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Moving from Ubuntu to Debian

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Re: Moving from Ubuntu to Debian

#21

Post by antonios »

networked wrote: post #13

So, is the Linux distribution market now ripe for disruption? I wonder who out of today's major players could be the next big thing. OpenSUSE seems the closest to Ubuntu in terms of user friendliness (Linus' comments notwithstanding) due to tools like YaST [1] and a PPA-like mechanism called the openSUSE Build Server for extra prebuilt software [2]. People certainly have speculated about it online for a while but we'…

> On a related note, a major thing Ubuntu and its derivatives have going for them is the great font rendering out of the box.

This. The default freetype rendering is horrible to my eyes, even worse than Microsoft's SmearType(TM).

> I wonder why other distributions haven't yet adopted it, or the Infinality patches, by default.

Patents, I guess. Quoting Wikipedia:

> Microsoft has several patents in the United States on subpixel rendering technology for text rendering on RGB Stripe layouts. This had caused FreeType, the library used by most current software on the X Window System, to disable this functionality by default. Apple was able to use it in Mac OS X due to a patent cross-licensing agreement.

I do not know if Canonical has reached a similar agreement with Microsoft like Apple. Perhaps someone from the Ubuntu camp can enlighten us.

Re: Moving from Ubuntu to Debian

#22

Post by ishbits »

I'd like to see CentOS, but with the desktop environment stuff kept more up to date.. Would give you solid underpinnings that lasts for years, then a modern UI on top (Gnome 3, KDE what have you, Chrome, Firefox).. I know its mostly doable, and did use a CentOS 6 desktop until a while ago, but ran into some issues with modern desktop apps.

Re: Moving from Ubuntu to Debian

#23

Post by networked »

louwrentius wrote: post #16

For me there is a more mundane reason why I think about switching my servers over from Ubuntu to Debian. "Graphics" That's right. It seems that Ubutu even on servers starts some high-res console or does other stuff that causes a black screen during boot. It requires fiddling with alt-fx keys to get a console. I never had such issues with Debian. I switched away from Debian because so many software was out-dated and a…

>It seems that Ubutu even on servers starts some high-res console or does other stuff that causes a black screen during boot. It requires fiddling with alt-fx keys to get a console.

That sounds like it might be a side effect of kernel mode setting and/or splash screens. You can try to disable both by changing

    GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash "
to

    GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="nomodeset "
in /etc/default/grub and see if it still happens.

Edit: I'm assuming you're using Ubuntu Server or Minimal CD.

Re: Moving from Ubuntu to Debian

#24

Post by techwizrd »

louwrentius wrote: post #16

For me there is a more mundane reason why I think about switching my servers over from Ubuntu to Debian. "Graphics" That's right. It seems that Ubutu even on servers starts some high-res console or does other stuff that causes a black screen during boot. It requires fiddling with alt-fx keys to get a console. I never had such issues with Debian. I switched away from Debian because so many software was out-dated and a…

I have the Ubuntu LTS installed on most of my servers and I've never had to worry about graphics or using Alt+Fx (those are the extra tty's on the desktop Ubuntu for me).

According to the Ubuntu documentation [1]: "Unlike the desktop version, Ubuntu Server does not include a graphical installation program. Instead the Server Edition uses a console menu-based process."

There is no "graphics" issue for me. Are you sure you were installing Ubuntu Server and not Ubuntu Desktop?

[1]: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/server/install-ubuntu-server

Re: Moving from Ubuntu to Debian

#25

Post by papaf »

nawitus wrote: post #11
sillysaurus2 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would anyone recommend some? Also, would anyone talk about FreeBSD vs Linux? What are some reasons to choose each?

Arch Linux is great if you like 'hacking'.

I recently changed a machine to Arch after a failed Ubuntu 13.10 upgrade. Its very strange. I was able to build a cross compiler following clear instructions:

http://archlinuxarm.org/developers/distcc-cross-compiling

But I cannot turn off the screensaver...

Re: Moving from Ubuntu to Debian

#26

Post by webreac »

onosendai wrote: post #18

I also moved away from Unity after about a year or so of using it (some good ideas, but too unstable for my taste), and instead of going Debian, which was my initial impulse, I decided to give Ubuntu Gnome a try. This is a Ubuntu variant that isn't talked about much, and it's still early days for them, but it shows some promise. You basically get the same Ubuntu base you're used to with all the repositories and PPAs…

I love this distro, but I do not have the competencies to help ;-(

Re: Moving from Ubuntu to Debian

#27

Post by Arelius »

sillysaurus2 wrote: post #8
keypusher wrote: post #3

There are actually many good Linux distributions not named Ubuntu.

Would anyone recommend some? Also, would anyone talk about FreeBSD vs Linux? What are some reasons to choose each?

> Also, would anyone talk about FreeBSD vs Linux? What are some reasons to choose each?

As a huge FreeBSD supporter, I feel there are many great reasons to choose FreeBSD, between the theoretical: well designed kernel, unified system; direct lineage to Unix; to the more legal: permissive licensing model; and the more technical; UFS support, BSD Jails, security work leaching over from OpenBSD. And personally, Ports being my favorite (source) packaging system.

But Linux has the killer feature: GPU support. Now, this is generally down to better community on the desktop, and the entire ecosystem is better, between drivers. Windowing systems, Video Games.

So even I, a massive FreeBSD supporter, have stopped running FreeBSD on my desktop out of pure practicality. It just isn't practical to do such.

Re: Moving from Ubuntu to Debian

#28

Post by buo »

sillysaurus2 wrote: post #8
keypusher wrote: post #3

There are actually many good Linux distributions not named Ubuntu.

Would anyone recommend some? Also, would anyone talk about FreeBSD vs Linux? What are some reasons to choose each?

I use Arch in my personal machine but Linux Mint for work (http://www.linuxmint.com/about.php). It is also based on Debian and Ubuntu, but they're not set on simplifying the desktop the way Ubuntu is. In fact, they have an experimantal desktop (cinnamon, http://cinnamon.linuxmint.com/) which aims to be a modern desktop for people who want more than gnome offers, and looks great.
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