I recently moved my work machine from Windows to Linux and chose Debian Trixie + KDE Plasma for the stability. The advice is that if stability is your priority, you should try to avoid breaking Debian. I understand that adding third-party sources can cause dependencies conflicts, and must be avoided at all costs. I also understand that Flatpaks, AppImages, Snaps, and Docker/Podman images are safe because they don’t interfere with the system dependencies. So far, so good. What I don’t understand is what happens with other ways of installing software (eg .deb, tarballs).
I know it’s a contentious subject but if stability is the priority, how would you rank different methods? I may be wrong but my take is:
Debian repository > Flatpak > Appimage > Docker/Podman > Snap > tarball
To be avoided: .deb for Debian > .deb for Ubuntu > PPAs
Eg Viber is available as an official AppImage (with certain bugs), unofficial flatpak (with other bugs), and an official .deb for Ubuntu (which is probably a bad idea for Debian anyway). Viber support told me they don’t support my OS.
Oh, yeah, I remember that time. Upgrading between major versions isn’t perfect, but it has improved dramatically since about 2017 on both Ubuntu and Debian.
Debian has also just implemented apt v3, which adds many basic http/s quality-of-life improvements to package downloading and installing (like multithread, better config definitions, easier key mgmt, etc)
I don’t know about Ubuntu because I moved from Ubuntu to debian 4 years ago for other reasons, but I’m sure they have aptv3 as well.