I distro hopped for a bit before finally settling in Debian (because Debian was always mentioned as a distro good for servers, or stable machines that are ok with outdated software)
And while I get that Debian does have software that isn’t as up to date, I’ve never felt that the software was that outdated. Before landing on Debian, I always ran into small hiccups that caused me issues as a new Linux user - but when I finally switched over to Debian, everything just worked! Especially now with Debian 13.
So my question is: why does Debian always get dismissed as inferior for everyday drivers, and instead mint, Ubuntu, or even Zorin get recommended? Is there something I am missing, or does it really just come down to people not wanting software that isn’t “cutting edge” release?


Apart from Steam not being a standard installed item, it is very feature full.
For 32 bit you also need to enable multi-arch.
But apart from gaming it is in no way bare and very very far from “super bare”. Ans Steam is pretty easy to install.
You wrote it was mostly for servers. Which although it is an excellent server distro, it is most definitely developed at least as much for desktop use.
I don’t think you really understand the implications.
I’ve just given you several examples of how it’s not.
No I wrote that’s it’s more commonly used in servers.
I don’t think you do.