[nzlug] ubuntu versus debian?

[Vik Olliver]

On Wed, 2006-09-06 at 15:45 +1200, David McNab wrote:
> My question is - for anyone experienced with Ubuntu and Debian - how
> does Ubuntu stack up against Debian?

Ubuntu, as with all "friendly" distros, installs a wad of stuff that you
probably don't want, and won;t install a wad of stuff that you probably
do want.

As a server, Ubuntu is fine - you can opt to do a server install, but
you'll need to burn your own "server edition" ISO. I've done this, and
it works well. Upgrading to actually have a desktop afterwards is quite
painless.

Where Ubuntu comes unglued is in having the latest of everything. Debian
people are where the bleeding edge stuff is, btu the question is how
much do you want to bleed?

Where Ubuntu beats Debian hands-down is with apt conflicts. They're
very, very rare. I've not personally run into the kind of problems I had
with Debian, where one package would be compiled with on version of GCC,
another vital component of the relevant version would only be available
compiled under a different version of GCC, and the two wouldn't
communicate.

If you find you're an avid user of *-dev packages, go Debian. If you
just want it to ruddy well work, go Ubuntu. My free advice, money back
guarantee :)

Vik :v)
-------8<---------8<---------8<---------8<---------8<---------8<-----
"Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom
consists of not exceeding the limit."

- Elbert Hubbard