this post was submitted on 04 May 2024
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Does anyone know why SteamOS is based on arch rather than Debian? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 6 months ago by LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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Just got a steam deck and immediately checked out the desktop mode, and I was somewhat surprised to see KDE and pacman as opposed to GNOME and apt, I have nothing against the former though a strong preference for the latter, anyone know why Volvo went in this direction?

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[–] seaQueue@lemmy.world 106 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Gaming support is still very much a work in progress all up and down the software stack. Stable distros like Debian tend to ship older proven versions of packages so their packaged software can be up to 18mo behind current releases. The NTSync kernel code that should improve Windows game performance isn't even scheduled for mainline merge until the 6.10 kernel window in a few weeks - that's not likely to be in a stable Debian release for a 12-18mo.

TL;DR: Gaming work is very much ongoing and Arch moves faster than Debian does. Shipping 12-18mo old versions of core software on the Steam deck would degrade performance.

[–] TunaCowboy@lemmy.world 16 points 6 months ago (2 children)

It's pretty common to use debian unstable as a base. stable is not the only release that debian offers, and despite their names they tend to be more dependable than other distros idea of stable.

$ awk -v k=$(uname -r) '/^NAME=/{gsub(/^NAME=|"/, "", $0);print $0,k}' /etc/os-release
Debian GNU/Linux 6.7.12-amd64
[–] dsemy@lemm.ee 21 points 6 months ago

In my experience, Debian unstable has been less stable than "pure" rolling release distributions. Basing on unstable also means you have to put up with or work around Debian's freeze periods.

[–] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

stable is not the only release that debian offers,

Did you mean to say "branch" rather than "release"? Debian only releases stable. Everything else is part of the process of preparing and supporting stable.

Testing branch may work well or it may not. Its goal is to refine packages for the next stable release so it has an inherent strive towards quality, but it doesn't have a commitment to "quality now" like stable does, just to "quality eventually".

Testing's quality is highest towards the start of each release cycle when it picks up from the previous stable release and towards the end when it's getting ready to become the next stable. But the cycle is 2 years long.

[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 4 points 6 months ago

Puts on reading glasses back in my day, we had a saying: “there’s nothing more stable than Debian unstable.”

[–] TunaCowboy@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

No, I meant release: https://www.debian.org/releases/

Debian always has at least three releases in active maintenance: stable, testing and unstable.

[–] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 4 points 6 months ago

Interesting, I didn't know they consider testing and unstable to be releases too.