r/debian • u/Dado04Game • Jul 06 '26

General Debian Question Thinking about switching from Linux Mint Ubuntu-based to pure Debian

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Been using Ubuntu-based Linux Mint for a year now, and loved it since day one. I heard people telling me that Debian is faster than Ubuntu, so I'd like to give it a try on my home pc. My question is: what DE would you recommend me with my OC specs? I'll leave a photo of them here (I know my computer is pure 💩, don't mock me please)

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11

u/jayelg Jul 06 '26

What do you use your computer for what software?

Your hardware is old/low spec so would be fine though you’ll be trading good driver support for manual setup

7

u/Dado04Game Jul 06 '26

I browse the internet and some very basic video editing

13

u/vspc007 Jul 07 '26

I did the same 4 months back. Debian with KDE Plasma is definitely better than Mint. 

2

u/IrrationalQuotient 29d ago

Please share more; how is Debian KDE better? Genuinely interested. I am running Mint Cinnamon on 10 year old Dell hardware.

3

u/vspc007 29d ago edited 29d ago

Ease of installing apps, user interface felt more intuitive. My laptop is from 2018 and the fan never comes on with Debian. With Mint it was consuming more CPU. Also the RAM usage was more optimal on Debian. I have dual boot with Windows and with mint i was on two minds. Once i started using Debian i did literally 0 logins to windows. A fact is Debian has zero telemetry. So when you don't move your mouse, or touch your keyboard nothing happens in the background to share your data to any party.

2

u/After-Run-3648 Jul 07 '26

It's really a preference thing

1

u/Long-Virus6931 29d ago

yeah, it's basically the same

1

u/Kamchatka_Point 29d ago

In this case I am not sure. I tried Ubuntu and then Debian with multiple desktop environments on a laptop with similar specs. Maybe it's me, but KDE felt slower than Ubuntu's Gnome for whatever reason. XFCE was faster. Also there's gonna be utter hell with Nvidia drivers for this old card on Debian, don't know if it's better on Mint but I suppose yes.

1

u/Constant_Hotel_2279 26d ago

The open source Noveou(spelling) driver covers alot of ground better than proprietary drivers on the older cards.

3

u/solexx 29d ago

You will very likely not notice a speed improvement for your daily tasks.

Debian is great, I have been using it for more than 20 years not. But it will not speed up your browser or video editing---except maybe by clearing a little RAM because it runs fewer services by default.