[GLLUG] Ubuntu versus Debian (was: Re: GLLUG still alive?)

[John Edwards]

Hi

On Tue, Aug 13, 2024 at 10:10:41PM +0100, Carles Pina i Estany wrote:
> On 13 Aug 2024 at 21:22:12, John Edwards wrote:
<snip> 
>> ps. As a business, the company I work for did used to pay Canonical
>> for Ubuntu support many years ago. But they don't any more (lack of
>> quality and poor response times).
> 
> I understand that the company that you work for chose Ubuntu, maybe
> because the Canonical support (BTW, it's possible to find Debian support
> from different places... but AFAIK not from big companies such
> Canonical).

Oh sure, but often when something goes wrong a business needs help
faster than a Debian consultant (or a mailing list) can provide.


> But, since they don't Canonical support anymore, and besides the cost of
> changing: are they migrating or installing Debian in new equipment? Or,
> do they miss something in Debian that doesn't allow it?  (some specific
> software working in a certified way only on Ubuntu, or some hardware
> that needs propietary software that is Ubuntu specific...). Or, there is
> the usual (I do the same in some things!) "maybe the alternative is
> better, but no time to migrate/learn it now just now?".

Migration to Debian already in progress.

Luckily most of the packages and layout is very close (Ubuntu taking
most packages from Debian anyway), and with an automated configuration
management tool the differences can be ironed out.

Also it is possible to upgrade from Ubuntu to Debian in place by
altering /etc/apt/sources.list, but needs a bit of fancy footwork with
certain packages (don't forget to install kernel packages). And you
need to read the release notes for each Debian version to catch
potential problems.

It seems to work best with a gap of a few years between versions
(eg Ubuntu 20.04 to Debian 12) to avoid having to downgrade package
versions.

The MySQL to MariaDB migration is also a bit of a bugbear because they
have started to diverge in terms of table layout. Cyrus also has
potential problems where you have to move through Debian 11 first.

I'm still writing up the process as I meet new problems but could
publish bits if anyone else has a need to do the same.


-- 
#---------------------------------------------------------#
|    John Edwards   Email: john at cornerstonelinux.co.uk    |
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