Debian vs postmarketOS
| Debian | postmarketOS | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Free trial | No | No |
| Paid from | Free | — |
| Open source | No | No |
| Platforms | Linux, self-hosted | Linux |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Device types | Personal computers; cloud virtual machines | phones, tablets, laptops, Chromebooks, single-board computers, x86_64 EFI systems |
| CPU architectures | amd64, arm64, armhf, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x; i386 supported as a co-architecture for 32-bit software on amd64; armel upgrades only | aarch64, armv7, x86_64, riscv64 |
| Support lifecycle | Debian 13: five years, including three years of full Debian support through August 9, 2028 and LTS through June 30, 2030 | No fixed duration stated; stable kernel packages are kept up to date while the release is supported; device support depends on category and maintainers. |
| Built-in management | APT package installation, removal, and distribution upgrades | Stable and edge release channels; kernel and system package upgrades; automatic kernel upgrades required for community-category devices |
| App compatibility | Debian packages (.deb); APT package manager | Alpine apk packages; Flatpak is primary application distribution for Duranium |
| Deployment models | Physical computer installation; live boot from CD, DVD, or USB; OpenStack and QEMU cloud images; Amazon EC2 and Microsoft Azure images | Physical device installation; Duranium also uses standard GPT partitions on compatible laptops |
Both are listed in Best Operating Systems. On Everything Xiaomi, Debian scores higher on our published basis.