Xilon
September 24th, 2006, 04:26 PM
There are similar threads around on the forum but none really answer my main question; what's the difference between Debian and Ubuntu?
We all know Ubuntu is based on Debian - unstable, but how is it different? I ran Debian Etch on VMWare and I must say it's very similar to ubuntu. The main differences I noticed were that the "Administration" menu is a lot more empty, whether that effects how easy the Distro will be to use I don't know yet. I noticed that firefox was version 1.5.0.4, though the unstable version probably has a 2.0 beta or at least the newest firefox, Etch seems to be a bit behind Ubuntu (not to mention Edgy having 2.0b2).
I like being "bleeding edge", at least for the apps I use like Firefox, which is why I'm running Edgy atm, and loving it btw. How far behind Ubuntu is Debian (testing)? How far behind Ubuntu is Debian (unstable)? If Debian unstable is relatively stable then I don't really see why I should be using Ubuntu.
When running Debian testing can I use repositories from Debian Unstable or possibly even Ubuntu without screwing up the system completely? I'm guessing that compatibility with Ubuntu wouldn't be too great since Ubuntu has many distro-specific metapackages.
How easy is it to use Debian compared to Ubuntu? The basic functionality seems to be pretty much the same. If I'd want to install compiz for instance would it be any harder on Debian than in Ubuntu? Would the repositories for Ubuntu on compiz.net also work on Debian or are there any dependency conflicts? I noticed that Debian Etch uses the same version of xserver-xorg as Ubuntu Edgy so I guess it wouldn't be too hard to set that up.
Basically I'd like ot know if it's worth staying with Ubuntu or should I go to Ubuntu's roots and check out Debian? I like to play with the system, it's the reason I started using Linux, I wanted to go Slackware but I got hooked on the debian packaging system :P. As I mentioned before I would also like to have the most bleeding edge software, which Ubuntu tends to offer, would I get the same kind of treatment with Debian? Oh and one last thing... the all important community and support - how does it compare? I love these forums, the people here and the amount of support given. There are heaps of howto's etc that have made using Ubuntu really easy. I've heard that Debian users are elitist and don't tend to be friendly to n00bs, which also reminds me of Gentoo :P Is this true? Would the ubuntuforums also help a Debian user? :)
Thank you for any input.
We all know Ubuntu is based on Debian - unstable, but how is it different? I ran Debian Etch on VMWare and I must say it's very similar to ubuntu. The main differences I noticed were that the "Administration" menu is a lot more empty, whether that effects how easy the Distro will be to use I don't know yet. I noticed that firefox was version 1.5.0.4, though the unstable version probably has a 2.0 beta or at least the newest firefox, Etch seems to be a bit behind Ubuntu (not to mention Edgy having 2.0b2).
I like being "bleeding edge", at least for the apps I use like Firefox, which is why I'm running Edgy atm, and loving it btw. How far behind Ubuntu is Debian (testing)? How far behind Ubuntu is Debian (unstable)? If Debian unstable is relatively stable then I don't really see why I should be using Ubuntu.
When running Debian testing can I use repositories from Debian Unstable or possibly even Ubuntu without screwing up the system completely? I'm guessing that compatibility with Ubuntu wouldn't be too great since Ubuntu has many distro-specific metapackages.
How easy is it to use Debian compared to Ubuntu? The basic functionality seems to be pretty much the same. If I'd want to install compiz for instance would it be any harder on Debian than in Ubuntu? Would the repositories for Ubuntu on compiz.net also work on Debian or are there any dependency conflicts? I noticed that Debian Etch uses the same version of xserver-xorg as Ubuntu Edgy so I guess it wouldn't be too hard to set that up.
Basically I'd like ot know if it's worth staying with Ubuntu or should I go to Ubuntu's roots and check out Debian? I like to play with the system, it's the reason I started using Linux, I wanted to go Slackware but I got hooked on the debian packaging system :P. As I mentioned before I would also like to have the most bleeding edge software, which Ubuntu tends to offer, would I get the same kind of treatment with Debian? Oh and one last thing... the all important community and support - how does it compare? I love these forums, the people here and the amount of support given. There are heaps of howto's etc that have made using Ubuntu really easy. I've heard that Debian users are elitist and don't tend to be friendly to n00bs, which also reminds me of Gentoo :P Is this true? Would the ubuntuforums also help a Debian user? :)
Thank you for any input.