So Long, Debian
I went ahead and officially retired from Debian today. It's something I probably ought to have done a while ago, but have been putting off. I've had some great times with Debian and met a lot of good people. Debian is also where I really got my start with free software. For me, and others, Debian is something of a stepping stone: it's fairly easy to start packaging up some program, and before you know it, you're hooked on the whole open source thing. These days I mostly use Ubuntu, but hold Debian in very high regard in terms of the technical quality. And I'm also glad that they've held the line on free software over the years: with a Debian CD, I know I can make as many copies as I want for anyone, and use it both myself and for whatever commercial applications my clients need. How cool is that?
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by droidfeed: So Long, Debian http://bit.ly/51zEo2
about {{count}} hours later:
David,
I'm very glad to hear your comments. I was a Debian convert many years ago but grew very very tired of the long release cycles and nearly stagnant package "universe", but regardless I was a strong supporter of the distribution ... After changing jobs about 3 years ago, I started using Ubuntu. I felt like I was a traitor at first but grew to love the "freshness" of Ubuntu with the simplicity of administration of Debian.
Glad to hear that I'm not the only one out there.
about {{count}} hours later:
I'm biased - because I'm a Debian developer - but who also uses and mirrors Ubuntu :) Thank you for all your work for Debian - I'll miss seeing the posts quite so often in the mailing lists. Thanks also and most importantly for the last comment about holding the line. This is PRECISELY why, for example, I can advocate Debian at work - where they're paranoid about licence condition compliance - and can't quite advocate Ubuntu (despite ease) of use and is worth reminding people of. Ubuntu took a different and worthwhile tack - but it's always worth noting that there's more than one way to reach a goal and more than one tool to do it with. Ubuntu's popularity has undoubtedly helped both distributions and a rising tide floats all boats.
1 day later:
It may make you feel good to consider a democratic distribution as a mere "stepping stone" but unlike the second commentator, a rising tide does not float all boats when the bulk of development is done on one, and the buzz and attention is done by the other.
Ubuntu is possible only because of the unique circumstance of Shuttleworth's great wealth. But his great wealth is not so large as to enable replacing or even substantially duplicating Debian's volunteer culture. It must piggyback on it. Yet its weight ultimately squeezes the life out of its host, like a parasite which has not adapted to co-existence.
Ubuntu is a vanity distribution -- a monument to ego, wrapped in the cloak of "ego-free" dialog (translation of the Ubuntu code of conduct: thou shalt not criticize the structure I, your benevolent dictator and sole funder, have set up).
{{count}} days later:
@DebianUser - Debian has seen challenges come and go, and it will "survive" Ubuntu just fine. Indeed, it will thrive, because, as the other commentator correctly points out, it's not a zero sum game where one's gain is necessarily the other's loss. Also: Debian is free software, and has handled derivative distributions in the past with aplomb, and will continue to do so with Ubuntu. If a free software project can't handle someone taking it and making a derivative work, it wasn't really that strong a project in the first place. Debian is strong, though.
{{count}} days later:
I've been an Ubuntu user for awhile. So I decided to install Lenny and give it a spin. It's been fairly easy to adapt to after using Ubuntu even with some of the old school unix/linux practices. I've had some pitfalls but persevered.
What I've concluded is that Ubuntu is a polished/finished Debian. After I'd personalized my Debian install as much as I could, it wasn't all that different from Ubuntu. No doubt Debian is the father of Ubuntu.
Granted, my usage is desktop. With some of the chat recently about Ubuntu feeding back into Debian, it makes sense. I feel they complement each other.
{{count}} days later:
try sidux. For reasonably skilled desktop users on i386 or AMD, it's the best of both worlds: a supported Debian sid. But you have give up gnome for KDE. For me that turned out to be a pleasant surprise; KDE 4.3 is impressive.
{{count}} days later:
I am with @Tim. I have flipflopped from Testing, to SID, to Ubuntu and around again many times. I have nothing against Ubuntu, but the latest Karmic Kubuntu let me down in so many ways. My Nvidia based system continually booted to low grahpics mode, samba failed to start on boot and k3b refused to burn at anything but 4x.
I have been using Sidux now for three weeks and find it refreshingly fast and stable. I had to downgrade libsambaclient to get Samba to work, but otherwise it everything Kubuntu is not. Even 18x burns from my DVD burner.
Sidux is definitely not for beginners, but if you know your way around Linux and KDE 4.3 it is a revelation.
{{count}} days later:
Oops, sorry about the triple post. I think Google-Chrome is not quite bug free yet.