Re: distributions: UBUNTU vs DEBIAN
On Thu, 2006-04-20 at 02:19, Attila Horvath wrote:
> What is the difference between UBUNTU and DEBIAN
> installations/distributions?
Although Ubuntu is derived from Debian, they are managed very
differently.
Debian Stable tends to lag, and Debian Testing can be flaky
for production work. A new Debian Stable is released rarely
although it is anticipated that this will improve. Serious
changes in Debian are almost always debated to death, which
results in very few unpleasant surprises.
A new Ubuntu Stable is released roughly every six months.
Ubuntu has numerous policies concerning changes but seldom
follows them strictly. Complaints about nasty surprises are
generally met with "the dictator has decided, live with it"
or "the developers have decided, live with it". Sometimes
the decision actually implemented in a release is the opposite
of the decision documented in the wiki.
We switched most of our clients from Fedora to Ubuntu because
Fedora was becoming too unstable and Ubuntu at the time was
just a version of Debian that was miraculously up to date. Now
we're switching clients to Debian because Ubuntu has become as
flaky as Fedora.
On the other hand, if you want to live on the bleeding edge,
go for it. For example, nvu will be in Ubuntu Stable in June
but is still only in Debian Unstable and may not transit
Debian Testing into Debian Stable for another 18-24 months.
There's no perfect distro, nor even a best distro. There may
be a small set of distros which are least unsuitable for your
requirements. If you have time, I would advise monitoring
both Debian and Ubuntu discussion lists for a month. You'll
probably find the decision much easier then.
--Mike Bird
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