ubuntu vs. debian [Archive]

LostLake

January 31st, 2008, 12:05 AM

I know this is a stupid question, but what is the difference between Ubuntu and Debian?

p_quarles

January 31st, 2008, 12:18 AM

Not a stupid question at all. The biggest difference is the development cycle. Ubuntu is released every six months. Debian is a "rolling" release, meaning that it is gradually updated rather than all at once.

I'm moving this to the Debian sub-forum, since isn't specifically an Ubuntu support question.

LostLake

January 31st, 2008, 12:22 AM

Thank you, I'm trying to learn as much about Linux as possible. Any recommended readings are appreciated.

MethodOne

January 31st, 2008, 12:23 AM

Would the following mailing list message (some time in the early days of Ubuntu) help you?
http://archives.seul.org/schoolforge/discuss/Apr-2005/msg00052.html

p_quarles

January 31st, 2008, 12:24 AM

There's a lot to know. What aspects of Linux are you interested in?

LostLake

January 31st, 2008, 12:35 AM

Ubuntu/Debian is my chosen distro thus far. My current mission is to convert people from windows that are feed up with Gates. Basically I want to get involved! (Linux has come a long way)

LostLake

January 31st, 2008, 12:57 AM

also ive read that linux is customizable any thing on that as well.

LostLake

January 31st, 2008, 01:01 AM

Im also looking to build a gaming computer in the next month with ubuntu. any advice.

Elvish Legion

January 31st, 2008, 12:28 PM

Im also looking to build a gaming computer in the next month with ubuntu. any advice.

Budget? Games? Do you need a monitor? Have you built one before?

rua2

June 25th, 2008, 03:24 AM

[QUOTE=p_quarles;4240430]Not a stupid question at all. The biggest difference is the development cycle. Ubuntu is released every six months. Debian is a "rolling" release, meaning that it is gradually updated rather than all at once.

Debian unstable (Sid) is a rolling release; stable releases, noted for being rock solid, are made every so often. The current release, Etch, came out early last year. The next release, Lenny, is due out in September this year.

Jammy4041

June 25th, 2008, 12:03 PM

I am an avid ubuntu user, but I am interested to see the next release of Debian.

I know debian gets released every year or so, but ubuntu gets proper releases everything

As for choosing distros, it's best to stick with what you know, but you can choose any from hundreds of distros. Really, there's no real good reason to choose between, except for personal preference and experience.

doorknob60

June 26th, 2008, 01:50 AM

LaRoza

June 26th, 2008, 01:55 AM

I know this is a stupid question, but what is the difference between Ubuntu and Debian?

Not much actually.

They have different development cycles, and the repos will be different, and Ubuntu has more on it by default.

Debian is also faster, in my experience by a large margin.

Inxsible

June 26th, 2008, 12:19 PM

Personally I prefer Debian (use testing, stable is too old. gtk version too old for some things i try to install lolz). It's faster and more stable than Ubuntu. If you don't mind possibly compiling a wifi driver (I ad too, no big deal) and manually installing Nvidia (same with Ati probably) driver (I always did that in Ubuntu anyways), then Debian is a good choice. It works pretty much the same as Ubuntu, obviously, because Ubuntu is Debian based :)

Not much actually.

They have different development cycles, and the repos will be different, and Ubuntu has more on it by default.

Debian is also faster, in my experience by a large margin.I concur. Debian is much faster than Ubuntu. So much so that I have now converted all my machines to Debian from Ubuntu.

One of my old machines (P-3 1.13GHz, 256MB RAM 32 Mb shared nVidia ) had trouble running Xubuntu. But when I installed Debian, even Gnome- the heavier DE was just chugging along.

I currently use Debian core (business iso) to build my OS. I install whatever WM has me interested at that time :D