On Thu, 2006-04-20 at 02:19, Attila Horvath wrote: > What is the difference between UBUNTU and DEBIAN > installations/distributions?
Although Ubuntu is derived from Debian, they are managed very differently. Debian Stable tends to lag, and Debian Testing can be flaky for production work. A new Debian Stable is released rarely although it is anticipated that this will improve. Serious changes in Debian are almost always debated to death, which results in very few unpleasant surprises. A new Ubuntu Stable is released roughly every six months. Ubuntu has numerous policies concerning changes but seldom follows them strictly. Complaints about nasty surprises are generally met with "the dictator has decided, live with it" or "the developers have decided, live with it". Sometimes the decision actually implemented in a release is the opposite of the decision documented in the wiki. We switched most of our clients from Fedora to Ubuntu because Fedora was becoming too unstable and Ubuntu at the time was just a version of Debian that was miraculously up to date. Now we're switching clients to Debian because Ubuntu has become as flaky as Fedora. On the other hand, if you want to live on the bleeding edge, go for it. For example, nvu will be in Ubuntu Stable in June but is still only in Debian Unstable and may not transit Debian Testing into Debian Stable for another 18-24 months. There's no perfect distro, nor even a best distro. There may be a small set of distros which are least unsuitable for your requirements. If you have time, I would advise monitoring both Debian and Ubuntu discussion lists for a month. You'll probably find the decision much easier then. --Mike Bird -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
