Re: debian vs ubuntu and knoppix
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| On (12/10/05 12:36), Clive Menzies wrote:
|
| Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 12:36:25 +0100
| From: Clive Menzies <clive@clivemenzies.co.uk>
| To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
| Subject: Re: debian vs ubuntu and knoppix
|
| On (12/10/05 10:53), Antony Gelberg wrote:
| > Clive Menzies wrote:
| > > On (11/10/05 21:08), Sam Rosenfeld wrote:
| > >
| > >>What are the major differences among the latest debian, ubuntu, and
| > >>knoppix distros?
| > >
| > >
| > > Leaving aside the ensuing debate on 'freeness':
| > >
| > > Debian gives to access to the full Debian universe in 3 flavours:
| > > stable, testing and unstable
| > >
| > > Ubuntu is derived from Debian but not all debian packages will run on
| > > it. They polish their distro and provide their own package repository.
| > >
| > > Knoppix is also debian derived and is used as a base by a number of
| > > other distros.
| > >
| > > FWIW, thus far, although I run sid, I've found kubuntu (KDE based
| > > ubuntu) to be the distro that I'd give to someone who wanted a drop in
| > > replacement for windows without having to learn about Debian or pay for
| > > support.
| >
| > An interesting answer to the question that I was going to ask. I've
| > just installed a mew HD in my parents' computer. They are not exactly
| > knowledgeable users, they've been using XP, and I was trying to decide
| > between Knoppix and Ubuntu (having used neither).
| >
| > Of course, I'm also tempted to install Sarge with KDE, OpenOffice,
| > Mozilla etc. How un-user friendly can that be. ;)
|
| Upfront, I declare that I've never really got on with Gnome although I'm
| always left with the feeling that it's my fault rather than Gnome
| itself :) I looked at it again yesterday because ubuntu is a really
| polished distro .... but again I found myself abandoning it. It's not
| that it's bad, it's just that I don't seem to be in tune with the
| interface.
|
| I've tried various distros including:
|
| Xandros
| Libranet
| Kanotix
| Debian From Scratch
| Feather
| Mepis
| Knoppix
| OSSWatch Knoppix
| XFLD
| Yoper
| Beatrix
| Ubuntu
| Kubuntu
|
| My objective is to find a distro that I can give to users in situations
| where we've setup a Debian server but don't want to have to configure
| each workstation individually. Typically these are for windows users
| who can't be expected to get too involved at the command line.
|
| Kubuntu (Breezy Badger) is my preferred choice because:
| - painless install
| - KDE is pretty intuitive for windows users
| - samba networking works out of the box (pretty much)
|
| Ubuntu is great as a stand alone workstation but I've yet to understand
| how best to use it with samba/windows shares. As stated above this may
| be more to do with my shortcomings :)
|
| Beatrix is a great Ubuntu derived lightweight distro - good for older
| slower machines and newbies (again stand-alone)
|
| DFS good for troubleshooting (incl. amd64)
|
| XFLD - is a live CD with the Xfce desktop environment - having started
| with KDE, I use xfce - it's faster and IMHO, more elegant
|
| Kanotix and Knopix are pretty good but I've not explored them very much;
| I mainly use them and DFS to rescue broken systems.
|
| Generally, I won't recommend any of the others above because I've
| encountered problems of one sort or another or just didn't like them;
| these are subjective views and my analysis wouldn't qualify as
| scientific :)
|
| When all is said and done, I will continue to use sid; for similar
| reasons to many on this list but for those who have neither the time or
| inclination to climb the learning curve, a derivative distro is the way
| to go, unless you are prepared to support them; that said, once setup, a
| Debian system is pretty painless to administer.
|
| I believe there is a place for Debian and these derivative distros;
| there are all broadly on the same side rather than competing. They each
| have their own rationale for doing things the way they do. Generally,
| development effort is shared for everyone's benefit.
|
| I guess the major drawback is the bewildering number of choices facing
| someone who wants to get into Linux from being a Windows user; my choice
| as an ex Mac user was much simpler - Debian was then only distro I could
| get to work on an old esoteric Nubus Mac. Had my test machine been x86,
| who knows where I might be now?
|
| Sorry, I seem to have waffled on longer than intended :)
|
| Regards
|
| Clive
|
|
I at one time had programs written to update a user's environment when they
logged in (set up the desktop, check for updates, upload whatever, etc).
This should be simple for debian (and others) based systems, by running the
script to verify that a private repository is in sources.list and then update.
Could use any means to sync the environment and "push" changes.
Note: this can easily be done after user logs in from kdm/xdm/gdm, as there
is a hook to run something after they successfully login. The script will get
run as root, yet HOME and LOGIN should be correct to the user.
in GDM: <sysconfdif>/gdm/PostLogin/Default
only have gdm installed on this machine, not able to verify the others for
exact filenames.
Hrm, maybe I should rewrite it again. There may be a need at work (2k+ linux
machines).
-Chris
|
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|
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