https://spirallinux.github.io/
BTRFS, GUI Flatpak manager, Theming, nonfree codecs etc., printer support, timeshift preconfigured
Their goal is to make vanilla debian usable, with only debian tech. It is just a config, no “small distro dies and users need to switch”
Might not be the most secure (loose printer configs, preinstalled drivers for random stuff that is not normally a problem)
It requires the least amount of troubleshooting on my end. It has drivers I know connect to my Bluetooth headphones and it’s has a Calamares installer that I find intuitive. It comes with Flatpak (Linux’s app-store equivalent) enabled. It has snapshots, which store previous versions of your OS*; if something updates poorly, you always have something to switch back to.
It’s not without foibles. Every distro has some wonky-ness to it. But the problems in Spiral fixable and less obnoxious, I think, because it has so little branding.
It’s not like some distros that brag about being “CUTTING edge” or “UNBREAKABLE” while hard-crashing after an update. That’s expected. I’m not expecting perfection, and Spiral steps out of the way (to let Debian take all the blame lol). Thankfully Debian has a very long and stable history and I rarely have that problem.
Just one man’s long ramble. All anecdotal, so my final suggestion would be to test a variety, and don’t listen to weirdos on the Internet.
*kernel; whatever I’m still learning too
Hey, thanks! I’ll spin up a VM tonight. Debian has always been appealing for its stable base, but I tried pure Debian, and it was not much fun to set up.