Debian in general is not meant to run on the latest hardware.

When I see someone on social media claiming Debian is unsuitable for gaming, I know immediately that they don't know what they're talking about. I've been gaming on different distros since before Steam ran on Linux at all, and on Debian Stable for nearly a decade. This includes my current system, which was built a few months after the GPU was released.

In general, Debian can run just fine on new (Linux-compatible) hardware. If you're talking about Debian Stable and hardware that was released less than a year ago, then you might have to pull in a newer kernel and/or firmware, but it's not hard. In most cases, it's as simple as enabling Debian's Backports repository and installing the couple of new packages that you need. (You might not even have to do that, since Flatpak and Steam provide updates to much of what games need, but it would be wise to remember Backports anyway just in case you need them some day.)

The main thing to consider is that it's not completely effortless. It will probably require a little more setup than a game-focused distro would, so if you're considering Debian for a gaming system, you should know why you want it. For example, maybe you want a very low-maintenance system once it's up and running. Or maybe Debian's focus on Free software appeals to you. In such cases, a few extra steps when getting started might be worthwhile. But if you don't have a specific need that Debian fills, then another distro might be more convenient.

Debian 13 is not going to get the latest versions of Nvidia drivers and there are better distros for us.

I don't know if that's true or not. Nvidia has a well-deserved reputation for making their hardware painful on Linux, and although the situation is less bad today than it once was, it's still not great. If you're determined to stick with them, then sure, a distro that does the extra work of packaging all of Nvidia's driver releases might be a better choice for you.

(For what it's worth, I finally ditched Nvidia in favor of AMD GPUs, and have been very happy with the results.)

Debian is awesome. For servers. For desktop I would use something else that pushes updates more frequently.

My personal opinion ofcourse, use what you like!

Debian does not get the latest versions of anything. It is designed for, above all, stability, which means changes to the stable branch are greatly delayed while testing is completed.

If gaming is your main goal. Bazzite or similar should likely be your first target. If you want a more desktop experience. I'd probably recommended vanilla mint. LMDE and Debian are great. But LMDE is a side project, that gets a bit less support and updates. And Debian is about stability over cutting edge anything.

Regardsless what distro you end up with, do your research before bying new hardware. Any hardware, such as keyboard, usb bluetooth adapter or gaming audio headset might be unsupported or supported poorly, and require out-of-kernel drivers, firmware or propietary vendor software, that work only with some kernel versions or certain distros. There often are options that have great linux support and work with any distro, but you'll need to find them.

Pick your prefered update interval between LTS, 6 month point release or rolling based on how much time you have for administration. If you need you PC also for work, a rolling distro might break just when you need it the most. After choosing the update interval, pick the distro with chosen update interval you like the most. Say you know and like Debian but need a rolling distro, then Debian unstable might be a good choice for you. You can also run multiple distros and dual-boot.

Special purpose distros such as gaming distros can be a good choice, but they often have less developer resources and tend to die then the few developers lose their interest.

Regardless of your choice of distro, spend some time to configure regular backups.

I run Debian because I don't like sudden changes. I have a 10-year-old computer that can still run games that are a few years old on low or sometimes medium settings because I have an RX 580. Debian is great for that.

If you just built your PC and want the latest stuff all the time, you can supplement Debian with Flatpaks or 3rd-party repos, but you don't have to; you can just try a different distro.

You might want to try something like OpenSUSE or Bazzite or CachyOS: they're rolling release distros, so you get new stuff all the time. Personally, I'm fine with waiting until LMDE 7.

I've found CachyOS to be a good fit for me, sounds like I'm in a similar position to you.

For fastest hardware support, you will want a rolling distribution like Arch (requires a do-it-yourself attitude) or OpenSUSE Tumbleweed (complete out of box, but some quirks, like missing codecs requires manual work). Fedora also has decent new hardware support, not rolling so not as good, but same problem as OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. You can also consider derivitives like CachyOS (Arch, but has a nice installer).

Ubuntu and Linux Mint have OK new hardware support. Twice a year they release new "hardware enablement upgrades" to bring new support.

And worst is Debian. They don't do hardware ennoblement upgrades at all. It's something you have to do yourself by using backports. They bring new hardware enablement by default with new releases every 2 years.

If you want to keep up with newer hardware and software and get the best performance out of your games, you'll want to use a distro with faster updates.

I've been using Nobara on my gaming computer for about 2 years and it's been pretty good, I get great performance in all my games.

Are you a huge fan of Debian as a base? And what Desktop environment/window manager do you prefer?

https://wiki.pika-os.com/en/home

this should tick all your boxes.

I run on debian-testing otherwise my resolution sucked. On newish AMD cpu and GPU.

Debian is a good stable distro but I personally wouldn't recommend it for desktop home users. There are debian derivatives that do use it as a base and offer more up to date packages.

There are also lots of alternatives that are dedicated rolling release or more frequently updated point release distros.

I often recommend Linux Mint as a good first distro. It's got a big user base, so lots of support online, and it's based off Ubuntu which itself is based off Debian, so has a wide range of software already packaged for it. Once you know what you want / like from Linux you could move on or stick with Mint if you like it.

I used to use Mint but I wanted to switch to KDE. You can install KDE with Mint but things are a little janky as the core mint tools are really built for Cinnamon (and GTK). I moved to OpenSuSE Tumbleweed 2+ years ago and like it. I've also used Nobara on another device - it's decent buf have moved away from it after some update issues. Regardless there is a lot of choice out there.

But I'd recommend starting with Mint as a good stable but updatable option. You can use Mint and add in cutting edge Nvidia drivers with relative ease for example.

I would not start with Arch as some others are recommending. It's a good distro but it's an involved manual set up and can require a lot of troubleshooting. I'd recommend picking something that is a simpler install and get used to Linux basics first before venturing into distros like Arch.

PikaOS is Debian with the latest drivers and hardware and selective updates where needed. It's basically perfect for me and I've been daily driving it on 3 different PCs (2 Nvidia 1 AMD) for more than a year now with zero regrets or significant issues. I did pop into the discord with a few speed bumps and questions that were quickly answered.

Maybe just regular Linux Mint then, which follows Ubuntu release schedule.

Debian is like that. Mature. The point releases are thoroughly tested for reliability, but the cost is that they can't include bleeding edge software in the middle of the release cycle. The "stable" branch (currently Trixie) is always lagging behind, and the "testing" branch (Forky, next in line to become "stable") will be frozen long before it is released.

You might want to try a rolling release distro. Arch Linux or something based on it (EndeavourOS, Garuda, CachyOS), or Debian Sid (the unstable branch).

You can use the sgfxi installation script to get up to date drivers. :P

Debian is what you put on your grandma's Facebook machine

To put it in a less elitist way: you can put it on a family PC for light entertainment or for things like homework for kids

To be perfectly clear: most people use their PC as a glorified Facebook machine.

(it also doesn't have to be Facebook but the concept is the same)

I haven't watched the video. I've used Debian as my operating system of choice for over 25 years.

Debian is intended to be Free, it goes to great lengths to achieve this. Many of the popular distributions are based on it as a result.

It has the option to use non-free components like firmware blobs and weird vendor encumbered video drivers.

In addition, Debian runs on a large collection of different hardware platforms and as such is supported across more devices than many other alternatives.

If you run bleeding edge hardware, you have the option of running bleeding edge software within the Debian framework. It comes in flavours: stable, testing and unstable specifically to cater to different requirements.

Pick what you need depending on your use case.

I knew which video you were talking about before I even clicked the link.

Don't use Debian for a gaming PC. Period.

Stick with an Ubuntu derivative like Mint or Kubuntu. It's your best bet.

If you want a gaming exclusive platform, you might want to check out Bazzite as well. But the *buntus are best IMO.

Just use arch. It's a lot simpler than Ubuntu Fedora etc.

Occasional hiccups but nothing major.

I've run gentoo and void and tbh they were fine too, but more burden knowledge wise.

Debian and Fedora were always a chore to maintain. Major updates on Fedora constantly caused down time. Debian has no software and no ports like system which makes it difficult to get software.

Arch has most things packaged, decent docs a simple packaging system etc. The community is a bit mediocre but the os is pretty simple. Also what the steam deck uses FWIW.