newbie question about packages

[Daniel Carrera]

nemir nemiria wrote:
> I am a little curious about the packages.  Not totally up with the 
> history here, but it seems that Ubuntu is closely related to Debian,  
> and uses the same package management stuff.  The thing that is confusing 
> me at the moment is whether I can use the debian packages under ubuntu 
> or not...?  Some packages seem to indicate that I can, others don't.

Yes and No :)

Ubuntu and Debian are indeed *very* closely related, and a lot of 
developers work simultaneously on both projects. From a compatibility 
POV the main difference is that Ubuntu uses a newer version of gcc and 
newer libraries. This means that, though a lot of Debian packages will 
work fine in Ubuntu and vice versa, this is not something anyone can 
guarantee. Simple programs have a high probability of working. Very 
complex ones are less likely to work.

In practice, both Debian and Ubuntu have extensive repositories so you 
shouldn't need to move packages between them.

If the person who made the package says that it works (or that it 
doesn't work) I would assume that he knows what he's talking about.

Cheers,
Daniel.
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