDE's aged religious web browser (which besides erstwhile served arsenic a record manager) is really rather good. It moreover ships pinch advertisement blocking (you person to alteration it), nan expertise to artifact JavaScript, and moreover civilization recognition options. Would I usage Konqueror arsenic my default? No. Why? It lacks immoderate privateness and information features that I consciousness are necessary. But I can't contradict really overmuch nan small browser that could has evolved.

Konqueror has travel a long, agelong way.

Jack Wallen/ZDNET

The wide effect

New Debian releases ne'er astonishment me, but besides ever do. Let maine clarify. Even though there's very small evident alteration betwixt releases, I'm ever amazed astatine really overmuch nan latest has improved. With Debian, it's ever a bunch of mini steps guardant that travel together to make 1 elephantine leap ahead, and that's precisely what Trixie has done. Debian 13 feels for illustration a marque caller acquaintance, while still emotion for illustration an aged friend.

It's fast, smooth, clean, and (as always) stone solid.

If this sounds for illustration an operating strategy you'd want, hop connected complete to nan download page, drawback an ISO, burn it to a USB drive, and instal nan latest merchandise of Debian.

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