I'm not very experienced with Trisquel, but one thing I noticed is that in
aptitude, things that require root ask for the user password to become root,
rather than for the root password (As aptitude in Debian 7.7 does). This is a
benefit if you're using sudo rather than su.
Trisquel is based on Ubuntu. The Trisquel releases based on Ubuntu LTS have
long term support as well, longer than that of Debian.
The agreed plan seems to be to make new Trisquel releases based only on
Ubuntu LTS releases <https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/2013-03-05-meeting>. I'd
prefer that it tracks all Ubuntu releases, so as to have newer software
available; Ruben has mentioned in IRC that maybe Trisquel will revert to
tracking all releases. Debian releases have happened about once every 2
years, so we can expect Trisquel releases with *at least* about the same
frequency, but at a more predictable interval.
It will be easier to have a fully free Trisquel system than a fully free
Debian system because there are differences between FSF-approved licenses and
Debian-DFSG-approved licenses (Debian approves the Artistic License 1.0 for
instance, which is very vague and I would avoid). Also, Debian puts some GNU
manuals in non-free (It doesn't allow verbatim-copy only sections containing
opinions as the GNU FDL invariant section allow, but it supports and
distributes proprietary software, see
<http://jxself.org/debian-doubletalk.shtml>); that's a practical problem if
you intend to avoid proprietary software but want to use GNU manuals.
I don't know of many other technical differences because I don't have much
time using Trisquel. I use Debian without the proprietary software as my main
system and I'm considering switching to Trisquel completely. I'm also
interested in knowing more about the differences.
Regards.
