On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 12:09 -0600, Paul Johnson wrote:
> Can I escape Ubuntu to Debian?
Sure. You are more than welcome to try and use Debian.
> 1. Is Debian defaulting to the Unity Desktop too? (please say no)
Unity has to my knowledge not even been packaged for Debian [4]. Given that
Debian uses the Gnome desktop as standard desktop if you install the
"desktop" task you will more or less end up with the Gnome version in
testing [1] at the time of the release.
I would like to note that it is easily possible to install *any* desktop
environment or window manager on Debian (and probably Ubuntu) and that
you don't have to use the default one. I typically don't install any
tasks when I install a new system and add additional packages after the
initial minimal installation.
> 2. How can I make a transition to Debian from Ubuntu? So I need to
> change my apt repositories and then do what else? If glibc or the
> kernel headers are new, I'll have to recompile everything I've built,
> but that's OK.
You can not transform an Ubuntu system to a Debian system and you have
to install Debian from scratch if you want to use it.
Given that Squeeze will be released soonish I would recommend to install
it instead of Lenny (on your personal machine!):
http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
http://www.debian.org/releases/squeeze/installmanual
> 3. If I make this change Ubuntu -> Debian, will I end up back in
> "Nvidia Hell" where the OS updates frequently break the
> commercial/proprietary video drivers? I understand that nouveau is
> providing reasonable 2D for Nvidia cards, but my job requires the 3D
> support that seems available only from the commercial driver.
Nvidia drivers are available in Debian's non-free archive and well
supported.
1. Enabling non-free sources in /etc/apt/sources.list
2. Installing kernel headers for your kernel:
"aptitude install linux-headers-2.6-`uname -r |sed 's,.*-,,'`
3. Installing the drivers (DKMS flavour [2])
nvidia-glx nvidia-xconfig
4. Generating a suitable Xorg configuration file
nvidia-xconfig -o /etc/X11/xorg.conf
> I'm not trolling, not trying for a flame war here. If you like Unity,
> more power to you. If you like Ubuntu, OK, it has been good for me
> too.
Your question was not perceived as trolling. I would like to point out
that you can probably install a different desktop environment or window
manager of your liking on Ubuntu as well and that you therefore don't
necessarily need to install Debian.
If you, however, decide to do so: Welcome and may you enjoy your stay!
Further information on Debian can be found in the Debian Reference [3].
[1] See http://www.debian.org/releases/ for a short overview of
"stable", "testing" and "unstable"
[2] http://pkg-dkms.alioth.debian.org/
[3] http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/reference/
[4] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=609278
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