On 8/14/05, Mike Miller <mbmiller at taxa.epi.umn.edu> wrote: > On Sun, 14 Aug 2005, Andrew Zbikowski wrote: > > > If you're thinking Debian, I would go with Ubuntu myself. Ubuntu has a 6 > > month release cycle, where Debian has...well it's Debian so... :) > > I think I've read before about long waits for new Debian releases, but > this is something I don't quite understand: What do I need to do when a > new release comes out? What is new in a new release? We use Debian for a lot of research math/science things, and found it to be much easier to manage large numbers of systems. A "new release" of debian basically means they updated all the programs to a newer version. Otherwise, Debian Stable will not change versions of anything, they pretty much only patch major problems (like security holes). For some people, this is a real disadvantage as you dont have the bleeding edge software. For others, its nice, because you dont have to worry about change all that often. > I would guess this means that new versions of many programs are made > available in the new release. If there is no kernel update, then can I > just install the new software without a reboot? Is there any downtime > with a new release? What am I missing if I skip new releases? Debian does not lock you into any kernel. There are several available from the installer, but if you choose to use your own kernel after installing (a newer one for example), Debian has no complaints. I dont think many distro's do anymore. I have upgraded Debian systems without upgrades many times. I like to do a reboot on major upgrades like that anyway just to be sure the new startup scripts work properly, but if you cannot afford the downtime, it is certainly not required. > > > Ubuntu is much easier to train someone new to Linux administration on as > > well. Lots of nice GUI stuff, where as it's all command line in Debian. > > That sounds good. Ubuntu is a faster moving Debian. Same basic idea, but more modern software, faster release cycles, etc. The tradeoff is often newer software breaking because it is new. So there are more updates, and you will spend more time maintaining the system. > > For building from source, I reccomend using stow. Handy little perl > > script for managing software installation/uninstallation under > > /usr/local. > > That also sounds good. I'd never heard of it, but I can see that it is > based on a very clever scheme!: > > http://packages.ubuntu.com/hoary/admin/stow > > Well, it sounds like some former Debian users are finding that they now > prefer Ubuntu/Kubuntu and that makes me wonder if I should be trying > Ubuntu instead of Debian. So many decisions! If you want to use it as a Desktop, Ubuntu looks like a very nice option. If you are looking for a mostly maintenance free server, plain Debian is the way to go. -- Jay Kline http://www.slushpupie.com/