Comments on: Server Migration From Ubuntu 8.04 To Debian 5.0

By: Dean

Dean — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 19:55:41 +0000

Debian seems more stable than Ubuntu and seems to have longer support, but the issue I’m having currently is that I can’t make KVM work properly in Debian 6, while it works in Ubuntu and even Linux MInt (which is better than Ubuntu, by the way, more polished, better built, using same sources). So that makes me wondering, why in Debian we have a bug, while ubuntu just works out of th box.
Maybe you wonder why I wanna use KVM with GUI, wellc ause is faster and becuase we all like interfaced, son’t we ?! for a host OS, I guess there’s not a big deal but ..debian just doesn’t work for some reason as it should righjt now. They should fix these bugs before release as this is a Debian 5 bug, in 6.

By: piju

piju — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 04:28:36 +0000

ok fine,
ubuntu for desktops/laptops and debian for servers
dont think like other peoples think. think in our way of thinking.

By: foo

foo — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:01:46 +0000

testing reply

By: Aaron

Aaron — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:59:06 +0000

test

By: Gerard Braad

Gerard Braad — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 23:04:32 +0000

Although Ubuntu is based on Debian, it is not compatible with the packages. This is also what most people say about Fedora and derivatives (like RHEL and CentOS). It is not completely true… As you can see in this post: http://blog.gbraad.nl/2009/01/wizard-of-yum-upgrade-from-fc3-to.html a live migration is possible from Fedora Core to CentOS, but it is not advisable .

By: Aaron

Aaron — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 04:10:54 +0000

Ubuntu and Debian are vastly different Linux operating systems. They aren’t related much, other than using the APT and DPKG toolkits. Ubuntu’s repositories become more and more different than Debian’s. Many packages exist in Ubuntu that aren’t in Debian, and vice versa. While I understand your point that some software is enabled in Ubuntu that you have to install manually in Debian, many Ubuntu software titles don’t even exist in the Debian repositories.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 04:08:18 +0000

I’ll give you three examples, how about that?

1) When I started with Debian unstable in 2003, wireless didn’t work on my laptop. It worked fine in SuSE and Mandrake, but Debian was a no go. Even now, 6 years later, Debian still refuses to work with my wireless card. Reason? My hardware requires non-free firmware that Debian doesn’t ship. Ubuntu on the other hand, worked with my wireless card since the release of 5.04, and still works.

2) I still don’t know what plagues me here, but Debian wants to choose a massive dots per square inch on my laptop. So, when I set my resolution to native 1680×1050, it feels like 1280×800. Ubuntu has nailed it every time.

3) Debian still doesn’t have a graphical boot. If Debian wishes to compete on the desktop market, they need a graphical boot. Watching text roll by on the screen is reminiscent of the 1980s. It’s just silly at this point. While I’m aware packages exist to create one, it should be default.

Ubuntu is just a polished Debian on the desktop. The Ubuntu crew has taken great care to polish the operating system, and make desktop and laptop users want to use it. They’ve created value that no other distribution has been able to do.

By: miksuh

miksuh — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 19:18:18 +0000

And remember that if something is not installed by default, it does not mean it does not exist in Debian. Many Ubuntu users seem to whine that Debian does not have this and this helpful tool. I suggest that you use Synaptic or Add/Remore Applications tool in Lenny and search for the package. Sure there is still some tools which are in the Ubuntu, but not in the Debian. But most of the tools are in the Debian.

By: miksuh

miksuh — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 19:10:05 +0000

Not really. Please give atleast one example?

When Etch was released Debian was already almost as easy as ubuntu. And now when Lenny is release3d there really is not any difference anymore.

By: miksuh

miksuh — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 19:00:20 +0000

There will be LennyAndAHalf release like there was EtchAndAHalf. LennyAndAHalf will bring new hardware support to Lenny. Do also remember that Debian has backports.org repository which contains backported packages for the stable (Lenny) and oldstable
(Etch).

Eg. Etch was released with kernel 2.6.18, EtchAndAHalf was released with kernel 2.6.24. There is also kernels 2.6.25 and 2,6.26 for the Etch in the backports.org repository.

Same will happen with Lenny, there will be LennyAndAHalf release with will bring support for the new hardware and some other updates to Lenny. There will also be newer backported packages for the Lenny in the backports.org-

Debian Squeeze will most likely be released before end of 2010, so LennyAndAHalf and backports.org are more than enough to keep Lenny well uptodate.

And who cares about latest most buggy software versions? Atleast i want to work with my computer, i don’t want to waste my time on solving problems and fighting with broklen software. That’s why I use Debian and not eg. ubuntu.

I ahve been using Debian stable on desktop and on server since 1998 and I have been wery happy with it.

By: calc

calc — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 02:25:30 +0000

Yes, Ubuntu 8.10 is too old to run on a ThinkPad x200 (I just bought one)… but there will probably be at least 4 new Ubuntu releases before there will be a new Debian release, so many new pieces of hardware will work on Ubuntu better than Debian during that timeframe. In this case Debian was just lucky to have proper hardware support for the ThinkPad which Ubuntu didn’t since it was released 4 months earlier.

By: Server Migration From Ubuntu 8.04 To Debian 5.0 | Ubuntu-News - Your one stop for news about Debian

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:16:54 +0000

[...] me online and in person why I would make the switch, especially being a heavy Ubuntu advocate. More here So, in a nutshell, I’ve put my faith behind Debian stable for any production servers personally, [...]

By: Aaron

Aaron — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 03:00:06 +0000

I’d ask, if it is possible to upgrade the existing 8.04lts system to debian stable simply by changing /etc/apt/sources.list ?

Most definitely not. The Debian repositories are not compatible with the Ubuntu packages, and vice versa. You would hose your system horribly if you did that.

No, if you want to switch to a new operating system, you have to do a fresh install. Also, it’s not that big of an undertaking. If you already have your configs in place, then installing the packages, restoring the configs and then restoring the data might be time consuming, but trivial. I was able to do my reinstall with DNS, DHCP, SMTP, Jabber, HTTP, SSH and others in under 3 hours.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 02:57:09 +0000

Except I’ve run Debian on desktops and laptops for years. Ubuntu has the upper hand in that area. They just do.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 02:56:31 +0000

To be honest, I don’t know what happened. I do know that I spent several hours repairing the dpkg database.

Also, I’m aware of aptitude purge. I’ve been using aptitude since I discovered it. Unfortunately, it’s not perfect, and doesn’t clean up everything. And while I could do a better job at maintaining my filesystem, fact is, I didn’t. So, it was a mess.