I just tried to upgrade Ubuntu and I suddenly see that new packages want to be installed; snapd and firefox. I don’t need Firefox because I’m already using Firefox-ESR as a deb and I certainly don’t need snaps.
Why is Ubuntu doing this? I get it you like snaps but I don’t, so don’t try to force install it. I had to use apt-mark hold to block the install of snapd and firefox. This is also not an isolated incident. I just checked Reddit and someone made a thread 8 hours back regarding the same issue.
This thing is giving me Microsoft vibes.
How is Debian for servers?
I’m currently running Ubuntu server. And it’s really convenient. I even appreciate snaps as they keep things clean for the server.
Certainly I wanted something Debian based, I know some people using Fedora por servers but I really like Debian/Ubuntu LTR and not having to worry about updates so often.
Does Debian offer a lightweight server image without DE as Ubuntu?
Debian is great. It’s basically Ubuntu (it also uses apt for example) but bit more traditional. In fact it’s probably one of the most popular distros used in servers when you don’t need the support that someone like Redhat can give you especially as a business. And if you can’t live without “snaps” then you can install snapd on Debian.
Better than it is for desktop. Stable has tended to live up to its name and has always been my go-to for servers, but may not always be the best choice if for example you want to use new/uncommon hardware with a newer kernel and drivers etc (though compiling your own kernel is always an option, of course)
Debian packports provided what I needed when bullseye had outdated packages before the bookworm release. For qemu, libvirt, kernel and ZFS.
Download the netinst image. You get the option of installing a de or none entirely.
Recently switched my servers from Ubuntu to Debian and it feels virtually identical except much snappier and lower numbers on my resource-usage graphs.