Debian 10.4(debian.org) |
Debian 10.4(debian.org) |
It's not perfect, but it gets the job done. For my laptop I usually run testing, and then stick with stable for 6 months or so after it's released, before switching back to testing. For me, it's a good balance between stability and having recent versions of applications.
(I assume at least some of that answer would depend on my use cases and hardware, but if you have general insights to the differences, some of us might find that useful!)
Main difference you might notice on Debian 10.4 vs Ubuntu 20.04 is that the default Gnome on Debian is a couple of versions behind. Debian only updates security patches rather than new releases between main Debian version releases (10.4 is more like a security update rather than a major new release). You would have to run Debian Testing or Debian Unstable/Sid in order to get the same Gnome version (3.36) as on Ubuntu 20.04.
Other than that there are no Snaps enabled/installed by default (you can install/enable them yourself if you choose to do so) and Debian Gnome is the way the Gnome developers intended it without any extra extensions and customization done (Ubuntu comes with several extensions and other customization enabled by default). You can install these manually yourself if you choose to do so.
Do remember to pick the non-free (as in it includes non-free firmware) ISO from Debian's website as chances are your WiFi won't work if you go with the official free software only ISO.
If you go with the NetInst ISO you can install minimal Gnome which comes without any additional software (untick everything on the last step, log in when the install is finished and then install gnome-core using apt install gnome-core).
One nice thing about Debian is they don't try to push snaps on you. Nowadays you can also use Flatpak get get more up to date apps on it.
Debian's packages are generally older and more thoroughly tested. Debian also didn't customize things as much as Ubuntu does, so the software you get is much closer to what the "upstream" projects originally released.
Debian is famous both for having extended support for all releases, and for obsessive attention to seamless upgrade-in-place support. Some people will keep a single Debian install running for a decade, upgrading as they go without ever reinstalling.
Ubuntu is fantastic if you want a user-friendly desktop system out of the box. Debian is really nice for systems that you want to run with minimal maintenance for years at a time.
Debian on xfce4 also works fast on my old laptop (and my new laptop).
Never heard of MOTD before. I'll keep an eye out for it since I haven't encountered it yet (as a newb!)
Presumably getting ads is pretty annoying!
I should probably donate
Contributing is not a bad idea.
APT::Install-Recommends "false";
APT::Install-Suggests "false";
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[0]: https://manpages.debian.org/buster/apt/apt-get.8.en.html
My automated "preseed" installs are quite minimal. I don't recall exactly how many packages I end up with on a new install but I think it was 224 -- much fewer than what you'll end up with when doing a typical installation.
Hardware support and lack of polishing has always been an issue in the Linux world and all distributions have suffered from it one way or another.
Having spent quite a lot of time in the past on this kind of issues, I do sympathize.
But from my experience, things actually tends to get a bit better now days, for example, I'm far less cautious about avoiding Broadcom ethernet and wifi cards as they generally tends to work out of the box today (even if I still prefer Intel for these).
Fighting hardware/default configuration issues is unfortunately be part of the game, but in my experience, it's a game I play less and less often.
thank you to the team for a great OS and for keeping the spirit of ian murdock alive.
the tough decision for me right now on my laptop, is whether to use MX Linux, which has been great the last few years, or this Linux Mint Debian Edition, which i've been trying since the latest release and is very nice.
I had terrible problems with NFS and systemd. In fact, when testing Ubuntu 20.04 in a VM, the problems are still there even today. It's not freezing on boot as regularly, but it's still unpredictable and often freezes on shutdown.
0.93r5
Related: on the occassion of Little Richard dying I have reflected on how every Beatles album was released closer to World War I than today. (Almost, Abbey Road needs a few more months, it'll be true on Aug 13.)
Particularly in military contracts, Gentoo brings you several things:
1) you have a full audit trace from the compilation, and in paranoid situation, it's a huge plus.
2) it permits you to minimize the OS footprint quite a lot (feature flags), which helps improving security (less exposure).
3) it permits an high degree of customization, including the combination of software versions used.
4) it's relatively easy to import a patch and maintain an overlay yourself.
We have to keep in mind the constrains of Military contracts: The systems tends to be quite complex, validation is quite lengthy, updates are far in between, they tend to use specialized/weird/not powerful hardware which might need some tweaking, and the level of traceability is generally quite high.
But the installer still dropped you into dselect for a long time thereafter. Once it was installed it was smooth sailing.
I remember the arrival of Linux.
I'm not even all that old, but time sure does fly.
same here
First distro was slackware, 0.99pl15, bunch of floppies
And even though you don't see it, it's still there -- on every Ubuntu install (by default) -- phoning home to Canonical (every 12 hours, if memory serves).
(Some users may not mind, of course, but they certainly don't go out of their way to let you know about it beforehand, which is my major issue with it.)
The relevant "snippets" responsible for this behavior live in their own directory, /etc/update-motd.d/, if memory serves. That may not be exactly right -- perhaps unsuprisingly, I don't have an Ubuntu box handy -- but it should at least be close enough to help you find the actual directory.
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