Debian users

[limestone]

Hi Debian users, I'm considering switching from Ubuntu to Debian, I have tested Debian a couple of times, checked it out. I say the hardware drivers part is a bit tricky then in Ubuntu. Anyway, just wanted a Debian user opinion and what I should think of. I really want to run something thats more customizeable then Ubuntu and a bit more do-it-your-self.

[uRock]

Debian has a nice forum. You can also use the ubuntu minimal install to get a more basic and customized system.

[limestone]

Debian has a nice forum. You can also use the ubuntu minimal install to get a more basic and customized system.

I tested the Ubuntu alternate cd and installed the command-line, liked it, but there is still something thats telling me Debian :P

[snowpine]

Debian and Ubuntu are 99% the same; I find switching back and forth to be an extremely smooth and easy transition. Any hardware questions you have are probably answered in detail in the Debian Wiki.

The only advice I will give is you may want to wait a few months; the current release (Lenny) is getting a little old (roughly comparable to Ubuntu 8.04) and you might want to consider waiting for the stable release of Squeeze (assuming you are not in a hurry).

[limestone]

Debian and Ubuntu are 99% the same; I find switching back and forth to be an extremely smooth and easy transition. Any hardware questions you have are probably answered in detail in the Debian Wiki.

The only advice I will give is you may want to wait a few months; the current release (Lenny) is getting a little old (roughly comparable to Ubuntu 8.04) and you might want to consider waiting for the stable release of Squeeze (assuming you are not in a hurry).

Ye, I'm waiting for that release :) I am keeping up with weekley releases but it don't seem to support ext4 quiet yet.

[snowpine]

Ye, I'm waiting for that release :) I am keeping up with weekley releases but it don't seem to support ext4 quiet yet.

Debian Lenny will never support ext4. You will need Squeeze if you want ext4 support. :)

[limestone]

Debian Lenny will never support ext4. You will need Squeeze if you want ext4 support. :)

yea, I'm using the weekley generated squeeze cd's. but so far it does not seem to support ext4, haven't tried todays release though.

[snowpine]

yea, I'm using the weekley generated squeeze cd's. but so far it does not seem to support ext4, haven't tried todays release though.

That is weird; I've been running Squeeze on ext4 for months... must be a recent bug. :)

[nmaster]

i used debian (lenny) for a little while on an older machine that i found. it forced me to become more comfortable with the command line, but after a little while it felt like a hassle. lenny had older repos so i had to built newer packages from source. that takes time and a bit of worrying about dependencies. and it was all to use pdfocr, which has a third party repo in ubuntu.

on one hand i found debian alluring because of the minimal nature of the netinst but i think using the alternative cd for ubuntu is probably what i'll do in the future if i ever have the need.

[xc1024]

If you're after customising the system, Debian isn't the best one around. Too many layers for my liking. You should try Arch Linux. It also may be what you consider "pro". You never know 'till you try it.

[limestone]

If you're after customising the system, Debian isn't the best one around. Too many layers for my liking. You should try Arch Linux. It also may be what you consider "pro". You never know 'till you try it.

I've tried Arch but I don't like the /boot partition and stuff. Also I did not get pacman to work. I also tried Slackware, Liked it!

[limestone]

The only thing thats blocking me is the hardware drivers. If it's easy to get and install drivers I would be comfortable with any distro (slackware/gentoo/arch/debian etc..).

[nmaster]

The only thing thats blocking me is the hardware drivers. If it's easy to get and install drivers I would be comfortable with any distro (slackware/gentoo/arch/debian etc..).

you're probably best off with ubuntu then. it makes it fairly easy to install open source as well as proprietary drivers. if you want something that makes you feel more "pro" or "legit" just use the minimal install.

[limestone]

you're probably best off with ubuntu then. it makes it fairly easy to install open source as well as proprietary drivers. if you want something that makes you feel more "pro" or "legit" just use the minimal install.

The thing is that I don't feel that free in Ubuntu as I used to eg plymouth in 10.04. ah! what the heck.. I keep on experiment with the "old school" distros and see what happens. It always takes a moment to get used to something new.

[urukrama]

I've been using Debian Testing for a while now. Some of the reasons why I moved from Ubuntu to Debian:


It is lighter. A minimal Debian install contains less packages than a minimal Ubuntu install. As I work with old hardware, this means that Debian runs better on my computers, and also allows me to easily build up a system the way I like it.

Debian has a longer release cycle than Ubuntu. I don't want to update every six months, but neither want to be stuck with 3 year old packages if you use LTS releases. Debian Testing is as good as a rolling release if you want it to be.

Debian is more stable. Debian Stable is meant to be very stable, but Debian Testing is (in my experience) very stable too. Debian's main concern is not the latest or greatest, or a great design, but stability. I like a distro who has that as its main focus. Ubuntu's main focus with LTS releases is also not stability, just a longer support cycle (contrary to what is often thought).

I don't use Gnome, so most of the innovations Ubuntu offers are irrelevant to me, as they affect Gnome and sometimes very little else. And some of the innovations that do affect non-Gnome users I really don't like.


I don't have any ill feelings towards Ubuntu. I just realised Debian was a lot closer to what I wanted my OS to be.