Our verdict

Debian is the base that Ubuntu, Linux Mint and MX Linux are all built from, and using it directly is a different experience from using them. Debian 13, codenamed trixie, arrived in August 2025 with three years of full support to August 2028 and two further years of long term maintenance to June 2030.

The appeal is that it does not change under you. The same software, behaving the same way, for years. The cost is that the software is old on the day it ships and older still by the end, so a browser or a photo editor will lag behind what you had on Windows unless you add newer versions from elsewhere.

Hardware demands are modest: with a desktop, Debian asks for 1 GB of memory minimum, 2 GB recommended, and 10 GB of disk. But newer laptops often need extra driver packages for Wi-Fi or graphics, and the installer asks questions a first-time user cannot fairly answer. Start with Linux Mint or MX Linux, both of which are Debian or Ubuntu underneath with the awkward parts smoothed off.

Best for: Patient learners, Older hardware, People who value stability over newness.

What's good

Extremely stable, because software only ships after long testing
Five years of support per release, including two years of extended maintenance
Runs on very modest hardware, with a published desktop minimum of 1 GB of memory
Run by a volunteer community with no company deciding its direction

What to know first

Software is old by design, which shows up most in browsers and creative apps
Wi-Fi and graphics on newer laptops can need extra driver packages you add yourself
The installer offers choices a first-timer has no way to answer
This is not the one to start with

The details

Memory (RAM) needed

1 GB minimum, 2 GB comfortable

Disk space needed

10 GB

Desktop look

GNOME (also: KDE Plasma, Xfce, LXQt, MATE, Cinnamon)

Updates

A new version every so often, stable in between

Supported for

5 years per version

Built on

Independent