Why Debian Matters More Than Ever 345
Posted
by
timothy
from the secretly-replaced-these-folgers-crystals-with-debian dept.
from the secretly-replaced-these-folgers-crystals-with-debian dept.
Julie188 writes "If you look at the feature list for Debian 6, released on February 6, it's easy to be underwhelmed. This is especially true when measuring Debian against its offspring, like Ubuntu. Debian doesn't get much credit, and its become trendy for industry pundits to claim it's become irrelevant. But it's more relevant than ever. If you're using Ubuntu (or Linux Mint, or Mepis...), you're really using Debian with some enhancements. According to a presentation given recently by Debian Project Leader (DPL) Stefano Zacchiroli, only 7% of Ubuntu is directly derived from upstream projects, Canonical's projects, or other non-Debian sources. Of the rest, 74% of Ubuntu is rebuilt Debian packages, and 18% are patched and rebuilt Debian packages."
You can't just count packages and draw conclusions (Score:5, Insightful)
You can't just count packages and draw conclusions from counts. Some of the packages haven't been updated in years. Some are only used by like five users on the planet. Some are so buggy they won't even run.
Weigh them by how many people install and use them, and you've got something to talk about, though.
Re:Since when? (Score:5, Insightful)
If anything it makes me question 'industry pundits' who fail to recognize the layered way that open source projects are able to build on each other.
Like saying a plant is irrelevant to the flowers that grow on it
Re:Since when? (Score:4, Insightful)
Somebody named Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols [zdnet.com] the third. Should be working at the DMV
Re:Since when? (Score:5, Insightful)
Say who? If you're going to call others irrelevant, shouldn't you first have some modicum of relevancy yourself?
debian is better for n00bs (Score:5, Insightful)
This is how I see it. (Score:5, Insightful)
If Debian disappeared tomorrow would the Ubuntu team notice?
Now ask yourself. Who exactly isn't relevant?
Re:Since when? (Score:5, Insightful)
Steven Vaughan-Nichols is calling it "no longer as important as it once was"
He should know. He's on ZDnet.
I should know, I'm commenting on Slashdot.
Re:Since when? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Since when? (Score:5, Insightful)
Well good Lord, look who the guy who wrote the article in TFA is listening too, fricking Stephen J Nichols! Read some of his past "work" and it is pretty obvious he is a professional Linux troll. All he does is come up with one outlandish theory after another, all designed to stir up the shit and score page views no matter how crazy.
If you read Nichols history it can be summed up as thus: "X (insert Linux distro or Linux itself) is dying" "it is all a conspiracy by (insert usually MSFT but sometimes Apple or someone else) to kill Linux!" or "Because of X (insert product he's shilling for) THIS year will be the year of Linux on the desktop!"
He is just the Linux equivalent of Paul Thurott, professional Windows troll. The same way Thurott can be counted on to say anything that makes Windows debates epic troll threads with his total bullshit (Vista is great AND low resource? Really Paul?) the same can be said of Nichols and Linux. Everyone knows Debian isn't going anywhere, hell they've outlasted just about everyone that started at the same time for the love of Pete. This is just Nichols stirring up the shit, and the guy who wrote TFA either took the trollbait or was desperate for some page views.