Re, Debian vs. Ubuntu. (I'll be partly reiterating myself)
1. Debian is the kitchen, Ubuntu is the restaurant. Ubuntu itself follows
Debian. The original recipe cooks in the Debian kitchen and then Ubuntu
serves it with a time lag. So, following the leader itself is always a step
ahead than following the follower. Not that being a step ahead of Ubuntu is a
big deal, but it's a bonus nevertheless.
2. Trisquel follows Ubuntu LTS which has 2 years release cycles and 5 years
support. So is Debian: It's got 2 years stable release cycles, 3 years Debian
inhouse team support + 2 years Debian LTS team support. So there's no
disadvantage from support point of view. ( https://wiki.debian.org/LTS )
3. Ubuntu releases are rigid, whereas Debian is a blend of a both rigid and
rolling distro. Debian stable releases are fixed and rigid, but testing (and
unstable) releases are rolling. So, if Trisquel would follow Debian testing
release in close lockstep (which also implies following stable release), then
the outcome would've been a fixed release every 2 years (with 5 yrs of
support) and a rolling "testing" release in between, which will get frozen
after 2 years and thus become the next stable release. Best of both worlds.
4. Debian community is way more dedicated to philosophy of freedom than
Canonical is. For instance take the spyware in Ubuntu Unity search feature.
See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/ubuntu-spyware.html
Also see
http://nathanheafner.com/home/2013/09/22/ubuntu-dash-search-is-not-anonymous/
Canonical builds business partnerships with non-free companies and while this
is not a bad thing per-se from business perspective, this creates a slippery
surface from free-software perspective. Long story short, following Ubuntu
means more awareness needed, more scrutinizing hours spent, more possible
hiccups, than following Debian. Debian (main repo) is a sure bet FOSS-wise.
Following Ubuntu... I'd be keeping one eye open, just in case.
5. Since Debian stable is really just final freeze of the testing branch, to
follow Debian/testing branch means that rolling out a release is as simple as
freezing it. Whenever Debian freezes a "testing" and releases it as the new
"stable", Trisquel just needs to do the same to roll out a new release. This
in turn means both easy releases and least "time to market" (following the
leader with minimal lag and with minimal effort). So Trisquel becomes both
long supported (5 years stable support) *and* cutting edge (rolling testing)
*and* timely (just freeze to launch). What's more, most all free ride (tap on
the native debian main repo).
