Totally Moving to Siduction

[nurikucukler]

After working as an IT professional with Windows systems, I retired 6 years ago. As a bonus of retirement, I decided to move to Linux. Since then, I've been using a Linux desktop and managing several Linux servers.

I started with Ubuntu (both server and desktop), then moved to Debian (server and desktop). My main computer is my desktop, which now runs Debian 12. I also have an older laptop that I use when I'm away from home.

I used my laptop for distro hopping and tried many distros (Ubuntu variants, Mint, MX, Arch variants). One day I tried Siduction Linux, and that ended my distro hopping. In short, I really liked Siduction Linux. Everything works fine as long as I run sudo apt full-upgrade from time to time.

I was planning to upgrade my desktop to Debian 13, but something inside me keeps saying: "Switch the desktop to Siduction Linux too."

I know there will be some consequences:

- Some programs may stop working suddenly
- Some VirtualBox VMs may need guest additions reinstalled
- There will probably be broken packages, which I'll eventually fix

I guess I'm already siducted and my path is chosen...

P.S.: I use GNOME DE, and it works like a charm on Siduction.

[unklarer]

Welcome to the forum!

Thank you for your report and kind words about siduction.
However, you are making a mistake in your thinking:

I was planning to upgrade my desktop to Debian 13, but something inside me keeps saying: "Switch the desktop to Siduction Linux too."

siduction is based on 'unstable' and is a rolling release distribution. This means that by regularly performing 'dist-upgrade; full-upgrade' (which is strongly recommended!), you will always have the latest software available in Debian.


You can check this in the terminal, where you will find nothing from debian12/13:

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fastfetch -c neofetch -l siduction
                _aass,                      unklarer@efi-sid
               jQh: =$w                     ----------------
               QWmwawQW                     OS: Debian GNU/Linux forky/sid x86_64
               )$QQQQ@(   ..                Host: OMEN by HP Laptop
         _a_a.   ~??^  syDY?Sa,             Kernel: 6.16.7-1-siduction-amd64
       _mW>-<$c       jWmi  imm.            Uptime: 6 mins
       ]QQwayQE       4QQmgwmQQ`            Packages: 2067 (dpkg)
        ?WWQWP'       -9QQQQQ@'._aas,       Shell: bash 5.3.3
_a%is.        .adYYs,. -"?!` aQB*~^3$c     Resolution: 1920x1080
_Qh;.nm       .QWc. {QL      ]QQp;..vmQ/    DE: Xfce4 4.20
"QQmmQ@       -QQQggmQP      ]QQWmggmQQ(    WM: Xfwm4 (X11)
-???"         "$WQQQY`  __,  ?QQQQQQW!     WM Theme: Default
        _yZ!?q,   -   .yWY!!Sw, "???^       Theme: BL-Lithium [GTK2/3/4]
       .QQa_=qQ       mQm>..vmm             Icons: Breeze-Nord-Dark-Icons [GTK2/3/4]
        $QQWQQP       $QQQgmQQ@             Terminal: xfce4-terminal 1.1.4
         "???"   _aa, -9WWQQWY`             Terminal Font: Hack 9
               _mB>~)$a  -~~                CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700HQ (8) @ 3.500GHz
               mQms_vmQ.                    GPU: GeForce GTX 965M
               ]WQQQQQP                     GPU: HD Graphics 530
                -?T??"                      Memory: 1649MiB / 7846MiB

The next Debian is called 'forky'.   

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inxi -Srxxx
System:
  Host: efi-sid Kernel: 6.16.7-1-siduction-amd64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64
    compiler: gcc v: 15.2.0 clocksource: tsc
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.1 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.48 wm: xfwm4 v: 4.20.0
    with: xfce4-panel vt: 2 dm: SDDM Distro: siduction 2023.1.1 giants - xfce -
    (202405152122) base: Debian GNU/Linux forky/sid
Repos:
  Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2068
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/dbgsym.sources
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.sources
    1: deb https://deb.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/extra.sources
    1: deb https://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/siduction/extra unstable main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/fixes.sources
    1: deb https://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/siduction/fixes unstable main non-free-firmware
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/npreining.sources


[nurikucukler]

Thank you very much for your warm welcome and explanations. Not regulary, but I've been using Siduction on my laptop for about a year. I've been away from home (and my desktop) for about one month. I've a lot of chance to deep dive Siduction. When I'm home again in about a month, I'm going to have a few happy days reinstalling and configuring my desktop with Sİduction

A quick question by the way: When a new release of Siduction available in the future, am I going to have to do anything to use the additional features of that release (if there is any).

[unklarer]

A quick question by the way: When a new release of Siduction available in the future, am I going to have to do anything to use the additional features of that release (if there is any).

A quick question: If a new version of Siduction becomes available in the future, do I need to do anything to use the additional features of that version (if there are any)?

In principle, no. 
It depends on how long you haven't updated your siduction system (full upgrade). If it's been a long time, then it will probably break because easily thousands of packages will be updated, replaced, or deleted.

My advice would be to do it. 
The experience of seeing how this looks in the terminal (tty3 is recommended) is very valuable!

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init 3
apt update
apt full-upgrade
apt clean
init 5 && exit
If it breaks, your experience won't be ruined!

Here you can find the latest ISOs to download:  https://testbuilds.siduction.org/
A description of the whole siduction-process can be found here:  https://siduction.org/2024/12/release-notes-for-siduction-2024-1-0-shine-on/
As you can see, siduction is a very small team and therefore lacks the manpower to support all flavors. Please also use the excellent manual (recommended online, above, under Help, "Check out Run full-upgrade").

I wish you every success!

[nurikucukler]

Dear unklarer,

Thanks a lot for your comprehensive explanations, that means a lot to me. I totally feel I am at the right place.

[scholle1]

@nurikucukler
Welcome to siduction.

After working as an IT professional

I think you will enjoy siduction very much. Your professional experience will be an advantage.

As unklarer wrote, siduction is a rolling release distribution based on Debian sid. Updated and/or new packages are uploaded to the sources several times a day.
For installation, I recommend using Btrfs as the file system. I have had very good experiences with it over the past few years. However, users should familiarize themselves with the features and handling of Btrfs and Snapper in advance.

Our manual (https://manual.siduction.org/index_en.html) contains some information on this in the following chapters.
System Administration > Btrfs
System Administration > Snapper
Installation > Partitioning of installation media

If system upgrades ever have undesirable effects, or if you execute commands that negatively affect the system, you can quickly restore your working siduction with a rollback.

A few words about the dist upgrade.
Some people do it daily, but once a week should be a good rule of thumb.
And note the difference between "apt full-upgrade" and "apt --solver 3.0 full-upgrade"

Even if a system has not been updated for a long time (in my case, it was a test system for more than six months with more than 1200 packages), there is no need to worry. You just need to read what apt wants to do and then decide.

And now, best of luck with siduction.

[ro_sid]

And if an upgrade really wants to "ruin" your system - i.e. too many (unwanted) removals -, say "no" and just do an "apt upgrade" only for a while, until the removals suddenly vanish with "dist-upgrade", when the waters have cleared.

[nurikucukler]

Thank you very much, Scholle1. I've been putting off reading the Siduction Manual for a while, and I think the time has come.

Btrfs and Snapper seem promising; I think I'm going to use them for other purposes (like for my work projects) too. But first, always read the manual (RTM).

As far as I understand, using apt full-upgrade with the --solver 3.0 option improves dependency resolution. I didn't know about that option, so I'm glad I learned something new.

Ro_sid, thanks a lot for the nice trick—it's much appreciated

As a retired (though still working a little) person, I have a lot of time for games. I use Steam and Wine. So far, I haven't had any problems on my laptop. If you experts have any tricks, I'm all ears.