It's all Debian, It's all Linux

Story: Ubuntu vs LinuxMint: Distrowatch Ratings Don't Matter, Dude!Total Replies: 11
Author Content
Rodebian

Nov 28, 2011
2:11 AM EDT
I am tired of the arguing about this. Linux Mint, Ubuntu are children of Debian. All Linux distro's learn from one another. They are all good for their purpose.

Ubuntu is loosing people, yes. How many? Who cares. It is to be expected when a Distro goes all out with new things, or different things. And with the abrupt changes with Gnome 3, Unity, etc, some of us desktop users felt a little abandoned. Ubuntu lost me but I didn't go to Linux Mint, I went to Debian. I agree with the article that you have to be careful how you interpret the numbers at Distrowatch. I use Debian Squeeze. I won't be downloading anything until Wheezy hits stable. So I won't be counted at distrowatch as a downloader, which is misleading since I AM using Debian.

People need to stop worrying about what distro is better then the other and start using that energy to help others, spread the word about linux in general and learn, learn, learn all they can about linux.
JaseP

Nov 28, 2011
11:28 AM EDT
Technically, Mint is a GRANDchild of Debian... The knee-bouncing kind with a parent that Grandpop sometimes looks at with discust, but a grandchild just the same.
mahousaru

Nov 28, 2011
1:41 PM EDT
I went to Debian too, but as a natural progression from "out growing" Ubuntu. I tweaked my setup so much I thought why not go the source?

What I don't get is the people who complain about Ubuntu and knee jerk over to a totally different distro like Fedora etc... Shirely if Ubuntu was their fave distro until certain changes, then Debian Squeeze is the closest thing to before those changes?

I guess going from Ubuntu to Mint are people who just want an OS to do its job and they don't like poking and prodding...
Steven_Rosenber

Nov 28, 2011
2:08 PM EDT
My contention is that if you commit to using Ubuntu, eventually -- and probably sooner rather than later -- something is going to go wrong and you will have to figure out how to fix it.

The fix will be no harder or easier to do in Ubuntu than it would be in Debian. You can still Google, go to forums and mailing lists, etc., to get help, no matter which distro you use.

As part of the Debian "tree" of distributions, Debian itself, Ubuntu and Mint all have things to offer users. A lot of the solutions you find for problems in one distribution will work in the others.

There is a lot of overlap in core technologies and applications.

I use both Debian and Ubuntu to varying degrees, and once you get them set up and working, they're more the same than different.
montezuma

Nov 28, 2011
2:14 PM EDT
Generally true however I would quibble about some things

1) The gnome 2 fork MATE is only in Mint at present and Debian unstable is switching at present to gnome 3 so I assume future versions of Debian Stable may well not have this choice.

2) Both Ubuntu and Mint use a relatively up to date version of Debian (which can be useful) but add some degree of quality control.
flufferbeer

Nov 28, 2011
3:19 PM EDT
@Rodebian and montezuma, It probably doesn't matter WHICH form of up-to-date Debian you use. I think the most important part of Mint's increasing popularity over Ubuntu on Distrowatch is that less technically-advanced users now have yet ANOTHER (and good!) popular way to try and use Linux.

And THAT can only be for the best for everyone (except maybe not for Mark Shuttleworthless and his avid followers' Unity dogma)

My 2c.
montezuma

Nov 28, 2011
3:49 PM EDT
What is rather funny here (depending on how sadistic you are) is that Ubuntu and all its developers have labored mightily (with all of Mark's dollars) to produce an unpopular interface whereas Clem sits down basically by himself and (rather quickly) writes a nice set of gnome 3 extensions and compiles a gnome fork and everyone is very happy.

Lesson there somewhere about hubris?
Rodebian

Nov 28, 2011
5:52 PM EDT
@JaseP

True, but saying Debian is a grandparent makes Debian sound old and outdated. Which is far from the truth since Ubuntu bases their releases on the testing (or unstable, I forget,) branch of Debian.

@fluffbear that is the most important thing,

""the most important part of Mint's increasing popularity over Ubuntu on Distrowatch is that less technically-advanced users now have yet ANOTHER (and good!) popular way to try and use Linux.""
Rodebian

Nov 28, 2011
5:58 PM EDT
I also want to add that with just these alone, not counting all Debian based distro's, (these are only the 6 month download numbers from distro watch,) shows the Debian family as a whole is very, very impressive no matter the distro. I only totaled Ubuntu, Mint, Lubuntu, Xubuntu and Kubuntu. As I said that doesn't even count other distro's that are based on Debian.

7353

JaseP

Nov 29, 2011
10:15 AM EDT
@Rodebian:

I don't know,... I know some grandparents that are younger than me,... And my daughter's only three (I got started late)... Debian as a grandparent is a "GILF," if I were a piece of software, that is... ;-)
Rodebian

Nov 29, 2011
11:28 AM EDT
@JaseP that is one way to look at it, lol

caitlyn

Nov 30, 2011
12:30 AM EDT
Yep, they're all Debian, which is why I choose none of the above. I'll stick with my Slackware derivatives for home and Red Hat (and clones) for work, thankyouverymuch.

Posting in this forum is limited to members of the group: [ForumMods, SITEADMINS, MEMBERS.]

Becoming a member of LXer is easy and free. Join Us!