Why I switched to Ubuntu from Debian

[timothylegg]

Hello,

It's sure been a while since I switched. My roots were in the compile-it-all-yourself ideology of FreeBSD back in the 3.0-4.0 days and in about 2003 or 2004, I jumped over to linux since mice and GUI's were attractive to me (two things that never worked on any of my FreeBSD installations).

I started with Debian 3.0 and was pretty much in love with it's intuitive environment and the unprecedented ease of installation. I developed further and began testing the limits and subscribed to the mailing list to provide support (the mailing list format is something I truly miss). The decisive day was the day I filed my first bug report. Within 60-90 minutes, I started getting junk mail. I was careless enough to trust the bug site with my primary e-mail address that only about 5 people knew (all others were aliases). They posted my bug and e-mail address as plaintext on their website.

I complained about their carelessness with my private data and got a very pigheaded response suggesting that I should install a spam filter. Most people just aren't going to create disposable email addresses for bug reporting and I suspected that I wasn't the only one whom had this happen to them. I lost all confidence in the Debian movement that day because I knew that I wan't the only one whom would never file a bug report again and the operating system would be inferior as a result. I abandoned the Debian ship and installed Ubuntu 6 that evening. Software that never worked before was suddenly available to me for the first time. I really felt more liberated and empowered that night.

I shall reiterate, what I love about Ubuntu is the respect for the user by not giving away our emails to spam harvesters. I am very grateful that Ubuntu protects the identities of those who file bugs and I know that this operating system is more modern, reliable and correct as a result.

Tim Legg

[DuckHook]

Interesting evolution of usage. Sorry that you had such an unpleasant experience with Debian bug reporting. I'm not making excuses for them, but back in the day, most bug reporting was rather primitive and overly direct. Linux goes back far enough to the day when the Net was largely devoid of scoundrels, criminals and losers. I used to belong to mailing lists that published email addresses in the clear. Wouldn't dream of being so reckless now. Debian no longer does this either, but back in '03 (wow, 12 yrs seems like a lifetime ago in IT), it was a hold-over practice from the Net's more innocent days.

FYI, Ubuntu is built on top of Debian and inherits whatever faults it may have, so if you find Debian untrustworthy, Ubuntu is unlikely to be better.

[grahammechanical]

I have only used Ubuntu and I have never received spam emails from giving my email address to this web site, launchpad (bug reporting) or from the Single Sign On service.

Of course, there is always the ever present possibility of a server getting hacked. Or, of a rogue employee/volunteer collecting the data and selling it on. We do take a lot on trust.

In many organisations the people at the top have fine words (policy statements) and they think that they have put everything in place but by the time the policies and commands filter down to the bottom, very little is in place and the organisation is vulnerable to all kinds of failures.

I speak as someone who once worked at the bottom end of a large commercial organisation with the task of making sure the workplace was compliant with Company policy on Fire, Health and Safety. And the biggest obstacle was managers who thought that as managers they could do as they liked.

Regards.

[mastablasta]

FYI, Ubuntu is built on top of Debian and inherits whatever faults it may have, so if you find Debian untrustworthy, Ubuntu is unlikely to be better.

it's not just built on top. it also fixes the foundation quite a bit. Debian bugs that were won't fix (and even for new stable) despite affecting many users are not present in Ubuntu. so its more of a rework using existing code.

[Yellow Pasque]

I went the other way. Ubuntu 6.06 was the first Linux distro I used seriously, and I moved to Debian sid somewhere in the Lucid/10.04 days. I feel Ubuntu has lost its way (I personally don't care about touchscreen interfaces and I don't even own a phone).
I've reported bugs to Debian and never had a problem with spam (using gmail). As for Ubuntu, it hasn't exactly been a shining beacon upon the hill for respecting your privacy/freedom (Amazon shopping lens...).

[mystics]

I feel Ubuntu has lost its way (I personally don't care about touchscreen interfaces and I don't even own a phone)...
As for Ubuntu, it hasn't exactly been a shining beacon upon the hill for respecting your privacy/freedom (Amazon shopping lens...).

Beyond just the fact you can turn the Amazon stuff off very easily, you won't even get it with a different Ubuntu flavor like Xubuntu or Ubuntu Mate, which also would fix your issue with Unity's interface.

And this isn't meant to be taken as a pathetic "PLEASE COME BACK!!!" cry. I just don't get the point in criticizing Ubuntu over Unity-specific stuff when it is entirely possible, and very easy, to not use Unity on Ubuntu.