Usually it takes me less then two weeks to get e.g. a printer to work. Your problem is not the distro but the hopping.
this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2024
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Zorin OS is the way to go if you are sticking with the Debian/Ubuntu family. It's basically the Mac OS of Linux distributions, by shipping with a level of polish that other distributions don't deliver. To me this means I did zero tinkering out of the box to have the experience I wanted after spending a day configuring KDE in other distributions any time I did a reinstall. As far as printers go, they have always been hit or miss, but my problems were solved by disabling IPv6 on my local network.
Give Zorin a try. It's based on Ubuntu but even more user friendly - so much so that my elderly mother has no issues using it, she even prints and scans (a Brother MFD) and has no issues.
I thought I would stick with Debian
There's your first mistake. Don't run a server distro on a workstation if you don't want to deal with it's downsides.
I haven't been able to make my printer work in it
Read the CUPS Arch wiki page
do you people think Ubuntu will work for me?
Fuck Ubuntu. Use Mint if you want to try something Ubuntu based.
I've recently went through a bunch of stable distros and Nobara had the best experience out of the box.
(Looks at laptop I'm using to reply to this that's running Debian)
Server OS? Debian? Yes it is, but it's also a Desktop and Laptop OS and many other things. Everything on this HP laptop just worked, including the function buttons. There's a reason it's such a well used distro, and it's not just because it's good for servers.
I never said it can't work, but try using MX for a bit and tell me it doesn't make Debian much better as a workstation. MX tools are enough of a reason for me to always pick it over Debian in that scenario.
There's a reason it's such a well used distro, and it's not just because it's good for servers.
What are some workstation specific reasons it's well used?
I'm pretty sure stuff like function keys are just DE defaults. I've installed default gnome and they worked.
The main reason people use Debian, no matter what they use it for, is stability. While it's great that nothing ever breaks, you're also receiving nonessential updates every ~2 years.
That's not an issue on a server that's running mysql released 7 years ago, but you probably need to use flatpak and guix to keep specific tools relatively up to date. You're less likely going to need those tools when using a workstation focused distro like Fedora, that's released on a fixed 6 month cycle.
On top of that, workstation focused distros also integrate flatpak. Since synaptic only knows about apt, MX improves on it by only requiring you to enable flathub as a source to get a unified search/install/update.
Small stuff like that is important for a beginner that's asking for distro advice. They'll most likely want to click through a pretty gui, and Debian is lacking on that front because it's a server focused distro.
I'm a recent Linux convert I started with Debian testing and that worked out of the box for everything except Nvidia drivers. I hopped from Debian testing over to Pop Os because Debian testing wasn't supported for a bunch of random things I wanted to use. I stopped using pop os a couple of weeks ago because it would crash all the time and was going to jump to Ubuntu just so pretty much everything would be supported. That flash drive install was corrupted so I ended up on nobara and have loved it with no issues so far.
Why would you use Debian, it has the oldest packages and kernel of all distros. I would maybe run that on a server, but probably just use Ubuntu LTS instead.
For desktop you should try Pop OS. Really good distro from System 76.
Stay away from Ubuntu, it's very buggy for desktop. I tried it six months ago, fresh install, and the console app wouldn't even open on a fresh install. No error message, just didn't open. Great impression.....
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Most operating systems mostly work find something that has a release cadence you like and is close to what you want then you will have to customize it to fit your needs
Ubuntu actually worked for some people, who, for example, had trouble with PopOS! and getting highest refresh rate on multiple monitors. So yeah, if Ubuntu doesn't work, try Zorin OS, and if that doesn't work, try Manjaro, and if Manjaro doesn't work, there so many more to try out!