Jack Wallen/ZDNETZDNET’s key takeawaysDebian 13 (aka “Trixie”) is now available for general use.This latest release is an elegant, smooth, and stable OS.Trixie ships with plenty of applications, a new theme, and a modern kernel.Debian is often called the “mother of all distributions” because so many distributions (such as Ubuntu) use it as a base. The reason for this is twofold: Debian is user-friendly and is absolutely rock-solid. It’s a rare occasion that I run into an operating system that is as reliable as Debian. Part of the reason for this is the time the developers take before releasing a new iteration. The time between releases allows them to do extensive testing, which ensures the release is sound.As far as what’s new in the release, you can check out this detailed description from my brother in open-source, Steven Vaughan Nichols. For this piece, I want to give you my initial impression of the latest iteration of that Linux distribution that inspires so many others.Debian 13.It is, in a word… smooth.Also: 7 things every Linux beginner should know before downloading their first distroBut what is smooth, with regard to an operating system?It’s simple: as you use Debian 13, you feel calm, like you’re interacting with an old friend who somehow always looks and behaves much younger than they should. While you’re with them, you always seem at peace.That’s the feeling I get with Debian 13.It’s not a showstopperI don’t mean this in a bad way. If you’ve used Debian for any length of time, you know full well that each release isn’t going to bring massive, profound, and eye-opening changes. With this distribution, it’s all about subtlety.At least on the surface.There are some significant changes that have been undertaken below the surface (such as the new /tmp behavior, apt 3.0, a new default theme, and all the upgrades to whatever desktop environment you choose), but from the naked eye, it looks very much like “second verse, same as the first.”Again, that’s not a bad thing. In fact, it’s that familiarity that keeps many a user sticking with Debian. I can’t remember a time when I’ve installed a new Debian release and thought, “Wow! That’s changed a lot!” It’s always, “This looks surprisingly just like the last release.” Also: You can try Linux without ditching Windows first – here’s howOf course, that also depends on which desktop environment you select. I went with KDE Plasma for my testing, and it looks pretty much like every KDE Plasma-based distribution I’ve tried lately (only with a slightly different theme). Of course, I immediately switched themes (I’m not a fan of dark themes), which is as easy as going to System Settings > Colors & Themes and selecting Breeze.Debian 13 ships with kernel 6.12 and KDE Plasma version 6.3.6. Those two together make a brilliant combination. Apps open quickly, animations and scrolling are buttery smooth, font rendering is stellar, updates/upgrades are fast, and everything behaves exactly as you’d expect from a high-performing desktop operating system.And, of course, it’s KDE Plasma, so it looks great and is highly configurable. In just a few quick clicks, I changed the look and feel of the desktop (even adding widgets). More
