Which Debian release are you talking about? Stable? Testing? Unstable? And although this is a gaming site, many members might have other criteria in mind for choosing a particular distro. You don't even need the latest "software" to play games, and advantages of using the absolutely latest kernel are often quite minimal unless you need a particular fix or a brand new driver. But you don't have to use the default kernel on Debian releases either.

Mind you, I don't think I've seen many reports on Debian causing problems for gamers on this site. Have I just missed them? Or are these Debian users simply proficient enough to fix these problems themselves? Debian doesn't exactly appeal to people new to Linux, unless they choose it based on ideology alone.

Disclaimer: Personally I've only used Debian on servers, and prefer a "better" OOTB experience on the desktop, but--as the word experience implies--this is purely subjective.

I personally don't use it (Kubuntu here), but I think that Debian testing is usable as a sort of rolling release without having to leave the world of apt-get. So that would be a reason to use it I guess.

I'm using Debian testing and it's not out of date. Debian testing in semi-rolling. It's being updated incrementally, except when Debian enters freeze period before the release. It did happen in the past that freeze was way too long, but they try to avoid it now.

So Debian testing offers a good balance of polish and stability while being up to date. Something like Arch introduces things way too early and you should be ready to deal with serious instability.

Ubuntu and Mint are actually more out of date than Debian testing, because they use periodic releases and they aren't rolling.

Shmerl, what kernel version does testing employ? Mint is currently 3.19 while I see Debian stable is only 3.16. I'm not trying to ostracize Debian users, in fact, this is a thinly veiled query as to Debian for a daily driver gaming system.

Current Debian testing has 4.3.5. You can see this here: https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/linux

Quoting: AnxiousInfusionShmerl, what kernel version does testing employ? Mint is currently 3.19 while I see Debian stable is only 3.16.

Just FYI, Mint also offers 4.2 as an optional update. And it's easy to install via their update manager's Linux Kernels dialog.

@tuubi: And Debian stable also has backports if some need that. http://backports.debian.org

I once tried the Mint Debian edition, and was startled at how many programs I wanted to install that weren't in the repos. Back to Ubuntu.

Mint Debian edition isn't really being worked on properly. Better use Debian proper.

While I use Mint as my main OS, I did use Debian on my test machine, games ran pretty well and there was no performance difference in the games I tested. The OS is definitely rock solid, didn't have a single issue in the few weeks I had it installed, I felt more control on the OS compared to other distros based on it.

One of the things I'm looking for is to not have to go through and selectively uninstall non-free software. Debian provides a clean slate and the only proprietary crap that gets put on there is stuff that I decided to install myself (cough Steam). Until I made this thread I had no idea there was a rolling Debian branch.

SteamOS is only based on Debian so I made some tweaks months ago to get the latest nvidia-driver available on the SteamOS repo without pb.
I'm using Debian stable and it works great. The debian-backports reposoritory is really helpfull to get the latest nvidia driver and other packages.

To me, a computer is not just a gaming device. I like to use my computer(s) for everything.

Here are some values of mine that I can think of as I write this, which Debian delivers, and makes me adore it.:
1) Stability / Security / Reliability

2) Excludes any trace of proprietary software by default AND makes proprietary software easy to install if the user desires it (so it's good for both idealism and pragmatism). I much rather go through roundabout methods of obtaining certain proprietary software that I feel I need rather than have proprietary software installed that I am not aware of, nor need. (The vrms tool is one useful tool for keeping proprietary software to a minimum.)

3) Massive repositories and beautiful package management system.

4) Multiple architectures supported, so I can carry an identical user experience on an ARM netbook, for example.

5) Apt-pinning and backports makes it much easier to keep a "99% super stable" (Debian stable repository) / "1% regular stable" (Debian stable backports and Debian testing repositories), for example. This ensures that any program that contains enough features to satisfy you can keep getting security-focused fixes, while still keeping the upgraded ones largely secure and stable. (Other branch combinations are possible, but that's my preference.)

The Debian project's decisions line up with my opinions perfectly; I have yet to disagree with a decision made by that project . . . it's an awesome project! :D I think I'm in love. :P