Happy 17th Birthday, Debian! 225
An anonymous reader writes "Debian turns 17 today. Yes it has really come a long way from being Murdock's pet project back in 1993 to being the distribution on which the most popular Linux distribution, Ubuntu, is now based."
Damn you slashdot (Score:5, Informative)
Thank You for Debian (Score:5, Informative)
If you want to say thanks:
http://thank.debian.net/ [debian.net]
Wrong about one of those (Score:5, Informative)
You mean Iceweasel? (Score:2, Informative)
It's at 3.0.6, and in stable (lenny).
http://packages.debian.net/lenny/iceweasel [debian.net]
HTH
Re:Damn you slashdot (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Thank you (Score:3, Informative)
"Damn right it is. Debian is the distro you install on your mom's computer when you're moving 2000+ miles and don't want to fly home for tech support."
Last week I did just that. I installed it on your mom's compu... Nah, just kidding. But, I did install Debian on a relative's brand new box. He is 79 and was very satisifed. He has been using Debian for several years, and I upgrade once a year.
Re:Happy birthday (Score:2, Informative)
This is /. I'm all about the hyperbole.
In all seriousness, though, there's plenty of documented issues. Many of which have bitten me or a friend/colleague:
- Pressing the 'wireless lock' button on a coworker's netbook would kernel panic.
- My wife's netbook would randomly crash, and on reboot have lost half its filesystem.
- Major (recent) releases have shipped without working WPA.
And yes, I understand many of these may be upstream's fault, or someone outside of the Ubuntu world, but these same issues didn't impact other distros.
Ubuntu seems to put more effort into making it pretty and changing the UI than making it stable.
Re:PS. Debian, seriously, you guys rock. (Score:4, Informative)
To get the fglrx and nvidia proprietary drivers in Debian all you have to do is add "non-free" to the urls in your sources.list file. Those drivers have been available in non-free for far longer than you've been using Ubuntu.
You're knocking Debian for what amounts to your own ignorance.
Re:PS. Debian, seriously, you guys rock. (Score:3, Informative)
I'm not "knocking" Debian at all. Quit being a defensive jackass.
Thanks for the tip, when I was using Debian (which was a couple years ago), I had no need for non-free drivers, and it's unquestionable that Ubuntu integrates them into their system more directly. That said, adding another repo to apt is simple enough, so maybe it is time I test-drive unstable again (particularly since my laptop is now a few years old, and so driver support is no longer an issue).
Re:Ubuntu this and Ubuntu that (Score:5, Informative)
"So, because Ubuntu took the rather rough diamond that is Debian and polished it up, it's somehow "dumbed down"? Really?"
Why does everyone think that what Debian is trying to be is a polished up desktop OS? I hear this time and time again "Ubuntu is a polished up Debian" or "Ubuntu took Debian and finished the job" blah blah... or that Debian is somehow some unfinished rough draft of a project that needed Mark Shuttleworth to come around and complete.
Debian is a general purpose GNU/Linux - server OS, appliance OS, embedded OS... you name it - Debian can be used for it. Ubuntu is a desktop OS. That's it - plain and simple... Ubuntu is made from the ground up with the end user in mind for a rich DESKTOP experience. It just HAPPENS to be BASED on Debian. Yes, there is a "server" version of Ubuntu (which I find silly and is a topic for another conversation) but not even that is meant to be as flexible as vanilla Debian.
Personally I think it's silly to "roll up your sleeves and get dirty" to use Debian as your desktop OS. When I want to install an operating system on my desktop for general purpose use I get out the Ubuntu or the Fedora CD. My firewall at home? Debian. My streaming media box? Debian. My servers at work? Debian. Each distro is tailored to excel at one or a set of different jobs. Those that have a limited understanding of computers in general have a myopic view of the whole thing and expect that Linux is something for a personal computer - and that any distro that doesn't make a PC sing and dance out of the box is simply "unfinished" and "needs work". I'm sorry, but my Debian doesn't need any work or any polishing. It does perfectly well doing what it's meant to do.
Celebrate freedom: apply it to your own governance (Score:0, Informative)
Celebrate the freedom inherent in Debian and other free software: apply their principles to human governance.
No, you do not have to do all the work: it is already started. Please join the movement and help free yourself from the tyranny of corrupt politicians.
Get started at http://metagovernment.org/ [metagovernment.org].
Re:Eh? Flip those.. (Score:3, Informative)
Really? I've been an Ubuntu user for about five years now, and the last three or four releases are the only ones that haven't been bungled. I realize this is just my personal experience, but I was under the impression they were getting better.
Re:Ubuntu this and Ubuntu that (Score:5, Informative)
I'm sorry, but my Debian doesn't need any work or any polishing. It does perfectly well doing what it's meant to do.
I couldn't agree more, actually.
The only reason I might consider giving Debian a shot, again, is their stability, particularly across upgrades, is largely unparalleled in any other distro, which is rather nice on a machine that you use day-to-day, but want to keep up-to-date.
Re:apt-get install love (Score:3, Informative)
Thing is, yum and urpmi were fairly late to the game in Redhat - yum originated in YellowDog and urpmi originated in Mandrake. I went from Slakware to Redhat and - when I learned about urpmi - to Mandrake. When I went back to redhat a few years later, I couldn't believe that RedHat still couldn't automatically install dependencies in order.
Re:I remember my first Debian... (Score:3, Informative)
Apt-get is magical. It has Super Cow Powers [eeggs.com]. ;^)
Re:Don't knock Ubuntu (Score:3, Informative)
BTW, on CUPS, credit should actually go to Michael Sweet and Easy Software Products, who is the real progenitor of the product (though, like KHTML, Apple has done a good job of taking that project and building on the work of the original authors, who I hope are now very well off for their efforts).