[nzlug] ubuntu versus debian?

[Daniel Pittman]

Matt Brown <matt at mattb.net.nz> writes:
> David McNab wrote:
>
>> * general office workstation
>
> Ubuntu

I would have said either; they both ship the standard GNOME or KDE
environment, and the same office and productivity tools.

Debian may actually win, on some counts, by having all of those suites
equally supported where Ubuntu has only part of them supported...

>> * ease of setting up devices (compared to debian, where to get
>>   'device x' working I've often needed to spend up to 6 hours reading
>>   manpages and mailing lists, begging for help on IRC, hacking
>>   scripts, recompiling kernels, searching through freshmeat
>>   and sourceforge), and even sometimes patching source code)
>
> Ubuntu

I certainly agree there, although your device support is still limited
when dealing with modern wireless cards (spit) or stupid hardware.

>> * speed of startup
>
> Maybe Ubuntu, I'm not sure here...

Neither, really.  For most people this really isn't much of a
requirement, either: how often /do/ you boot your machine up?

>> * freshness of software - as long as I only bleed by the teaspoon
>>   and not by the bucket
>
> Ubuntu

Yeah, definitely.  You can get newer software in Debian unstable or
testing, but you pay for it.  Ubuntu definitely win on the combination
of stability and freshness.

>> * non-broken packages
>
> Mostly Ubuntu

Outside of unstable they are pretty much equal as far as I can see.
Inside unstable, well, there are plenty of unstable bits in the Edgy
development branch of Ubuntu as well.

>> * minimised need to learn esoteric config file languages
>
> Ubuntu

That would be related to the software; neither has an advantage I would
suggest.

>> * good graphical desktop that's actually comfortable to use
>
> Ubuntu

...or either; I didn't find KDE that much different between the two, and
I find GNOME equally unusable on any platform.  Not that my opinion of
how useful they are really counts for much. :)

> Seems rather one sided with that list of characteristics :P

I think the situation is a lot more balanced than you suggest, but still
favours Ubuntu for most people.

Regards,
        Daniel
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