Why Debian?

Here is an article I read on the blog of humans where its author issues some personal criteria by which he uses Debian. Many may agree with the arguments made, others may not.

We start from the criterion that the best Operating System and the best Desktop Environment are precisely those that you prefer and have installed; with those who feel most comfortable; and the ones you know best. Be it a version of Mac, Linux, Windows, or another. Okay?

Reasons can be used for and against Debian. However, those in favor are so weighty that they overshadow the opposites.

  • Debian is Universal because it can be installed on a Mobile device, a Laptop, a Desktop machine, a medium-performance Server, Professional Servers, Server Clusters, Supercomputers, Robots, etc.
  • I will always be "dressing" a clearly defined operating system as a powerful server, whose basis does not distinguish between an operating system for Desktop and another for Servers.
  • We are building a Custom desktop on one of the Linux versions that respects the spirit of Free Software, stable, of Lower consumption of resources, and popular.
  • With just one installation CD or DVD + the right repository, I can make whatever Desktop I want for my workstation. Be the well-known GNOME Desktop Environments (GNU Network Object Model Environment), KDE, Xfce and Lxde, or the Window Managers WindowMaker, BlackBox, Flwm, and many more that would make the list very long.
  • I can have installed a i386 32-bit base system and install the 64-bit kernel amd64, without losing the compatibility with 32-bit applications at all. It will remain a 32-bit system.
  • May l use My Desktop for fun, as support for Office automation, the implementation of services, to virtualize servers or workstations, or as a design station. In short, practically for what you need.
  • It's fun learn how to configure a Desktop on Debian and in the process you learn.

… And why do you use Debian for you?

I could add some new arguments, such as that given my current connectivity conditions, it is much easier to get a repository for Debian, I like the balance between Stability / New Packages (using Testing or Sid of course), and that you usually find more packages in .deb.


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  1.   rafagcg said

    I only know debian flavors and in them I find myself "comfortable". Ubuntu / Xubuntu / Mint usually only look at a distro if in dristrowach it tells me that it is derived from debian.
    A few weeks ago I tried debian Xfce and a mess to get nVidia. When I got it after an hour of fighting, I had lost the sound…. I had already exceeded the installation time I had, I could not continue playing the pear. So install Xubuntu. And very well with some adjustments.

    1.    Rolo said

      Of course yours is like junk food, that is, it has to be all ready and all you do is eat it.

      To install Debian you have to read, a habit that few users practice before embarking on the installation of this OS

      1.    elav said

        Not all of us have time to read rolo. Anyway, I don't think you have to read as much with Debian as with ArchLinux 😀

        1.    Rolo said

          hahaha I agree with you about archlinux although Gentoo or Slackware may require more reading 😛

          But, speaking a bit seriously, if you don't take the time to read it is obvious that when you encounter a problem you will not be able to solve it and as always happens in these cases, the easiest thing is to blame the OS.

          1.    Ian said

            Nothing you can't find on Google, the typical "what to do next ..." but hey you always have to read a little too 😀

          2.    Anonymous said

            Although you also have to be very careful with the "What to do next ..." it is good to be guided by reliable places (which are few) because there is a lot of loose tutorial in which one finds blunders that a novice would not be able to distinguish, such as several sources Debian Etch or Lenny .list in full 2012 and more stuff full of errors in critical details.

        2.    ariki said

          Arch is true but it is entertaining in the end hahaha, the same as debian is entertaining to leave everything at hand and as one wants his desk and others, to the friend rolo I think what to say to a person for taking derivatives of debian who eats junk food It is not the most appropriate because everyone occupies the version of linux that they want the most and that is not why we will get Taliban and say that if it is not by hand the installation is not linux! Please let us be tolerant that not everyone has the time or the experience enough to do linux installations by hand, that is a greeting and a very good article about the beginning. Greetings Ariki

        3.    Hyuuga_Neji said

          I join you in this part ...

        4.    VaryHeavy said

          A question Elav: Knowing that Debian does not include Firefox as such in its repositories, but includes its fork IceWeasel, what is the version of Firefox that you are using? The version that Mozilla offers for download? Or do you use a specific repository to have Firefox on Debian?

          1.    ivanovblack said

            I use the version that Mozilla offers and if you want to use Firefox, that's the best way to do it.

      2.    DanielC said

        rolo, I think you are very wrong with that, not for nothing there is so much open forum of Ubuntu users and guides everywhere.
        If you really want that OS to work well, you have to get your hands on it like Debian, in the end it has many characteristics of its father.

      3.    commentator said

        Read? Nowadays it is easier than installing many other GNU / Linux distributions, it is also not bad to read a little.

    2.    Linda said

      More or less my case, it has been like 4 times that I install debian and I end up going back to Ubuntu or Mint because I can't configure it correctly, at first I lost myself in the middle of the installation, but now I can't do everything I want right . But very good, it helped me understand many things in its installation process.

      1.    rafagcg said

        Go, Linda, I no longer feel so alone in my ignorance. Thanks to reading and reading even with papers taken by the printer, I managed to install the nVidia. But then there was no time for more, or I left the computer without service for at least 7 days, or I installed Xubuntu.
        It seems that those of us who only have 30 minutes a day for the hobby and we have not studied computer science, or we do not get the best of it, we are condemned to windows, next, next. And that's why I don't give up on linux, even if I have to use junk distros. Which by the way, then we say that linux is for everyone. Let's see if we can clarify, heh, heh.

        1.    Rolo said

          You can also pay a technician to install debian and configure it properly. Many people pay to have Windows installed. And if the problem is summarized in the question of lack of time, it is a good solution to have the installation done by a technician.

          1.    Ian said

            You have hit the nail on the head, because it is a free system, it does not mean that you cannot pay a technician to make your computer a fiddle, it is that sometimes I think so many are confused, if you pay for the installation of win no I see why it would not be paid for a linux installation 😉

        2.    commentator said

          go *

    3.    pelaoBellako said

      You probably installed stable, because I just bought a notebook a week ago (lenovo thinkpad edge e430 i5 4ram 500gb, SO = freeDos) and the truth is, 0 problems ... even more so, it even recognized me as bluetooth, the only thing I had to "install" It was the driver of the wifi card, because the network did recognize it first, so lspci, look for my card and the official debian support had the driver and it tells you how to install it on its page, so ... I lost 1 hour of installation but I gain much more hours of stability vs ubuntu / kubuntu etc ... since it goes faster, I have always used ubuntu and also excellent distro!

  2.   ivanovblack said

    Because Debian is the milk!

    I use Debian Sid, once installed it runs and runs and runs until the hardware dies.

  3.   rafagcg said

    @satanAG: Don't you mess with the configuration files, the package utilities, and the structural differences between the two? Or are there not as many as I imagine?
    @zerberros: you gave me long teeth joio.
    @Ian: thanks for the link I'll get with a virtual machine.
    @Ian and rolo: you are a bit of a hooligan… that I hired a technician. First, I don't know where to get it from, and secondly, even if someone would install it for me by paying ... if later you can't touch the system, go hide it ... well, what a plan. It is more functional to use something else that can repair or reinstall.
    @all: I explain it more. Before installing I read, tried on a vBox and everything OK. But the real machine had nVidia, it took a long time to configure it and then I ran out of sound. another attempt will have to be made with the sound chop ready.

    1.    cerberus said

      HAHAHA, the truth is that now I feel very comfortable with my debian pointing to wheezy.

      Anyway, I have the impression that now it is not necessary to configure as many things as before, for example now the units are assembled by themselves, when a few years ago they had to be assembled by hand.
      To install the envy I think there are some simple steps with apt-get, instead of so much change of runlevel. In my case, I have not had to install the aforementioned proprietary driver 🙂
      Anyway, if you don't have much time to learn, stay on stable Ubuntu, or if you like gnome 3, elementary os Luna looks very good. (It's just a suggestion). And if not, a dualboot, with debian and another distro until you feel comfortable ...

      All the best

    2.    Ian said

      Rafa, the thing about the technician is only because if you have to install win (pirate) you pay and without question, but if you have to install any version of linux, it is "understood" that as I download it "for free" as I would think of paying Someone to install it for me and leave it functional ... I am not telling you to pay anyone, just to try and try until you get a good installation, while you continue with your current system, but when you achieve it and yourself, you will tell me 😉 by the way, what nVidia board do you have? O_O

      1.    rafagcg said

        Thank you all for your words.
        The invention is this:
        http://youtu.be/4dOyliyroZg
        You now have Xubuntu 12.10 and it goes like a shot. But I will prepare my attack on Debian again… now I can do a clonezilla of the HD and if the issue gets stuck I clone again and nothing has happened here.

  4.   Ian said

    I think because yes, it would be enough xD

    Outside of jokes, I think that after a long time in Linux, I can say, from my point of view, that Debian, after installed, configured and running there is nothing to give it, it is a ROCK, I speak from my experience, it that many will say that it takes a long time to install, compared to other "packaged and ready to use" distros, both Debian and Arch if you take your time (I know that sometimes there is not) you leave it fine fine ...

    I have in one of my computers a Debian configured from scratch, installed from the Advanced Options, that you can choose EVERYTHING and running a KDE 4.8.4 with an initial memory consumption of 110mb, it is also real, which is not a complete KDE (either I want it, nor do I need it), yes, I have been configuring it for more than a day and I still have it, but I am not in a hurry if every time I can tune it more without it breaking ...

    That is Debian, and I am not, nor do I consider myself Ultra or anything, just a simple user who seeks flexibility rather than "all chewed up"

    At this point, I'm going to the sources, I pass from distros derived from derivatives, whatever distros they are (Debian, Arch, Slackware, Centos, Gentoo) the parents, let's say it differently 😉

    1s and I hope I didn't bore you ...

    1.    rafagcg said

      "At this point, I'm going to the sources, I pass from distros derived from derivatives, whatever distros (Debian, Arch, Slackware, Centos, Gentoo) are the parents, let's say it differently"

      that occurred to me and ostiss that frightening…. I will try debian again sometime in the future.

      1.    Ian said

        If you have time and desire, right here you have an Elav tutor ( https://blog.desdelinux.net/debian-wheezy-kde-4-8-instalacion-y-personalizacion/ ) that you can try in virtualbox, you don't need to finish it all at once, before installing it on a pc, and so you will realize, and you will correct errors, then it will only be sewing and singing, you will see 😉

  5.   Yoyo Fernandez said

    Why Debian? because I'm worth it 🙂

  6.   Leper_Ivan said

    I haven't taken the time to get down to Debian. I think that now, that I have finished studying, I will start with it .. Personally I prefer ArchLinux, I like everything about it .. I will get to work with Debian, use it for a while and then I will make some decisions.

    1.    helena_ryuu said

      In the past I used debian ...... in its time it was good, but I don't think it will return, arch is my platonic love xD, the thing here is that debian is mythical, and many people use it, also I think an advantage is that there is more info in Spanish about debian, and you have to read less, but whatever it is, I think the important thing is to use linux and a distro that is comfortable for you, in addition to supporting that distro and the linux community in general.

      1.    elav said

        I don't think it's because of the documentation issue, because the best Wiki that exists for me is precisely ArchLinux.

        1.    helena_ryuu said

          In that you are right, but it is somewhat outdated, the truth is I only read the English version when I have a question, as it is more updated. Look, I recently started translating articles with two other people from the wiki arch in Spanish, we are updating the wiki, I was referring to the documentation based on the fact that there are thousands of articles and tips to use debian, also, arch because it is rolling release, it has faster changes and this is reflected in its documentation which tends to be very up to date.

          debian, for being so outdated in terms of packages, because articles written 5 or 6 years ago are still valid in many cases. I do not know if I explain it e_e

  7.   cooper15 said

    There may be many reasons, but just mentioning debian inspires respect. Personally, I only use debian and no matter how good arch or any other I change it.

  8.   Germaine said

    As a newbie I think of my experiences: LinuxMint KDE perfect, with Mate and Cinnamon I got a mess…, Chakra, Sabayon and Mageia, excellent but you have to know many things first before touching it…; OpenSuse KDE the only one with which I was comfortable and my machine worked well was with version 12.2 but the problem is that I did not get some applications in .rpm the ones that are only in .deb, the same happened to me with Fuduntu and Fedora…; Ubuntu did not seem like a big thing to me, although it is the simplest, would that be why? Zorin the problem of translations there are several things in German ..., others that they recommend a lot but that when working on LIVE or they do not load well or I do not like ... and now I have Pear Linux installed and it is the one with which I have lasted the longest, it is worth the worth taking a look at. http://pearlinux.fr/

  9.   Anonymous said

    Debian is my almost ideal distro because personally I am not versioned and I seek to use the computer in a simple and friendly way, without surprise problems, with good security, great performance, good support and a well-marked commitment to software freedom.
    When I tried with Debian the first times I crashed my system when trying to configure it about three times, after that I wrote down step by step how I had to do things and in the end it was as expected, the truth is that it was not difficult, I had just done it bad for lack of habit and that altered its proper functioning. After that, everything has been living in a giant peace until today ... I don't have to do anything but use my machine carelessly and once a week I look for updates available.

  10.   cerberus said

    To cure myself of the versionitis that I suffered with Ubuntu ...
    For stability ...
    So smoothly, gnome 3 works for me on a Ram 1GB asus eeePc connected to a 32-inch screen (not bad, almost almost, even the full screen HD YouTube videos look perfect, but almost)
    And because it was not difficult for me to install it, and little by little, and without haste, I am fine-tuning and tuning the settings ... great.

    1.    cerberus said

      AH! and because it is 99% translated into Spanish, if I'm not mistaken there are two new packages missing, this was announced in the debian translator lists a few weeks ago ...

    2.    msx said

      »And little by little, and without haste, I am fine-tuning and tuning the settings ... great.»
      Hehehe, enjoy!
      Don't forget to backupe when you have everything ready 😉

  11.   satan AG said

    Sure, each system is perfect to the extent that users create it, but it must also be said that within the world of GNU / LINUX there are "hierarchies" and I think that Debian should be in the first positions.

    Although I currently use OpenSuse, Debian is a very solid rock that can hardly be destroyed. Currently OpenSuse is very stable, I don't think at Debian level, but it is very stable and almost perfect for me.

    I never leave Debian and OpenSuse. There I die.

    1.    tavo said

      Someone who shares my same tastes haha. I think exactly the same and if I limited myself to testing I would say that Debian is unbreakable, but OpenSUSE 12.1 (when I used it) despite wanting to break it, I could never get it and it supports external repositories very well. I encourage you to say that Zypper solves packet conflicts better than APT, or maybe it's a question of the rpm packet.
      Like you, having tried many distributions, only two are my favorites

  12.   k1000 said

    Why Debian? Because it is simple, light, stable and there are many packages for Debian.
    Why LMDE? because I want to avoid fatigue XD.

  13.   creeping_death said

    Needless to say, it is also multi kernel (BSD, HURD). Also if I want to compile packages like Gentoo or Arch I would use apt-build. Anyway, Debian is all I need.

  14.   kik1n said

    Mmm debian is not taking with me.
    I install it and always end up uninstalling it for something. If it is not for the audio, firefox is not in its official repos, etc….
    Going from stable to testing is a nightmare, I don't know, or it's my thing, but I think Debian doesn't get along with KDE.

    Change Arch for Debian, I am not convinced.

    ??
    pacman vs apt-get
    aur vs repos testing deb
    Current vs Stable
    Has Firefox vs Does not have firefox (It can be installed in other ways)
    ??

    1.    cerberus said

      The eternal confrontations between linuxers ...

      .rpm vs. deb
      debian vs arch
      ubuntu vs rest of distros
      gentoo vs gentoo
      vim vs emacs
      qt vs gtk
      gnome vs kde
      all DE vs gnome
      rhythmbox vs banshee
      C vs. Java
      Python vs. C
      [...]

      1.    helena_ryuu said

        Gentoo Vs Gentoo LoL
        i miss you
        all DE Vs KDE

        1.    msx said

          LOL XD

    2.    ivanovblack said

      Testing makes more problems than solving them. Use Sid. 🙂
      Debian is not Arch but it is not true that it does not have packages a little more updated, again Sid.
      That it does not have Firefox in the repos does not mean that you cannot install it the very easy way. Here you go though in English: http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=271769#p271769.

    3.    commentator said

      I think there has been a bit more attention to KDE lately, at least there seem to be more maintainers, plus there's iceweasel.

      Iceweasel is the same firefox.

  15.   Fabian said

    At first it takes a bit of work to leave it at ease but as they said before with a little reading it is achieved and as another user said it is really a rock in stability and very light.

  16.   artbgz said

    I love Debian because it is "install and forget"

  17.   msx said

    "Why Debian?"
    Because obviously it is the distro they like. ^ _ ^

    «We start from the criterion that the best Operating System and the best Desktop Environment are precisely those that you prefer and have installed; with those who feel most comfortable; and the ones you know best. Be it a version of Mac, Linux, Windows, or another. Okay?"
    Exact!

    "Debian is Universal because it can be installed on a Mobile device, a Laptop, a Desktop machine, a medium-performance Server, Professional Servers, Server Clusters, Supercomputers, Robots, etc."
    ??? This doesn't make much sense unless you use that universality 😛
    On the other hand, today the main distros are ported to ARM and MIPS 🙂

    "I will always be" dressing "a clearly defined operating system as a powerful server, whose basis does not distinguish between an operating system for Desktop and another for Servers."
    Debian is one more possibility for servers, as a day-to-day desktop it is seriously out of date in terms of the apps it provides, which is why Ubuntu was born as a natural response to have a more modern system - and lately SolusOS.

    "We are building a custom Desktop on one of the versions of Linux that most respects the spirit of Free Software, stable, Less Resource Consumption, and popular."
    What a lack of ignorance there is, Debian GNU / Linux IS NOT RECOGNIZED BY THE Free Software Foundation as a free GNU / Linux distribution, therefore Debian IS NOT Free Software.
    http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html

    With just one installation CD or DVD + the right repository, I can make whatever Desktop I want for my workstation. Be it the well-known GNOME Desktop Environments (GNU Network Object Model Environment), KDE, Xfce and Lxde, or the Window Managers WindowMaker, BlackBox, Flwm, and many more that would make the list very long.
    Like all distros that pose a similar development such as Arch, openSUSE, Gentoo, Slackware, Fedora, etc.

    I can have a 386-bit i32 base system installed and install the 64-bit amd64 kernel, without losing support for 32-bit applications at all. It will remain a 32-bit system.
    What's the point !? Having 64-bit hardware and using it with a 32-bit userland is an incongruity
    For that you install the multiarch packages that provide specific compatibility for some 32-bit applications and issue solved.

    I can use My Desktop for fun, as support for Office automation, service implementation, to virtualize servers or workstations, or as a design station. In short, practically for what you need.
    Ahem ... just like the rest of the distros! * cough *

    It's fun learning how to set up a Debian Desktop and you learn in the process.
    … And why do you use Debian for you?
    You learn to configure it like Debian does 😉

    I could add some new arguments, for example that given my current connectivity conditions, it is much easier to get a repository for Debian, I like the balance between Stability / New Packages (using Testing or Sid of course), and that for you usually find more packages in .deb.
    Stability + updated packages? Phew: Arch, openSUSE, Gentoo, Slackware, SliTaz, Fedora… I'm talking about the ones I know. If I'm not mistaken, all these distros have _much_ more current packages than the ones found in Sid but with the stability of Debian Stable - at least the distros I know well: Arch, Gentoo and Slack.

    "Why Debian?"
    Because it is the distro they like, nothing more than that. ^ _ ^

    1.    commentator said

      It is the distro that I use 7 years ago, and although I installed a large number of distros (More than 25) I never stopped using it, now it is the only one that occupies the hard disk of the computer…. it's so good that it gave ubuntu 10 GB to live next to it.

    2.    kik1n said

      Your comment made me want to try debian, again.

  18.   downloads said

    I spent 7 years with Debian, in the unstable branch, with Gnome2, but as you comment there are other distros with newer packages. Debian has benefited from the development that ubuntu has had. I think if you have to read in the distro where you are, in debian lei and a lot. I think it will take many years to return to debian. Cheers

    1.    k1000 said

      Tell me how is it that debian benefits from the development of ubuntu that I do not understand?

      1.    downloads said

        Years ago when I was trying to install an external package with deb extension, with the debian gdeb tool it was a bummer, I had to install gdebi which worked better, that is what I mean by the benefit that Debian has had. Cheers

      2.    msx said

        «There are 3 channels that Ubuntu uses to push changes to Debian: they file bug reports (between 250 to 400 during each Ubuntu release cycle), they interact directly with Debian maintainers (often the case when there's a maintenance team), or they do nothing and hope that the Debian maintainer will pick up the patch directly from the Debian Package Tracking System (it relays information provided by patches.ubuntu.com). »
        ...
        Lucas witnessed a big evolution in the perception of Ubuntu on the Debian side. The initial climate was rather negative: there were feelings of its work being stolen, claims of giving back that did not match the observations of the Debian maintainers, and problems with specific Canonical employees that reflected badly on Ubuntu as a whole. These days most Debian developers find something positive in Ubuntu: it brings a lot of new users to Linux, it provides something that works for their friends and family, it brings new developers to Debian, and it serves as a technological playground for Debian.
        On the Ubuntu side, the culture has changed as well. Debian is no longer so scary for Ubuntu contributors and contributing to Debian is The Right Thing to do. More and more Ubuntu developers are getting involved in Debian as well. But at the package level there's not always much to contribute, as many bugfixes are only temporary workarounds. And while Ubuntu's community follows this philosophy, Canonical is a for-profit company that contributes back mainly when it has compelling reasons to do so. »
        ...

        Full article here:
        http://raphaelhertzog.com/2010/12/06/state-of-the-debian-ubuntu-relationship/

        1.    ivanovblack said

          !This! Thanks MSX.

  19.   downloads said
    1.    commentator said

      Which works beastly ... bad
      For that we have a perfect package manager, synaptic.

  20.   willians said

    Support, community, multi-architecture, documentation, lists, social commitment [1], packages for everything (and with options)… Anyway.

    [1] http://www.debian.org/social_contract.es.html

  21.   Ezekiel said

    Hello People, I leave you my experience. I started with ubuntu and learned a lot about linux. Then I switched to Debian (first stable, then unstable) and learned even more. And now I decided to try Fedora with KDE as an environment, and to be honest, I have not done anything (a little yes, but hey) and everything works perfect, it seems to me that I got tired of having to touch things by hand a lot ( although I know I have a long way to go to make things more friendly). This is not to say that with Debian you have to touch something to make it work well, but I had the pleasure of doing the installation "raw" and, I have to tell you that leaving things fully functional takes your work. In short, how nice it is to go through life trying different flavors! Health

    1.    msx said

      Personally, the satisfaction is greater when once you have decided on a distro -or better yet, when you fall in love ipso facto with a distro- you put your hand like an octopus until it is ready.
      If the distro is well designed, at that point it is very rare that you have to look under the hood again and it may even happen to you if you do not develop or occupy your machine for other things than gut your GNU / Linux that you get bored of what you have installed .

      At this point precisely, when you start to get bored of your distro because everything is perfect, where you don't even remember when was the last time you tweaked something, it is the ideal time to do a general update, a deep cleaning of the system (localepurge, Bleachbit , etc.) and a backup of your / - partition and in my case {~ / .kde4, .config, .weechat, .bash _ * ,. emacs, etc.) and archive it as a safe copy because it is almost certain that you will do something you will regret !! Mwahaha!

      Although it is a lie that with canned distros you install them and forget, even the elementary OS that I installed for my sister. it absorbed me a good 5 hours until I left it to my liking, reaching the point where you have your entire system working perfectly when you started from a minimal installation as you can with Debian, Gentoo or Arch is a special satisfaction ^ _ ^
      Tweak the kernel, the boot line, the team start (e4rat), optimize the system {/etc/sysctl.conf + archs. of conf. your own distro, preload, ulatencyd, custom kernel}, etc., optimize the performance of your desktop environment or window manager ... ufff! Titanic task but that when it finishes it culminates with a totally personalized installation and to the taste of your administrator 🙂

      And now yes, since everything is fine and as we want, let's get to work seriously! = D

  22.   Hugo said

    Personally, I like Debian for its stability, for its great repository, for its impressive support for different architectures, because it allows a light and efficient installation if one wishes, because the repositories can be obtained quite easily (there are many mirrors), and also because it is a community project from its conception, so that the project is less likely to perish or that its fate depends on the interests (or whims) of a particular company. I don't usually use anything else for servers (although I have also had to work with redhat and derivatives, which aren't bad either), and on many occasions I also use it as a workstation.

  23.   dragnell said

    Debian was my babysitter, who helped me to take my first steps in this universe, several years have passed and although it is a distro that I adore, I simply cannot recommend it as a distro for mass deployment on servers given its unconventional development cycle in as far as support outside of that is great.

    1.    commentator said

      Contrary to what you say ...

      http://w3techs.com/blog/entry/debian_is_now_the_most_popular_linux_distribution_on_web_servers

      So if you plan to set up a server you know.

      1.    msx said

        If you look closely at the graph, the matter is totally relative since Debian and CentOS have been head to head for a while.
        Now, if you look * good-good * at the graph you will see Ubuntu's blue bar that, although it is still far from reaching Debian, is growing by leaps and bounds.

        I fully agree with @Dragnell: unless there is a very specific corporate policy regarding using Debian or in the IT department they are all due, I would not do a crazy massive deployment of Debian, I would install Ubuntu Server without hesitation - which by all accounts is equal to or better for that function. Personally, I would choose Ubuntu Server over CentOS or openSUSE precisely because of:
        a. have a production quality product.
        b. have a product with commercial support in case of need.
        c. have a product tested in thousands of installations.
        d. etc
        and. Finally, because it is based on Debian, a distro that I know well and above all its tricks, because it is massive and because there is an abundance of documentation and people versed in it.

        Now, although it is true that Ubuntu Server was not the best distro for servers in its early days, it has been making its own merit for a long time and at least the last two versions (which I am using), 12.04 LTS and 12.10 are doing very well . Ubuntu Server has several advantages over using bare Debian:
        1. version 12.04 LTS has the support of 5 years (against the 2 or 3 or those that Debian has on average) of a company hungry for growth and knows that for that in today's competitive market you have to do the things well.
        2. version 12.10 is supported for the next 18 months and is certainly much more modern than the current stable version of Debian. In addition, IT IS A CORPORATE DISTANCE, that is, the purpose of Ubuntu Server is to serve the corporate market so it has to have production quality yes or yes, to say something else is to be a fool (I say this for all those who criticize Ubuntu so much the most of the time without knowing).
        In addition, Ubuntu Server has Landscape, a TRE-MEN-DA feature to manage entire clusters of servers and desktops:
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pSslGRi-ew
        3. Ubuntu is the only distro that recognizes even the most arcane hardware, in fact Ubuntu and Ubuntu Server are the only two distros that read EPSON multifunction without problems (mine in particular is a Stylus CX-5600 but I have seen that it recognizes everything type of AIO, EPSON printers and scanners), but not the vast majority of distros.

        If Canonical continues to do things well, they are on the way to fighting side by side with the corporate market that until not long ago was an exclusive space for RedHat - I say exclusive because the deploys of SuSE Linux alongside those of RedHat are insignificant.
        In this order, Ubuntu Server is not only going to find its place as peer to peer alongside RedHat but also, surely, it will become the standard distro for home and small business servers.

        Salu2

  24.   VaryHeavy said

    Now I will comment (from my personal point of view) why I do NOT use Debian in my home environment, although I have great respect for it:

    - We all know that the great stability of Debian has its secret in the life cycle of the packages used, whose Stable version has several versions below those considered "usable" of all packages, but make no mistake, quite a few of those packages they are literally outdated.
    Yes, I know we have Debian Testing and Unstable, but even in those versions, the packages are somewhat older than in the rest of the distributions.
    I am somewhat versionitic, and although I do not renounce stability by any means, Debian for me is "too stable".

    - In my walk with RPM distributions I discovered Delta-RPM, which greatly lightens the volume of package updates. Debian does not have this system.

    - One of the things that I look at a distribution with more or less liking is its aesthetic finish, and that of Debian, as well as that of other distros such as Fedora, which are practically limited to putting their logo on the default desktop environment in question. Yes, I know that I can customize it afterwards as much as I want, but there are times when it takes me longer than I would like to adjust the aesthetics completely to my liking. In general, and only generally, I run away from distros that set the default environment without customizing it in the least.

    - Although learning is always good, there are distros that make your life much easier and therefore save you time when it comes to fiddling with things that Debian is not so "simple" and quick to do. For those of us who are or have been users of distributions such as Mandriva and OpenSUSE and have made use of their magnificent graphical control centers, it is something that is valued very positively.

    - I usually get along better with the distributions that give me less problems for hardware recognition, and it is known that in Debian it is not as extremely simple as in others to put the graphics into operation with their appropriate drivers, or the wifi, or the system sound, etc., and yes, I know that this depends largely on the hardware itself, but on the same hardware there are other distros where you have everything working before.

    And these are roughly my reasons, I still forget some, but the main ones are these, which does not prevent me from making use of Debian for certain things, such as work or internships.

    1.    elav said

      Your point of view is interesting and of course, that depends on each person. There are people who install a Operating system, and they haven't updated it in years .. About the packages Delta, riding a Debian there was (or is) a project just for that, there is talk of topic here..

      1.    VaryHeavy said

        It would be very interesting for Debian-based or derived distros if such a project saw the light. It is something that RPM distributions already use, as well as Pardus with its (ex-) PiSi packages, and that is greatly appreciated for the savings in bandwidth.

    2.    pedro said

      Debian also has delta packages http://packages.debian.org/wheezy/debdelta
      on the issue of obsolete parcels, that is a lie. Furthermore, every package in the stable branch has a security update.

      the rest are subjective questions that I do not share but I respect because it is a personal opinion

      PS I wonder that no one talked about the genius of apt-pinning (mixing debian branches in the same OS) and the supremacy of aptitude over any other non *. Deb package installer
      regards

      1.    Hugo said

        Pacman users would probably disagree with the superiority of aptitude, although as I am fundamentally Debianite, I support you :)

        By the way, apt-pinning doesn't always work well, I once used it to install a fresh application and it asked for a dependency that, if I remember correctly, was something related to pixbuf or something like that and it altered my system to such an extent that finally I decided to reinstall it from scratch.

        1.    pedro said

          About apt-pinning problems, with aptitude you can solve dependency conflicts with a wide variety of options such as keeping the package in the branch, outdating the package, installing the superior branch package, or doing the same with other packages that solve the conflict.

      2.    ivanovblack said

        Because apt pinning is a very complicated thing. If you want more current packages, I recommend again using Sid instead of mixing repos.
        Apt pinning can work very well at the beginning of a new Debian development cycle, but over time you will have more problems with library and package compatibility. For example now with Squeeze still the current release, I would not recommend any pinning.

      3.    VaryHeavy said

        I totally respect your opinion, but the supremacy of aptitude over other installers is something that in daily practice I have not noticed, comparing it with others that I have used such as urpmi, pacman or the current zypper.

        Regarding the package, although the old packages continue to receive security updates, that does not mean that they are quite old compared to their current versions, but hey, that is the stability of Debian.

        PS: Is it a good idea to mix different branches of development?

        1.    ivanovblack said

          As Debianita I do not see anything superior in aptitude, it is a very confusing tool, I use apt.

          Like Debianita, yes, the packages in Debian Stable are obsolete at least for me especially those that continue to have bugs.

          Yes, mixing repos is not the best idea.

      4.    msx said

        »Of aptitude's supremacy over any other non * .deb package installer»

        O_o

        ROFLOLHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

        ahhhh x'-D thanks, really, I needed a good laugh = _ =

        1.    pedro said

          really aptitude is a very thick installer, (although some may laugh based on their ignorance) with many options, configurations and with a certain degree of intelligence that I don't know if another installer has it.

          could be worthy of a post with the comparison of the different installers
          Likewise, the installers that compile (such as apt-build pacman emerge) should be distinguished from those that install precompiled packages (apt-get rpm yum aptitude etc).

          1.    msx said

            Ignorant your old woman, know it.
            With Aptitude they screwed it up to the point that it is unusable, I do not know in which parallel universe you will use it, in practice every time I want to install any application it tells me that it is also necessary to install half of the repositories, the same when I want to delete a package and warns that you also have to uninstall% 70 of the applications that you have on your machine in addition to the desktop.
            Not to mention the ncurses interface that is awkward and cumbersome to use.

            .DEB is a mediocre format that brings a lot of headaches and that could do with a deep update, if in fact the .RPMs that for a long time were the target of all criticism today behave in an exemplary way.
            Not only the .DEB should update: dpkg and apt- * are frankly out of date with modern computing, generally any other packet manager passes it over, YUM among them which works fabulous nowadays.

            And also allow me a clarification on a subject that you ignore and yet speak:
            pacman is a minimalist and extensible multipurpose package manager that does NOT handle fonts -this is done by helpers-, only binary files and that also does it admirably: when in Debian or Ubuntu you are 15 minutes or more waiting for it to finish installing the 200 megabytes that you downloaded pacman did it in 2 minutes and is already having a fresh Coca-Cola and looking at how dpkg continues to work xD

          2.    pedro said

            msx when you don't know how to use a program is called ignorance

            "I want to install any application it warns me that it is also necessary to install half of the repositories, the same when I want to delete a package and it warns that you also have to uninstall% 70 of the applications that you have on your machine in addition to the desktop."

            This happens because you must have activated the function of eliminating the installed packages automatically and that of installing the recommended ones, with a little reading of some other tutor you would learn to configure it (= mind it is rare because these functions are not activated by default x at least in debian 6 and 7)

            "Not to mention the ncurses interface that is cumbersome and cumbersome to use."
            You have a gui interface (I don't remember the name of the package) but it is best to use the command line aptitude install x 😉

            «.DEB is a mediocre format that brings a lot of headaches and which could do with a deep update, if in fact the .RPM that for a long time were the target of all criticism today behave in an exemplary way.
            Not only the .DEB should update: dpkg and apt- * are frankly out of date with modern computing, generally any other packet manager passes it over, YUM among them which works fabulous nowadays »

            totally unfounded

            "Debian or Ubuntu you are 15 minutes or more waiting for the 200 megabytes to finish installing"

            that depends on the repository, surely you use repos that give you a very large ping or your pc and internet connection is not good

          3.    msx said

            Don't be condescending with me, it's too big for you, man.
            Aptitude is a kick in the balls for me and for anyone who wants to have a minimum control over their packages, it is a shit, bah, otherwise it would be the default manager - after all, that's what it was born for, right? to replace apt-get- and yet there you see it, relegated to a pitiful second place and hardly used by the vast majority of users.

            "= Mind is weird because these functions are not activated default x at least in debian 6 and 7)"
            Of course, precisely, Aptitude sucks by-design, just installed just want to use it and it's torture, or it installs everything that Atila finds or does and destroys even the screws in your machine.

            "Totally unfounded"
            Fully FOUNDED, how can you tell that you don't really know the developments of other distributions!
            Did you use YUM in the latest versions of Fedora? Did you use it thoroughly? And Zypper? Someday do it to become aware that the dpkg / apt combo was left in prehistory. YUM and Zypper are _very powerful_, fast, flexible and with a thousand options each to satisfy the taste of the most advanced users. With that and everything if you use them in a basic way they are VERY superior to dpkg / apt in every way, YUM especially is nice, the boys took the determination to improve it and boy did they!

            Computing has advanced a lot in recent years and F / LOSS is no exception, it seems to me that you stayed in time, when 15 years ago Debian was growing with great force.
            Today the project is growing on its laurels without innovating or refreshing basic tools that are being surpassed several times by projects that until recently were in their infancy.
            Check Google Trends or the sources you prefer, Debian is in decline.

            1.    elav said

              I do not share your msx criteria, because dpkg / apt is still for many, the best package manager. From the outset, what makes apitude better than apt-get is the union of several options and a better deal with dependencies. That said, it's not aptitude to blame if you drag 1 package with 20 thousand dependencies, but the way they package things. BTW, I have not used Zypper, nor YUM thoroughly. Can you tell me if these are capable of retaining packages, updating only the ones you want and solving the dependencies well? I only ask to know.


          4.    pedro said

            It is evident that you do not know how to use aptitude or configure it, so you cannot compare it with any other since you cannot compare what is not known. 🙁

          5.    msx said

            Alright Zapata, whatever you want. ¬¬

          6.    msx said

            @elav
            I pick up the glove, in a few days I upload a comparison of pacman, yum and apt.

  25.   downloads said

    To lean on and perform the apt-pinning here is a good guide.

    http://jaqque.sbih.org/kplug/apt-pinning.html

    regards

  26.   downloads said

    These are the best repositories I found for Mexico.

    http://www.linuxparatodos.net/portal/article.php?story=migrando-debian-lennyasqueeze

    regards

  27.   pedro said

    according to the RAE obsolete is: "Outdated (which has been in disuse for a long time; old-fashioned; typical of another era), inappropriate to current circumstances."

    If this were really the case, the stable branch would not make sense, in addition in debian there are backport repositories where you can find precompiled packages for stable of the most modern versions (generally those that are in testing) of certain programs such as pidgin, iceweasel, among others .

    On the subject of aptitude, it is evident that, being such a powerful program, it is not easy to use, but apt and any other program of its type not *. deb
    a true debianist uses aptitude and not apt-get (apt-get is for ubuteros and miniters nov. 😉)

    The idea of ​​using apt-pinning is to have a stable or testing base system (a robust OS like a stone) and programs, proprietary drivers, kernel, desktop environments, etc. unstables and xq not from the experimental repository (very modern)

  28.   JP said

    I am using Crunchbang 11 which I understand is based on debian squeeze and it suits me well. I am learning to use openbox and it meets the expectations of use.
    I have been a user of ubuntu, fedora and linux mint which was the penultimate one I used.
    I don't know why they hit 'aptitude' with such a stick if it has saved me many times. It gives you several recommendations before installing something. Don't force the installations: / it's just a matter of reading.

  29.   lawliet @ debian said

    After a while I went back to Fedora and realized that it was out of control, I filled out a list of bugs and in the end I lost it ... I took a risk and deleted everything and put Debian (I'm a little short on space), and it has not failed me this last month, I installed it on February 14, a date hard to forget.
    Also some time ago I used Linux Mint, but the problem is that it is very easy, and KDE did not serve me well.

  30.   pelaoBellako said

    I went from Ubuntu to Debian and the truth is that it is still not convincing, configuration and recognition are the same, but Debian testing sometimes has unbearable bugs, all this I have only been with Debian for a month while I know Ubuntu for a couple of years ... As a desktop pc I really don't know which one is better, in my work I installed a Debian server and that is perfect, I have never seen so much power and speed in a core2Duo jar with 2 ram, a shitty pc, but it works excellent, now the testing version for desktop vs ubuntu I really don't know ... desktop is supposed to be arriving and usary as for those who say that ubuntu is much slower compared to Debian testing ... it's another lie, maybe it's a little more slow, just a bit from using unity and more preconfigured shit

    1.    elav said

      Which Debian Testing gives you the most trouble with Ubuntu? o_O

      1.    pelaoBellako said

        I've been testing for a month, before I used stable and at the moment I don't find it "so superior to Ubuntu" the truth ... but no bugs, I just thought I would notice a big difference, which I didn't really notice ... I even did tests with my Old ubuntu pc overloading the pc, open eclipse running an infinite loop raising apache ftp etc ... a thousand things and the performance does not vary much ...

  31.   Victor Melendez said

    The universal operating system is Debian, and Linux is one of its cores.
    Debian: Our Alpha and Omega.

  32.   Jorge said

    Debian would be perfect if it didn't bring so much bloatware that some applications carry. As well as installing, for example, unnecessary functions of some packages, or languages ​​that I will never use.

    For the same reason, I stay in Funtoo.