Is Ubuntu really Debian based? [LWN.net]

Is Ubuntu really Debian based?

Posted Nov 23, 2005 0:34 UTC (Wed) by rqosa (guest, #24136)
In reply to: Is Ubuntu really Debian based? by rvfh
Parent article: Ubuntu releases Flight CD 1

The problem is that old packages are deleted from the Debian repositories. Consider this example: I install KDE, then three months later I try to install KWord. If I have not run "apt-get update", I will get a "404 not found" error from apt-get when I try to run "apt-get install kword", because the KWord package listed in the Packages file from three months ago has been deleted from the repository. If I run "apt-get update && apt-get install kword", it will insist that I upgrade all of the libraries that KWord depends on; doing that would require a long time to download with my modem, and it might change the behavior of KDE programs in ways that I don't want.

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Don't dis the Debian devs

Posted Dec 5, 2005 11:04 UTC (Mon) by grouch (guest, #27289) [Link]

Don't have much confidence that the Debian developers know what they're doing, do you?

I've been running Debian since Slink and have never worried about a situation such as you hypothesise. If you've waited 3 months before updating your system, you've waited too long. If that kword package has a new version number and requires updates to its dependencies, let it happen unless you are absolutely certain that you know more about each software package involved than the KDE team and the Debian maintainers of the packages.

If you are running 'stable', updating that package is unlikely to "change the behavior of KDE programs in ways that [you] don't want." It is almost certainly going to prevent something you don't want, since 'stable' receives security updates.

Dial-up is definitely a pain but I've always just limited apt-get to half my bandwidth and let it work in the background. Run an apt-proxy server if you have several computers on your LAN. Run the updates overnight.

Debian enjoys a very good reputation for getting things right. Don't short-circuit that by failing to use the package update system to maintain your system properly.