For those rare people who don’t know, Canonical’s Ubuntu distribution is basically Debian Sid (the unstable version) plus a few GUI apps and modifications. Debian is one of the most successful community-based distributions.
Don’t get me wrong, I use both Debian and Ubuntu, and they both perform well, but here are some reasons to choose Debian over Ubuntu:
1) Stability and Security
Debian has a slow release cycle, because of heavy stability and security testing. No wonder sites like Digg use Debian (not 100%) for a server. Of course, Ubuntu is becoming very popular on the server, but I’m already hearing some complaints, so for server people I recommend Debian until Ubuntu gets their problems fixed.With Debian, you probably won’t get the bleeding edge, but expect it to work extremely well. If you want to get the newer stuff, just use the testing or experimental repos and you’re up and going in no time.
2) Strictly Free Software
Debian adheres very strictly to free software philosophies. It is composed entirely of Free Software, even to that extent, that they re-branded Firefox to Iceweasel because a certain part of it was copyrighted (artwork.
3) If you’re using a Special Computer Architecture
Debian now runs on eleven different computer architectures, and these ports are still in active development, so your’e sure yo’ll get something good. x86-32, x86-64, PowerPC, SPARC, DEC Alpha, ARM, MIPS, HPPA, S390, IA-64 are currently supported architectures.
4) If you don’t like companies
Canonical is a company. I don’t know about you, but I never trusted companies, even if they’re just the sponsor. The Debian Project is run by a non-profit Foundation. I like that.
5) Simpler
In the standard Debian distro, you get just what you need and it gives you more config options on its ncurses based installer (just like an Ubuntu alternative install). No fancy stuff, just the rock solid basic Debian, with everything you’ll need to get you started.
What do you prefer? Debian or Ubuntu?
As you may have noticed I started concentrating on long Linux articles a bit more than before.
But now I ask YOU, the readers.
What would you like to see more of on the Internetling?
A few examples
- Linux distribution reviews
- Guides
- Open Source News
- Gadgets
- Lists
- Correct English grammar
I am on vacation so I do not have much time to write.
But if you are wondering which sites I visit often, do take a look at this little list.
A great site collecting Linux content from all places. Like the Linux dot com NewsVac, but done better.
THE AUTHORITY on Linux. You have to check them out, if you still havent. A great search engine for distributions, new releases and a quality weekly newsletter along with a podcast.
With the new layout, the OS guys are unbeatable. All the articles of mine that got posted on OSNews got very interesting comments, which tells that OSNews has a pretty tech-savvy community.
Although it is a bit boring site in general for advanced users it has got a lot of guides a news aggregator of great featured articles.
Before I start, thanks for the Diggs, guys. Two articles on the front page of Digg in just two days is a dream come true. Thank you.
The OpenMoko is certainly an impressive piece of hardware, it is hackable, open and runs Linux. But unfortunately, people probably wont buy it…
Marketing
Apple has got a genius marketing team. OpenMoko has the community. We love OpenMoko, but we do not have the finances or the drive or the reasons to pull a full scale marketing campaign off such as the iPhone one. So, the only way it will spread is by word of mouth, more or less. There is no Red Hat or Novell to save us here, guys.
Software
The FreeRunner is much better I hear, but still unreliable. Getting support, additional functions, an online store. OpenMoko is not Nokia, they are not a big name. You have to do something revolutionary, not sell a product that function-wise cannot really compare to the iPhone, but still has a way better operating system. It is a shame with all the confusion about which libraries to use et cetera et cetera. Learn from Asus. They did it in a market where they are not well known - as a laptop manufacturer.
Users
Yeah of course Linux is awesome, but who -except for you- ever told your grandmother that this suspicious looking phone is better than the -revolutionary, -good-looking -gay iPhone? The potential converts do not trust you and they do not care.
It will be a hard fight, but eventually Linux will will in the hand-held devices market, just like it is winning in the ultra portable PC market. We just need time. And this is not the time for it, but let us still cheer the OpenMoko team on for making a brave step forward. Do not rush it people, not even the year of the Linux Desktop is anywhere near, why wait for the Year of the Linux Phone…
After working my butt off on the WM and DE guides, I’m back for some more distro goodness!
To stay politically correct, I’ll state the real title of the post, which should be something like ‘The top 5 New Awesome New Versions of GNU/Linux Distributions Coming out in late 2008′. It sounds lame and it’s long. So nope. Anyways, the first half of 2008 has seen some really cool releases, such as OpenSuSe 11.0, Fedora 9 and Ubuntu 8.04.1 (SSH vulnerability fixed I believe), and some really lame ones too, like Gentoo 2008.0 (the kernel-coping error on AMD64 machines really screwed them up) and Linux XP 2008 (the only distro with trial activation, you have to read this review, it’s rich). We’re not done yet, though. There are still some pretty major distro releases, which will blow your mind. Let’s dive in and see!
1. Debian Lenny 5.0 (around September)
Shut up, Debian is awesome! The second beta of Lenny is already very stable, but lets wait until the strict Debian release team churns out the final version. Aside from the much awaited Iceweasel 3.0 (yaay!), notable new features of the new version of the most important community distribution are the 2.6.24 kernel and lots and lots of upgrades, including improved security.
2. Fedora 10 (October)
Fedora has come a long way, but there’s still this little bit that needs to be improved in order to spread adoption. The new version 10 should be a step forward into the right direction (this time). Haskel support, a new version of RPM, cool artwork, the new KDE 4.1, and improved audio. Go take a look at the top proposed features. Of course, some of them won’t get implemented because new features have to be approved by the FESCo.
3. Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex (October)
New theme and new software. We’ll be seeing the first Kubuntu with KDE 4, a new version of X.org and a Free Software only install option (instead of the separate Gobuntu distro). There is a possibility that the installer will provide a slide-show for new users while installing. User friendly as always. Congrats Ubuntu team, just don’t completely mess it up with that stupid theme.
4. Gentoo Linux 2008.1 (September)
I don’t know a thing about Gentoo 2008.1, but I’m eagerly awaiting it. Why? The 2008.0 release isn’t really up to standards and by the time the 2008.1 version comes out, the new, restructured organization behind it will know how to work together in a better way.
— the next one is just a hunch
5. Puppy Linux 5.0
Puppy rules. And the 5.0 version will rock, I’m sure of it 
Is a cool new distro version coming out in late 2008, that I haven’t mentioned? Share it with us in the comments!
