I haven't used Ubuntu desktop in a very long time. Not since they first introduced Ubuntu One or whatever it was called years ago. I also haven't ever used Debian desktop. But as a CLI-only environment like a server, I find Debian to be completely indistinguishable from Ubuntu.

Personally I've been using Arch for a long time. I prefer it in basically every way, except the pacman interface is hot garbage compared to apt. I wouldn't recommend Arch for everyone, and I don't recommend the base Arch distro for anyone. Get one of the nicer arch variants like Garuda or Cinnamon.

As other poster, Linux Mint runs Ubuntu with some of the nonsense stripped out.

FlatPak instead of Snap. No telemetry or DRM.

IMO you get to “stay with Ubuntu” but are also isolated from Canonical’s increasingly strange decisions.

If you want Debian with a nice desktop plus some common packages installed, IMO Linux Mint Debian Edition (IMDE) is a great option:

https://www.linuxmint.com/download_lmde.php

> I've used Debian, but the installs feel so barebones. I love that Ubuntu has many of the common packages I need, yet it doesn't feel bloated.

Then install the packages you want? If it's not in Debian repos then yeah that's compelling, but otherwise you're describing one extra apt-get command (per OS install) that you stick in your notes and reuse every few years.

Fedora, Mint, Manjaro, Pop, OpenSUSE, etc.

I personally use OpenSUSE and Manjaro as my daily drivers after switching from Ubuntu 3 years ago, and have yet to encounter any package problems that directly stemmed from not using Ubuntu. For everything else, there's always Flatpak.

Regular Mint and POP are Ubuntu based so if Canonical goes away tomorrow or more realistically bought by some big hostile company, what could you use? From the big distros run by foundations only Debian is truly community driven and OpenSUSE is independent but backed by a company. Fedora is owned by RH and can start doing the same bullshit as Ubuntu any day if they wish so. Arch and NixOS are community distros but both are kinda niche.

>so if Canonical goes away tomorrow or more realistically bought by some big hostile company, what could you use?

These are hypothetical scenarios and irrelevant to the context of this thread, which is about asking for Ubuntu alternatives now. The alternative doesn't have to be 100% community driven or completely detached from Ubuntu. It just needs to be usable without the nonsense of Ubuntu Pro or Snap.