[Tfug] Machine Rehabilitation

[Glen Pfeiffer]

On 06/12/2007 07:10 PM, Andrew Ayre wrote:
> On 06/12/2007 11:09 AM, Glen Pfeiffer wrote:
> > Regarding Ubuntu, what criteria did you use to make your
> > decision? What other distributions have you considered? Just
> > curious.
>
> [snip]
> If there are any really good reasons to choose Debian over
> Ubunutu I would love to hear them. The server will be headless
> with Gnome over VNC. I believe that vnc4server will start Gnome
> only when VNC is used, which is perfect, as most of the time it
> won't be needed.

I do not know what reasons would sway *you* to choose Debian over
Ubuntu, but here are my reasons:

1. There are many more packages available in Debian.
2. I experienced fewer problems with Debian. But I am comparing
   Debian stable and testing to Ubuntu which is based off Sid.
   Maybe that is unfair. But Ubuntu markets a "server" OS, which
   is based on Sid. Therefore I think the comparison is fair.
3. Everything that you can do with Ubuntu, you can do with
   Debian. It might require more work, but it is doable.
4. Debian supports more architectures. Learn one system, use it
   everywhere. This has yet to benefit me, though I expect it
   will within the next two years.
5. I have no direct experience with this, but some claim that
   Debian Sid is just as stable if not more so than Ubuntu.
6. You can use Debian on lower end hardware, because the default
   Ubuntu install uses more disk space and memory.
7. Debian stable is rock solid.
8. Regarding long term support I think that in practice Debian
   will probably have equal or longer term support than Ubuntu.
   Though I would love to hear from somebody with more knowledge
   on this.

-- 
Glen