I’ve been getting more into self hosting lately, grabbed an optiplex 3050 for everything and I’m running Mint currently. Looking more into things though, I saw Debian come up as a more barebones distro and now I’m wondering if there is a lot of benefit to going more barebones. I’m not having any issues with my current setup but now I can’t stop thinking about it. I am newer to Linux but having to learn new things doesn’t wig me out much if there is a lot more involvement with Debian
Edit: I appreciate the responses. I do see where I could just end up creating problems that don’t exist by experimenting with it more. Debian does sound enticing so it’s definitely something I’ll mess about with virtually for now and see how I like it in comparison. But I definitely have to agree on the “don’t mess with a good thing” if it’s working for me. All your answers have definitely given me something to play with now as well, I want the problems to solve but doing it in a separate environment would suit me better to learn a few things. This community rocks.
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Mint is for desktops. Hands down.
Run something paired down for servers. Fedora Server, or plain Debian are fine. CoreOS or Talos if you’re trying out some k8s stuff.
Yes, it’s mostly just package selection, but you don’t need to sift through the cruft and clean up all the desktop shit running you don’t need.
lights fuse* Proxmox! runs*
Debian is stable. It works well, but the software in its apt/deb repo are relatively outdated compared to what might be in Fedora.
In the stable repo, but there are backports, testing and unstable repos too, if you want later versions and accept more risk of bugs.
Yeap, the price of security and stability is not having the latest bling. I’m fine with that.
Like everyone else said, didn’t fix it, if not broken. Admins like distros like Debian and Arch(sorry) because you have more initial control of what’s on them. Why have a GUI, if you didn’t need it? Mix that with a little OCD and next thing you’re doing is recompiling the kernel. Fun stuff 😀
i would say no. Debian, imo, is a bit outdated in concept for this usecase.
aside from the “if it’s not broke” advice, i’d say if one is building a new home server today, use podman containers and something like opensuse MicroOS.
This kinda thing is like Debians primary use case lol
yeah, in the past.
In the present, but in the past too.
yes. it’s just an old way to approach things. it still works, but IMO there are simpler, more elegant solutions available today.
it gets recommended because of the Toyota Corolla rep, not because it’s still the best choice in 2026.
I honestly only use debian headless, and manage the server via ssh and manage docker containers via portainer’s web ui.
I’m not new to linux though, so 100% stay with a desktop environment like the one that comes with Mint, because that makes things much much simpler. It’s all debian under the hood at the end of the day, and 95% of services provide install guides for debian-based systems anyways. Is this optiplex 3050 your first homelabbing system?
If your current setup is satisfying your needs don’t change it. Linux Mint is quite similar to Debian when it comes to the base.
If you want to try and learn new thing maybe look into Bash scripting or Docker. Think of something useful you would like to have and try creating it.I’m not having any issues with my current setup
There’s your answer.
+1 🐧
Start playing with nixos in a VM
You’ll get the idea I’m sure
I really love the idea of Nix. But not a fan of the scripting language.
I do need to test it more.
I do find it hard to update though. I’m not sure if they have released a GUI based interface to make it easier.
NixOS for self hosted is awesome! A few lines of code and you have set up a service on bare metal, without needing to think about dependencies. Just look at this beauty, OP:
services.immich = { enable = true; host = "0.0.0.0"; port = 2283; openFirewall = true; };
My recommendation is Debian for a server (real or virtual), or Proxmox. The former is perfectly reasonable and excellent experience; the latter is more flexible and more complex.
Debian is the parent distro of numerous Linux flavours (including *buntu, which aren’t suitable as a server OS, IMHO), so administration and services are all common (apt, etc). No need to learn dnf, pacman/yay, etc.
It’s still my preferred server OS, despite other options and being experienced.
Though I do also have a NUC running Proxmox (for VMs and LXCs), and both a NAS and RasPi running Docker. 🤷♂️ My Debian server is a VM inside one of them.
Proxmox, ironically, is also based on Debian.
It’s Debian all the way down
You can install Proxmox on top of Debian. I always do that.
You probably know this, but Mint is kind of just Debian with extra stuff (some might call it bloat, but that’s a matter of use case). So a switch to Debian from Mint should be very straightforward, if not seamless. The package manager is the same, and that’s usually the biggest part of switching distros. Debian is also ideal for hosting specifically; many, many production servers run on Debian. It’s also arguably the best-supported distro out there, so whatever question you have had probably already been answered.
TL;DR you should totally try Debian out (especially a headless version). It mostly like won’t be an issue.
You could also try Mint DE (Debian Edition) and get closer to the source (and ditch any of that Ubuntu crap).
Distro-hopping is very fun and educational, but don’t dump a working system for an experiment unless you’re forced to or you’re just a masochist.
Play around with it, try and recreate your current setup within it, and once (if) you’re comfortable enough to do that, then consider replacing your main server with it.
There’s plenty of more wild distros out there too. I love Debian, I use it a lot, but you’ll also learn a ton by trying to wrap your head around Fedora Silverblue, NixOS, Arch or Gentoo. It used to be a rite of passage to build your own LFS (Linux From Scratch) distro, not sure if people even do that anymore, but you’ll probably learn a metric shitton if you try.
Consider Debian without a GUI (i.e. “headless”) if you are setting up a new device in the future. There’s no reason you can’t run mint or mint DE for a server, and the presence of a GUI on the install is not significant for self hosting unless you are pushing the limits of your hardware. The differences between mint and Debian when it comes to how all the kernel bits and service configurations are set up aren’t going to be significant for most casual self hosting situations.
But for now, just keep doing what you are doing. Make changes when you move hardware, that way you can test some stuff out on the new hardware while keeping your current setup running.
Don’t tear down your server just to have fun - setup a vm (or get one of those minipcs), call i “playground” and have fun there.
Redo your server after you’ve tried different things, and only if you feel like you found something that is worth it.
Experimenting with different distros can teach you a lot (especially if you try very different ones - mint and debian aren’t that much different) and I do recommend you do it, just don’t do it in production :)
For servers, I usually choose the distro with a version with the EOL scheduled furthest into the future. Usually that means Ubuntu (Server) LTS.
