Re: Is Ubuntu a debian derivative or is it a fork?
Michael K. Edwards(m.k.edwards@gmail.com)@2005-05-31 23:01:
> I think it's been so long since Debian started having pre-sarge
> freeze-spasms that we've all forgotten what it's like when the
I am a long time Linux user but only saw the debian light just after
woody released so I have no experience with the flood. But I can
guess what is about to take place. Indeed I have several packages of
my own just waiting for the release.
> Once sarge does release, the Ubuntu folks are going to be right there
> in the trenches with everyone else dealing with GCC 4.0, the death of
> devfs, and the demands for a graphical installer. If anything they'll
> be pulling Debian forward with Linux 2.6.11.bignum, just as they are
> with Python 2.4 and some of the remaining java-in-main issues. It is
> not in their interest to let their fork (or spoon or other implement
> of destruction) go off into the rough.
All good points.
> > Oh my gosh, I hope and pray you are right.
> >
> > We are all watching ...
>
> I'm not quite sure this is sarcasm, although I have my suspicions.
No .. it wasn't intended to be sarcastic. Both the Ubuntu supporters
and the opponents will be watching to see what takes place.
> But I happened to be watching on #ubuntu-devel as the last few hoary
> RCs got knocked off. These guys (and gals) are pros, and they're
Yes they are pros. I haven't started tracking ubuntu-devel yet but
from the reading I have done it looks like Ubuntu has managed to avoid
some of the volatile discourse (flames) that can be counter productive
and, frankly, embarrassing in debian-devel.
> excited about what they're doing, and they aren't any less committed
> to Debian than they were before no-name-yet. They're used to dealing
> patiently with bull-headed upstreams when wearing their DD hats, so
> they can probably take Debian-Ubuntu frictions in stride.
I guess in many cases Ubuntu have a double level of upstream to cope
with :-)
upstream --> debian --> ubunto
> Some things about the relationship are going to be hard, though. I
> was very distressed to find that a last-minute ABI change in sarge's
> glibc will cause any package built on sarge that gets a versioned
> glibc dependency to be uninstallable on hoary. I really had hoped to
> run the same mysql-server packages on both, and I'm not quite sure
> what I'm going to do for a distro-neutral C++ build environment. :-(
So *that* was the cause. I have been helping a client upgrade
machines from sarge to Ubuntu and our internal software broke with a
glibc conflict. It means we are forced to either keep two
repositories of internal code or switch EVERY machine to Ubunto. Sigh.
Steve
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