Has anyone here tried using Deepin as their primary distro long term? What was your experience like?
Posted by Silent-Okra-7883@reddit | linux | View on Reddit | 38 comments
I’ve been testing Deepin 25 lately, and honestly, it’s one of the most visually stunning Linux distros out there. The design is polished, animations are smooth, and it really gives you that "premium OS" feel.
But when it comes to using it as a daily driver (main OS), some issues still hold it back:
- Stability: Occasional crashes and freezes, especially after updates.
- Software availability: The app store looks good, but it lags behind compared to other distros. Many apps need flatpaks/snaps or manual installs.
- Updates & reliability: Deepin updates sometimes break things, which isn’t great if you need a rock-solid system for work.
- Privacy concerns (still in people’s minds): Even though Deepin has improved, many users are still skeptical due to its past.
- Hardware compatibility: Some drivers don’t work as smoothly compared to Ubuntu, Fedora, or Mint.
So while Deepin wins the beauty contest, it struggles when it comes to being a dependable main OS for productivity or professional use.
kawaii_girl2002@reddit
This is a good distribution, but it has room for improvement. The design is very good. It looks bright and beautiful, which is what GNOME lacks, for example. The input method is also perfectly implemented. Almost the only distribution where you can normally write text in Chinese without problems. For some reason, developers of other distributions simply ignore this problem (this was the main reason why I tried Deepin). However, Deepin uses outdated X11 instead of Wayland, and there are still quite a lot of bugs.
ESNSergey@reddit
Deepin is actually developing their own Wayland Compositor called Treeland btw, which is WLRoots based like Sway or LabWC
kawaii_girl2002@reddit
That's good, because overall I like Deepin. It has a nice design and no issues with the IME. I hope they can upgrade to modern technologies. X11 is very outdated.
0riginal-Syn@reddit
It is not something I would ever use or recommend, and not really because it is from China. We know bad shit can come from anywhere. But we test many things in our labs and this is just not a good distro.
It is the very definition of the term "beauty is only skin deep."
The desktop is very nice on the surface, but once you start to get into it, you realize the UI is broken in many places and consistency is just not something that exists. The lack of standard use of language files and proper translation would drive me nuts.
Pretty much everything everyone else has already mentioned in this thread. It is just broken, not dependable, not privacy-friendly, and lacks too many things. I would guess it works better on the computers within China that it ships on, and that is their likely focus for hardware.
VashZionz@reddit
I really thought you're talking about Windows 11.
0riginal-Syn@reddit
LOL, yeah, it would be a very similar write-up
kawaii_girl2002@reddit
This distro has advantages such as good input method support, while other distros seem to believe that English is the only language in the world. As for the design consistency, I have not noticed any problems while using this distro. Everything looks really good. The real problem with Deepin is its outdated technologies such as X11 and a lot of bugs. For these reasons, I have given up on Deepin.
0riginal-Syn@reddit
Most have excellent multilingual support through proper language files, especially the bigger distros. This was not an attack on it being based on a particular language, just the poor translation/multilingual support. It does have its strengths; as mentioned, it just has too many things that are not ready. It was designed towards being sold and used on computers sold in China, so they focused on that first, which is totally fine. Unfortunately, it just doesn't have quite the level of support beyond that, largely because it's outdated.
Maykey@reddit
Not in my experience. I've never seen a distro where I could setup English+Russian+Japanese without modyfing env variables by hand.
In ancient windows XP I could setup it just by adding a new language two times. In Linux I always had to fuck around with ibuses, mozcs, fctxs and editing my configs because otherwise IME wouldn't work in this or that GUI framework of particular version
kawaii_girl2002@reddit
Not true. Absolutely most distributions have serious problems with input methods, when selecting Chinese in the input settings, the entered text is still in English. Solving this problem requires knowledge of Linux and manual configuration of Fcitx (or iBus). Deepin, on the other hand, delivers a good and configured input method right out of the box. Language support is currently one of the main obstacles to the popularity of Linux.
Silent-Okra-7883@reddit (OP)
I think they are overdoing the things,instead of focusing on rocksolidness and simplicity like mint they are trying to reinvent each and every wheel (here software or app)
kawaii_girl2002@reddit
They are trying to make a localized system for ordinary users. You install Deepin and immediately get a well-functioning Chinese input method out of the box, you get an app store where you can download Weixin, QQ, WPS office, and other popular applications natively or in a prepared wine environment. Linux Mint does not provide this for Chinese users. The input method does not work, and the localization is bad. Advanced users, including in China, use Mint, fedora and other major distributions, but deepin is designed for ordinary people who want everything ready right away and do not know English. Unfortunately, a good idea is not implemented very well. Deepin still has many bugs and uses outdated technologies.
rfc2795_@reddit
"Chinese-based Linux" no thank you.
kawaii_girl2002@reddit
This is an open source project. Before making such claims, please read the source code and provide convincing evidence of your concerns. This distribution has many disadvantages, but its origin is not one of them.
the-machine-m4n@reddit
What? Downvoting my comment without a reply?
That's funny.
kawaii_girl2002@reddit
The article mentioned says nothing about sending data, spying, or anything like that. The DDE maintainer for OpenSuse is simply incompetent. The Deepin team has nothing to do with OpenSuse packages and develops DDE exclusively for their own distribution. Comments are unnecessary here. I see yet another case of baseless hatred based on nationality. And it's disgusting.
the-machine-m4n@reddit
Removal of Deepin Desktop from openSUSE due to Packaging Policy Violation
Lmao
Silent-Okra-7883@reddit (OP)
True, though there are many diatros from Germany but they don't use german in basic titles,Like opensuse but this Chinese distro is real Chinese item full of Chinese names ,which can't even be read.
Oricol@reddit
A bigger issue is in what ways does the CCP have its fingers in this project. For that reason, many will never touch this.
Standard_Copy1140@reddit
the CIA also has, id rather have the chinese have my data then the west where im from.... the chinese care only for chinese
Pythoncc@reddit
The personal data will be sent to China
Standard_Copy1140@reddit
yeah i prefer that over the CIA/FBI, or the European Nazis
rataman098@reddit
I did, it's dogshit. I liked when the settings bar was a side bar, but they removed that feature long long ago (which was the only actual good feature they had). Unstable, half the software isn't installable, the other half is outdated. The UI breaks and the blur disappears randomly. Also AI and Chinese spyware. Big no no
Standard_Copy1140@reddit
you think it has chinese spyware, its open source and no one ever found it.... come up with some evidence rather then china bashing proof?
abskvrm@reddit
Been using it for 10 days ..it's really an appealing proposition for someone who has used Linux Mint for several years.. unlike other distros, it's very polished and feels like "home" the first time you boot post-setup, with simple features like voice to text on all apps, quick local 1.5b LLM helping you correct text, summarize, translate stuff everywhere across all programs. it's so simple, all the AI models are local, so safe. also, I have been monitoring the network via Wireshark, nothing suspicious so far. I might extend my days with this one on my distro hopping journey.
This has been my experience so far, the other comment about broken English at few places is real, but it's not a problem.
tamachine-dg@reddit
I used it for a while, and the general bugginess and lack of basic stuff (like a clock app, yes seriously) eventually got me to switch. There's also issues with English translation, and you need to switch the font to something else every update in order for apostrophes to not have a massive space after them.
Also, they baked AI into the taskbar and you can't turn it off
Silent-Okra-7883@reddit (OP)
Yes two of the most annoying features include the Chinese names everywhere and over beauty of the OS, I was not able to understand wether I should work or just keep looking at the desktop . Beautiful but less useful chinese item.I use mint btw.
vesterlay@reddit
All points are valid, but the apps are also very well designed. Easy and convenient to use
ArrayBolt3@reddit
openSUSE removed even the Deepin desktop environment from their distro recently, and part of what led to its removal was the fact that the DE is architecturally a mess. https://security.opensuse.org/2025/05/07/deepin-desktop-removal.html
MegaVenomous@reddit
I used it for a few months. I thought it was absolutely gorgeous. When I first started using Linux, I had wanted to use Deepin because of an article I had read which compared 3 distros (Ubuntu, Mint and Deepin), but my system would not have been able to run it.
Because I couldn't get a particular program to work on it, I had to (sadly) move on.
I did have some initial issues with the app store, and for some programs I had to go the their individual websites.
Loved the de though.
inbetween-genders@reddit
Im still waiting to be visually stunned 🤷♀️. I shouldn’t have clicked that video 🤦♀️
ObjectiveJelIyfish36@reddit
Well, looks are obviously subjective.
For me, Deepin looks more modern than KDE and GNOME. Not a compelling reason to begin using it IMO, but they definitely deserve credit for their UI work.
sublime_369@reddit
I don't get the hype.
RoofVisual8253@reddit
We should be promoting Deepin as a desktop enviroment.
You can easily get them on Arch based distros like Endeavour os and Reborn OS.
I remember when Cutefish was a thing. lol
battler624@reddit
Whats the AI voice used in the video?
Silent-Okra-7883@reddit (OP)
It's an open source project under testing, I recorded and increased the pitch by -1.
activedusk@reddit
The icons and style can be reproduced with other desktop environments, it s not that special. I can get that look with KDE very easily but it s too much like the OS es I try to leave behind.
It is a matter of preferance but I like KDE more and if you want some different there is hyprland. Copying thr Apple or Windows style to that level without any special flavor or spin is so deepin.
No_Scratch_1685@reddit
Unstable. I installed for a few hours. Some parts of the DE are in Chinese as well.