Ubuntu compatibility with Debian?

Stephen R Laniel steve at laniels.org
Sun May 8 01:47:06 UTC 2005


On Sat, May 07, 2005 at 09:35:37PM -0400, David Teague wrote:
> How compatible is Ubuntu with Debian Stable, Testing, 
> Unstable, and Experimental? If I choose some package 
> from say Unstable and install it in Hoary, am I asking for
> difficulty?     

Yes. I can't give any good background reasons for this, but
in my experience installing Debian packages under Ubuntu is
just a recipe for trouble.

Part of the trouble is that Debian packages are looking for
Debian dependencies. Deb packages might have version 2.12,
and the corresponding Ubu package is called 2.12ubuntu. The
Debian package coughs and says, "Wait a second: we need
2.12, and all you have is 2.12ubuntu." So you end up, if you
want the package, doing
'dpkg --ignore-depends=[packageName]'. What a mess. I avoid
installing Deb packages under Ubu at all costs.

> At least one person suggested that Ubuntu's changes
> almost amount to "a fork in Debian development." I
> believe that is an exaggeration. Please remark on any 
> features or design decisions of Ubuntu that might have
> been a basis for such a remark.

The most public comments along those lines were Ian
Murdock's (the 'ian' in 'Debian') on his blog. See here
generally:
http://google.com/search?q=ubuntu+site%3Aianmurdock.com

and here specifically:
http://ianmurdock.com/archives/000244.html
http://ianmurdock.com/archives/000258.html

Mark Shuttleworth hasn't yet responded, as far as I know. I
don't know what the latest is on Ian's suggestions.

-- 
Stephen R. Laniel
steve at laniels.org
+(617) 308-5571
http://laniels.org/
PGP key: http://laniels.org/slaniel.key




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