3 questions about new installations & updates

[Liam Proven]

On 25 November 2011 23:11, Robert Holtzman <holtzm at cox.net> wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 06:59:44PM +0000, Liam Proven wrote:
>
>         .........snip.........
>
>> So, to answer #1, no, don't switch to Debian. It's less friendly,
>> rather more old fashioned and does not include useful things that
>> Ubuntu does. It also does not have a relatively friendly, welcoming
>> support community like Ubuntu. If you have to ask, you don't want it.
>
> First, Debian is no more or less "friendly" than Ubuntu, Ubuntu being an
> outgrowth of Debian...

The point for Ubuntu's creation being that building a working desktop
out of Debian was too hard. It is much better now, but it's still not
as simple.

> and Debian's default Gnome 2.30.2 desktop is more
> like Windows than Ubuntu's Unity or Gnome 3.

And this is an /advantage/, is it?

> Other than some proprietary drivers, what useful things does Debian lack
> that Ubuntu doesn't? The only thing I had to install was
> flashplugin-nonfree.

Proprietary graphics-card drivers, proprietary wireless card drivers,
or a tool to install them?
Actual known named Mozilla apps, as opposed to renamed ones with the
icons changed?

> Squeeze (Debian 6.x) worked for me out of the box.

Debian 6 won't recognise any of the PCMCIA *Ethernet* cards on my old
Thinkpad, let alone Wifi. It doesn't work with /wired/ Ethernet cards.
I had to get a USB Ethernet adaptor in the end. The 3rd or 4th one I
tried (I forget) worked. None of the others.

> The Debian support community is as welcoming as is Ubuntu's and about as
> populous.

It must have changed dramatically in recent years, then.

> As far as it's being friendly, check the debian-users archive
> and read the recent (current?) "Debian: A noob query" thread. The only
> thing I find lacking in the Debian-users list is the entertainment
> factor this list provides.

I will!

-- 
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