Debian Unstable vs. Ubuntu

[Rami Kayyali]

Now *that* was a great overview, thanks a lot...

My only gripe with Ubuntu right now is the lack of support, especially
from Google. What I mean is, if you search for a solution for almost
any problem on Debian, you'll most probably find one. Ubuntu's still
new to the scene, and it kind of scares me not to be able to fix
certain issues (if any). However, since Ubuntu's Debian essentially,
means most of Debian fixes also apply to Ubuntu.

Ubuntu's been pretty stable for me, and I don't think I didn't find
any software package that I wanted, so I think I'll stick to it for
now, and try Sarge/Sid more thoroughly some other time.

Thanks a lot again, I'm pretty much convinced :)

Now for the remaining debate (which I think I can answer it myself),
Ubuntu vs. Gentoo? Nah, just kidding. I switched from Gentoo to Ubuntu
mainly because I needed a minimal system up and running and I needed
it fast. But after using Ubuntu for a while, I started to like it. My
only (and I do mean only) problem with Gentoo is that it takes a lot
of time to compile even a base system. Other than that, I think both
apt and portage are great package management tools, especially when
compared to stuff like yum.

Just my $0.02
Rami Kayyali


On Sun, 6 Feb 2005 11:50:40 +0100, Shot (Piotr Szotkowski) <shot at shot.pl> wrote:
> Hello.
> 
> Rami Kayyali:
> 
> > I totally agree that Ubuntu is special for the average user, but my
> > question is what makes it special for Linux "power" users, and why is
> > it better (is it?) than Debian.
> 
> Because Ubuntu main and restricted have security support (plus universe
> and multiverse seem to have "unofficial" security support as well).
> Stable Ubuntu is also really stable (as the packages are tested with
> each other); neither sarge nor sid reach this level of stability.
> 
> > The 6 months upgrade policy is great, but then again,
> > I can do that by constant upgrading with apt.
> 
> IMHO, th risk of breakage if far greater with sarge than
> with Warty; Hoary seems to be about on par with sid.
> 
> > Ubuntu has packages pre-selected for me (as a user), but I personally
> > remove most of them and install my own choices. So why wouldn't I use
> > Sarge or even Sid?
> 
> Keep in mind that sarge, sid and Hoary are constantly changing, while
> woody and Warty once issued stay the same - if there's a package foo 1.1
> in woody/Warty, and foo 1.3 in sarge/sid/Hoary, when there'a a bug found
> sarge/sid/Hoary will get foo 1.4, but woody/Warty will get 1.1 patched
> for the bug. *This* is stability - not introducing new versions with new
> (possibly broken/incompatible) features.
> 
> At the moment, neither sarge nor sid have security support. Sarge will
> get security support soon, but then can get outdated in about a year
> after going stable, and you'll end up upgrading to etch (then-testing).
> Hopefully, testing will have security support by then, but I doubt it
> will be as stable as Ubuntu stable.
> 
> Sid doesn't have security support and won't have it in foreseeable
> future, and while the security holes are usually patched rather quickly,
> the Debian Security Team is not maintaining sid and providing the
> security is up to invidual package maintainers.
> 
> The only downside of using Ubuntu is that there's no official security
> for universe and multiverse, but most if not all of the important
> packages on my server are in main anyway. Debian doesn't provide sarge
> security at the moment at all, but will provide it in the near future.
> Hopefully, testing (now - sarge, when sarge ships - etch) will have
> security support as well.
> 
> To sum it all up: stability-wise, if you're using mostly things from
> Ubuntu main, go with Warty. Debian sarge is not nearly as stable, and
> Debian woody is too outdated for my uses.
> 
> Security-wise, when sarge gets security updates, it will get them for
> all of the packets; Ubuntu gets security support only for main and
> restricted. If the testing-security infrastructure takes of, etch will
> be also secure, though not as stable as Warty now and Hoary in April.
> 
> My current setup is Debian sid on a machine that's both server and
> workstation plus sid on my laptop; my target setup is Ubuntu Warty
> on newly-acquired server and Ubuntu Hoary on both workstation and
> laptop. The Warty server will use just ubuntu-base, not the whole
> ubuntu-desktop, of course.
> 
> Cheers,
> -- Shot
> --
>            CHANGES since 0.99 patchlevel 14:
>            - too many to count, really. Besides, I've lost my notes.
>                                                   -- Linux changelog
> ====================== http://shot.pl/hovercraft/ === http://shot.pl/1/125/ ===
> 
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