Debian or Ubuntu?

[Steve Lamb]

On Mon, May 12, 2008 11:17 am, Les Mikesell wrote:
> It's probably been more than 10 years since I tried debian, but as I
> recall their first few installers and updates weren't that great either.
> Could this just be a matter of experience and likely to improve on the
> Ubuntu side?

    I can't say for the first few Debian updates.  My first install was... 
Bo?  Hamm?  One of those two.  My first update was Bo->Hamm or Hamm->Bo,
depending on which came first.

    Ah,
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/project-history/ch-detailed.en.html
answers all.

    My first install was v1.3, Bo.  It was prior to the libc5 -> glibc2
conversion.  v2.0, Hamm, was the first glibc2 version.

    Anyway, what I recall is that Bo was easier to install than my other OS
experiences at the time save 1.  Win95, Slackware, WinNT4 were all
harder than Debian at the time.  Red Hat didn't work for me which is why
Debian got a try.  Only OS/2's install was easier.  Even so I could
throw Debian onto a CD while OS/2 only came on floppies.

    As for upgrades I made it through the libc5 -> glibc2 conversion just
fine.  I can't think of a more trying conversion; one where binary
compatibility is broken.  I don't recall when my next install occurred. 
It was either Potato or Woody.  My HD completely ate itself otherwise I
would have continued to upgrade in place.  That means Bo (1.3), Hamm
(2.0), Slink (2.1), Potato (2.2) and maybe Woody (3.0) all went off
without a hitch.  Or, to put that in perspective, 1997 to 2001-2002,
almost 5 years, without a need to reinstall.  That's more than Ubuntu
has been around and still 2 years before Ubuntu's first release.  One
more way to look at it.  On my "server" box I have changed hardware more
often than I've reinstalled the OS.

    Can Ubuntu match that kind of solid performance?  Presently and based
solely on my experiences with it, I don't think so.  But then Debian
doesn't play as nice with my game machine as KUbuntu does, either.  The
last time I tried Debian + Cedega to break away from Redmond for my
games I was not impressed and went running back to XP.  KUbuntu + Cedega
might just finally see me booting into Linux more than XP for my gaming.
 I haven't yet given 8.04 nor Cedega a try but the tests with 7.10's
wine is very promising.

    Personally I'm happy with the notion that Debian grab the server market
and *buntu surpasses Debian on the desktop.  I think it is a good and
healthy split.

-- 
Steve Lamb