Re: Why Debian

[Lisi Reisz <lisi.reisz@gmail.com>]

On Friday 08 November 2013 17:57:44 Alberto Salvia Novella wrote:
> Which are the very important reasons why do you prefer Debian over
> Ubuntu?


I know it will sound silly, but one of the reasons that I don't use 
Ubuntu is that I simply don't like it.  This is much more at a gut 
level and instinctive than a thought out reaction.

<Warning: tl:dr>
I have tried to come to terms with it: there are those who love it, so 
there must be something to it.  My initial reaction was, I am sure, 
initiated by my reaction to the ghastly colour.  This is not a good 
reason for disliking a distro, but it certainly affected my initial 
reaction.

Then it never worked for me.  Debian, I could just install and it Just 
Worked®.  Ubuntu and the other *buntus were a pain to install.  They 
started out by refusing to work on my video set-up and moved on from 
there.  I was told that of course it worked; all I had to do was 
tweak this, adjust the other and tinker with this.  Erm.... Why?  Why 
should I lay up problems for myself by using a distro that I do not 
even like?

I said to one afficionado that Ubuntu didn't like me.  He said that 
Ubuntu would never love me until I first loved it.

Well, I don't love it and I am happy without it.

I approved of it enormously when Mark Shuttleworth first set it up.  
But I didn't and don't like the result.  I don't like the ethos.  I 
don't like the constant instability.  It releases buggy software, and 
by the time some of the bugs have been ironed out it is time for the 
next release.  I acknowledge that they have recently done something 
about this.  But I dislike the ethos more not less.

Debian, I love.  It can be all things to all men (or women!).  It is 
stable, or unstable and bang up to date, as I choose.  I like the 
ethos.  I like the community.  I like the quality of the help 
available and freely given.  This is evidenced by the fact that we 
often get Ubuntu users coming onto the Debian list to ask for help.

And I like the quality of the distro and all the other available 
software in the repositories.  I was sad when they took all non-free 
software out of the installer, because it is necessary to install 
network drivers before doing a net install:  that applies to newer 
Ethernet cards as well as to wireless ones.  I rapidly realised, 
however, that there is a very simple solution.  I open the box, 
insert an old ethernet card, do my network installation, load the 
drivers for the card(s) belonging to the box, remove the old card.

So far I have never had a serious problem with Debian and hardware, 
even though my husband and I have new computers, and his was bang up 
to date when I bought it.  He also wanted Old Stable, and I could 
still get his box to work.  All the problems that Google and the FM 
couldn't solve, this list has helped with.

A distro is a lot of things.  It is an operating system, a community, 
an attitude to life.  I like all of those in Debian.  Moreover, the 
commercial winds cannot blow cold and blow Debian away.
</warning>

Lisi