Comments on: 5 Reasons to Choose Debian Linux Over Ubuntu Linux

By: frances russell

frances russell — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:17:00 +0000

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By: Clay

Clay — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:32:45 +0000

Debian is far more stable than all other distro’s. I used Suse for many years then migrated to Ubuntu. When Ubuntu migrated to the Unity Desktop and Gnome 3.x that was the end for me. I kept using Ubuntu 10.04 and put up with it’s slight glitches for a long while. I tried Mint but did not like their menu’s. Debian 6.0 was similar to Ubuntu 10.04, very basic, however all the slight glitches are gone. I hope Debian never goes to Gnome 3.X, not sure where I will go if this happens. I am still in love with the old KDE 3.X desktop, however that is long gone from the all major distro’s new releases.

By: vasakq

vasakq — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:02:52 +0000

Debian! I used Ubuntu before,… and I have gentoo and arch installed on my “test machine” – these are not bad distributions, far from that, but Debian is an OS you can rely on.

By: @

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:56:44 +0000

The GNU, Linux and Debian developers struggle for millions of man hours to build the software equality of the pyramids. A company (Canonical) comes walking by, pops a clever idea, runs to the computer store and buys the most powerful projectors money can buy. The next night they present the ‘Pyramids Show’ in a glamorous lights and lasers display that impresses the world. This is a eye opener for many in the crowd previously unaware of this magnificent wonder. Unfortunately the majority of everyday people get the idea that Canonical is the creator of the pyramids. This misconception serves well for the company and its ambitions of spreading the repackaged free software dressed in cute little Ubuntu clothes. Some in the Debian community get annoyed over the fact that Canonical get all the attention running around screaming at the top of their lungs hey look at us we built this aren’t we great!

Myself being a Debian user since Potato feel a bit sad whenever I see ignorance such as ‘Debian is an old bad Ubuntu rip of off’ but don’t really bother too much about who gets the attention. I say let them have some fun it’s not like Canonical is trying to or even able to take away our freedom. We in the free have our arsenal of software tools and should spend our efforts on polishing and protecting them. Arguing with ignorant Ubuntu fanboys who are too lazy to take care of their own knowledge base constitutes a pointless waste of time and energy. Best of luck Canonical with spreading the good stuff (GNU) to the world, it seems you guys know what the general audience wants … spiffy toys to boast about to people still stuck in the M$ swamps. Just don’t expect everyone to celebrate your efforts to build a babels tower of bloatware.
GNU+Linux+Debian+Awesome

By: Jenny

Jenny — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 19:46:56 +0000

Difficult choice, for me I use Ubuntu, and have since Gusty, and I continue to use it, I like that it’s cutting edge, well supported, and easy to add the Non-free, multimedia and proprietary drivers.

In my case I made a mistake buying a laptop with a NVIDIA graphics card, and hate that it works best with the non-free drivers. And yes it does matter – as much as free speech matters!

On my home servers I use only Debian, and feel better being so, yes I do trust a non-profit more than a company however ethical Canonical may be, but I feel it’s important to support commercial as well as non-profits so long as it helps fight the evil MS empire

By: IGnatius T Foobar

IGnatius T Foobar — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 16:07:03 +0000

I had high hopes for Ubuntu. It was going to be *the* Linux for the masses, the default choice for the mainstreaming of the Linux desktop. I’ve been a Linux user since the *very* beginning and a Unix user for even longer, and in 2006 I made Ubuntu my Linux of choice because it was just so well polished and usable.

Boy did Ubuntu jump the shark with that awful Unity desktop. Users are abandoning Ubuntu in droves now; the overwhelming consensus is that Unity makes Ubuntu completely unusable and everyone’s bailing out now.

Linux Mint is getting quite popular, but I chose Debian. I don’t want to change distributions anymore, not even once every five years. I’m getting on the “stable” train and intend to be there indefinitely.

By: Xerzor

Xerzor — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 23:41:23 +0000

Well I like debian more,

By: Charles

Charles — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 17:47:38 +0000

I’m not a programmer but I’ve been using Linux for three years now and was happy with Ubuntu, 9.04, 9.10 and 10.04 LTS but I’ve noticed buggy behavior and hang ups after I upgraded to 10.10 and then 11.04. 10.10 had a bug where Evolution prints out three copies by default and 11.04 is nice but is less stable than 10.04 LTS.

I have several PCs and have installed Debian 5 Lenny on a desktop and a labtop and yes, it’s much more stable and flexible, though not out-of-the-box supportive of USB WiFi dongles and USB-3G dongles, so requires some work with Synaptic and/or command line.

Lenny also has a small footprint for its power and runs on PCs with 128MB of RAM,

However, I had problems with installing GRUB with Debian 6.0 and having to download 5 or 6 DVD images is a chore.

Still, I’ll install Debian as a last resort, thoug Linux Mint Debian is a good desktop option.

By: car hire slovenia

car hire slovenia — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 19:59:39 +0000

I also prefer Debian Linux over Ubunto Linux. It is much more stable and secure.

By: angryfirelord

angryfirelord — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 00:16:10 +0000

I suppose I’m late to the party, but I have a few reasons of my own:

1) This probably was a valid complaint back when this post was written, but I think with 3 successful LTS releases, Ubuntu has proven itself to be quite capable. It’s also been migrated toward areas such as Amazon’s EC2 cloud service, so using Ubuntu as a server will serve you just as well as Debian would.

2) Well, that’s nice until your hardware doesn’t work. However, Ubuntu also has a “free software only” installer (originally called Gobuntu). Debian had to rebrand Firefox because of the patching they do to it when they maintain software in the Stable repository.

3) True, but what are the chances you’re going to be running an m68k architecture? That argument can be applied to FreeBSD as well. Ubuntu’s focus is not running on all architectures.

4) In an ideal world, this would be the way to go. However, whether you like it or not, we live in a mixed economy where the predominant forms of economic activity are generated by companies. The only way Linux will ever see higher rates of growth is through continued corporate sponsorship and employment. The Debian mailing list doesn’t really match a 24×7 tech support contract (which Canonical has).

5) This one is just silly. Ubuntu’s alternate installer is pretty much the same as Debian’s ncurses installer.

Now, why should one use Ubuntu over Debian? Here are my thoughts:

- Stable, but fast moving 6 month snapshot. Many Debian users often say that testing is enough, but the problem with testing is that packages can get pulled and not get put back in for a long time. The two I can think off the top of my head are fglrx and wine, both of which I use.
- PPAs. It’s nice that if you want to create Ubuntu packages, there’s an easy way to do it.
- Upstart and Quickly. There was post on the Debian mailing list that the current init system will have to be replaced because the management of it is getting too complicated. Canonical created Upstart as a solution to this. We’ll see what Debian does with it.

Now, both are equally excellent distributions, but for my needs, Ubuntu wins from a usability and a technical standpoint.