Debian Unstable vs. Ubuntu

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Tue, Feb 08, 2005 at 12:14:12PM +0200, Rami Kayyali wrote:

> I didn't know that JEdit doesn't exist in Debian either, except that as
> far as I know, Debian's universe is much larger than Ubuntu's, I might be
> wrong though.

Ubuntu includes all of the packages available in Debian, and more from other
repositories, at least in source form.  A number of them don't build
correctly, and need to be fixed.

> My gripes with Ubuntu:
> - To some degree, there's certain incompatibility with Debian
> packages, I can't use Debian's repositories in Ubuntu and sleep sound.

Our intention is that it should be unnecessary, as we provide all of the
software from Debian directly.

> - Too many Ubuntuized packages? Why not just merge with Debian?

Debian and Ubuntu are separate projects because they have different goals,
and approaches to pursuing them.  It could as easily be asked why Debian
doesn't merge with Fedora.

> - Still very small in comparison to other free (as in beer) Linuxes
> (Fedora, Slackware, Knoppix, etc.)

Small in what way?  The community has grown very quickly and continues to
expand, and in terms of the amount of packaged software available, Ubuntu is
possibly the largest.

> - Lack of proper documentation. Like I couldn't find any description
> of the kernel's available with stock Ubuntu.

We have an excellent documentation team who discuss and prioritize these
issues.  They can be found on the ubuntu-doc mailing list.

-- 
 - mdz