[Malvern] Debian and Ubuntu.

[Ian Pascoe]

Evening Geoff

As an alternative to Knopix  try the Test CD - it seems to be getting alot
of notice these days.

One additional point, and again hands up for selfishness, Ubuntu is provided
to OEMs; anyone interested in a nice new Ubuntu desktop that has green
credentials see www.Efficient .co.uk

The SSL bug may have got you if you at any time have created pass keys; the
story behind this is an interesting one of misunderstanding - however,
cannot complain at the way it was handled once it came to light.  This
episode gives some credence to Mark Shuttleworth's backing of the idea to
get distros and projects talking more closely together.

Unfortunately can't comment on other distros but from reading various on
line news feeds etc it does seem that the general opinion is that Ubuntu is
an easier install than most - as always it's what you're used to.

Ian

-----Original Message-----
From: Geoff Bagley [mailto:geoff.bagley at btinternet.com]
Sent: 08 July 2008 10:28
To: ianpascoe at btinternet.com
Cc: Malvern at mailman.lug.org.uk
Subject: Re: [Malvern] Debian and Ubuntu.


Hi Ian,

Thanks for the reply.

I have often heard the point you make about Debian keeping up to date.
I have, over the years used both the "stable" and "testing" versions of
Debian,  and have never felt
constrained by any failure of software to keep up to date.

However you mentioned the kernel.  That would be more serious I
suppose.  I guess you mean
the other stuff not keeping up to date with the kernel.  I imagine that
all the other distros must keep
pretty close to the fruits of the kernel team, which I guess IS up to date.

The biggest recent cock-up with Debian was the ssl fiasco, but that has
now been fixed.
As far as I know, it never affected me.  I apt-get update most days.

They tell me that Ubuntu is easier to install, but I haven't found
that.  I have often installed
Debian "stable" over my broadband.  Upgrading to "testing" is also easy
by alteration to
/etc/apt/sources.list

Knoppix is generally touted as a diagnostic tool.  Does anyone use this
as an alternative to Ubuntu.
Some Debian-based distros appear to be one-man bands  (Mepis ? ).  That
would worry me a little.
At least I can trust pure Debian to be just that - pure.  I understand
that Canonical  are not too fussy about
what Ubuntu includes.  The onus for that must lie with the punter.

Anyway,  many thanks for your views.

There are differences between applications like compilers.  I guess that
affects all the distros.
Some software can be unnecessarily complex because they are trying to
support MAC and M$ as well.
The  GNU stuff is nice and clean.

Hope to see you sometime.

Best regards to all the Group.

Geoff.