Debian 13 “Trixie”

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall sentiment and Debian’s role

  • Many comments express long-term affection for Debian as a principled, stable, community-driven “anchor” distro that underpins numerous derivatives and appliances.
  • Users praise in-place upgrades (bookworm→trixie) as fast and generally uneventful, especially compared with some other server distros.
  • Several report using Debian successfully as a daily-driver desktop for non-technical family members.

Debian vs Ubuntu and snaps

  • Strong pushback against the claim that Debian isn’t suitable for “average home users”; multiple anecdotes of entire families on Debian.
  • Some argue Ubuntu used to “just work” but is now weighed down by snaps, proprietary tooling, MOTD ads, Ubuntu Pro nudges, etc.
  • Snaps are widely criticized: forced via apt, slow startup, permission issues (e.g. Thunderbird/Firefox), and dependence on Canonical’s closed store. Debian is praised for avoiding this.

/tmp as tmpfs and cleanup policies

  • Big behavior change: /tmp is now a tmpfs (RAM-backed, up to ~50% of RAM) and both /tmp and /var/tmp get periodic cleanup via systemd-tmpfiles.
  • Supporters: matches long-standing Unix practice, reduces SSD wear, clarifies that /tmp is ephemeral.
  • Skeptics: surprised by timescale changes after decades of “clean on reboot only”; worry about RAM exhaustion and workflows that relied on longer persistence. Workarounds and opt-outs are noted.

Init systems and systemd friction

  • It remains possible to run trixie with sysvinit (with some pinning and careful package operations); some see this as valuable choice, others ask “why bother” vs using Devuan.
  • Multiple systemd-related concerns:
    • Automatic tmp cleanup and tmpfs limits.
    • Predictable NIC naming changes; tools and kernel args shared to preserve old names.
    • New “System is tainted: unmerged-bin” message about /usr/bin vs /usr/sbin layout is seen by some as needless pressure on distros.

Architectures and 32‑bit deprecation

  • Trixie drops i386 as an installable architecture (no 32‑bit kernel/installer), but retains i386 userland for 32‑bit apps on amd64.
  • Mixed reactions: gratitude that 32‑bit lasted this long vs disappointment given Debian’s “universal OS” ethos and remaining 32‑bit-only hardware (old netbooks, Geode boxes).
  • Alternatives mentioned for 32‑bit systems include OpenBSD, Alpine, antiX, Slackware, and others.

Packaging, policies, and upstream tension

  • Debian’s strict no-vendoring and dependency-packaging rules complicate Node/Golang-heavy projects; example: ntfy loses its web UI in the Debian build because required npm deps aren’t packaged.
  • Some upstream authors are advised not to support distro-patched variants; others defend Debian’s cautious dependency model.
  • Complaints about Debian’s invasive patching in some areas (e.g. OpenSSL history, Python pip layout changes) vs defenders who value Debian’s consistency and security processes.

Other technical notes and issues

  • New deb822-style .sources format for APT, with apt modernize-sources to migrate.
  • Bit-for-bit reproducible builds now cover over 90%+ of packages on major arches; tools exist to check local reproducibility status.
  • RISC-V is now an official architecture; s390x and ppc64el retained; armel marked for last release.
  • Some early user reports of regressions in KDE/Plasma 6, Qt 6, Cinnamon, and Pipewire after upgrading, especially in X11 and graphics/input behavior, though others report smooth experiences.